love towards you, I am quite sure you would not. Perhaps, indeed, I ought to have told you before-I think my duty to you enjoined that I should; but really, previously to the present moment, I had not the energy to do so. Forgive me this wrong.

"I now commit this letter to you. I beg of my Saviour to attend it with his smile and benediction. O, that it may lead my dear father to those streams of bliss, of which his Leila has already tasted! O, that the angelic choir may have to tune their golden harps, and praise the Lamb of God, moved by the sight of my much-loved parent, prostrate at his feet! How happy we should be, my dear father, both journeying to Heaven together! Both having the sweet assurance, that even death itself could but divide us a few short years. O do, do begin to serve Jesus. I cannot write any more; my paper is moistened with tears: they are tears of mingled prayer and praise.

"May God be with you, and keep you, and bless you; and may he guide you, and lift up the light of his reconciled countenance upon you; yea, may you be very precious in his sight, is the prayer of,

"Your very

"My dearest father,

affectionate and devoted daughter,

"LEILA ADA."

CHAPTER X.

CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN LEILA AND HER FATHER-LEILA IS SENT TO HER UNCLE.

THE night on which Leila's letter was given to her father, was spent by her in earnest prayer. Of it she remarks; "I experienced much of the Divine presence and support. I felt a calm assurance that my Saviour would work for me; and that whatever happened to me, all would be for good."

Daylight came and with a body made feverish by watching, and spirits absorbed and depressed by deep anxiety, she made her morning toilette. Eight o'clock, the time of meeting her father in the breakfast-parlour, arrived; her spirits sunk to the helplessness of infancy, in prospect of the dreaded interview. Her father would, perhaps―nay, almost certainly-speak unkindly; it was more than she could bear. Eight o'clock passed -she was kneeling, with uplifted hands and streaming eyes, beseeching divine aid to meet the event: it was given, and she arose strengthened.

Entering the room, she found her father already waiting. Directly she went up to him, and throwing her arms upon his neck, was about to claim her usual kiss

"Leila ejaculated her father solemnly, at the same moment turning his head from her.

"O, my dear, dear papa !" said Leila, weeping, "do

not refuse to kiss me! Do give me my kiss, and then I will try to bear all you have to say. But, indeed, I cannot stay if you will refuse me this. I cannot endure so severe a mark of your displeasure."

"What have you done, Leila? How can you expect me to kiss you? Can you imagine the night I have spent? Is it for this I have had you instructed in the law of the God of Israel, that you should mock at it, and cast it behind your back? Is it for this that I have withheld no means of knowledge from you, that your learning should become a snare to you? O, my daughter, perhaps my heart has been too much bound up in you. Now I am scourged; those hopes I had, that you would soothe my declining years, are blighted. But come, kiss me," he continued holding out his hand to Leila, who stood petrified with anguish.

"Now, my choicest treasure, tell me who it is that has poisoned you; let me know who it was made you a proselyte from the faith of your father Abraham. To think that one of my kindred should have become an apostate-a Christian-and that one, too, my own child! But come, my dear, speak to me; tell me how your unsuspecting and innocent heart has been misled. The arms of our religion are as wide open to you as ever, if you will return now; and I need not tell you that I shall love you better than before."

"O, my dear father," faltered Leila, "no one has abused my judgment: indeed, it is God has of his mercy opened my eyes."

"God open your eyes to believe in Jesus of Nazareth! It is not possible. Do you not know that God has specially chosen our nation as the depositary and con

servator of the only true religion? You are flying from God, my dear child. God chose Israel, and made it the sanctuary of the true faith. The nations were sunk in error and idolatry; and in many cases their idolatrous rites and sacrifices were perpetrated under the holy name of religion. But in order to accomplish his designs of mercy, in the establishment of truth and righteouness upon the earth, he raised up Israel, and declared himself unto them as his chosen and peculiar people, calling himself by name JEHOVAH-THE ONEI AM. He became our Lawgiver and our King. Read the charge of Moses to the Israelites, given as he was about to die: Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep, therefore, and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? Take heed to yourselves lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God which he made with you: for the Lord thy God, is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.' O, beware of what you are doing! I tremble, my child, for you; I cannot express my agony for you. Although in the many ages which have passed since the giving of the law, the traditions of men may have become mixed with it, yet this will not affect the faithful soul; our religion is still pure and holy, and still of God; man cannot change or deteriorate it."

“But, my dear papa, God has entered into a new and better covenant with his people, and Christ Jesus is the Mediator of that covenant. His is the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. The law as given to Moses was typical, and it was imperfect and, therefore, it continually reminded the Jews of their need of a perfect and full atonement, which should sanctify and purge their conscience from dead works, to serve the living God. And this new covenant has abolished all the forms, observances, and ceremonies of the old covenant, for these were only imposed as a figure until its fulfilment and perfection in the Lord Jesus Christ. These stood in outward ordinances but the new covenant in Christ Jesus has opened to us a new and more excellent way: 'This shall be the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people.' Permit me, my dear father, to read to you from this book," continued Leila, as she drew a small New Testament from her pocket: "For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched. But ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel.' 'But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more