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sins.

And these our vile hearts we have no power of ourselves to change; but they will still continue to imagine and bring forth all manner of sin, and every kind of wickedness, unless thou, O Lord, wilt have mercy upon us, and renew us by thy Holy Spirit. Though we have deserved thine eternal anger by our wickedness, yet thy dear Son, our Saviour, has by his death made the atonement for our sins. O give us faith to receive our dying Saviour! and send thy Holy Spirit to make clean and sanctify our wicked hearts; that our hearts, being made new, may no longer imagine wickedness, and bring forth sin; but that they may be filled with the Spirit, and bring forth the fruits of the Spirit,even love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance.

And now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be all glory and honour for ever and ever. Amen.

"Our Father," &c.

HYMN IX.

DEAREST of all the Names above,

My Jesus and my God,

Who can resist thy heavenly love,
Or trifle with thy blood?

"Tis by the merits of thy death
The Father smiles again;
'Tis by thy interceding breath
The Spirit dwells with man.

Till God in human flesh I see,
My thoughts no comfort find;
The holy, just, and sacred Three
Are terrors to my mind.

But if Emmanuel's face appear,
My hope, my joy begins;
His name forbids my slavish fear,
His grace removes my sins.

STORY ON THE CONSTANT BENT OF

MAN'S HEART TOWARDS SIN.

It happened that Mr. and Mrs. Fairchild had had nothing for a long time to interrupt them in the care and management of their children ; so that they had had it in their power to teach them, and watch them from evil continually. I will tell you exactly how they lived and spent their time :-Emily and Lucy slept together in a little closet on one side of their mamma and papa's room; and Henry had a little room on the other side where he slept. As soon as the children got up, they used to go into their papa and mamma's room to prayers; after which Henry went with his papa into the garden, whilst Lucy and Emily made their beds and rubbed the furniture: afterwards they all met at breakfast, dressed neatly, but very plain. At breakfast the children ate what their mamma gave them, and seldom spoke till they were spoken to. After break

fast, Betty and John were called in, and all went to prayers. Then Henry went into his papa's study, to his lessons; and Lucy and Emily stayed with their mamma, working and reading, till twelve o'clock, when they used to go out to take a walk all together: sometimes they went to the schools, and sometimes they went to see a poor person. When they came in, dinner was ready. After dinner, the little girls and their mamma worked, whilst Henry read to them, till tea-time and after tea Lucy and Emily played with their doll, and worked for it; and Henry busied himself in making some little things of wood, which his papa showed him how to do; and so they spent their time, till Betty and John came in to evening prayers: then the children had each of them a baked apple, and went to bed.

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Now all this time the little ones were in the presence of their papa and mamma, and kept carefully from breaking out into open sin by the watchful eyes of their dear parents. One day it happened, when they had been living a long time in this happy way, that Lucy said to her mamma, "Mamma, I think that Emily and Henry and I are much better children than we used to be; we have not been punished for a very long time.”

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My dear," said Mrs. Fairchild, "do not boast or think well of yourself: it is always a bad sign when people boast of themselves; God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.' (James iv. 6.) If you have not done any very naughty thing lately, it is not because there is any goodness or wisdom in you, but because your papa and I have been always with you, carefully watching and guiding you from morning till night."

That same evening a letter came for Mr. Fairchild, from an old lady who lived about four miles off, begging that he and Mrs. Fairchild would come over, if it was convenient, to see her, the next day, to settle some business of consequence. This old lady's name was Mrs. Goodriche, and she lived in a very neat little house just under a hill, with Sukey her maid. It was the very house in which Mrs. Howard lived about fifty years ago, as my grandmother knew very well, having been often there when she was a little girl.

When Mr. Fairchild got the letter, he ordered John to get the horse ready by daybreak next morning, and to put the pillion on it for Mrs. Fairchild; so Mr. and Mrs. Fairchild got up very early; and when they had kissed their children, who were still asleep, they set off.

Now it happened, very unluckily, that Mrs. Fairchild, at this time, had given Betty leave to go for

two or three days to see her father, and she was not yet returned; so there was nobody left in the house to take care of the children but John. And now I will tell you how these children spent the day whilst their papa and mamma were out.

When Lucy and Emily awoke, they began playing in their beds. Emily made babies of the pillows, and Lucy pulled off the sheets and tied them round her, in imitation of Lady Noble's long trained gown: and thus they spent their time till Henry came to the door to tell them that breakfast was ready. "And I have persuaded John," said Henry, "to make us toast and butter: and it looks so nice! Make haste and come down: do, sisters, do!" And he continued to drum upon the door with a stick until his sisters were dressed. Emily and Lucy put on their clothes as quickly as they could, and went down stairs with their brother, without praying, washing themselves, combing their hair, making their bed, or doing any one thing they ought to have done.

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John had, indeed, made a large quantity of toast and butter but the children were not satisfied with what John had made; for when they had eaten all that he had provided, yet they would toast more themselves, and put butter on it before the fire, as they had seen Betty do so the hearth was covered with crumbs and grease, and they wasted almost as much as they ate.

After breakfast, they took out their books to learn their lessons; but they had eaten so much, that they could not learn with any pleasure; and Lucy, who thought she would be very clever, began to scold Henry and Emily for their idleness; and Henry and Emily, in their turn, found fault with her: so that they began to dispute, and would soon, I fear, have proceeded to something worse, if Henry had not spied a little pig in the garden. "Oh! sisters," said he,

"there is a pig in the garden, in the flower-bed. Look! look! and what mischief it will do. Papa will be very angry. Come, sisters, let us hunt it out.”

So saying, down went Henry's book, and away he ran into the garden, followed by Emily and Lucy, running as fast as they could. They soon drove the pig out of the garden, and it would have been well if they had stopped there; but, instead of that, they followed it down into the lane. Now, there was a place where a spring ran across the lane, over which was a narrow bridge, for the use of people walking that way. Now the pig did not stand to look for the bridge, but went splash, splash, through the midst of the water and after him went Henry, Lucy, and Emily, though they were up to their knees in mud and dirt.

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In this dirty condition they ran on till they came close to a house where a farmer and his wife lived, whose names were Freeman. These people were not such as lived in the fear of God, neither did they bring up their children well; on which account, Mr. Fairchild had often forbidden Lucy, and Emily, and Henry, to go to their house. However, when the children were opposite this house, Mrs. Freeman saw them through the kitchen window: and seeing they were covered with mud, she came out and brought them in, and dried their clothes by the fire: which was, so far, very kind of her, only the children should not have gone into the house, as they had been so often forbidden by their parents.

Mrs. Freeman would have had them stay all day, and play with their children; and Henry and his sisters would have been very glad to have accepted her invitation, but they were afraid: so Mrs. Freeman let them go; but, before they went, she gave them each a large piece of cake, and something sweet to drink, which she said would do them good. Now this sweet stuff was cider; and as they were never

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