Mamma.-They were her offspring, and well are the sorrows of Sin represented by these yelling monsters, which preyed upon the entrails of their parent, surrounding her with ceaseless cries, that rest or intermission none she found. After speaking of her hateful progeny to Satan, she proceeded,

Before mine eyes in opposition sits

Grim Death, my son and foe, who sets them on,
And me, his parent, would full soon devour
For want of other prey, but that he knows
His end with mine involv'd.

The cunning fiend now called Sin his dear daughter, and Death their fair son, telling them he came no enemy, but to set both free from that dark, dismal house of pain. He made known the purpose of his journey, and promised to return and take them to earth, where they should be fed and filled immeasurably; for all things should be their prey. Both seemed highly pleased, and Death

Grinn'd horribly a ghastly smile, to hear
His famine should be fill'd.

As no other power in hell could open the gates, Sin took from her side the fatal keysad instrument of all our woe-and with ease

unfastened every bolt and bar of massy iron or solid rock.

You are too young, my children, to be entertained by an account of Satan's laborious and difficult journey before he saw our earth, which appeared to him at a distance to be a very small star.

Emily. See, Mamma, our cousins are coming across the field; may I run and invite them to drink tea with us this evening?

Mamma.-You may, my love, and I heg you and William will bear in mind what I said last week respecting your behaviour to them. Their Mamma being dead, they have not at present the advantages you possess. It is very unamiable to laugh at their ignorance, and talk in a boasting way of the many things you know. Such conduct is displeasing to God.

William.-I am very sorry, dear Mamma✈ and we will be exceedingly kind to them. You may ask Eliza to-morrow how we have behaved, as you will not return home before we go to bed.

CHAPTER IV.

Mamma.-I am glad to hear you were good children last evening, and as your writing-master cannot come to-day, and the rain prevents your taking a walk, I will proceed with my story :

When Satan drew near the earth, God spoke to his beloved Son of the disobedience of man, which he foresaw would be the consequence of the devil's temptation. The Almighty said that in order to satisfy divine justice, the first ma and all his posterity must be eternally punished,

Unless for him

Some other able, and as willing, pay

The rigid satisfaction, death for death.

Say, heav'nly powers, where shall we find such love?
Which of ye will be mortal to redeem

Man's mortal crime, and just th'unjust to save?
Dwells in all heaven charity so dear?

He ask'd, but all the heav'nly choir stood mute,
And silence was in heav'n.

Observe, my children, this passage implies that an angel, a created being, might have redeemed us, might have borne the punish

ment due to our sins; but the sorrow, the intense suffering of our blessed Saviour, when the iniquity of us all was laid upon him, was too heavy to have been supported by any other than God. When St. Paul addressed the elders of the Ephesian Church, he charged them to "feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood :" (Acts xx. 28.) From which we learn that our blessed Redeemer who was a man, and therefore had blood to shed, was also God. No wonder then that St. Peter, when speaking of the blood which was shed to redeem us, should call it, "The precious blood of Christ." (1 Pet. i. 19.) How precious that blood was no tongue can declare. Besides, as Jesus Christ has died to make an atonement for our sins, we are directed to trust in him for pardon and salvation; whether we eat, or drink, or whatever we do, we are to do all to his glory; we are to pray to God in his name; and through all eternity the souls that he has redeemed and saved will sing his praises with gratitude and rapturous joy, saying, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive glory, and honour, and wisdom, and blessing, and power, for he hath redeemed us to God by his blood." Now

if an angel had redeemed the world, as Milton intimates he might have done, then we should have had to trust in an angel, and to serve and worship him forever; which would have been gross idolatry, and infinitely dishonorable to God. Wise men sometimes say foolish things; and Milton did this, when he supposed that an angel might have redeemed and saved a lost world; and that Jesus Christ only undertook our cause, because no one else was willing to come to our relief.

The Son of God thus continues :

On me let thine anger fall;

Account me man; I for his sake will leave
Thy bosom, and this glory next to thee
Freely put off, and for him, lastly, die

Well pleas'd: On me let Death wreak all his rage.

Eliza.-Forgive my interrupting you, Mamma, but I do not think this entirely agrees with the verse, "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son" to die. If it were not for this text, Milton would make me love our Saviour much more than God the Father.

Mamma.-I fear, my dear, many people do not view this subject in a proper light; hence the absurd pictures in which God the