34 THE FURZE-BUSH. 



It was when struggling against my own unbelief, 

 so cruelly encouraged by the groundless tales of 

 wilful deceivers and willing dupes, that I was 

 unexpectedly cheered, by the sudden recurrence 

 of Mary to the scenes of her infancy, her father's 

 home. A text of scripture was brought before 

 her, which he had been in the habit of dwelling 

 upon, when pointing out to his family the sinful- 

 ness of creature worship ; and a flood of light ap- 

 peared to break at once upon her mind, presenting a 

 rapid succession of images, long lost in the spiritual 

 darkness of her riper years. It was then that she told 

 me what proved her to have been the child of many 

 prayers — the object of a truly christian fathers anx- 

 ious instruction : and it came, too, at an advanced 

 period of my daily attendance when she lay in 

 lingering torments on what was sure to be her 

 death-bed. Need I say, that every phantom of 

 mistrust, conjured up by the devil to dishearten 

 and perplex me, vanished, never to return ? It 

 was enough — I found that another had long before 

 laboured where I was mercifully commissioned to 

 enter upon the ground, unoccupied as I supposed it 

 to be. In the morning that christian father had 

 sown the seed : in the evening, by God's grace, 

 I withheld not my hand ; I know not whether pros- 

 pered, this or that : but I believe they were alike 

 good. Only the former sprung not up, until the 

 latter was likewise cast in. 



