86 THE WHITE ROSE. 



beer, all confused in the red, smoky atmosphere 

 of dim candles : these were on my left hand. I 

 turned to the right, and beheld the fair casket of a 

 jewel lately rescued from the evil grasp — the calm 

 and majestic countenance of a creature, originally 

 formed in the image of God, and by the sacrifice 

 of God's dear Son, made near once more, and for 

 ever. Over this beautiful object stole the purest 

 beams of a setting sun, bathing it in soft brillian- 

 cy ; while the flowers, the innocent smiling flow- 

 ers that reposed above, and beside, and around him 

 — not in profusion, but at such intervals as gave the 

 full effect to each individual blossom — these appear- 

 ed to claim, as their sweet companion, the little body 

 so like themselves, in its short, sunshiny existence, 

 its peaceful decay, its future uprising from the 

 dust of the earth, to light, and life, and glory. 



Happy spirit ! Like a bird out of the snare of 

 the fowler, he had escaped the chains that supersti- 

 tion w T as forging to hold him back from God. 

 Before that idol crucifix he had never bent ; to the 

 water beneath it he had never looked for sanctify- 

 ing influences. He had not dishonoured the most 

 high God his Saviour, by giving glory to other 

 names : nor had he sought unto man for the par- 

 don which cometh from God alone. Too young to 

 sin " after the similitude of Adam's transgression" 

 by voluntary disobedience, he was by natural inher- 

 itance an heir of wrath, an alien from God : too 



