even as he. I have derided my Saviour in like manner with him, and his prayer shall be my prayer, his faith shall be my faith-"Lord remember me.'

The daylight broke through the gratings of Arthur's prison. The night so eventful to the. soul of that lonely man had worn away, a night whose waking hours had witnessed the flight of dire despair, and the entrance of a heavenly hope into the recesses of a broken and a contrite heart. Those gloomy walls had caught the echo of the returning sinner's first prayer to heaven; and angels had witnessed the memorable spectacle, and as the guilty man cried out for mercy, swept their golden harps, and exclaimed-" Behold he prayeth."

CHAPTER XXIII.

"And now with all a mother's love she glows,
To bid her wanderers on the Church repose."
LORD JOHN MANNERS.

FROM that night may be dated the era of a new creation in the character of Arthur Hutchinson. When hope had driven away despair, and the language of supplication trembled on the lips of the unhappy transgressor,-it was at tha moment that his heart felt the subduing influence of divine love, and his spirit drank in the gracious announcement, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though red like crimson, they shall be as wool." It was the consciousness that though the vilest of men, yet the grace of God could pardon and sanctify him, which made his past enormities appear still more aggravated; and never before

did he entertain such a horror of his iniquities, as at the moment when hope told him that they might be all forgiven.

His prayers did not cease on that eventful night; for having begun in the breast of this repentant sinner the work of contrition, the Holy Spirit left it not incomplete, but day by day wrought afresh those feelings in his mind, which led him to detest sin, not as the cause simply of all his shame and suffering, but as sin

-to hate it for its own sake, and because it was "that abominable thing which God hateth."

Thus, the remaining few months of Arthur's solitary confinement were blessed of God, as the period in which this "wicked man forsook his unrighteous thoughts," and returned unto God that he might "abundantly pardon." The prison of his lonely wretchedness became the starting point, in the new and right way, and those dungeon walls first heard his faith-inspired prayer to Jesus, and his subsequent resolve to live to his glory.

This resolution he ardently implored the Divine Spirit to enable him to keep, should he again be permitted to emerge from his ignominious abode into the freedom and happiness of recovered virtue.

Now hope painted in the distance the new

scenes in which the reclaimed offender would move and act. He saw once more the Church he left for the temple of heresy; and he longed again to tread its hallowed aisles, and join in the responses of the true worshippers of God. He fancied himself seated in some quiet room, with the open Scriptures on the table, and holy books scattered all around; and he intently fixed upon the acquisition of divine wisdom, and the seeking after heavenly truth. Then, how would he feed upon the Word of the living God? how would he rove through the length and breadth of the inspired pages? how would he fasten upon every passage which more clearly showed him the folly of his past opinions, which pointed out more fully the sin of separation from Christ's true and visible Church, which stamped with a firmer impress divinity upon those doctrines which that Church sets forth, and those sacraments which she administers, and which exhibited in a more direct manner than ever the connection between sin as the cause, and suffering as the effect; between error as the means, and ruin as the end.

And now at length the period arrived for his liberation, and he who entered that county gaol a burdened and abandoned transgressor, quitted it the penitent and humbled malefactor. The

prayer had been offered, "I have sinned against Heaven and in thy sight; make me as one of thy hired servants ;"-and it had been registered in heaven; and having paid the penalty which the violated laws of his country had demanded, he returned a converted man to liberty and peace.

No small joy did it occasion the minds of the Vicar and his household. Philip rejoiced to gaze once more upon so altered a being, and gladly did he welcome him into the paths of holiness and virtue. The Woodvilles also were not a little gratified; and truly it was enough to cause thankful joy, to witness one (who, in a few short years, had renounced the faith of his fathers, and embraced pernicious heresies which had led him into the commission of frightful offences,) brought back again into the fold of Christ, a weeping, contrite believer in the truths he once denied.

It was the seventh Sunday after Trinity, when Arthur Hutchinson first entered the church of Orpington after his imprisonment. Never had he visited that church with such feelings before-feelings of contrite sorrow, deep abasement, and an overpowering gratitude to that long-suffering God who had entertained "thoughts of peace towards him to give him a desired end."