ly indebted to Orion. She had no dearer
wish than that Paula should find the greatest earthly happiness in her
marriage; still, it was her part to tender advice, and she dared not
blind herself to the dangers which threatened this happiness. She
herself had a long life behind her of varied experience, in which she
had seen hundreds of young men who had been given up as lost sinners
by father and mother--lost to the Church and to all goodness--and among
these many a one, like Saul, had had his journey to Damascus. A turning
point had come to them, and the outcast sons had become excellent and
pious men.

Paula, as she listened, had drawn closer to the speaker, and her eyes
beamed with joy; but the elder woman shook her head, and her gaze grew
more devout and rapt, as she went on with deep solemnity:

"But then, my child, in all of these Grace had done its perfect work;
the miracle was accomplished which we term regeneration. They were still
the same men in the flesh and in the elements of their sensible nature,
but their relation to the world and to life was altogether new. All that
they had formerly thought desirable they could now hate; what they had
deemed important was now worthless, and the worthless precious in their
eyes; whereas they once referred everything to their own desires, they
now referred all to God and His will. Their impulses were the same as of
old, but they kept them within bounds by a never-sleeping consciousness
that they led, not to joys, but to everlasting punishment. These
regenerate souls learned to contemn the world, and instead of gazing
down at the dust their eyes were fixed upwards on Heaven. If either of
them tottered, his whole 'new man' prompted him to recover his balance
before he fell to the ground.--But Orion! Your lover? His guilt seems
to have passed over him; he hopes for reunion with God from a more
meritorious life in the world. Not only is his nature unaltered, but his
attitude with regard to life and to the joys it offers to the children
of this world. Earthly love is spurring him on to strive for what is
noble and great and he earnestly seeks to attain it; but he will fall
over every stone that the devil casts in his path, and find it hard to
pick himself up again, for misfortune has not led him to the new birth
or the new life in God. Just such men have I seen, numbers of times,
relapsing into the sins they had escaped from. Before we can entirely
trust a man who has once--t