ll present to the woman of the cottage, and
requested her not to mention their having called.

"What becomes now of the comparative charity of your brother and Mr.
Denbigh, Emily?" asked Mrs. Wilson, as they gained the road on their
return homewards. Emily was not accustomed to hear any act of John
slightly spoken of without at least manifesting some emotion, which
betrayed her sisterly regard; but on the present occasion she chose to be
silent; while Grace, after waiting in expectation that her cousin would
speak, ventured to say timidly--

"I am sure, dear madam, Mr. Moseley was very liberal and the tears were in
his eyes while he gave the money. I was looking directly at them the whole
time."

"John is compassionate by nature," continued Mrs. Wilson with an almost
imperceptible smile. "I have no doubt his sympathies were warmly enlisted
in behalf of this family and possessing much, he gave liberally. I have no
doubt he would have undergone personal privation to have relieved their
distress, and endured both pain and labor, with such an excitement before
him. But what is all that to the charity of Mr. Denbigh?"

Grace was unused to contend, and, least of all, with Mrs. Wilson; but,
unwilling to abandon John to such censure, with increased animation, she
said--

"If bestowing freely, and feeling for the distress you relieve, be not
commendable, madam, I am sure I am ignorant what is."

"That compassion for the woes of others is beautiful in itself, and the
want of it an invariable evidence of corruption from too much, and an
ill-governed, intercourse with the world, I am willing to acknowledge, my
dear Grace," said Mrs. Wilson, kindly; "but the relief of misery, where
the heart has not undergone this hardening ordeal, is only a relief to our
own feelings: this is compassion; but Christian charity is a higher order
of duty: it enters into every sensation of the heart; disposes us to
judge, as well as to act, favorably to our fellow creatures; is deeply
seated in the sense of our own unworthiness; keeps a single eye, in its
dispensations of temporal benefits, to the everlasting happiness of the
objects of its bounty; is consistent, well regulated; in short,"--and Mrs.
Wilson's pale cheek glowed with an unusual richness of color--"it is an
humble attempt to copy after the heavenly example of our Redeemer, in
sacrificing ourselves to the welfare of others, and does and must proceed
from a love of his person, and an o