CHAPTER IX.

"God never wrought miracles to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it."-LORD BACON.

BUT what can have brought Agnes to the Rectory so soon this Monday morning? for there she is, sure enough, and before the early dew has melted off the green grass in the church-yard, or the crazy old parish clock chimed eleven. She says that she is come to enquire after the children; and now, she is nursing Mrs. Smith's baby, while the light hearted little fellow is laughing, and shaking his coral bells, as if his six months life had been all one merry May day; but we have been watching the restless expression of her eyes for the last ten minutes,―eyes are always tell-tales,—and we dare venture to pronounce that Mrs. Arnold has another object in her morning's visit to the Rectory than that of prattling to the little Smiths; and if we mistake not, the Rector of Clifton is of our own opinion, and will soon be in the secret, albeit, he says nothing.

Yes, Agnes had forgotten Arnold's unaccountable suspicions. The little quarrel by moonlight, of which, somehow, we have been witnesses, she had resolved at once, to forget and forgive ;-and we may just remark in passing, that the latter, must in such cases, always precede the former,-Agnes, we say, had forgotten her

husband's insinuations, and distrust; but the gloomy impression produced on her mind, by his conversation in the early part of the evening, was not effaced. She did not wish to explain the real state of her feelings to Mr. Smith,-doubts in religion, if deeply felt, and sincerely regretted, are not often expressed even to our dearest friends, but with reluctance,-but Agnes longed that morning for sympathy and direction; and she waited at the Rectory talking about anything or nothing, in the hope that Smith would, of his own accord, as it were, say something calculated to establish her in the Christian faith.

Whether the Rector was actuated by sympathy, or impulse, or what, we know not, but it was certainly not long before he looked enquiringly at his fair visiter, and said, abruptly, and as if he had read all that was in her heart, 66 Well, Agnes, and are you come to make father confessor ?"

me your

He had, as we sometimes say, broken the ice, and Agnes relinquished "baby" into the arms of Mrs. Smith, and began to tell the amiable Rector how depressed and uncomfortable she had felt from the influence of Arnold's conversation.

"What has he been saying to you?" enquired Smith. "We must not let you become unsettled."

"Why,-why he has said nothing," said Agnes, simply," I mean nothing of weight against Christianity; and yet, his remarks have left a cloud over my thoughts and feelings"-and without finishing the sentence, she turned to Mrs. Smith, and reminding her of some ex

pression in her letter, warning her against her marriage with Wallace, added, "I cannot for a moment regret the step which I have taken, but I begin to be fully alive to the dangers attending it. I had hoped that Mr. Arnold's affection for me would induce him to love my religion; but now I feel that he is rather drawing me with him into the same darkness and unbelief; and if it be possible, if it be possible for me to doubt and disbelieve against my will, I am satisfied that he is leading me by a force which I cannot resist, and I must lose my own hold of Christianity, and become an apostate."

"But it is not possible," Smith interrupted, "Satan has no unwilling servants. Keep your hold of the truth in the love of it; and you shall find that your faith is founded upon a rock, and all the powers of depraved intelligence shall not be able to move you from it.”

"But Wallace has a stronger mind than I have”

"No matter, you are not in your own keeping. The little child, cast upon the river in a rude ark of bullrushes, was as safe in the keeping of his Eternal Father as the powerful leader of God's people, when he stretched his rod over the sea and it divided before him. Fear nothing, only do right. Let me advise you, however, never to attempt to convince Mr. Arnold of the truth of your religion in the way of argument. So far as the historical evidences of Christianity are concerned, he is, I venture to say, better acquainted with the subject than you are. Rather try to bring his mind into a fresh tone of feeling, by becoming yourself a living example of the power of truth. Let him be made to feel that your re

ligion lies not merely within the four corners of the New Testament, but deep within your heart,-that it consists, not in mere profession,-in outward observances, prayers and creeds and church-going, but in kindness and charity and truth. I do not mean that I should like you to set a watch upon every word and look, and live in habitual constraint lest you should in some way dishonour your Christian character. Be free. Have your heart under the influence of divine love.

Live in the exercise of faith and prayer; and leave the result."

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But," said Agnes, are we not directed in Scripture to be ready to give every man a reason for the hope that is in us?"

"Yes, but we are not thereby required to listen to all the reasons which the enquirer may choose to assign for the unbelief,—the despair which is in him. Even, without directly attacking Christianity, it is not uncommon for its opposers to mix up so much of their own spirit of bitterness, in their conversation on the subject, that the listener becomes infected with it; and perhaps, ere he is aware, his own healthy tone of feeling is impaired by the insidious poison. Besides, on a subject so intricate, it is quite possible to be soon involved in a labyrinth of difficulties, from which, because you cannot immediately extricate yourself, you may imagine that there is no way of escape."

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"But is not Christianity capable of being defended?" Certainly, it is; but because we cannot directly answer a hard question we must not set it down at once as unanswerable. The Christian religion is surrounded

with a bulwark of historical evidences which renders it impenetrable to the attacks of infidelity; but it is not always easy, in the carelessness of familiar conversation, to detect the sophisms of an accomplished skeptic."

"Well, it is strange, it is mysterious," said Agnes, with a suppressed sigh, "that any one should be left in the dark upon so important a subject."

"How in the dark?" said Smith, "We are none of us in the dark while we keep our eyes open."

"I mean that the evidences of Christianity are of such a nature, that it requires a long course of study before we can become rightly acquainted with them."

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By no means. I have no hesitation in saying that a knowledge of the external evidences of Christianity,and it is to these I presume that you refer,—do not require that long and tedious course of study, upon our part, that you imagine. It might have been so, certainly, but for the praiseworthy labors of some who are better qualified for it. In our time Paley and others have so simplified and condensed the proofs in favor of Christianity, drawn from a careful examination of historic testimony, that they are adapted to the commonest capacity; and there is indeed scarcely an intelligent school-boy, that minds his books, but can give you a pretty fair outline of them."

"But who disputes the leading facts of the Gospel narrative," said Agnes, "such as that, Jesus, the founder of the persecuted sect that bears his name, lived, and was crucified in the reign of Tiberias Ceasar, under Pontus Pilate, his procurator? &c., &c., Wallace does not,