1 scented perfumes, rising high and spreading far, grace, and furnished for the reception of the King, as incense to the Highest. "Faith is a fruitful grace; Well planted, stores the place, Fills all the borders, beds, and bowers With wholesome herbs and pleasant flowers. Shalt still increase my store." 66 The Wounding of the Heart. Christ is the archer; the heart the object aimed at. "He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow" (Lam. iii. 12). The shafts of this quiver, although they wound, yet also do they heal, for their sharp points are tipped with spiritual salve for the soul. There is the arrow of God's "piercing eye"-the all-seeing eye, which itself bringeth its own light with it, when it penetrates into the dark places of the soul. There is the arrow of God's sharp-pointed power"-the allsubduing power that overcomes the soul, "bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (2 Cor. x. 5). And there is also the arrow of God's "love," that love that "first loved us," and which now demands the full return of our heart's love to him. In a word, so many are these arrows, and so sure the Archer's aim, the heart is one wound;" and thence the soul draws forth once more, and, "in requital," shoots all the arrows back again, all 66 "By prayers and praises, sighs and sobs, By vows and tears, by groans and throbs." Indeed, as God has exhausted all his arrows upon us for our good, so ought we to exhaust ourselves, to spend and be spent, in our attempt to render to the Lord for all his mercies. "Shoot Thou Thyself Thy polished shaft to me, And I will shoot my broken heart to Thee." it becomes indeed a palace—“An habitation of God through the Spirit" (Eph. ii. 22). The Union of the Heart.-This means the union of the heart of man with the heart of Jesus; and the emblem represents the binding of the twain together with the cords of love-" Like-minded minds!" "Love's great cable, Tying two hearts, makes them inseparable." "Then let Thine heart united be to mine, In a firm union, whereby We may no more be Thou and I, But both the same The Rest of the Heart.-" For so he giveth his beloved sleep." There is a time or rest—the Sabbath of the Heart. The heart, now stirred and stirring, troubled and busy about many things, shall have its quiet rest and resting-place. It hath tried the treasures of the world, "great and small;" has exhausted the whole "inventory" of its joys; and yet no rest. It was only "vanity and vexation of spirit." In Christ alone is rest. He is the true "foundation" on which alone the superstructure can be raised; he the "centre," to which all lines converge, and round which all circles gather; he the "anchor," that gives rest and safety to the ship. So rest, my soul! In Jesu quies. The Inhabiting of the Heart. The temple of the body is to be God's earthly dwelling-place; and the heart is the innermost shrine of that temple, wherein dwelleth the Spirit of our God. Therefore, And, now, what other lessons shall we learn "Mine heart's an house," saith our emblem. But in the "school of the heart?" Many more, no whose house is it? Who dwelleth therein? We have before us the soul's invitation to come and dwell within the heart-"There's room enough." It is God's own building; he hath made it, and by right of creation it is his. But God is absent from the natural heart, the heart that is carnal and unregenerate. Unfurnished by the grace of the Spirit, it is unfitted for the habitation of the Spirit. "The windows all are stopt, or broken so, That no light without mind can thorough go. The door's flung off the hooks, the floor's unlay'd." Such is the heart by nature; but, renewed by doubt, remain; but space fails us in our attempt to learn and grasp them all. Let us learn well these lessons we have already gathered; let these suggest many more of like character and style; and, methinks, we shall find that we have not been to the "school of the heart" in vain. The concluding words of this paper must be in the language of our author— "Then here I rest; And, though I look not to have leave to play Add other lessons more of the like sort." LONG pull and a strong pull at the | criminal, as if no ray of hope could ever again heavy bell of the prison gate admitted brighten his face. Yet rays of sunlight do peneus forthwith, shortly before noon on trate even into darkest corners. a mild April morning, within the precincts of the building it was our intention to visit. We were received on entering by the governor and the chaplain, and, preceded by a warder bearing a bunch of ponderous keys, we began our perambulations. There are, we imagine, few persons who could enter within prison doors, and feel themselves to be breathing a prison atmosphere, without a certain sense of shrinking and awe, difficult to define but easily accounted for; and we can hardly wonder that curiosity and compassion, indignation and sorrow, should contend within us as we pass along the stone walls and iron bars which hold captive our criminal population. We can but acknowledge the offender's doom to be a just one; for in this free country-although happily not yet so free as to confound liberty with license-no man is guilty in the eye of the law until, after due and careful investigation of the charge laid against him, he is pronounced so by twelve of his fellow-men. This fair and open trial constitutes, says Junius, the palladium of English liberty. But when once the sentence is gone forth the brand of Cain is on the delinquent; the amount or nature of his crime is of comparatively little moment, and the effects of the sentence on his future career remain long after the correction it inflicts has ceased. The man's character is gone, judicial authority, having interpreted the laws of his country in their integrity, and pronounced him guilty. We hardly realise the full force of this as we gaze from a safe distance at our gaol towers and high walls, scattered over the length and breadth of the land, but once let us stand face to face with the man whom we know to be a thief or a murderer, and the reality of his fearful position comes home to our mind. It seems to us, as we gaze on the sullen brow, the evil eye, the hopelessly dogged, depraved look of the The officers of such institutions as we are speaking of are, many of them, men in whose hearts mercy is not extinct, and who would fain interpret the decrees of justice in the mildest spirit compatible with a conscientious discharge of their duties. Not that it is always so, but certain it is, on the occasion we refer to, that in the genial, kindly manner of the governor, and the evident interest which both he and the chaplain took in the prisoners, we could not fail to discern much of that superiority which can temper chastisement with humanity, and give to power the dignity of forbearance. True it was that the warder who carried the keys and locked and unlocked the cell doors with mechanical precision, had a certain martial air and stern look, and that the ringing sharpness with which he bade one of the prisoners 'stand up!" sounded harshly in our untutored ears, but he was a soldier, and, as he told us, had been twenty-one years in his present capacity, so that we could hardly wonder at the severity of tone and manner. 66 "Twenty years and more have I been in this place," he said; "and in this refectory have I watched often, in total obscurity, the only keeper present amongst some thirty prisoners, when, under cover of the darkness, they have often succeeded, in spite of my vigilance, in stealing one another's dinners." Why in those days no light was allowed during meal-time, and whether from motives of economy or discipline, it is hard to say. After passing through various courts, in which the prisoners were taking their morning exercise, we entered the chapel, which is about as ugly and eccentric a building as can be imagined. What the apartment had originally been designed for we could not tell. To our eyes it appeared to consist of a deep pit, which we can only liken to the compartment reserved for ladies not peeresses in the House of Lords, where large troughs. The garrets and attics of the house are divided into small compartments, and being reserved for the most refractory criminals, have no heating apparatus, and have only a small aperture to see is difficult, and where the effort to hear is oral torture. This pit or pen is set apart for the women, and it certainly does possess one advantage over the compartment in Westminster-namely, that the pulpit, being immediately above it, hear-cut in the door to let in light and air. These cells ing is easy. Sloping upwards above this pen are the rows of benches intended for the men, whilst two or three bull's-eye windows complete the detail of this singularly unprepossessing place of worship. From the chapel we proceeded to visit the various cells, the workers at the treadmill, the bakehouse, where one of the best-behaved criminals was busily engaged helping the baker, and the exercising grounds, or rather courts. In one of these latter were two youths walking round and round with downcast looks and shuffling gait. They were awaiting their trial, and under the circumstances are allowed certain privileges not accorded to other prisoners. In another court we came suddenly upon a solitary man, who raised his hat to us as he walked slowly by. He was a dark, handsome, Jewish-looking man, with a decided dignity of manner. We were informed who he was, and that a notification for his release had just arrived; the Government order to ratify this was expected in a day or two, a petition having been got up in his favour by those who believed the verdict a mistake, and having been granted by the Home Secretary. 66 are close to the roof, and must be fearfully cold in winter, and equally hot in summer. Fortunately they were unoccupied when we saw them, and it is to be hoped will long remain so. The atmosphere around them was close, and the proximity of the ceiling oppressive; and we breathed more freely as we emerged into the open air and shared in the governor's enthusiasm for his garden and his flowers. The high prison walls were thickly covered with fruit trees, and the golden tassels of the laburnum trailed against one of them looked bright and beautiful in the meridian sunlight. Strange, that the beauty of nature, irrepressible even in the most melancholy spots, should have been growing and blooming for so long under the same sky, and in contrast with the hideousness of human crime! As we walked through the garden we came to a large apple-tree. "I planted that tree myself," said the governor; "it was a fancy of mine. I planted it some twenty years ago, on the very spot where a young girl of seventeen was hung for poisoning her husband." We did think it a strange fancy of our conductor, and perhaps he read our thoughts in our looks of inquiry, for he continued: "I did not think her guilty, for she The female prisoners next claimed our atten- was, in my opinion, decidedly insane. She poition. They are placed in what was the county soned him for no other reason than because she gaol to the beginning of this century, when the disliked matrimony and wished to return to her new one was built. There were only four women friends. I remember that she was in a terrible in this building at the time of our visit, and as one state of excitement shortly before her execution. of the four had been guilty of no greater offence I reasoned with her, and endeavoured to inspire than stealing postage-stamps, we thought it spoke her with courage to meet her fate. Katherine,' I well for the female population of the neighbour- said, 'be calm;' and after a while I succeeded in hood. In this "dependence" of the larger gaol soothing her into submission. She became quiet; we had ample opportunity of studying everything then roused herself to appear indifferent to all belonging to the old school of prison life. The around her, and finally marched away to her cells of the last century are in some respects more death, with marvellous determination and hecomfortable than the modern ones. The floors are roism." of wood, not of stone, as in the newer edifice, and are warmed by hot-water pipes. The prisoners' beds are also of wood, and some of them resemble And now the tree only remains as a monument of the misery and crime of twenty long years ago. So wears the world away. B WILD O come here and look at the curious! plant I have found, Emily!" exclaimed Charles. "I wonder if this club-shaped column, casedin green, can be a blossom." "Let us ask Mary; here she comes.' "It is the only flower it bears," replied their cousin; "but if you observe closely you will see stamens and pistils of a deep violet colour round the column." ARUM. "It reminds me," remarked Emily, "of mamma's large white Arum lily-at least in shape." Very likely, for this plant is called wild Arum ; it is rare in some counties, but abundant where the soil is suitable, and birds make quite a feast of the rich orange berries which eluster round the stem in winter. When I was a little girl I used to dig up the roots to make starch." "Starch, Mary! do tell how you made it." "Acting on the impulse of the moment I followed, "I grated the tubers into water, then poured the and taking the little fellow in my arms, strove to liquid off and dried the sediment.” 'Oh, please tell us about it." "At a short distance from my father's house was a fine old demesne, where we all loved to wander amongst stately groups of ancient trees, shady plantings, and lonely grass-grown paths; and as to wild flowers, I have never seen them in such luxuriance or variety elsewhere. For many years the gentleman to whom the place belonged had resided abroad, and consequently the old house, being so long uninhabited, fell into a state of ruin. However, a handsome new mansion had lately been erected at the other side of the demesne, and just before my story commences we heard of the arrival of some members of the family. Sad news to me, for I was forbidden by my parents to enter the dear old place any more, or even to pay a parting visit to my favourite haunts. 'It was about that time I had been reading accounts of the starch-producing qualities of the wild Arum, and was most desirous of procuring roots to experiment upon. Accordingly, one fine day I set out with my little Cousin Harry, who was staying with us, for a ramble in the fields in quest of plants. On the way, I endeavoured to describe the dark, green, arrow-shaped leaves, in order that he might assist me, but although we walked a long time the search was quite unsuccessful; and yet I remembered having seen such quantities the year before in the old demesne. "I do not know how it happened-certainly I could not have been sufficiently careful in avoiding temptation—but we soon found ourselves walking in a pretty green lane, at one side of which was the well-known demesne wall. pacify him. "When the pain had sufficiently decreased, he said, 'Now, Mary, that you are here, you may as well dig up the roots yourself, for I'm sure they're too deep for me.' "I was of the same opinion. So taking the trowel we had brought, proceeded to the bank of Arum, and after much labour managed to secure several fine plants. Harry stood beside me while I worked, chatting gaily. What a nice pretty place, Mary; I should so like to run about and play here. Do please come on a bit, and let me have a good look at everything. What are those walls I see far away, beyond the trees?' "The old house, Harry. It is nearly a ruin; but you would delight in climbing up the stairs, and poking into every nook and corner.' "And may we not go to it ?' "No, dear; my papa and mamma told me I must not walk here now.' "What a pity! But when you did come in, would it be any greater harm to show me the old house? I do so like climbing about in strange places.' "Well, then, come along quickly, and we can get out by the great gate at the other side. It will be the shortest way home after all, now that we have gone so far.' "Give me some of those plants to carry, Mary; you have so many, they must be very heavy.' "No; but I will tear off the leaves,' I replied, for it is only the roots that are of use.' And as we hurried on I strewed our path with the dark green foliage of the wild Arum. "Soon we entered a thick planting, and therefore did not observe that the sky was gradually darkening, and the wind rising; but on emerging into the clear space beyond, found that heavy drops of rain were already falling. "Let us make for the old house at once,' I exclaimed; but there was a wide space to cross before we could gain its sheltering walls, and the storm increased to such a degree that it was difficult to keep our feet, also several loud claps of thunder pealed overhead, causing us to redouble our efforts. Just as we reached the ruin there was a temporary lull, whilst the rain came down with redoubled force. "What shall we do ?' said poor little Harry, 'the "Could you climb in and get some, Harry ?' I wet seems to pour through the roof everywhere.' asked, for mamma does not wish me to cross.' "Oh yes, easily,' he replied, and immediately commenced scrambling over; but on reaching the other side a loose stone fell from the top, and hurt his foot so much that he sat down and began to ery. "There is one room still safe,' I answered; 'let us go up these stone steps.' The front wall of the building was almost gone, so that we could see a long flight of broken stairs leading to the upper rooms, which, having ascended, we passed through a small ante-chamber, and reached |