DECISION AND INDECISION.

CHAPTER I.

NEVER did the sun appear more lovely on the fourth of March, than on the marriage-day of Ann and Emily Hargreaves, who were, at the same time, united to the objects of their warmest affections. Mr. Henry Grey, a respectable solicitor, claimed Ann for his bride; while Emily assumed the title of Mrs. George Harris.

Continuing residents in the manufacturing town of N——, and situated at a convenient distance, they endeavoured to mitigate the pain of separation, by the interchange of social visits; and anxious to possess every necessary qualification for

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the management of their respective establishments, they assisted each other's memory, in recalling the examples and instructions of their pious deceased mother; who, prior to her death, had the pleasure and satisfaction of seeing her two daughters renounce the follies and vanities of a deceitful world, sincerely" inquire the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward," and unite themselves to the Methodist Society, of which she had been thirty years a zealous, active member.

Constant in their attendance at the same house of prayer-frequently meeting for religious communion-retaining the affection which had for many years endeared them to each other-and enjoying a large share of conjugal felicity-the seasons quickly passed away, with no other material change, than that each became the happy mother of a fine blooming daughter.

Scarcely however had Mrs. Grey recovered her usual state of health, when she was suddenly called to attend the death-bed of her beloved husband. The

sun of prosperity which gilded her earthly prospects, and promised much happiness "went down, ere it was

in future years,

yet noon," and she was left to wear the mournful weeds of a widow, at the age of twenty-two.

Though painfully sensible of the loss she had sustained, she did "not sorrow as those without hope:" her grief was assuaged by the firm and implicit confidence which Mr. Grey placed in his Redeemer's atoning sacrifice-the assurance he possessed of his acceptance with God—and his final triumph over death and the grave. The consolations of the gospel were her support and comfort, under the painful bereavement; and with a heart softened by the afflictive dispensation, she patiently submitted to the chastisement of her heavenly Father.

The suddenness of this event, accompanied with the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit, was the means of more forcibly convincing Mr. Harris of the transitoriness of human life, and stimulating

him to increased devotion in the service of God: it checked the ardour with which he was pursuing the things of this world, and gave that energy and impulse to his christian character, which afterwards so distinguishingly marked his deportment, and enabled him to fill many honourable offices in the church of Christ, with credit and acceptance.

The prattlings of her infant Julia, soon caused the smile of pleasure and delight to revisit the youthful countenance of the widowed mother; and many times were her eyes suffused with tears, in beholding the folded hands and bended knees of her child, attempting to address that Being who is a "father to the fatherless, and a husband to the widow." Never was the dawn of intellect hailed with more rapturous joy, than when the fond parent eagerly listened to unnumbered questions, many of which her own improved understanding was unable satisfactorily to answer to her it became a