red the
shed, and sunk, half fainting, on the very bench on which the gipsy had
sate on the eventful night in which she had brought her to the hovel
fourteen years before.

Shanty was terrified, for he had a paternal feeling for Tamar; he ceased
immediately from his hammering, and sitting himself by her on the bench,
he rested not until she had told him every thing which had happened; and
when she had done so,--"Tamar," he said, "I am not surprised; I never
thought you any thing else than the child of a vagrant, nor had you ever
any ground for thinking otherwise. There are many imaginations," added
the pious old man, "which attend our nature, which must be destroyed
before we can enter into that perfect union with the Son, which will
render us one with the Father, and will insure our happiness when God
shall be all in all, and when all that is foretold in prophecy
respecting this present earth shall be completed. Sin," continued the
old man, "is neither more nor less than the non-conformity of the will
of the creature with that of the Creator; and when the will of every
child of Adam is brought into unison with the divine pleasure, then, as
far our race is concerned, there will be an end of sin; and, in
particular cases, Tamar, as regarding individuals in the present and
past days, each one is happy, not as far as he indulges the imaginations
suggested by his own depraved nature, but as far as he is content to be
what his God would have him to be, as indicated by the circumstances and
arrangements of things about him."

It was marvellous (or rather would have been so to a stranger,) to hear
this poor old dusky blacksmith, speaking and reasoning as he did; but
who shall limit or set bounds to the power of the Lord the Spirit in
enlightening the mind, independently as it were, of human ministry, or
at least of any other ministry than that which teaches and promulgates
the mere letter of Scripture?

Tamar's mind was at that time fully prepared to receive all that Shanty
said to her, and, insensibly to themselves, they were presently led
almost to forget the information given by the gipsy, (which in fact left
Tamar just as it had found her,) whilst new thoughts were opening to
them; and the young girl was brought to see, that in her late anxiety to
render the kind friends who had adopted her, comfortable as to outward
circumstances, she had failed in using her filial influence to draw
their attention to thoughts of relig