ally his heart became open
to more salutary reflections.

"Do you not deserve all this?" whispered his conscience. "Have
you not brought it upon yourself by your own wickedness and
disobedience? You had a good home and kind friends; and if you
had to work every day, it was no more than all have to do in one
form or another. Blame yourself, then, for your own idle,
reckless disposition, that would not be satisfied with your lot.
You are only finding out the truth of the text you have often
repeated,--'The way of the transgressor is hard.'"

He thought of his home, as he lay upon that hard floor. The
forms of his pious old grandmother, and of his mother and
sister, all seemed to stand before him, and to look down upon
him reproachfully. He remembered now their kindness and good
counsel. He groaned in bitterness, "O! this _would_ break their
hearts, if they knew it! I have disgraced myself, and I have
disgraced them." He had leisure for reflection, and his mind
recalled, most painfully, the scenes of the past. He thought of
the Sabbath-school, of his kind teacher, and of the instructions
that had been so affectionately imparted. How much better for
him would it have been, had he regarded those instructions!

And then he thought of God! He remembered that His _all-seeing
eye_ had followed all his wanderings, and noted all his guilt.
He had sinned against God, and some of the bitterness of
punishment had already overtaken him. The idea that God was
angry with him, and that _He_ was visiting his sins with the rod
of chastisement, took possession of his soul. Now he ceased to
blame others for his sufferings, and acknowledged to himself
that all was deserved. Again he wept, but it was in terror at
the thought of God's anger, and in grief that he had sinned so
ungratefully against his Maker.

He tried to pray; but the words of the prayers he had been
taught in his childhood did not seem to be appropriate to his
present condition. Those prayers were associated with days and
scenes of comparative innocence and happiness. He now felt
guilty and wretched, and felt deeply that other forms of
petition were necessary for him. But he could not frame words
into a prayer that would soothe and relieve his soul. "God will
not hear me," was his bitter thought. "I do not deserve to be
heard. O! if God would have mercy upon me, and deliver me from
this trouble, I think I would try to serve and obey Him as long
as I lived."

He kneele