wn
earnestness and simple faith had been one means of bringing it about.
Her daily intercourse with her cousin had, in spite of herself,
impressed Stella gradually with a conviction of the importance of what
she felt to be all-important. And Stella's illness and subsequent
weakness, with perhaps a sense of her precarious tenure of life, had
combined to make her realize its importance to herself personally,
more than she had ever done before. Amy's happy death had made her
feel how blessed a thing was that trust in Jesus which could remove
all fear of the mysterious change, so awful to those who have their
hope only in the visible world. Indeed, she told Lucy that one of her
chief reasons for wishing to come to Ashleigh was the vague feeling,
derived from her recollections of her former visit, that it would be
easier for her to be a Christian in a place so closely associated with
her first impressions of living Christianity. And He who never turns
away from any who seek Him, had answered her expectations, and sent
her a true helper in Mrs. Edwards, whose simple words seemed to come
to her with peculiar power; for, from some hidden sympathy of feeling,
one person often seems more specially adapted to help us on than
another, and Mrs. Edwards had been a special helper to Stella.

Lucy, when she found her cousin so much in earnest, did not dare to
advise her on her own responsibility. Stella felt rather afraid of a
conversation with Mr. Edwards, but her cousin told her that he was the
best person to give her counsel in the matter. Her fear of him soon
vanished when the conversation was really entered upon, and she found
that she could speak to him much more freely than she had previously
thought. He talked with her long and kindly, and finding that she had
really a deep sense of sin, and that she desired to come to Christ in
humble penitence to have her sins forgiven and her darkness
enlightened, he felt that he had no right to discourage her from the
ordinance which is specially designed to enlighten and strengthen. At
the same time, he took care to explain to her most fully the nature of
the solemn vows in which she would take upon herself the
responsibilities and obligations of a follower of Christ.

It was with a quiet, serious humility, very different from the former
mien of the once careless Stella, that she, with Lucy and Bessie,
reverently approached the Lord's table, where He graciously meets His
people, and give