Page:Profit and loss, or, The Christian merchant.pdf/21

 incapable of admitting all the suffers that apply for their generous aid; yet make the trial—you may be successful; and, if not, in the absence of every other provision, you must surely feel the meanest workhouse in the kingdom to be a paradise, in comparison with the most splendid habitation, haunted by such as you have been accustomed to mingle with, in crime and calamity.

Perhaps, even now a mournful voice is asking —'Where is my sister?' or ‘Where my child?’ Some heart longs to melt over you; some lips are prepared to say—She was lost, and is found; she was dead, and is alive again; it is meet that we rejoice.’

Above all, there is a God, who, though you have not considered it, has witnessed all your conduct, and all your misery. ‘Choose the profound of midnight, and the deepest cavern, his eye perceives you-as clearly as in the public street in the midst of day.’ Such, we are informed, was the language of one, whom an unfortunate vainly solicited to attend her home. The unexpected remark fixed, liked an arrow, in her conscience; she represented to herself the guilty scenes on which the all-seeing God must have frowned; she sued for mercy; she. forsook her shameful occupation, and from that time, devoted her life to industry, purity, and all the pursuits of a genuine Christian. May you go and do likewise.

The door is not yet shut against you. Should father and mother refuse you a sight of them, should the World extinguish all the hopes you placed on its candour, there is one greater than all, who will not only receive you, but do abundantly more than you can venture to ask. The Lord God is gracious, and merciful, and