[REPORTED FOR THE CIRCULAR, May 22, 1852.]

WALKING IN THE SPIRIT.

  . . . St. Clare's love-experience, in Uncle Tom's Cabin, is a fair illustration of the difficulties we have to meet in attaining communication with God. He is courting a lady and corresponding with her, when all at once his letters are returned, and he is coolly informed that his sweetheart is on the point of marrying another. In a fit of desperation he makes their separation a reality, by marrying a woman he does not love; and then learns, too late, that a cruel imposition had been practiced on him by the guardians of his sweetheart, and that through it all she was faithful and true. Now was this miserable mistake inevitable? Ought not St. Clare to have assumed that the woman he loved was true, and that the interruption was owing to the interference of others—or at least to have been satisfied with nothing but a declaration from the lady's own lips? To apply this illustration: Satan is allowed to thrust himself in between us and God, and produce the impression that God does not love us or care anything about union with us. But is it inevitable that we must be imposed upon by these plausible appearances? Should we not have that generous confidence in God's integrity that will not be turned away, and will take no refusal short of a personal declaration from himself?—Every truthful mind can see that this is demanded in our case. . . .