May I, O gracious Power!" cried he, looking upward, and pressing the cross to his breast, "live but to see that hero victorious, and Scotland free, and then 'let thy servant depart in peace, since mine eyes will have seen her salvation!'" "Her salvation, father ?" said Helen, timidly.

"Is not that too sacred a word to apply to anything, however dear, that relates to earth ?" She blushed as she spoke; and fearful of having too daringly objected, looked down as she awaited his answer.

The hermit observed her attentively; and, with a benign smile, replied, "Earth and heaven are the work of the Creator.

He careth alike for angel and for man; and therefore nothing that he has made is too mean to be the object of his salvation.

The word is comprehensive; in one sense it may signify our redemption from sin and death by the coming of the Lord of Life into this world; and in another, it intimates the different means b which Providence decrees the ultimate happiness of men.