was to endeavour, trusting that our little labour would be countenanced from above, to instil into her mind a love for that God, who made and redeemed her. We taught her, and exemplified the mournful truth from the indications of it in herself, that we were all born in sin,' and by nature the children of wrath.' From this we led her, as her childish years could receive it, to the sacrifice once offered on the cross. We had nothing in ourselves, we told her, wherewith to propitiate our offended Creator; and he had himself provided, in the person of his Son, a victim of atonement a mean of reconciliation. We then showed her how the benefit of this oblation was to be appropriated-by believing the record which God. hath given :' and that, as in herself dwelt no good thing,' so she must pray that the Holy Spirit would regenerate and purify her infant heart. O how sweet it was to train up our beauteous babe! Her docility, the amiableness of her disposition, and the remarkable maturity of understanding which

she displayed, rendered it with her a truly animating, and

6

'Delightful task, to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot,

And

pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind!'

And how her bright blue eyes would sparkle, though suffused at intervals with tears, when we spoke of that good Shepherd,' who gathers the lambs with his arms, and carries them in his bosom,' and tends with such affectionate anxiety even 'the least of the little ones of his fold, lest it should go astray and be lost.' Thus, as Thus, as a vine, brought indeed out of Egypt,' but with a gentle hand-watered with the kindliest dews of heaven, and protected by the assiduous watchfulness of parental fondness, lest 'the boar out of the wood should waste it, or the wild beast of the field devour it ;'and sent forth her branches,' and our hills were covered with the' pleasant 'shade.'

she grew,

Whilst occupations, at once so profita

ble and endearing, were granted to us in our domestic circle, limited though it was, it will easily be believed, that we had not a wish beyond it. Yet, the duties of religion and humanity often called us to minister to the temporal and spiritual necessities of our tenantry, and others; and it was to us a subject of thankfulness and gratitude, that we were allowed the high privilege of re-. lieving the wants of our fellow-creatures, and pouring balm into their wounds. The poorest outcast at our door was still a human being, with passions and feelings similar to our own, and we could consider nothing that regarded him, as foreign to ourselves.* While we beheld him, therefore, we would say, and sympathize with him accordingly

'Is he not man, by sin and suffering tried?

Is he not man, for whom the Saviour died?'

Thus, in one even, uninterrupted stream of happiness-of happiness, such as falls to the lot of few-time advanced, until our

* Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto.

TER. HEAUT...

Amelia had completed her seventeenth year. But, if He who knows our frame, and provides what is best for us, occasionally vouchsafe us consolation in our pilgrimage, he yet seldom lets his children remain long without some memorial, that they are 'strangers in the earth." He sees it requisite that we should oftentimes 'go mourning,' as we journey to the heavenly Canaan, lest we should be too much inclined to take up our residence in this waste, howling, wilderness.' My amiable partner, it is true, with that mixture of reproof and affection, which she could employ with such inimitable delicacy, frequently reminded me, when I spoke of the felicity which was the portion of my eup, that this was not my rest.'-' Re member, Claude,' she would mildly say to me, the hand that bestows our comforts, when we lean on them with too ardent an attachment, generally withdraws them, lest they should prove detrimental to our eternal interests. Did not God remove the bestbeloved of the wives of Jacob, and deprive him, at least for a long and painful season

of his favourite son? No, dearest Claude: set not your heart too much on me and on your child.'

At this period, our daughter was almost too fair, too perfect, to be human; and we more than once expressed our mutual apprehensions, (and, O may a fond and bereaved father be pardoned for calling them apprehensions!) that she was ripening too fast for a better world, to be permitted to sojourn much longer in this. We felt as if the Lord was preparing her for himself. But it was the appointment of Him, who 'doeth all things well.'"-Here the eyes of the venerable sufferer filled. He stopped for a moment; wiped the tears as they succeeded one another on his furrowed cheek; and then with a sigh, that excited in the breasts of his audience the deepest commiseration, resumed his narrative:

Sorrow, it has been observed, seldom comes unattended. Yet, if the truth of the remark has been justified, too forcibly justi fied, in me, should I not bow in submission to the will of Him, without whom not even