are blissfully gratified; to habits, without which heaven could furnish no felicity, because she could have had no relish for the society of those who, clothed with the Saviour's untainted righteousness, in grateful adoration, live in the presence of the eternal majesty.

According to the language of men, she was, as you know, from the earliest childhood, blameless, and of good report, of singularly mild and gentle manners, full of af fection and tenderness, beloved by all who knew her, because so lovely, and worthy of love. About thirteen years ago I first saw her, and although a very young girl, only about eight years old, I was struck with her appearance. Her countenance had a gravity very unusual at so early an age, combined with a most delicate sweetness of expression; while her manner was very diffident and retiring, so much so, that I still remember the shrinking sensitiveness, and blushing confusion, manifested by her while replying to any of the questions I might put to her among the other children. She was among the most early attendants in the Sabbath-school, which, shortly after this, was instituted; and although from the remotest house in the parish, was always present, when the weather would permit, or when her movements depended upon herself: often indeed, she appeared in her place even on stormy days, when the children of the contiguous villages would not venture beyond the threshold of their cottages; and her delicate frame, for more than five miles along the open shore of the Gairloch, would be beat upon by the winds and the rain, when the most robust of the people, shrinking from the exposure, came not up to the solemn assembly. When in the school, her demeanour was singularly decorous and solemn; her diligence most assiduous, and her intelligent discernment of the meaning of what she would utter, was very apparent from the mode and emphasis of her expression. In all this she was a model for your children.

In.

deed, many of her class companions of that time, although without such opportunities of observation as I myself enjoy. ed, so far as their recollections go, can bear witness of these things, of which I have a very vivid remembrance.

I have said, she was in this a model for your children; but you must not be deceived. Something far more than I have described must be earnestly supplicated from God for them, as you regard their well-being, and would not entail upon them a curse instead of a blessing. All that I have described, as characteristic of Isabella's early years, in connexion with her religious history, may, or may not be regarded, according to people's views, as preparatory to her reception of the grace of God, and her subsequent ad. vancement in the divine life: in her own opinion, her early youth was a period of utter vanity. Any concern she had about the state of her soul was light and trivial, consisting merely of transient emotions that terminated in nothingproductive of no results, because growing out of no seed planted by the hand of the Eternal. That form of godli. ness which seems desirable for your children, may adorn them, as it did her,-without any knowledge, or experience of its power. Your anxieties, therefore, regarding those objects of your affection must extend beyond their outward comeliness of demeanour ;-far, far deeper than meets either the ear, or the eye of man. Had she then died, it was her fixed persuasion, (when the light of truth took possession of her mind,) that she must have gone to a place of torment, entirely ignorant, as she was, of her God re. conciling in Christ her rebellious heart unto himself; and consequently without any of those feelings that fit for the society of the heavenly Jerusalem. I, you, or any other, looking upon her outward frame, saw only the loveliness, simplicity, and innocence of childhood--a beautiful form of an interesting age. But what was it in reality? If her own conceptions were correct and true, a lovely mansion

of all levity and unholiness, an object of meritorious wrath, equally with the most infamous receptacles of pollution and impiety.

The decorum, the services of her childhood, indeed, she saw, as she believed God saw them, only as varying manifestations of error and of guiltiness. Do not then in this deceive yourselves, ye fathers and mothers of my people, by resting on the seemly behaviour of your children any hopes of their safety. I tell you, the worm that never dieth may be nourished by the heart's blood of the loveliest and most decorous among them. Clasp them to your bosoms, as you may, in the transports of parental tenderness, but let not your fondness stifle the anxiety which prompts the awful question, "What are they? Holy and blessed of God, or reprobate through their own perversity; or whither are they going? To the peaceful mansions of joyful hallelujahs, or the dark prison-house of ungodly blasphe. mers, whose smoke ascendeth for ever and ever?" O then, from the earliest age, press upon them to seek for newness of life, and let your yearnings be breathed in continual prayers, that their pollutions may be washed in that blessed fountain opened in the smitten heart of the Lord, for the young and the old; to which the infant may go with as much freedom, because its necessity is the same, as the hoary sinner, groaning beneath the accumulated guilt of an hundred years. Be not satisfied, I beseech you, as well as all parents who shall read this record, with occasional manifestations of seriousness in your children, or with even frequently expressed desires of holy living, if, in reality, you are anxious that they should imitate Isabella's example; for, she exhibited not merely that outward decorum which we have described, but many serious thoughts of God and of her condition; many a scheme of righteousness, framed in much anxiety, occupied her mind; and many breathings after holiness would agitate her heart.

Often did she ponder, even at an earlier period than that I speak of, on the awful interests of eternity; when the thought, or prospect of dying more especially, was pressed upon her attention, its irrevocable results would fill her with alarm, while uncertain what these might be. When only five or six years of age, during thun. der storms for example, which seemed to increase the probability of such an event, she would pray most fervently for a continuance of life, till better prepared to meet her God. Occasionally also, at this time, she was vividly impressed with the necessity of loving her Creator; but such feelings very soon faded away before reasonings like these, suggested by a rebellious heart, whence even in childhood are the issues of impious thoughts. "I ought, perhaps, but how can I love God better than my father?" she would say, "I cannot see him, his face is hid from me, he does not come and twine his arms round me; how then can [ love him better than my father?" Often in after-life she alluded to these infantine feelings, when death had lost all its terrors in her mind, looking upon it in the light of eternity, when its agonies were hailed as prelusive of a glory on which she had set her heart: when she had indeed seen her Creator, the King, in his beauty, felt his love, while its expressions were multiplied before her eyes, as her soul had found rest within the blessed enclosure of his everlasting arms.

These little notices are given, not for the purpose of proving that, in her childhood, she was habitually occupied about the things of religion, but as indications of a spirit of seriousness, which indeed was visible in her appearance and manners. What is generally interesting to children, seemed to attract but little of her attention. She seldom engaged in the ordinary gambols of little girls, and when she did, there was still a solemnity about her, which was far from according with the hilarity and sportiveness of her

companions. As she advanced to the age of about eight or nine, this seriousness increased, and she would occupy herself in a way which most of you, it is probable, would regard as decisive of Christian feeling and experience; and indicating a mind already devoted to the employment of a religious life. Her prayers were regular and frequent. Besides, when any event occurred that excited her anxiety, she would engage in extraordinary exercises of devo. tion. If her father, for example, went from home, at any time, she would pray long and repeatedly for his safe return; vowing upon these occasions, in the spirit of Jacob, that, if God granted a favourable answer, she would offer him her sacrifice of thankfulness, and acknowledge him with increasing gratitude, as the author of all her blessings. Nor was she in the habit of forgetting her vow. When. ever she heard of the arrival of her father, or saw him coming, eager as she was to meet him, she made a point of first retiring to some secret place to give glory to God for having fulfilled the desire of her heart. Long after. ward, when accustomed to try the character of past and present feelings by the true standard which the divine Spirit, by the wisdom there is in his word, had given her, she saw nothing in this practice decisive of willing homage and resignation to God. Selfishness prompted her prayers, while it pervaded also the spirit of her thanksgivings. The former were long and importunate; the latter, brief and hurried, exhausting, as it were, in one short acknow. ledgment, her gratitude: while often expressed, only lest, if neglected, her prayers should not again be answered. The dread of evil to an object she loved, and in loving whom she found her happiness, constrained her to propi. tiate the almighty Disposer of events, while the joy of pos session, without immediate anxiety, or apprehension, soon, like a spring-tide, bore away from her thoughts the remembrance of him whose providential care and kindness had so blessed her.