came to this wood for the dreadful purpose of selfdestruction. Another hour, perhaps a few minutes more, and your hand would have committed the awful deed. You might now have been in hell, beyond not only the hope, but the possibility of salvation. You were in the very same peril as the Philippian jailor. Now who directed me to this particular spot at the precise time when I met you? I might have paused on my journey at any other part of the road, or have entered this wood at any other quarter. It was, unquestionably, the gracious providence of God that brought me hither, and occasioned our meeting; and as St. Paul said to the jailor, when about to fall upon his own sword, so would I say to you, 'Do thyself no harm.' It is to me, and should be to you, a most encouraging evidence of the still unexhausted compassion of God towards you, that you have so surprisingly been withheld from accomplishing your horrid purpose. Return to your home and your family. Cast yourself upon the free mercy of the Lord in deep self-abasement, and plead his promise,-whosoever cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast him out. You may yet see brighter days on earth, and in the next world may have your portion with that "great multitude which no man can number, who came out of great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, and are now before

E

the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple." The man, with mingled emotions of hope and terror, wept bitterly. P-took him by the arm, led him out of the wood, and proceeded at his side along the road towards the town, pouring into his wounded spirit the rich promises of the Word of God to a penitent backslider; and such his tears and humiliating acknowledgments declared him to be. The good old man accompanied the stranger to his home, tarried with him till the morrow, and then left him humbly resolving to walk penitently before God, meekly and submissively to bear the afflictions of life, and to make more strenuous efforts for the recovery of his affairs. Nor were his endeavours vain. God spared him many years, and by his grace rendered him an illustrious example of humility, faith, and active obedience.

In these memorials of my old friend I may have somewhat varied the language of the original dialogues, but the facts, and the substance of these dialogues are faithfully recorded as I had them from his lips. Venerable man! he now is a happy tenant of that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, where his purified affections were previously fixed, during nearly the three-fourths of a century which he sojourned on earth. The recollection of his form and countenance, his virtues and his piety, will remain

with me while life shall last: nor can I desire for my reader and myself a temper of mind more surely productive of peace and joy, than that which he manifested. "In the day of prosperity rejoice, and in the day of adversity consider." It incalculably adds to the enjoyment of life's brighter days, to contemplate all their smiles as so many shining expressions of the divine benignity and goodness, and as foretastes of that overflowing cup of "joy unspeakable and full of glory," which the Saviour will give to all his people in the kingdom of his Father and their Father. Adversity drops many of its sterner forms when its subject is led devoutly to consider its origin and end: originating, as it does, in the will of that God who is too wise to err in his choice of means; and designed, as it is, to nurture the growth of christian graces and virtues in the soul, to promote its meetness for heaven, and to endear those promises, which include all that God can give or man can enjoy.

THE MOURNER.

MISS A

was the beloved relative of some of

my early friends, and deservedly possessed the warm affection of the wide circle in which she moved.

She

was intelligent, for she had bestowed great pains or the cultivation of her understanding. She was amiable, for she sought and acquired friendship by every effort to please and assist others, and she retained that friendship by urbanity and tenderness. Her moral character was looked up to as a model, and her constant and devout attendance in the house of God gave her the reputation of exalted piety. In their eyes, who measure all moral and religious attainments by that standard, the authority of which is acknowledged by the world, because it so little and so leniently interferes with its favourite principles and pursuits, Miss A would appear a very paragon of ex¬ cellence, which could admit of no improvement. Nor was her own mind disturbed by any doubts of the correctness of her life in the sight either of God or of man. We meet with a very numerous class of persons of this description. Such was the young ruler, whom our Saviour, when he had listened to his in

quiry after eternal life, beheld and loved. Such, too, was the intelligent scribe, to whom our Lord said, "Thou art not far from the kingdom of God." Clothed in the fair robe of virtue, unsullied with a stain in their own and the world's estimation; standing out amidst their friends as companions who gladden life by their unoffending vivacity, and improve it by their high sense of decorum and honour; active in every pursuit which can interest a benevolent and charitable mind; the zealous defenders of established order, and the reader oppugners of every thing wearing even the semblance of innovation; they live to be admired by the few who imitate, and the many who applaud, though they will not follow, their brilliant course; and they die to be eulogized in terms that would leave no doubt in his mind, who reads the inscription on their tombs, that they were the righteous, who needed no repentance, and the whole, who needed not a physician. It is painful to disturb the settled complacency which pervades the breasts of persons in whom every one sees so much to esteem, and so little the propriety of which even to question. To make the attempt is re

But the Holy

probated as arrogant and uncharitable. Scriptures, rightly understood, awaken many anxious doubts of the identity of these applauded models, with those exhibited on its unerring pages as exemplars of Christian excellence. It will be found, upon close