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right breast, and produced alarm. | in order, as one who might never After some consultation with me- return. She remained in London dical men in this vicinity, she nearly three weeks, consulted complied with the request of her some of the first surgeons, and husband and family to visit Lon-derived apparently much relief don for further advice and aid. from their prescriptions. Her She herself considered the com- principal comfort in London, plaint as most probably fatal; however, was from the sympathy nor did this conviction produce and attention and affection of any grief or depression. I noticed christian friends. Some of them her for a day or two, as if occu- were much struck with the heapied with some mighty inward venly frame of her mind. Her conflict. She sought retirement, body seemed healthy, her natural and solitude, and was absorbed spirits as lively as ever. Her in secret prayer. One day, on mind had a tone of spirituality, my entering the parlour, she rose which to experienced christians from the sofa hastily, took hold intimated a speedy ascension to of my hand, and looking kindly the glorious Head of the church. in my face, she said with great She took advantage of her disfervour and solemnity, "The bit-tance froin her husband and faterness of death is past." "Yes, if this be the messenger of death, I welcome it." She had long been in the habit of speaking freely of the heavenly world, of her prospects there, and of her own departure. Such expres-nifestations of his presence, of sions, therefore, as were common to her during what proved her last attack, passed among us without making any special impression. On the ears of others who occasionally visited her they fell with great weight, and produced a conviction of christian serenity and hope, which it is my prayer may never be erased.

Her affection for me, united with her uncommonly strong feelings, prevented her from conversing freely and directly with me on the solemn topic of her dissolution. It was more than either of us could endure. Yes, we had been long united as one flesh and one spirit in this gloomy wilderness, and the prospect of separation, even for a few years, or for any time, was inexpressibly distressing.

Before she repaired to London last Christmas, she put her house

mily, and the scene of all her worldly labours, to disentangle her affections from every earthly object and pursuit, every joy and care. Her beloved Master also favoured her with uncommon ma

the heavenly felicity, and of her own interest in his soul. He had so unveiled to her, while in the metropolis, the beauties of his face, and the splendours of the celestial sanctuary, that ever afterwards she refused to descend, to take a part any more in the business of the world, or even in domestic concerns. He had said to her, "Come up hither;" and she continued to hear that voice, and to gird up the loins of her mind, and to trim her lamp for the coming of her bridegroom. To a friend, who could not repress her anguish in the thought of parting with her, she said with great animation, "What difference is it to me, if it be my Father's will, whether I be with the church below, or the church above?"

For a few days after her return from London, her vigour and

health and spirits appeared even greater than before the journey, and any complaints which she uttered of pain or weakness were imputed to cold or fatigue. Scarcely a week however elapsed, before she was permanently confined to her bed. She suffered acute and unremitted pain for about six weeks, and left us on Wednesday, March 12, to see the face, and enjoy the love, and share the glories of her first and best and unchanging friend.

Thus lived and died this excellent saint. She has left me in the wilderness to feel and lament her loss; and (I would hope and pray) to be a follower of her who, through faith and patience, is now inheriting the promises. My daily, my hourly prayer, is, that this bereavement may be truly sanctified to the church of which she was a member, to her large family, and her mourning partner. Yes, my Agnes, thou wast dear, very dear to me in this life! The marriage-tie is now broken by our Father's hand; thou art no more my wife-but thou art my sister, my friend in Jesus; and our temporary separation, (I hope and humbly trust,) will be followed by an eternal reunion in that world where sin and sorrow and death shall never be known!

Copy of a Letter from Miss Agnes Gilmour to Miss Jennet Anderson of Glasgow, dated Edinburgh, Dec. 23, 1796.Original with James Lister, her husband, Liverpool, 1823. (Mrs. Lister died March 12, 1823, after

an illness of six weeks.)

Dearly beloved in the Lord,

I again embrace with pleasure an opportunity of dropping you a few lines, in this valley of tears;

which I trust we are only travelling through to our Father's house. I hope we are the sheep of Christ, and have heard his voice, and have felt the power of his constraining grace, enabling us to leave all and follow him, whither he will be pleased in his infinite wisdom to lead us.

Christ having once taken possession of a poor sinner's heart, makes there a blank, which nothing but himself can fill. His sheep know his voice; and his faithfulness is pledged that they shall follow him. This is indeed a great mystery, grace preserved and keeping its ground in the midst of so much opposition, and in the midst of so many enemies; the worst of which are those of our own hearts. Yet, behold grace triumphing over them, and making the sinner even to abhor himself in dust and ashes, on account of sin which dwelleth in him. This is a great mystery, better felt than expressed, and which eternity alone can unfold.

My dear friend, as we both entered on this way about the same time, and were companions and fellow-travellers together in the fervour of our first love, so I cannot help thinking that we are entitled to know the progress of a work of grace in each other, as long as Providence puts it in our power. In a letter from you some/ time ago, you desired me to make some things more plain; which I now presume to do as far as God shall enable me, to the praise of free, rich, and sovereign grace.

Dear Jennet, since I came here, precious privileges. We have the I have enjoyed many great and gospel in purity and plenty. Scarcely a month passes over our heads, but we have the opportunity of commemorating the dying love of our dear Lord. But

however delightful these advan-man's free-will to repent when he

pleases, and to become religious, had they felt for one quarter of an hour what I then did, would for ever have given up the argu ment. I saw that I was condemned. I saw also that salvation was offered to me in the gospel; but found I was so utterly depraved, that I had neither the will nor the power to accept it. So that unless it had been as really applied as it was offered, I must for ever have perished, for any ability I had to receive it.

But in this awful season, Jesus stepped in and revealed his name as the Saviour from sin; and showed me that these enemies, which I so much feared, were all conquered by Him. I then had such a view of the sufferings of Christ as made me cry out, What must the substance have been to him, when the shadows are so awful! What must the floods of divine wrath have been, when one drop-when the very appre

tages are, as the means through which the Lord deigns to hold communion with his people, yet in his own time and way, he will teach his own, that Paul may plant and Apollos may water, that God alone can give the increase, and that without the influences of his Spirit, they are as wells without water and clouds without rain. I can from experience say, I have found it to be the case with me.-Dear Jennet, you desire to know some of the causes of the deep distress under which for some time I was permitted to labour. And, first of all, a sweet sense of the Divine favour, which for some time I had enjoyed, enabling me to say with Paul, I can do all things through Christ strengthening me," was succeeded by a dark and gloomy night of desertion. All my sins were set in array against me, and in particular the natural enmity of the heart against God, and in rejecting an offered Savi-hension of it fills the soul with our. I stood also condemned by God's holy law, and heard the thunders of Sinai: Satan likewise was permitted to throw in his fiery darts. I had some time such a view of the spiritual enemies within, as made me often say, I shall surely fall one day or other by their hand. One evening particularly, at the church, during an examination, when the servant of God was showing the infinite evil of sin, I had there such a view of my own heart, and of the spiritual enemies in it, that I could willingly have embraced death to But this frame of mind did not be absent from the body of sin last long. The time of deliverand death. This was an even-ance was not yet come. My foring I shall never forget. I was mer desponding state of mind surely for some time nearly be- soon returned; and had not the reaved of my senses. I looked Lord upheld, I had been utterly on my right hand-all refuge cast down. This state of mind failed me.-Those who boast of appeared to all around me by the

such astonishment! No wonder then that we hear that spotless Lamb of God, caught in the thickets of divine wrath, exclaim as man, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me!" but adding, with holy submission, "Not my will, but thine be done." There we have the strongest proof of the Father's bearing a part in our salvation. It even pleased the Father to bruise him. Well might the Psalmist cry out, "Who knoweth the power of thy anger?"

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things; thou knowest that I desire to love Thee above every other object." I had then such a discovery of God's sovereignty in these three things. 1. In his choice of the elect. They were the children of wrath, even as others; therefore, free-love was the cause of his choice. Not unto us, but unto thy name be all the praise.

2. His sovereignty in the dispensations of his grace. He leads the blind by a way they know not, in paths they had never trod.

Some things in Divine Provi-To some He gives more, to others dence also had a very dark as less comfort, as his infinite wis pect to me; yet in my gloomiest dom sees meet; and in all this he times I found these two passages is sovereign. yield me a great deal of support; Surely, when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold;"-and "It is enough that the disciple be as his Master, and the servant as his Lord." I was kept in this state of mind for about three months, when over the bounds which the Lord had set to it it was not permitted to pass.

3. In the dispensations of his Providence. He alone has a right to dispose of his people as He sees best. He alone has their real interest at heart; and it is enough that He hath promised, that his grace shall be sufficient for us, and his strength be per fected in our weakness.

prayer

Since that time I have enjoyed Our last Communion-sabbath a peace and joy in believing, in Edinburgh was to me a day of which the world can neither give the power of his resurrection, nor take away; and the calm, you when he was pleased to say to may be assured, has been doubly the prisoner, "Go forth;" it sweet after such a storm. Whewas a great day of the son of ther shall we be most astonished, man. His servant [the minister at God's condescension, or our whom she attended] was remark-own unworthiness? May He lead ably assisted in the morning; but us to admire his grace more and for my part I could do nothing more! which is the earnest but weep over my dark case, When I arose to approach a communion-table, I indeed trembled at the consequences; but when I was sat down, that dear servant of God, Mr. Macnair, rose with these words, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?" This was spoken home to my heart; the bonds with which I had long been bound were quite broken asunder; and I was made to reply, Lord, thou knowest all

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of Your unworthy correspondent, AGNES GILMour,

P.S. I am afraid that I have length of the imperfect narration. worn out your patience with the Words can never express what I then felt. Need I tell you, that these lines are intended for your own perusal only?

ON SLAVERY. FELLOW CHRISTIANS,

The design of the following remarks is to direct your attention to the subject of slavery; more especially as it exists in our West India colonies.

that the inhabitants of this country should have set before them, in the language of truth and soberness, the real condition of that part of our fellow-subjects who

are at this moment in a state of

slavery. Were this done in a proper manner, I cannot but believe that Britons would instantly devise some means for the annihilation of this prodigious evil.

It is now about sixteen years since the slave-trade in the British dominions was abolished by law. The difficulties which the When the horrors of slavery friends of the abolition of that neare mentioned, reference is not farious traffick had to encounter, exclusively or principally made are fresh in your recollection. to those extraordinary instances Nor can you forget how, in spite of barbarity with which our ears of ridicule, insult, and repeated were pained during the contest defeats, by persevering patience, for the abolition of the traffick; they were, under God, the means nor to cases similar to those of of removing this national sin. It Huggins in Nevis; or Hodge in should, however, be borne in Tortola; or Rawlins in St. Kitt's; mind, that though the slave-trade which, when published about ten is legally abolished, yet slavery years since, excited the astonishexists; and that at the present ment and indignation of the Engtime in the British West India lish public, (though where unlipossessions alone, (excluding from mited power is put into the hands our view the colonies of other na- of persons in the situations of tions,) there are no less than slave-masters and slave-drivers, EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND such instances are probably not of our fellow-creatures under the uncommon;) but it is the sufferbondage of slavery. It is a la-ings of the slave population in Jamentable fact, that although six-maica, where we have been deteen years have elapsed since the sired to look for the fairest samslave-trade has been legally abo- ples of West India society, to lished, yet in a covert way it has which your attention is now dibeen carried on; and that nothing rected. has yet been done towards producing the gradual abolition of slavery itself. It is high time for the British nation to awake from its slumber, and to see whether something cannot be effected to produce this desirable event. An abolition of slavery must not only be devoutly wished by the friends of humanity, but it is the imperious duty of all persons who have the least claim to benevolence, to use every effort to ac-ture of Negro Slavery, not as it complish it.

It would very much conduce to bring about this important end,

There has been a most interesting pamphlet lately published, containing about 120 pages, entitled "Negro Slavery; or a View of some of the more prominent Features of that State of Society, as it exists in the United States of America, and in the Colonies of the West Indies, especially in Jamaica." Its object is to furnish the public with a plain, authentic, and unvarnished pic

may have existed at some antecedent period of time, but as it exists at the present moment, both

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