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truth was, there was such a heavenly calm, such a holy tranquillity and resignation suffused around that redeemed spirit, just "ready to depart and be with Christ," that there was no place for terror. The only other sentiment, mingled with the grief of all who had assembled around that dying bed, was that of praise and adoration. They praised the loving-kindness of God in thus sustaining his expiring servant; they adored Him for the beneficent tokens of his grace in thus accepting her at the hands of her redeeming Lord.

"What a sad, sad feeling oppresses the heart," said the weeping Laura to her mamma, on the morning after their return home," when we take a long, last leave of one we have so much loved, and whom we shall see no more for ever!"

"Say not for ever,' my beloved child," replied her parent. "The separation is but an earthly one. Thanks be to Him who hath triumphed over death and the grave! we shall meet again where sorrow and parting are not known; when the veil of mortality shall be drawn aside, and reveal the glories of eternity. Yes! we shall meet again! where the fondly-cherished daughter of her who is now no more, and who was separated from her, in her last moments, under such touching circumstances, shall see her loved face again in the mansions of the blessed."

"It was, indeed, a touching circumstance, my dear mamma," said Laura. "How truly affecting it was, that while my beloved aunt was breathing forth her spirit unto God who gave it,' in the chamber of death, her daughter should be giving birth -in tears of anguish for her departing mother-to an heir of immortality, in the very chamber adjoining. Thus the departing saint could neither see nor know the precious little being -ushered into life amid such thrilling emotions, and whom it would have delighted her so much to behold-though drawing its first infant breath within a few yards of her dying couch."

"And yet," rejoined Mrs. Gracelove," what a dispensation of mercy was here exhibited! God took the parent, and left the child in her place! And think what a spiritual joy shall pervade their souls hereafter, in the kingdom of heaven, when that dear child shall be presented to her who is "not lostbut gone before."

"I cannot but feel," observed the sympathizing and affectionate Laura, "that much as we grieve for ourselves, we have nothing to lament for her who is now no more."

Nothing whatever," responded the pious guardian of her youth. Every dispensation of God, however painful, is a mercy towards those who are found in Christ. Remember, my dear child, what is written of those who die in the Lord :

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The righteous is taken away from the evil to come."* Remember, also, the consolation that is afforded to the mourning survivors, as it was to the bereaved king of Israel, each of whom can say in the faith of the Saviour, I shall go to her, but she shall not return to me,'t-each of whom may say, as I doubt not every one that stood around that dying bed did say, in the silence of the heart, at that solemn scene, and as I myself most emphatically say at this moment, Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like hers.' No, my child, there is nothing to lament but for ourselves. My valued sister had finished her course.' She had seen her children happily settled in life, whom she had brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord;' and those children now rise up and call her blessed.' What more was wanting? What more could surviving hearts wish for? when her last happy prayer was that of the just and devout Simeon, waiting for the consolation of Israel-" Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. "§

+ 2 Sam. xii. 23.

* Isa. lvii. 1.

Numb. xxiii. 10.

§ Luke ii. 29, 30.

"Thou art gone to the grave, but we will not deplore thee;

Though sorrows and darkness encompass the tomb,
The Saviour has pass'd through its portals before thee,
And the lamp of his love is thy guide through the gloom.

Thou art gone to the grave,—we no longer behold thee,
Nor tread the rough path of the world by thy side;
But the wide arms of mercy are spread to enfold thee,
And sinners may hope, since the sinless has died.

Thou art gone to the grave-and its mansion forsaking,
Perhaps thy tried spirit in doubt linger'd long;
But the sunshine of heaven beam'd bright on thy waking,
And the song which thou heard'st was the seraphim's song!

Thou art gone to the grave,—but 'twere wrong to deplore thee,
When God was thy Ransom, thy Guardian, thy Guide;
He gave thee, and took thee, and soon will restore thee,
Where death hath no sting, since the Saviour hath died."

One clear, bright morning, in the month of April, while Mrs. Gracelove was busily employed in the library of Derwent Cottage, illustrating on the globe a geographical lesson which she was giving to her daughter Laura, a servant brought in a note, which she said had just been delivered at the door by a footman in livery. On reading the contents, it proved to be a communication from Mrs. Stately, of Stately Hall, situated about two miles from the cottage; a lady of no common distinction, and of large pretensions, in her own estimation, and who considered herself, along with a chosen few, as presiding over the fashionable destinies of the county.

The note announced the intention of the fair writer to make a call on Mrs Gracelove in the course of the morning, should she happen to be at home to receive her; as the lady intiBishop Heber.

mated she had a request to make, which she appeared to think would require something more than the terms in which it might be preferred in order to gain its object. It was now eleven o'clock, and the hour named for the proposed visit was two. It may be as well, therefore, to fill up the interval, preceding the arrival of the expected visitant, by making the reader, in some degree, acquainted with her character.

The lady in question was the wife of a gentleman of large property resident in the neighbourhood, whose natural selfconsequence was in no small degree heightened by the circumstance of having a considerable income with which to support, in a style of splendour, what he considered to be his station in the county. Having been originally a spoiled child by being, unfortunately, an only one, he had been allowed by his ill-judging parents the full indulgence of his various humours and inclinations. His temper being naturally capricious, wild, and haughty, the inevitable result was, that when, on growing up to manhood, he came into possession of his fortune, by the premature death of his father, pleasure in its thousand forms became the sole object of his pursuit; while his pride induced him to believe that the inferior classes of mankind were made only to administer to its gratification. Hunting, shooting, horse-racing, cards, dinner-parties, visiting in every direction through the county, with what he termed a little gentlemanly gambling, formed consequently the routine of his daily life.

With regard to his wife, she was in some respects the counterpart of him whose name she bore. Pleasure was the golden image she worshipped,-an idolatry into which she had been mainly led, it must at the same time be confessed, by the evil tendencies and bad example of her husband. For though her education had been of that negative, and worse than negative character, which accommodates everything to a

worldly policy, and trains up the immortal soul in the false principles of fashion and folly, yet Mrs. Stately was not altogether heartless. She was naturally of that pliant disposition which disposed her, whether for good or for evil, to receive impressions from those who surrounded her. It was her great misfortune, therefore, to have fallen into bad hands, and instead of becoming an ornament to her sex, under a more judicious choice of a husband, she was at once frivolous and dissipated. In a word, she was a woman of fashion.

Though Mrs. Stately would have shrunk at the bare idea of visiting the poor in their cottages, for the purpose of relieving their necessities, listening to their tales of sorrow, and soothing their wretchedness with something better than a human voice yet was she, as also Mr. Stately, by no means reluctant in subscribing to their relief, and that with a liberal hand, through the instrumentality of others. To the various charitable societies their purses were humanely open, and though their donations were not given in the name of a disciple," to which a reward is so graciously offered,* yet was the benefit the same to those for whom the aid was intended.

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And now, after this passing sketch of Mr. and Mrs. Stately's character, my reader will be ready to exclaim, and with every appearance of reason,-what could possibly be the inducement of such virtuous and religious people as Mr. and Mrs. Gracelove to cultivate, or even to tolerate, an acquaintance with persons so utterly opposed to the principles on which they invariably acted? He asks with emphatic inquiry, "What concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel ?" +

Now this was precisely the question, and in the same language, put to themselves by the worthy residents on the

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