of God. Has she not sanctioned this sentiment, by her willingness to remain a captive in the grasp of death, till she had witnessed the drops of paternal grief obliterated by the hand of resignation? Here she displayed magnanimity worthy a spirit just ready to wing its way to the throne of its conquering Lord. Oh! then, leave those who despise the religion of our Lord Jesus Christ, and who are contented to live without God in this perishable world, to sorrow over their departed friends, having no hope; while you, by a lively faith in the everlasting Gospel, are introduced to the general assembly of the church of the first-born, who are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Modiator of the new covenant,-even to him who has visited you with this dispensation, and promised, that after you have suffered and done the will of his heavenly Father, he will come again, and receive you to himself, that where he is, and where your beloved Maria is, you may be also. "We have been anticipating the pleasure of seeing our mutual friend, Mrs. Loader, at the Elms, but cannot desire the indulgence at present, as it would be the means of depriving you of her interesting society, unless our combined solicitations can prevail with you to accompany her hither. If we succeed in gaining this point, it will indeed be an important addition to our gratification and may we not hope that the change of air and scene will be beneficial to you, and conduce to the alleviation of your minds, and even recruit your fatigued spirits? Think of it, I intreat you, decide, and come. "Our family unite in sympathy and esteem with "Your affectionate : "LOUISA." When the destroying angel visited the land of Egypt, to sacrifice the first-born of every family, he forbore to enter the habitations of the righteous: but now neither the moans of sorrow, nor the fervour of devotion, can arrest his progress; and he bears away with as much complacency the child of tender years, as the venerable sire, who is sinking under the weight of his infirmities. The anguish which this usually inflicts on the parental bosom, exceeds the force of language to describe; and though the consolations of religion may afford some degree of support, yet time alone can effectually heal the wound. To retrace on the faithful tablet of the heart the features of the departed child, to recal to our remembrance, the early incidents of his life-to handle the toys which amused him in his infantile days, or the books from which he drew his stores of knowledge in riper years, may afford a high degree of melancholy pleasure during the season of sorrow and of grief; but it is no less the duty, than the privilege of the Christian parent to turn his attention to the moral design which God has in view, by sending such a severe dispensation, and thus endeavour to derive personal good from his relative loss. To imagine, even for a moment, that such an affliction is a positive evil, would be a direct impeachment of the divine testimony, which assures us, that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. In the loss which you are now deploring, can you not trace marks of affection? By removing your child, he has rescued him from the various evils to which we are all exposed, and suddenly prepared him for that nuchanging bliss which is withheld from others, till they are made perfect by sufferings. Unwilling that the object of his choice should suffer the diseases of infancythe weariness attendant on a progressive course of mental improvement-the internal conflict which is perpetuated between the flesh and the spirit—the sorrow of the world which worketh death-or the infirmities of old age, he has shortened the ordinary term of mortal existence, and received him into his own immediate presence. There the song of Moses and the Lamb is sung in strains unknown to us, and the scenery around him excites an order of enraptured feeling peculiar to the heavenly world. Do you wish those gates, through which he has passed to the realms of immortality, to be re-opened for his expulsion? Can you charge the Redeemer with unkindness, for placing the victor's crown on his head at such an early period of his being? Impossible! Arise and imitate the example of the King of Israel, 7 '9 who after his child was dead, "arose from the earth, and washed and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the Lord, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat. Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this that thou hast done? Thou didst fast and weep for the child, while it was alive; but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread. And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore shall I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." This bereavement may be designed to prevent keener anguish at a future period. If an early grave had been opened for Nadab and Abihu, their venerable father might have wept over their premature death, but the prospect of seeing them minister before the Lord in the heavenly temple, would have reconciled him to the affliction. But this privilege was denied him. For offering strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not, there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them; and they died before the Lord. With what emotions did he gather up their ashes, or anticipate the day of final retribution. Unhappy fa ther, doomed to witness thy two sons cut off from the land of the living by the judgments of heaven!! What is the loss of children in infancy, and falling by the stroke of nature, compared to this? If that lovely girl who now lies silent in the tomb, had been spared, she might have become the innocent occasion of future trouble. Formed for society, she might have been left a widow in early life; or involved in complicated misery, by the rashness or inadvertency of her domestic companion, like Naomi, she might have traced back her steps to the place of her nativity, poor and unpitied. That youth, who bid fair to perpetuate your name to remote generations, if preserved, might have brought your grey hairs with sorrow to the grave. After having received his portion of goods, like the Prodigal, he might have left your abode, and spent his substance in riotous living. He might have been driven into exile, and compelled to drag out a miserable existence, where the voice of freedom is never heard. Your imagination may place him in a more perilous situation: In the field of blood he might have received a mortal wound-left amidst the trampling of the horses, and the roaring of the cannon, to expire alone! There, no maternal hand is present to wipe off the cold sweats of death, no endeared sister is near to perform the last office of kindness to a dying brother! No Minister of mercy dares approach, to cheer him with the consolation of the gospel! "Yet you mourn the blighted bloom; Weep its premature decay; Smile and languish in a day. If you could their future know, Learn their dangers or alloy; Then might streams of murmuring woe They are tenderly reserved, The pernicious influence of prosperity is universally admitted. It obscures those prospects which are afar off, chills the ardour of devotion, secularizes the general frame of the mind, produces a disinclination to self-inspection; and though it cannot destroy the principle of grace, yet it materially weakens its energy and checks its growth. The moral apathy which usually accompanies it, renders the most pointed and touching appeals of the pulpit nugatory. Even if an extraordinary force be employed to rouze the dormant attention of the mind to its spiritual interests, and produce alarm and dejection, yet from the press of business and the crowd of visitors, it soon falls back to its former state of indifference. My people are bent to backsliding from me. How shall they be recovered? He visits their transgressions with a rod, and their iniquities with stripes. The scene of his providence is reversed, that the "pleasant things" which are laid waste may again flourish. The evils occasioned by prosperity must be destroyed by adversity. The sacred enjoyments which have been lost amidst the din of worldly pursuits must be recovered in the house of mourning. Retrace your religious history. Recal to your remembrance the day of your espousal to Christ, the serenity and the enraptured feeling which you then enjoyed, the indifference with which you looked on the allurements of the world, the zeal which you displayed, the solemnity and delight with which you celebrated the death of Jesus. Of joys that are past, how pleasing the remembrance; but if they can never be recalled, how painful. Are yours fled for ever, and after having tasted that the Lord is gracious, must you abandon yourself to despair? No. A mysterious providence has now disturbed your spiritual slumber, and commanded you to prepare for the Bridegroom's voice. With tears of sorrow which you are shedding over your beloved child, mingle those of gratitude, that mercy is rejoicing over judgment. Your backslidings may reprove you, but they should not discourage you. The kind Intercessor, " who loves, and pleads, and prays," has compassion, not only on the ignorant, but on those who are out of the way. He will restore unto you the joy of his salvation; and though your harp of praise may not immediately sound so sweet, so loud, as in former times; yet ""Tis strung and tun'd for endless years.” In future life you will review the melancholy incidents of your present calamity, and say, It is good for me that I have been afflicted. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now have I kept thy word. In This bereavement may be intended to exalt your character by calling into exercise your religious principles. No affliction for the present is joyous but grievous. It mortifies pride, disappoints the expectations which have been formed, deranges the harmony of preconcerted plans, and pierces the heart with many sorrows. the calamities with which we are usually exercised, there is so much blame justly attached to the imprudence, the treachery, and the injustice of others, that we are not always aware of the impropriety of the anger or the resentment which we feel. It is only by a progressive mode of reasoning that we are led to recognize |