fit for it, and very unable to bear it. Whereas a humble, lowly mind is calm and patient, and falls with ease upon an afflicted condition; it being rightly prepared to receive the shock of any af fliction, for such a mind is already as low as affliction can ordinarily reduce it.

VII. But, yet further, GAIN ASSURANCE OF TH PEACE WITH GOD, through Jesus Christ our Lord and consequently of thy future happiness, and be frequent in the contemplation and improvement of it.

This divine peace, which is attainable only by the saving knowledge of Christ, who brought life and immortality to light, is the great means by which a man obtains victory over the world, and is enabled to enjoy prosperity with moderation, and to undergo affliction with patience. "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even your faith." (1 John v. 4.) When this blessed peace is once attained, thou art set above the love of the world and the fear of afflictions, because thou hast the assurance of a greater treasure than this world can either give or take away: "a kingdom that cannot be moved." (Heb. xii. 28.); a hope and most assured expectation of immortality, which is far above the region of afflictions, and which (while it makes the best things of this world in their best appearance and dress but light and vain, and empty and nothing,) makes the worst things that the world and mortality can inflict or suffer, light and easy. "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen arc tem

poral; but the things which are not seen are eternal." (2 Cor. iv. 17, 18.)

The preceding considerations are some of those preparations which, with the divine grace and blessing, will fit us to meet with afflictions: and in them these two things are to be remembered, viz:-

1. That we do not content ourselves with merely speculative notions, but practically digest the foregoing considerations into our hearts and resolu. tions: for, if they be but notional only, afflictions, when they do come, will easily defeat these notions. It is possible for men to have excellent theories to support themselves in afflictions, and to apply them to others in that condition, with singular dexterity and advantage: yet, when the case comes to be their own, their spirits sink within them, because these theories oftentimes float on the understanding, but are not deeply and practically digested in the heart.

2. Whatever you do, acquire this habit and temper of mind:-Exercise your faith; get your peace and assurance settled before sickness comes: for a

man, in any other kind of suffering, may possibly learn them, because his mind is, or may be, in its entire strength. But, most certainly, sickness is an ill season, in which to begin learning these contemplations, unless they are acquired before the distempers of the body discompose the mind, and render it unfit to begin to learn. Sickness is a time when that which has been previously laid up in store in the soul, must be drawn out and exercised: but it will be a most difficult business then to commence that lesson which should be learned in health, though it be practised in sickness.

LETTER OF CONDOLENCE FROM BISHOP HEBER TO MISS STOWE.

Furreedpoor, July, 1824.

WITH a heavy heart, my dear Miss Stowe, I send you the enclosed keys. How to offer you consolation in your present grief, I know not; for by my own deep sense of the loss of an excellent friend, I know how much heavier is your burden. Yet even the many amiable qualities of your dear brother, joined with that deep Christian humility and reliance on his Saviour which he evinced in his illness, while they make our loss the heavier, should lead us to recollect that the loss is ours only; that, prepared as he was to die, it was his unspeakable gain to be removed from a world in which he had many sorrows; and above all, that your separation from him will only be for a time, and until He who has hidden him from your eyes shall restore you to his society in a happy and eternal state of existence. Separation of one kind or another is, indeed, one of the most frequent trials to which affectionate hearts are exposed. And if you can only regard your brother as removed for his own advantage to a distant country, you will find, perhaps, some of that misery alleviated under which you are now suffering. Had you remained in England when he came out hither, you would have been, for a time, divided no less effectually than you are now. The difference of hearing from him is almost all, and though you now have not that comfort, yet even without hearing from him, you may be well persuaded, (which there you could not always have been,) that he is well and happy; and, above all, you may be persuaded, as your dear

brother was most fully in his time of severest suffering, that God never smites his children in vain, or out of cruelty. His severest stripes are intended to heal, and he has, doubtless, some wise and gracious purpose both for your poor Martin and for you, in thus taking him from your side, and leaving you in this world, with Himself as your sole guardian.

A mighty and most merciful Protector, be sure He is, and one who always then deals most kindly with us when we are constrained to cast our cares on Him alone, and are most sensible of our utter helplessness. This was your brother's comfortit should be yours; and thus may both he and you have occasion for unspeakable joy hereafter, if the mysterious dispensation which has deprived you of your brother, serves to bring you to a closer and more constant communion with your God. Meantime, in my wife and myself, you have friends, even in this remote land, who are anxious, as far as we have the power, to supply your brother's place, and whose best services you may command as freely as his whom you have lost.

THE GRAVE OF HOWARD.

SPIRIT Of Death! whose outstretch'd pennons dread
Wave o'er the world beneath their shadow spread,
Who darkly speedest on thy destined way,
'Mid shrieks and cries, and sounds of dire dismay.
Spirit! behold thy victory-assume

A form more terrible, an ampler plume;
For he, who wander'd o'er the world alone,
Listening to Misery's universal moan;

He who, sustain'd by Virtue's arm sublime,
Tended the sick and poor from clime to clime,
Low in the dust is laid-thy noblest spoil!
And Mercy ceases from her awful toil!

'Twas where the pestilence at thy command Arose to desolate the sickening land,

When many a mingled cry and dying prayer
Resounded to the listening midnight air,
When deep dismay heard not the frequent knell,
And the wan carcase fester'd as it fell;

'Twas there, with holy Virtue's awful mien,
Amid the sad sights of that fearful scene,
Calm he was found: the dews of death he dried,
He spoke of comfort to the poor that cried;
He watch'd the fading eye, the flagging breath,
Ere yet the languid sense was lost in death;
And, with that look protecting angels wear,
Hung o'er the dismal couch of pale despair!

Friend of mankind! thy rightcous task is o'er ;
The heart that throbb'd with pity, beats no more.
Around the limits of this rolling sphere,
Whene'er the just and good thy tale shall hear,
A tear shall fall; alone, amidst the gloom
Of the still dungeon, his long sorrow's tomb,
The captive, mourning o'er his chain, shall bend
To think the cold earth hides his only friend!-
He who with labour draws his wasting breath
On the forsaken silent bed of death,

Remembering thy last look and anxious eye,
Shall gaze around, unvisited, and die.

Friend of mankind, farewell! these tears we shed,
So nature dictates, o'er thy earthly bed;
Yet we forget not it was His high will,
Who saw thee virtue's arduous task fulfil,