appropriate to her present circumstances. After he had paused, she herself took up and prolonged the delightful strain, and quoted that most wonderful of all the promises, as expressing the source of her joy and the foundation of her hope-" God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” * 'These," she continued, "are indeed sweet and cheering promises. Oh, that I could convey to you the most distant idea of the joys of heaven-nay, the bliss which I already feel. But I cannot describe it to you. And no wonder that my feeble tongue is powerless, when the Scripture says, 'Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."" Presently she was heard to exclaim, "I see the crossthe cross of my crucified Saviour!" Her mamma replied, "Let your eye be fixed upon the cross and the Saviour who died upon it, my love, and He will save your precious soul." "I will, mamma," she gently replied, and raised her hands in prayer. It was evident to those now watching her expiring moments, that the spirit of this departing saint was in close communion with the realities of that celestial world upon whose confines she stood. To her a "door was opened in heaven;" she "had come to Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God." Looking as Stephen did, * John iii. 16. "within the veil," she saw, and heard, and felt what no mortal tongue could disclose. “OH, THAT I COULD CONVEY TO YOU THE MOST DISTANT IDEA OF THE JOYS OF HEAVEN-NAY, THE BLISS WHICH I ALREADY FEEL!" "Music swells around my bed Angels fill the room; Lovely voices whisper near- "Pain and earthly grief depart! But my heart hath bliss. "See the beauty of the skies Sweetly round me glows; "While the sun of nature sets, "Every storm of woe is quell'd, All the billows rest; Peace dwells on my dying lips Peace is in my breast. "Upward to my God I haste, There my joys to tell; Earth no more enchains my thoughts Friends, farewell! farewell! "Music swells around my bed Angels fill the room; Lovely voices whisper near 'Sister-spirit, come."" On the day which preceded her death, she expressed an earnest desire to partake of the Lord's Supper. Her wish arose from an enlightened and proper view of this holy ordinance. She regarded it not, as it is feared thousands have done, as a kind of extreme unction for the soul, a meritorious preparation for heaven. She had been too exclusively the pupil of the Holy Spirit, and too close a reader of her Bible, to cherish, at a crisis so awful, views so dark and soulperilling as these. Her hope of heaven was based upon a better and a surer foundation than the mere observance of this ordinance. She looked upon it only as the picture of an absent Friend whom her soul loved, recalling to her grateful and adoring memory the thought of His affection and the image of His death. "Do this in remembrance of me," was the sweet command which awoke in her soul the holy desire. All that she requested was another and a last glance at that picturefor the true image of her Lord was already enshrined within her heart. She had bathed in the fountain of His blood, she had clothed in the white robe of His righteousness, and thus "anointed for the burying," all that she desired was a little refreshment to faith before she passed over Jordan. Her dying wish was gratified. It was a touching and solemn service. Had it been the spectacle of a soul on the eve of appearing in the presence of God, unrenewed, unpardoned, and unsanctified, and just at the last gasp of life clutching with the convulsive grasp of death this ordinance as its only passport to heaven, it would, to a spiritual mind, have been a service painful in the extreme. But far different was the present solemnity. There was a propriety, a beauty, and a tenderness in it which no pencil could have portrayed. I speak not of the mere scene as it presented itself to the eye of sense-interesting though it was-I allude to that moral sublimity perceptible only to the spiritual eye,—for it was a service into which faith and love essentially and deeply entered, and which faith and love only can rightly understand. "Leaning upon her Beloved," she received at the hands of His servant the expressive symbols of His atoning deathher last remembrance of Jesus upon earth. It proved a means of grace greatly refreshing to her spirit, and invigorating to her faith. It gave her a more realising apprehension of the reality and perfection of that great ATONEMENT made by her dying and risen Lord, upon which her departing soul now confidently and peacefully reposed. "I never felt more peace and joy,” was her testimony, "than I have done since I commemorated the dying love of my precious Saviour." And now the solemn but blissful moment arrived which summoned her to drink of the new wine in the kingdom of her Lord. The chariot had come, and she addressed herself to the journey. She was already robed. The "king's daughter was all-glorious within, her clothing was of wrought gold," and she was pre pared to be "brought unto the king," and to "enter into the king's palace!"* Never did the chamber of death appear more like the opening gate of glory— never did death itself look more lovely, never more like a peaceful falling asleep as now. There was a repose upon that countenance, a calmness and a radiance in that room "quite on the verge of heaven." The Conqueror of death was there! The "Resurrection and the Life" was there! The Shepherd of the flock was there! The Redeemer of sinners was there! And the valley, from that dying couch to the portal of glory, was illumined with His presence and smoothed with His love. "I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me,” expressed in one brief but comprehensive sentence the secret of her calmness, and the ground of her hope. Her breathing now became shorter, which baffled her attempts to speak. About five o'clock in the evening, she said, "Mamma, what a pity I forgot"-her tongue faltered,-"Alas! I cannot" "Where's papa?" "He is there, my love," was the reply. Turning her eyes, she fixed them upon him for a moment with a look of the tenderest affection; then raised them heavenward in prayer. One fond parting glance at her mamma kneeling by her side, holding her dying hand, and then, as the sun was setting, she gently closed her eyes upon all earthly scenes, to open them, we are assured, upon the glories of that heavenly *Psalm xlv. 13 |