My dear friend, I believe I love you the betters for all your mental trials. There is something in behold. ing our friends suffer in any way, which excites by m2 pathy, and sympathy begets lovelo When all goes of smoothly with our friends; we think they can do well enough without us; and perhaps we do not feel so strong affection,where we view ourselves as wholly unim portant. This is doubtless wrong; but it is, I believe, true. In the sorrows which you were experiencing, when you wrote last, my dear H.I can, I do sympa thize: sympathize in them all in those which re spect yourself, and those which pertain to your chil dren. They are my own. And fain would I write something which may have a quickening influence on us both 29metsa "uo 10,9bing to au seeslq 23:193

In the first place, let us beware of despondency, or a gloomy faithlessness in the Covenant of God's grace. It is true, we are all you describe, backsliders, rebellious children; who would, long ago, have wearied out the goodness of our Benefactor, were he not infinite in merey. We may, on some accounts, be greater sinners than others, if guilt is to be measured by love resisted, and grace abused. This should humble us. It should lay us low in the dust, with the spirit of filial brokenness of heart before our injured and compassionate God It should make us sigh and mourn under a sense of our pollution, and labour for sanctification. Butrit should not wither our strength, and consume our spirits in faithless sorrow. Oh, no," Faint] yet pursuing," should be our motto. The spiritual sloth which results from indifference, and the spiritual debility, which arises from unbelief, are equally dangerous to the soul. It is no less true in spiritual than in temporal things, that the hand of the diligent maketh rich, but he

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that dealeth with a slack hand becometh poor." One of the benefits secured to believers by the promises of God's well-ordered Covenant is sanctification. This was purchased for them by their great Mediator and Head, who is exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, to bestow upon his people the blessings he has obtained for them and he will bestow them, He does not send us on a warfare at our own charges. He proffers us all necessary grace. All we need is treasured up in Him in whom we profess to believe, and may be obtained by cooking to him in the exercise of a lively faithlod Izi ti tud:2001 229lidnob ai aidT Instrog Let us, then, never be contented, while our spiritual enemies are unsubdued, but fight manfully the good fight of faith. Alas! I know not how it is, but there seems to be a something within us which prevents our resolutely determining to give our temptations no quar ter. The world holds out her allurements, her flat teries please us; our pride, or our selfishness, is gratified and we do not say to the ensnaring tempter, "Get thee behind me Satan." This is my greatest trouble the want of singleness of heart toward God, the abiding, practical determination to resist every sin in its first specious advances. What ingratitude toward Him who loved us unto death, toward Him whom, if we are Christians, we love after all, far better than we love all other things toward Him for whom we should be willing to love, and labour, and suffer, and die! sannotanques bor bomjai wo rotad tread to 29 I We must be much in prayer for our children. We must daily give them to our God, to be his servants. We must take hold of his covenant for them, as all our salvation and all our desire;, remembering that eternal life" is the gift of God"a free gift, not for our merits or deservings," but of his own unfathomable grace. Let our sins and short-comings, in reference to our children, humble, but not discourageous. And, while we labour to know how we may most effectually

promote their best interests, and strive after a corresponding course of conduct, let us remember that God knows all our difficulties and hinderances, the troubles we meet with in ourselves, from them, and from the world which lieth in wickedness. And let us trust to His promise who has said, "My grace is sufficient for thee.

TO HER ELDEST DAUGHTER AT BOSTON.

sure.

Bridgewater, May 9, 1822.

I RECEIVED your letter, my dear S., with much pleaThe good accounts you give me of your brother and sister rejoice my heart. I trust they will continue to deserve my approbation, by striving to do whatever they believe I would wish were I with them. If children knew how certainly a departure from the path of duty wounds the conscience, and brings sorrow and distress upon the mind, they would labour more earnestly to avoid sin. "The way of transgressors is hard," says the wise man ; and he says the truth. God forbid that any of my dear children should know the truth of the declaration, in its full extent, by experience! There is only one way to keep from sin; that is, persevering resistance to temptation, and prayer. Without praying, you will never successfully resist sin; it will be too strong for you. My dear children, you are in an enemy's country. Fear temptation, fear sin, fear offending God; but always remember, for your encouragement, that there is ONE who is able to help you. He loves to see little children looking to him for aid. And he has said, "Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."

I have just come from your aunt Mary's sick-room, and it is late; so I have only time to inform you, that this dear aunt has almost got to heaven. The pallid cheek, the hollow eye, the wasted form, the quick and

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laborious breathing, all indicate that the flame of life is hearly extinguished. A few more struggles of feeble pained, dissolving mortality, and all will be over. But your aunt is happy. She had a wakeful, suffering night lasta might coughing incessantly, and burning with fever and distressed for breath and yet she told me this morning, that she never felt God nearer to her than last night, that she knew his hand dispensed to her every trial, and his mercy would be sufficient for her. What makes your aunt so happy in this hour of sorrow, I when all the men on earth could do her no good doIt is religion, my daughter. She has a hope which is as an anchor to her soul.00998 boog T

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-Mag 29. I have just returned from a visit to Bridge water, where I have been to receive the last parting blessing of dear sister Mary. It was a sad and solemn scene, well calculated to soften my heart. Iam dell pressed in spirits. All the solitude and sorrows of my! own donely státe seem to break in upon me afresh and mye mind is greatly distressed with a sense of my hardness under all my own personal chastisements, and under this solemn providence. I have been trying taxlay the matter before God, that lb may obtain for giveness for the past, and strength for the future and, I particularly, that God will ever go before me as my guide, and never suffer me to do any thing inconsis tent with his glory. I greatly fear and dread being! left to do any thing myself. I would take the word of God as my directory, and the grace of God as my only t support, in all that I desire, and in all that I do, 1109019 mid of gnistool siblids oftil 993 of zive, sii bio zot (9V19991 [TÓŁ MRSÍ) S.,* OF BRIDGEWATER,b¤Å bensqo ed lada ji bus doomd; buit Ilada oy bus 1992 Boston, June 1, 1822.9HIN

FEEL deeply, since my return for your dear family. I know the heart-rending pangs you will suffer, when The mother of Mrs. H., whose decease was referred to in the preceding extract701 bejaew 9d3 975 wollon 999

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you will be ready to say, "All his waves and his billows are going over me; I sink in the deep waters, where there is no standing,”—and my heart aches for you. But I trust He, who speaks the word, and the storms of nature and the more fearful storms of the spirit, are still, will speak peace to your souls. Strive, my dear friends, to exercise the disposition of a child, under this severe rebuke. Strive after the penitence of a child for the past, the submission and trust of a child for the present, and the obedience of a child for the future; and God will show you how able he is to comfort you as a Father. I commend you, and myself, and our dear little ones, to his grace. Let him be our portion, let him bless us, and all will be well-well for time, well for eternity.

TO A SISTER-IN-LAW, AT N. Y.

Boston, June 3, 1822.

IN our dear Mary's removal, I feel that I have sustained another loss. The sweet lamb-like spirit which she exhibited the last years of her life, and her increasing love for me, make me feel that another, whom I love most tenderly, is gone. I feel that the world is losing much that has been valued. And, were it not for the beams of light and hope which are shed upon it from a holier region, I should be ready to say, all is darkness and shade. Oh, to turn away our eyes and our hearts to that brighter world, where all is happiness without mixture and without end!

dear

I am reading Owen on Spiritual Mindedness; and I find it a very trying book. But I hope, my sister, God will undertake for us both, and carry for

ward the work of our sanctification, amid all our hinderances from without, and all our discouragements from within. And if he does, it will be accomplished. It does seem to me that I love the spirit of humility, that I desire to take my place at the feet of my Sa