tion, when our minds can feel a ground on which to rest in the eternal word of the "Lord God of Truth," and we can with patient submission bow to his will? Is there a better evidence of adoption? "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth." It is the worthless brier that is neglected and left uncut: the vine is valued, and therefore pruned. The Saints have in all ages gone to their blessed home through much tribulation; and those of them who were most precious in the sight of the Lord have had the largest share.

It seems as if patient submission to the will of God, in affliction, were the brightest ornament and the highest perfection of our nature. Our Great High Priest was "made perfect by suffering;" and his Spirit admonishes us, "Let Patience have her perfect work," (as if it belonged to her to put the finishing hand, the last touch, in forming Christ in the soul); "that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing" and tribulation worketh patience, and brings us to bear, with humble resignation, the will of God in severe afflictions. And what shall we -say of this duty under the afflicting circumstances of the present dispensation? Is our God a hard Master? Can we take a survey, and not confess that submission is a reasonable service? Surviving friends, for a season, have lost a much-endeared earthly comfort; but God, the All-sufficient, well knows how to heal the breach, and cause that loss to be their great gain. But let Faith, instead of Sense,

Often I think

judge and determine of this measure of Providence. It will open Heaven, and all its joys and glories, to our view. It will represent the flight of the ransomed and heaven-born spirit to her proper home, and her reception, entertainment, and exaltation there, till, in the delightful vision, our griefs are lost in congratulation and praise. how wonderfully the grace of God prevented and blessed you. This is great, very great mercy: but it seems as if this were not all. Grace had a further respect. "I will bless thee," the God of Grace seems to have said, " and thou shalt be a blessing!" May the word of God, and the Spirit of God, still go forth by your conversation, and may others glorify God in you and for you!

Your's, &c. &c.

J. BOWDEN.

LETTER LIV.

TO MISS B.

Now I begin to hope I may one day meet in the body my much-endeared correspondent, with the rest of her highly-favoured family. Blessed be God, who has done so much for you, and with the same oil of his precious grace has proceeded to fill other vessels of your household! Glorious privilege! My

dear friend, how much have you to say

of the grace

of God! When the fountain of everlasting love has found a passage into the hearts of the children of men, what limits can be set to expectation? "It doth not yet appear what we shall be." The vessel will no doubt expand as it is supplied. The source of supply is unmeasurable; the vessel, therefore, will for ever be receiving, for ever enlarging, and suffer no diminution by all its offerings of joy and praise at the foot of the throne. Here I am struck with the recollection of a saying of a celebrated minister, Mr. D. Burgess:- Did any sinful man, when converted to God, fully know the extent of privilege to which he stands intitled, he must at once either live by miracle, or die for joy." Then there is nothing unreasonable in the exhortation of our great Master, to "rejoice evermore." "In every thing give thanks." Afflictions in one respect or other we all have, we must have. Our present state bespeaks them. It is a warfare; it is a pilgrimage: it is not our rest. We will count, then, upon losses and disappointments in the creature; and though we may be pierced by troubles when they come, and flesh and blood complain, yet, in the strength of our great Captain, we will take the shield of faith; they shall not lay hold of our heart to depress and sink it; they shall not provoke us to conclude ungratefully, that we are not beloved because afflicted. We will not be offended at Christ, or at his ways, because of them. We will take up our cross, and bear our

griefs humbly, submissively, cheerfully. We will endeavour to get above them, and live above them, above the discouraging thoughts they are so apt to awaken. We will forget the things that are behind, and reach forth to those things which are before, and, among them, to the precious fruits of sanctified afflictions.

My dear friend, I cannot tell you that you will never have another cross so heavy; but I can tell you, that a sight of Christ crucified will make the heaviest burden light: and what, indeed, will not love to Christ enable a saved sinner to do and to bear? How would it constrain him to think well of all that his Lord does! How often, even in this world, the clearing up of dark and distressful dispensations presents surprising discoveries of tender love, and serves, like fuel fresh applied to the spark of Divine love in the heart, to raise it to a flame! Then, what will our experience be amidst the opening visions of Heaven? Oh! let us look forward beyond the Cross to the Crown; beyond the discipline of our Father's family on earth, to their state of perfection and glory, when he shall have fulfilled in them "all the good pleasure of his goodness! then, griefs and fears, and hard thoughts of God, and mutterings of complaint, will be for ever lost in ecstacies of wonder and joy. Let us bless God, then, for a good hope through grace. It is worth all the bliss that creature-streams can afford, a thousand times told. Let us be thankful for a firm ground

of hope, and that sometimes we can feel the stability of that ground, and find rest, even rest in trouble, thereon. Yet we would not be high minde but fear, and exercise a godly jealousy over ourselves. We would not presume on our own strength, but lean on the arm of Him who is "the Alpha and Omega" in the great work of salvation. Oh! what should be the affection, the holy conversation, of a redeemed sinner! What love, what praise, what service, may be expected from her! And what is all she can do, compared with the immense obligations she is under? I rejoice, my dear friend, in what the grace of God has enabled you to do, and blessed you in doing. I regard with delight your prayers, and tears, and endeavours, for the salvation of those you love, and "glorify God in you."

I contémplate your exertions, with those of your sisters, in the Sunday School, and admire the grace that has given you the opportunity, and prepared your heart, to serve a Master so great and so good. But if we could serve God on earth as he is served in heaven; if we had the strength of angels and glorified saints, to do his will, we should fall infinitely short of his great love in choosing us, and calling us with an holy calling. What returns can be made for converting grace so sovereignly conferred? And how should we admire the exceeding greatness of that power which wrought effectually to change a mind that was bent on departing from the living God;