MRS. ESTHER COPE.

On Tuesday, Feb. 6, 1821, died at Birmingham, in her 63rd year, Esther, the wife of Mr. W. Cope. She was the child of a pious mother: but though deeply impressed at times by the momentous truths of religion, she remained for many years a stranger to their transforming and consoling power. At the age of twenty-four she was married to a Mr. L. whose impure life soon drove her from her home, to seek a quiet and honourable maintenance as a housekeeper in a gentleman's family. While in this situation, where she was deprived of the means of grace, she dreamt that she was taken very ill, and being led out of doors for air, she heard some delightful singing, and walked to the place from whence it proceded. She listened till she awoke. When she awoke from her dream she was alarmed, believing that this was a representation of heaven, which she should see, but would not be permitted

to enter.

Soon after this, the state of her mind became so gloomy and dejected, that she was obliged to leave her situation. Her friends called in a Mr. Foxall, a pious surgeon of Walsal, who at once perceived the cause of her distress, and recommended her to go and hear the gospel. This excited her astonishment, as she could not perceive the connexion between hearing a serman, and obtaining relief from a load of mental grief which was sinking her into despair. But He whose invisible hand, had inflicted the wound, now appeared to heal it.

When lead out one day for the benefit of the air, she saw a number of people going to a place of worship, and she resolved to follow them. When she drew near, she recognized the scene of her vision, and actually heard the same tune sung which had charmed her in her dream. The Rev. Mr. Hewitt of Bedworth, after the preceding parts of the service had been conducted, announced for his Text, 1 Pet. v. 7. Casting all your care upon him," &c. The word came with power, the scales of ignorance fell from the eyes of her understanding, her heart felt the unction of the truth, and she said, as she passed from the house of mercy, "What! and does the Lord care for me? Oh then that is enough."

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Having lost her first husband by death, she removed to Birmingham; and in the year 1786 married Mr. Cope. This union was a happy one.

Soon after the Rev. J. Brewer became the pastor of the church of Christ assembling at Carr's Lane, she was received with her husband into communion, and during the whole period of her future life adorned the profession which she had made.

In November 1819, when attending to her domestic duties, a large quantity of boiling water fell upon her, by which she was very much injured. This affliction, though intensely severe, she bore with exemplary patience, and indulged the hope that it might be the means of introducing her into the presence of her invisible Lord. But from this she was recovering, when it pleased God on the following Christmas-day to visit her with a paralytic stroke, which deprived her of the use of one side. She lingered in a state of great suffering, till the 6th of February, when

"One gentle sigh her fetters broke;

We scarce could say she's gone,
Before her happy spirit took

Her station near the throne."

Mrs. Cope was distinguished as a Christian, by the simplicity of her manners, the uniform spirituality of her mind, her non-conformity to the world, her extensive acquaintance with the Scriptures, and her attachment to the external means of grace :—and as a member of the church, her

love of peace, her attention to the junior members, and to those of the congregation who were under religious impressions, her fervent prayers for the prosperity and happiness of her pastor, combined to render her character interesting, and her decease a loss which cannot be easily repaired

Amidst all her diligence in business, and no one was more active, she retained the fervour of a devotional spirit. She often said, "I have Christ, and what else can I desire; and if it were not for my dear family, and the hope of being useful, I think I could not stay; for there is nothing here that is worth my stay; there is nothing like my God!"

Comparatively few are indulged with the same degree of spiritual enjoyment as she was favoured with, during almost the whole of her life. Three days before her departure she said to her husband and daughter, "Lest I should not be sensible in death, hear me now. I have not had

To be favoured with such an uninterrupted assurance of a personal interest in the covenant of redemption, is a privilege which very few are permitted to enjoy; and though at times they may feel a degree of dejection, because they are not indulged with it, yet they ought not to be. For though it may be denominated the high place of bliss, it is more exposed to the assaults of the Prince of the power of the Air, than the lowly hope; and if from its eminence it can see more clearly the land which is afar off, yet when the King conceals his beauty, and allows the powers of darkness to make a vigorous attack, the

a doubt of my interest in the covenant of redemption for thirty-five years; I have not the shadow

agitation and the convulsion which is sometimes produced, exceeds the force of language to describe. It is true that many of the Lord's people imagine that such a degree of assurance must exclude all mental pain, and fill the mind with the raptures of delight; but as every religious frame has its attendant impulses, and counteractions, there is probably a more equal distribution of religious enjoyment than some imagine; and if we were intimately familiar with the experience of those who can habitually

Read their title clear
To mansions in the skies,

we should often find them labouring under doubts and temptations, from which we are exempted, from whom this privilege is withheld. They may not doubt the certainty of their final happiness, when they can believe in the existence of another world, and the authenticity of the sacred volume, but it is on these points they are often assailed; and then the ordinary means of our consolation can afford no relief. For if we doubt the existence of a God, we cannot pray in faith; and if we doubt the existence of another world, we cannot anticipate a state of future blessedness: and though these doubts are not permitted to gain a permanent influence over the mind, yet during the period of their continuance, they are as the earthquake passing under the foundation of our faith, while the clouds of darkness gather around us,---filling us with dismay and terror. If then the pious reader is anxious to attain that strong assurance, with which some few are favoured, let him not suppose that it will be a state of undisturbed felicity; and if he should be in the possession of it, let him not be high minded, but fear. "In my

prosperity I said, I shall never be moved." "Lord, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong,; thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled."*

Psalm xxx. 6,7.