Graham,-her Devotional Exercises,-and her Correspondence; all of which are interspersed with miscellaneous pieces of religious poetry, original and selected.

The account of Mrs. Graham's life and death, is, we understand, from the pen of her son-in-law, Divie Bethune, Esq. merchant of this city: and we are pleased at seeing that one of that busy class of our citizens can rescue some time from the employments and the cares of the counting-house and the exchange, for the compilation of a volume intended for the instruction of the religious public. With equal pleasure we remark, that as a composer and an editor, he discovers a high degree of those relative affections which, however private and limited the domestic circle in which they act, constitute the principal enjoyment of life; and while they tend to promote the Christian's influence and usefulness, open a more extensive field of operation, greatly assist in the progress of personal holiness, and in preparation for the everlasting glories of heaven. Did this work possess no other merit than to exemplify the mutual esteem, the respect for character, the constant and tender solicitude, the reciprocal kindness to be cultivated and exercised by those who are of near kin, it would not be without its use in the parlour library of the Christian.

The notice which Mr. Bethune takes of the history of his mother-in-law, is, we confess, rather a narrative than a biography. True, it answers in some degree the purpose intended-to show THE Power of faith in the tenor of her virtuous life. We had been better pleased, however, with the writer and the book, had he taken the trouble of interweaving with the narrative more of such incidental facts and reflections as would have enabled us more perfectly to identify his relative in the portraiture which he has furnished. The skill of the painter consists, not so much in blending his colours on canvass, so as to make a good picture of a human head, as in tracing with his pencil those peculiar lines, and fixing permanently those marks, which distinguish his subject from every other human being, and thus hitting off a likeness. We are aware that the power of doing this is a rare attainment; and that

the modesty of the amiable writer of the narrative did not permit him to aim at the highest excellence of a biographer. We, notwithstanding, lament the want of it in this instance, because we know his mother was a proper subject to sit for her moral likeness. There are many females in New-York, who live by the faith of the Son of God—who are accustomed to the duties of prayer and fasting-who display an intellect and a culture of high order in their social economy and deeds of love. It would be easy to praise them for their qualities and their actions: but each has her characteristics, and they are all distinct and distinguishable from one another, and the late Mrs. Isabella Graham. It is painful to reflect, that from the vast mass of modern biography with which our shelves are burdened, we have so often to turn to the writers of romance for that peculiar TACT of composition by which we are introduced to a perfectly familiar acquaintance with the persons of whom they treat. He alone understands human nature in its individual forms, who has attended minutely to those traits which constitute personal distinctions. In the representation of this individuality, the loss of which we so much lament, even Samuel Johnson, who in some cases has admirably succeeded, has in many instances failed.

Religious writers, who compose for the instruction of the Christian world, of which the Bible is the standard, are least of all excusable for their negligence in this particular, considering not only the importance of it to their designs, but the superior advantages which they enjoy from the peculiar school in which they have studied. The Bible exhibits the most splendid galaxy of sanctified portraits, and the best models for imitation. In describing those holy men who are set up for an example of faith and good works, the inspired historians employ no laboured declamation,-no multiplication of general epithets, no constrained eulogies: the characters are set before us as they actually were, both living and dying. And we see them, in contempt of the maxim de mortuis nihil nisi bonum, with their own blemishes and their own excellences: we know them, and we distinguish them without an effort. Moses, and

Samuel, and David, and Paul, were all great men-were all men of faith and of love,-were all schooled by adversity,were all partakers of the common salvation: but they are all different the one from the other. The characters of Hannah, and Deborah, and Elizabeth, and Mary, are equally distinguishable. Each of them is an individual whom every child will recognize.

We will now lay before our readers an epitome of Mrs. Graham's history. She was the daughter of Mr. John Marshall, a Scottish husbandman, who once farmed the estate of Eldersley, the residence of Sir William Wallace, and the widow of Dr. John Graham, a surgeon in the 60th Regiment of Brit. Foot. At the age of seventeen she had been received to the communion of the church by the Rev. Dr. Witherspoon, when one of the ministers of Paisley. Having crossed the Atlantic with her husband, she dwelt for some time at Niagara; and thence, at the commencement of the revolutionary war, which terminated in the establishment of our independence and our liberties, she passed, with the regiment to which her husband belonged, to Antigua, one of the English Leeward Islands of the West Indies. Here Dr. Graham died, and the widow, with her children, determined to return to her native country. The pension which, as an officer's widow, she drew, during her life, from the British treasury, was inadequate to the maintenance of a rising family, consisting of a son and three daughters; and she accordingly opened a school for the instruction of young ladies, first in Paisley, and afterward in the city of Edinburgh. Thence she removed, in the same capacity, to New-York. The extensive patronage which her friends and her talents secured her in this city, soon raised her to comparative affluence; and in the evening of her day, after seeing her daughter comfortably married, she enjoyed with one of them, in the house of her son-in-law, Mr. Bethune, all the comforts which the good things of this life, in ordinary cases, can command. Here too she died, esteemed and lamented, on the 27th July, 1814, in the seventy-second year of her age. She had previously to lament the wanderings of her

only son, who is supposed to have been lost at sea, or in some distant country; and to weep, but not murmur, at the death of her eldest daughter, Mrs. Stevenson. Several benevolent institutions in the city of New-York, owe to her suggestions, and her zeal in deeds of kindness, in a great degree, both their origin and their success. The Widow Society, and the Orphan Asylum, are particularly indebted to her exertions; and the Magdalen Institution, the Schools for teaching on the Lord's day, and the Society for the promotion of Industry, are under no small obligations for her advice and attentions. It is, however, her religious character (for this appeared in all she did) that the history of her life and her writings is designed to exhibit. This is best displayed by her own diary, and by her letters.

THE DEVOTIONAL EXERCISES constitute not only a great part of the book under review, but the most interesting part of the evidence illustrating THE POWER OF FAITH, which it is the special object of this volume to set forth. We include in these remarks all that is called, rather quaintly, PROVISION FOR PASSING OVER JORDAN.

Mrs. Graham evidently carried her religion with her wherever she went. Seated in the heart, it could not be otherwise. It appears in the most minute concerns of domestic economy, as well as in her public deportment. The sermons which she heard on the Lord's day, were subjects of meditation when she retired to her closet; and these meditations were committed to paper. In perusing them we were peculiarly struck with this fact, That a woman of so clear discernment, and accurate attainments in theological knowledge, as well as in the common criticisms of polite life, should have her principal attention uniformly absorbed by the plain elementary truths of evangelical religion. These, not matters of taste, were her daily bread.-Verily, it was well. This is the bread which came down from heaven. Her personal guilt and corruption-her own inability by nature-the Lord Christ as her righteousness and her strength-her complete justification in him—her imperfect holiness-daily dependence on the mercy of a cove

nant God-duty, obedience, evangelical humiliation, and good works, these were the objects of her religious contemplations and study. We think that in her frequent fasts and confessions-in her prayers and self-dedication to God, it is not difficult to recognize the woman, who, at the age of threescore years and ten, (no stranger to the luxuries of life, and having them at her command) was in the habit of setting out in the morning, with her crust of bread for her only dinner, and travelling all day among the suffering sons and daughters of indigence, to administer to their urgent wants.

We offer now to our readers some passages of this work, by which they may form their own judgment. They are selected partly from her Devotional Exercises, and partly from her Correspondence, always written in a neat style, with an evangelical spirit. The Poetry of Mrs. Graham is, without remark, referred to the taste of every reader of the volume.

"February, 1812.

" Dr. M.-John i. • Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.'

The Lamb of God which took away the sins, not only of the Jewish transgressors, but the sins of the elect out of every nation, kindred and tongue, throughout the world. On this Lamb of God, rests my individual hope for pardon and acceptance. I lay my own individual hand of faith on his dear head, confess my sins, and rely upon his sacrifice for pardon and acceptance, through the atonement made by himself, God's anointed Priest." pp. 185, 186.

"Dr. R.-Jer. xxxi. 9. And they shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them.'

"Chiefly in the latter day. But it is the Lord's way of leading every sinner to the Saviour with weeping; and through after life, when reconciled, by supplication.-What testimony does my heart and conscience give? He found me and described my exercises, about the age of seventeen; with weeping and supplications he led me to the Saviour, gave me lively faith, and much joy, and peace in believing; but, alas! no claim can I lay to the description of after