with astonishment. On one of these occafions a "Bright in thy forrows, on whom every tear Shirley, The 10. The fight of one whofe errors, by the mercy of God, and by virtue of the Atonement, which alone makes repentance efficacious, have been retrieved, and he is led by that "loving Pfalm cxliii. Spirit into the land of Righteousness" even here, is beautiful and refplendent, as must be the light of the Southern Cross when it first bursts upon the mariner-"leading the thoughts" (they are the words of the Miffionary Ellis) Madagascar, Rom. viii. 22. Paradife Loft, Book iii. 540, &c. by an irresistible tendency away to the contemplation of that bright luftre, by which the Crofs of Calvary fhall ultimately draw within its hallowed influence all kindreds of men." And the Old Vicar faid continually, "The world is not fo bad as it is painted, as good men whose hearts are set on Christ, and Him crucified, find every day. Indeed, through the riches of God's grace, even at its worst eftate, the whole creation that groaneth and travaileth for man's fin, is wondrous fair." To which he would add, " It was a grand con"It ception of Milton to put this confeffion into the mouth of Satan," and he would recite the lines, as fome may have remembered Wordfworth doing, ore rotundo. "Satan from thence, now on the lower stair That scaled by fteps of gold to heaven gate, "The whole courfe of our lives is full of interpunctions, or commas: Jackfon's death is but the period or full point." "Death reigns in all the portions of our time. The Autumn with its fruits provides diforders for us, and the Winter's cold turns them into fharp difeafes, and the Spring brings flowers to ftrew our hearfe, and the Summer gives green turf and brambles to bind upon our graves. Calentures and furfeit, cold and agues, are the four quarters of the year, and all minister to death: and you can go no where, but you tread upon a dead man's bones." "Quafi folftitialis herba paulifper fui; Repente exortus fum, repentino occidi." 66 HEN the days of my pilgri mage are over, and the old labourers I knew in life have carried me to to my refting place," faid my good and true Parishioner John Works, iii. 499. Plaut. Pfeud. I. i. 36. Chamberlayne's Beaumont and Neh. vii. 2. Stat. Thebaid. ii. 631. Cheerfield, "let the words on my tombstone be few." And I replied, "The God of mercies and forgivenesses add unto your years as many as shall seem Him good, and then your children, fo well brought up in the fear and nurture of the Lord, will fee to this!" And, as I looked upon his thin spare frame I said to myself, Great heavy bodies like mine will often pass away with their own weight, "Whilft others part with breath From bodies worn so thin, they seemed to be I loved the man, as those interested in the care of fouls know how to love; and although, perhaps, I might fay, "He was a man I knew but in his evening;" yet, as after grace given, and the chastisements of time and forrow, I beheld the useful course of his declining years, fuppled and intenerated by the Spirit of prayer and fupplication, I faid as I beheld, ("he was a faithful man and feared God above many;")-Let me live the life of the righteous! One could not but be fascinated with such unpretending goodness! "Nec indole clarius illâ Nec pietate fuit." My excellent Barker. Buried 9 March, 1860. Ο μακαρίτης. "The widows will miss him, that they will," faid blunt old Sally Streeter, but honeft as blunt, and I replied, "Yes, Sally,-the worst of our ungrateful and thankless ones will not be able to say, 'There were no widows to make Ps. lxxviii. 65. lamentation!'” And days, and weeks, and months, and years rolled on in their filent course, girded in by eternity on both fides, and then, to use the fimple language of the patriarchal days, the paffing-bell feemed to fay, as it fwung folemnly, AND HE DIED! And I said again Gen. v. 5, &c. -for I was wont to think much of death, and the judgment to come, and endeavoured to die daily, "Let me die the death of the Numb. xxiii. 10. righteous, and let my last end be like his!" Let me turn to account the days of my years, as he did, -days of this life's prilgrimage spared to me in mercy to number wifely,-for deep fearchings of heart, and the repentance of the redeemed, and the charities of those who have loved their Lord! How profitable is it to contemplate the lives of good men, and to dwell upon their memory in death! "But to the heavens that fimple foul is fled, Which left, with fuch as covet Christ to know, The good examples of good men in life furpass Earl of Surrey's |