breasts, if Nature, or rather Nature's God, did not send relief in tears, by loosening the cords and ligatures that bind down and strain the heart; and thus it was that the man of God and myself went out and both wept bitterly. When at length we turned in our walk homewards to gaze upon each other, he, grasping his small bible, and holding it up to my view, exclaim

"Te spectem, suprema mihi cum venerit hora, Te teneam moriens, deficiente manu!"

On my return home, I found a letter awaiting me from my friend Mr. Jordan, stating the particulars of his son's marriage, and the distress it had occasioned him by the overthrow of all his fondest hopes and expectations; and all of which he felt the more acutely, as the connexion had been made with the knowledge of being in direct opposition to his long established sentiments and feelings: yet for some time before his son's death his resentment had been gradually wearing away, and he only awaited his return from the continent, and the renewal of his prayer for reconciliation, to bury in oblivion all that had passed. After detailing various other cir

cumstances, which the Rector had already made known to me, and expressing the shock he had received at the account which had then only first reached him, he begged of me to repair instantly to the young widow, and to assure her how ready he was to receive her and her child into his family, and to offer every protection he was able to afford. He concluded by stating, that, as he himself was now confined to his bed by what he hoped was only a slight illness, he should directly upon his recovery hasten down to Essex. In the mean time, he implored me by the friendship I bore him, to do every thing that might make all parties regret less his personal absence. I instantly took this letter to the Rectory, when the venerable man, my new-made friend, regretted with myself, that we had not received it sooner; we took care, however, to apprise Mr. Jordan of what had happened, and we again separated to dwell upon the pitiable event, and to reflect upon the heavy trials and afflictions to which we see mankind so frequently exposed in this life; and from these to confirm and settle ourselves more strongly in the belief and assurance of that day of future retribution, when the sufferings of

this present time will, to those who have been tried and found faithful, be recompensed by an eternal weight of glory, and every tongue shall confess that the Lord God Almighty is just and true in all his ways.