whom you will rejoice to spend a blissful and a glorious eternity. Your ability to afford pecuniary aid may be painfully disproportionate to the wants which you will frequently find accumulated upon one individual. But, "she hath done what she could," was the delightful testimony, which he, by whom actions are weighed, gave of his approbation to one, whose memorial is never to perish. With the Bible in your hand, and the love of Christ in your heart, you may carry to the house of mourning, and to the pillow of its dying tenant, inconceivably more than wealth could purchase, when perhaps you may have little else to give. But, "whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward,"

THE THATCHER'S WIDOW.

ELIZABETH R was the widow of a thatcher, who left behind him a pleasing testimony, that he loved the ways of God; that the Bible was the guide and companion of his earthly pilgrimage; and that, as the best heritage he could give his children, he laboured to enrich them with such a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, that they might be made "wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." A wound, which he inflicted on his leg while pursuing his humble employment, in a very few days laid him in the grave. His widow, with her seven children, thus cast upon the world, immediately became the conspicuous objects of that care, which exercises a peculiar superintendence over the widow and the fatherless. She often spoke to me with tears of the amazing goodness of God, in enabling her to provide for her offspring, towards whom she evidenced a tenderness of maternal affection not often found in mothers of her lowly station. With equal tenderness she cherished the memory of her husband, and seldom

mentioned him without weeping. She became mistress of the village school, and gave to many the elements of that knowledge, which, if duly improved, will do for them what it did for her. But, in her way to the kingdom of heaven, she was called to pass through "much tribulation." Exemption from trials is no condition of the Redeemer's service. The world remark and wonder, and sometimes draw very erroneous conclusions from the fact, that religious persons are generally distinguished as much by their frequent and severe afflictions, as they are by their piety. They overlook the accordance of this fact with all the recorded dispensations of God towards even his most eminent servants in every age. They discern not the wisdom which ordains, the love which prompts, and the power which overrules this myste rious part of the divine government. They have no eye to perceive, that God is more glorified in and through the sorrows which he sends upon his people, than by all the prosperity which he showers upon those, who sometimes boast, that they make no profession of religion, and yet are more successful in life, and less troubled than the godly. More glory accrued to God from the beggary and extreme misery of Lazarus, than from the wealth and splendour of Dives. Even the pious friends of the great eastern patriarch, were misled in their judgment upon his case.

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"If

thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous." But, behold “the end of the Lord!" The humility, faith, patience, and every grace of his suffering servant, were strengthened and displayed; the malice and machinations of Satan sustained a signal defeat; and God advanced his own glory, by the afflictions of Job, and by their issue.

Elizabeth R was the child of providence, nor was she less the child of sorrow. She was keenly distressed by losing successively three very promising children;, but she was cheered by knowing that there was hope in their end. Towards the close of her life, she became a very grievous sufferer from a wen, or her cancer, of an enormous size, which grew upon breast, and rendered her an object of pity and commiseration. Under the gradual advance of this disease towards its crisis, which proved her death, she suffered long and greatly. But it doubtless was the means of drawing her nearer to the God of all consolation, and afforded an opportunity for the exhibition of the best principles. Long before this, indeed, she was a woman of prayer. Her children on their evening return from labour, often found her in some retired corner of their cottage in the attitude and employment of a supplicant at the throne of grace; and she was wont to spend many a sacred moment at

eventide in the same manner as did the contemplative Isaac before her.

Shortly after the providence of God fixed my habitation at S, I discovered Elizabeth R- to be a woman who feared and loved God, and who, in the diligent hearing and keeping of his word, was "looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." Humility was a prominent feature in her character. Every person spoke well of her except herself. While from many I often heard pleasing testimonies of her worth, from her own lips I never was pained to hear those frequent self-applauses, which are common in the mouths of many. They who are ignorant of the corruption of human nature in themselves and others, would have been astonished at her spontaneous confessions of her own guilt and unworthiness. When I called upon her in an almshouse, which was the asylum of her latter years, she would often mourn and weep over the wickedness of her heart. Not that she had any foul offence to charge herself with before men; but, in the sight of God; she felt and freely acknowledged herself to be a miserable sinner. "It grieves me to think," she would say, "of the wretched manner in which I serve the Lord. I cannot love and pray to him as I ought. This distresses me far more than the pains that I suffer in my body. But I do hate sin-I do hate those vain

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