spires him with hope; the full-blown Summer fills him with joy; the decaying autumn speaks to him of his own decay, like the soothing voice of a parent that invites him to repose after the labors of the day; and the desolating Winter gives intimation of his death, when, like the faded flowers, his body shall be withering in the dust, and his spirit, like the birds of passage that follow the genial seasons in their journey round the globe, shall have winged its way to a better and happier region. But a Summer's Sabbath evening, is the season of the most exalted enjoyment: it is then that there seems to be an intimate communion between earth and heaven, and we feel as if partakers of the pleasures of both worlds; it is then that these confines seem to meet, and we feel as if by one step we could pass from time into eternity.

On a beautiful Sabbath evening, about the middle of July, I pursued my walk, along a narrow path that stretched through an extensive wood, to enjoy alone and undisturbed, that soothing melancholy, which is to me sweeter than the turbulence of social merriment. The sun had just set,-the twilight star was twinkling like the eye of a beautiful woman, whose lashes are quivering with the effects of departing sorrow that bedewed them with tears, and the thrush was pouring forth his vesper hymn on the topmost twig of the tall larch tree, as if he thought that his song would sound the sweeter, the nearer he could make his perch to heaven. It was to me, a scene of peculiar interest: on the one side stood the home of my father and mother, brothers and sisters, the affectionate beings who appeared to me parts of my own existence, without whom-without one of whom I could not live; and on the other side lay the church yard where my forefathers slept in "the narrow house," and where my kindred and myself were in all likelihood destined to sleep-one of us, perhaps in a few days, for my mother was at that time sick, the being who gave me birth; who nourished me on her bosom in infancy; who condoled my sorrow in manhood-the thought of her death was dreadful.

But my mind was soon called from its agonizing anticipations, by the tremulous tones of a plaintive voice; when, on looking around me, I saw a man kneeling be

neath a branching fir, and praying loud and fervently. It was not, however, the prayer of the Pharisee, in the corner of the street, where every eye might behold him: the person before me was unconscious that any eye be held him but that of his Creator, whom he was so earnestly supplicating. I never saw a more affecting picture of devotion. I have seen the innocent child lay its head upon its mother's knee, and lisp out its evening prayer; and the father of a family, kneel in the midst of his domestic circle, and ask the blessing of God to be upon them and him: I have seen the beautiful maiden, whose lips to the youthful imagination, seemed only tuned to the song of pleasure, whisper the responses in the public assembly of worship; and the dim eyed matron stroke back her hoary tresses, and endeavor to mingle her quivering voice with the sublime symphony of the pealing organ;-all these have I seen, and felt the beauty of each; but this solitary worshipper affected me more deeply than I had previously experienced. His knees were bent upon the deep-green earth, where his Bibie lay on the one side of him, and his hat on the other; his hands were lifted up, his raven hair waved in the breeze, and his eyes were raised to heaven; yet I saw, or fancied I saw, that he was frequently obliged to close them, and press out the tears that flowed to them from the fountain of sorrow.

I passed him, unperceived, with respect for his devotional feelings, and sympathy with his accumulated afflictions. I knew him well: he was a laborer, of the neighboring hamlet, intelligent and respectable in his sphere of life. Often, on the Sabbath evenings, had I met with him in the same path, walking with his wife and children; two little boys that plucked the wild-flowers as they proceeded, and an infant girl that yet nested in its mother' bosom. He was devotedly attached to his family, and considered him one of the happiest men in existence; for his wife appeared altogether worthy of the respect he paid her, and his children were as beautiful and promising as a parent's heart could have wished. He and I often entered into conversation, and I was not only pleased, but frequently astonished by his remarks; for his lips were unrestrained by the reserve of polished life, and all his most eccentric conceptions, and all his deepest feelings,

were in a moment laid open before you in all their singularity and beauty. He had read a good deal, but he had thought more than he had read; and, in consequence, there was a poetical originality about his mind, and a poetical enthusiasm in his heart, which were peculiarly pleasing to a person, who had felt his generous emotions repulsed and chilled by the cold and affected votaries of fashion. He was quite coutented with his laborious occupation; for, as he said, his toils seemed light and pleasant, when he considered that they were undergone for the comfort of the wife, who "like a fruitful vine," spread the blossoms of his pleasure around his cottage; and of the children, who "like olive plants, arose to support him when bowed down by the burden of age. The anticipation of an early death did not even appal him; for in that case, as he observed, there was a God in heaven who would prove a "Father to the fatherless, and a husband, to the widow; and the orphan's stay, and the stranger's shield."

The dictates of philosophy are weak in comparison with the power of this religious trust: it is the rock under whose shadow the weary find repose-the rock whose summit is brightened by a sunshine, while the valley from which it rises is covered with clouds and darkness. My friend, the poor laborer, clung to it with enthusiasm in his severe domestic trials. A malignant fever, like the storm that blasts the blossoms of spring, entered the hamlet, and in the space of two months, swept off more than a third of the children. There was scarcely a cottage that had not numbered one of its little inmates with the dead. It has been said, with what degree of truth I know not, that the loss of children is the heaviest trial by which the human heart can be visited; because as it is averred, the attachment of the parent to the child is stronger than that of the child to the parent. I have no doubt that if a person have a family to divide the stream of affection, the death of a father or mother will be less poignant, than if the solitary mourner have no object, as near and as dear, on which he can fix the lacerated ties of love that have been forced to quit their hold of the bosom that withers in a parent's grave; but as each of these domestic calamities is, for a time, as severe as mortal creature can con

ceive; and as the man who feels the acuteness of the green wounds of affliction cannot properly estimate the pain of those that have been healed by the influence of time, there appears to me no use in making, and no certainty in the result of the comparison. I might, however, argue against the received opinion, by saying, that the place of a parent, when once empty, can never again be filled; whereas the bosom that has given its nursling to the grave, may yet have the happiness to nourish another, and the parental heart may half forget its withered scion until it finds it blooming in heaven; but all I intend to say on the subject is, that my poor friend lost both his little boys whose funerals were only divided by three melancholy days; and that on the Sabbath evening when I saw him praying in the lonely wood, his infant girlhis only remaining child-lay on the very brink of disso• lution.

Having reached the end of the solitary footpath, I returned homewards, and still found the afflicted man in the attitude of prayer; perhaps unconscious, amid the strife of his spirit, of the time that had passed over him, while employed in this act of heartfelt devotion. As soon as I descried him, a female came running along the path, and informed him that the child was dead. He arose with a trembling frame, and a face that bore the fearful look of despair; or rather the look of that reckless frenzy which prompted him to dispute with his Maker the justice of the calamity that had befallen him. This was for a moment; he soon became firm and calm, and exclaimed with a subdued spirit, "The Lord's will be done." It was enough-it was a balm for his wounded soul, a cordial to his fainting heart. He then followed the steps of the female who had disappeared to the "house of mourning," to condole with the childless mother, whose heart had mingled its feelings with his from the days of early youth-whose heart to his had been doubly bound by the tendrils that sprung from their mutual love-whose heart demanded the support of his, the support which his would amply receive from hers in return. Happy souls! happy even under all your calamities! For if there be pleasure if there be consolation-if there be happiness on earth-they are no where to be so certainly found as

in the unbounded confidence, and deeply rooted attachment, of two congenial and conjugal bosoms. Deeply affected by what I had seen and heard, I entered my father's cottage strong in good resolutions, and praying that I might have the power, in all the afflictions that might await me, to say with the poor peasant-"the Lord's will be done."

Praying breath never spent in vain.

A PIOUS aged woman had one son; she used every means in her power to train him up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; he was the child of many prayers. The youth grew up, but was of a gay, dissipated turn; she still followed him with her entreaties, faithfully warned him of his awful situation as a sinner before God, and told him what his end would be, dying in that state. One day he went to his mother and said, "Mother, let me have my best clothes, I am going to a ball to-night." She expostulated with him and urged him not to go, by every argument in her power; he answered, "Mother, let me have my clothes, I will go, and it is useless to say any thing about it." She brought his clothes, he put them on and was going out; she stopped him, and said "My child, do not go." He said he would; she then said to him, "My son, while you are dancing with your gay companions in the ball room, I shall be out in that wilderness praying to the Lord to convert your soul."

He went; the ball commenced, but instead of the usual gayety, an unaccountable gloom pervaded the whole assembly. One said, "We never had such a dull meeting in our lives;" another, "I wish we had not come, we have no life, we cannot get along;" a third, "I cannot think what is the matter." The young man instantly burst into tears, and said, "I know what is the matter my poor old mother is now praying in yonder wilderness for her ungodly son." He took his hat, and said, "I will never be found in such a place as this again," and left the company. To be short, the Lord converted his soul. Mr. Irish, his pastor baptized him. He was soon after