CHAPTER XII.

CLOSING LABORS FOR THE POOR--

SICKNESS AND DEATH.

During the last two years of her life, Mrs. Graham found her

strength inadequate to so extensive a course of visiting the poor as

formerly; there were some distressed families, however, that

experienced her kind attentions to the last. She would occasionally

accompany the Rev. Mr. Stanford on his visits to the state-prison,

hospital, and to the Magdalen house. This gentleman was the stated

preacher employed by "the Society for the Support of the Gospel among

the Poor," and devoted his time to preaching in the almshouse,

hospital, state-prison, debtors'-prison, etc., with great assiduity

and acceptance.

Mrs. Graham now spent much of her time in her room, devoted to

meditation, prayer, and reading the Scriptures; she seemed to be

weaning from earth and preparing for heaven. Prayer was that sweet

breath of her soul which brought stability to her life. Genuine

humility was obvious in all her sentiments and deportment. Religious

friends prized her conversation, counsel, and friendship; sometimes

they would venture on a compliment to her superior attainments, but

always experienced a decided rebuke. To her friend Colonel L----, who

expressed a wish to be such a character as she was, she quickly

replied with an air of mingled pleasantry and censure, "Get thee

behind me, Satan." To a female friend who said, "If I were only sure

at last of being admitted to a place at your feet I should feel

happy." "Hush, hush," replied Mrs. Graham, "There is ONE SAVIOUR."

Thus she was always careful to give her divine Redeemer the whole

glory of her salvation.

This example of humility, self-denial, and sensibility to the

imperfection of her conduct, is the more to be valued, as it is so

difficult to be followed. Flattery is too commonly practised; and

there is no sufficient guard against its dangerous consequences,

except a constant and humbling recognition of the spirituality of the

law of God, and our lamentable deficiency in fulfilling it. Pride was

not made for man: "I have seen an end of all perfection," said the

Psalmist, "but thy commandment is exceeding broad." It was by

cherishing this sentiment, by studying her Bible, by searching her

heart and its motives, and above all, by grace accorded of heaven in

answer to her prayers, that Mrs. Graham was enabled to maintain such

meekness of spirit, such an uniformity of Christian character

throughout her life. May all who read her history be directed to the

same sources of true peace and genuine happiness.

In the spring of 1814 she was requested to unite with some ladies

in forming a society for the promotion of industry among the poor.

This was the last act in which she appeared before the public. A

petition, signed by about thirty ladies, was presented to the

corporation of New York, praying that they would assign them a

building in which work might be prepared and given out to the

industrious poor, who being paid for their labor, might be saved the

necessity of begging, and at the same time cherish habits of industry

and self-respect. The corporation having returned a favorable answer,

and provided a house, a meeting of the Society was held, and Mrs.

Graham once more was called to the chair. It was the last time she was

to preside at the formation of a new society. Her articulation, once

strong and clear, was now observed to have become more feeble. The

ladies present listened to her with affectionate attention; her voice

broke upon the ear as a pleasant sound that was passing away. She

consented to have her name inserted on the list of managers, and to

give what assistance her age would permit in forwarding so beneficent

a work. Although it pleased God that she should cease from her labors

before the House of Industry was opened, yet the work was carried on

by others and prospered. Between four and five hundred women were

employed and paid during the following winter. The corporation

declared in strong terms their approbation of the result, and enlarged

their donation, with a view to promote the same undertaking for the

succeeding winter.

In the month of May, 1814, a report was received from Mr. Stephen

Prust of Bristol, in England, of the Society for establishing

Adult-schools. Mrs. Graham was so delighted with a perusal of it, as

immediately to undertake the formation of such a school in the village

of Greenwich. She called on the young people who were at work in some

neighboring manufactories, and requested them to attend her for this

purpose every Sabbath morning at eight o'clock. This was kept up after

her decease as a Sunday-school, and consisted of nearly eighty

scholars. She was translated from this work of faith on earth, to

engage in the sublimer work of praise in heaven.

For some weeks previous to her last illness she was favored with

unusual health and much enjoyment of religion; she appeared to have

sweet exercises and communion in attending on all God's ordinances and

appointed means of grace. She was also greatly refreshed in spirit by

the success of Missionary and Bible Societies, and used to speak with

much affection of Mr. Gordon, Mr. Lee, Mr. May, and Dr. Morrison, with

whom she had been acquainted when in New York, on their way to

missionary stations in India and China.

Mrs. Graham was very partial to the works of Dr. John Owen, Rev.

William Romaine, and Rev. John Newton, and read them with pleasure and

profit. One day she remarked to Mr. B----, that she preferred the

ancient writers on theology to the modern, because they dealt more in

italics. "Dear mother," he replied, "what religion can there be in

italics?" "You know," said she, "that old writers expected credit for

the doctrines they taught, by proving them from the word of God to be

correct: they inserted the scripture passages in italics, and their

works have been sometimes one-half in italics. Modern writers on

theology, on the contrary, give us a long train of reasoning to

persuade us to their opinions, but very little in italics." This

remark of hers has great force, and deserves the serious attention of

those who write and those who read on theological subjects.

On the two Sabbaths preceding her last illness she joined in

communion at the Lord's table. On the 10th of July, 1814, at

Greenwich, and on the 17th at her own church in Cedar-street. On each

week preceding these seasons she attended three evenings on religious

exercises; on Thursdays at the Orphan Asylum, on Friday evenings the

preparation sermons, and on Saturday evenings at the prayer-meetings.

She appeared lively, and expressed comfort in those religious seasons,

and continued actively useful until the very day on which her

illness commenced.

On the morning of the 17th she attended the Sabbath-school with

her daughter and grandchildren. Thus the Lord was pleased to direct

that she should lead her children's children into the walks of

usefulness before she took her flight to heaven, and impose a pleasing

obligation on them that they should follow her steps. Of the same date

is the last meditation in her diary.

"COMMUNION SABBATH, July 17, 1814.

"'Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him

not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:

receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls,' 1

Peter, 1:8, 9.

"I had requested to be brought to my Lord's banqueting-house, and

to be feasted with love this day. I ate the bread and drank the wine,

in the faith that I ate the flesh and drank the blood of the Son of

man, and dwelt in him and he in me. Took a close view of my familiar

friend Death, accompanied with the presence of my Saviour, _his

sensible presence_. I cannot look at it without this; it is my only

petition concerning it. I have had desires relative to certain

circumstances, but they are nearly gone. It is my sincere desire that

God may be glorified, and he knows best how and by what circumstances.

I retain my one petition,

"Only to me thy countenance show,

I ask no more the Jordan through."

Thus she arose from her Master's table, was called to gird on her

armor for a combat with the king of terrors, and came off more than

conqueror, through Him who loved her.

On Monday she appeared in perfect health, and visited and gave

religious instruction to the orphans in the asylum.

On Tuesday, the 19th of July, she complained of not feeling well,

and kept her room; on Thursday her disorder proved to be a

cholera-morbus, and her children sent for a physician. She thought

this attack was slighter than in former seasons. On Saturday, however,

she requested that Mrs. Chrystie might be sent for; this alarmed Mrs.

B----, knowing there existed an understanding between those two

friends, that one should attend the dying-bed of the other, Mrs.

Chrystie was a very dear friend of Mrs. Graham. For upwards of

twenty-four years they had loved each other, feeling reciprocal

sympathy in their joys and their sorrows; the hope of faith was the

consolation of both, and oftentimes it had been their delightful

employment to interchange their expressions of affection towards Him

whom having not seen, they loved, and in whom, though they saw him

not, yet believing on him, they rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full

of glory. On Mrs. Chrystie's entering the chamber of her friend, Mrs.

Graham welcomed her with a sweet expressive smile, seeming to say, "I

am going to get the start of you, I am called home before you; it will

be your office to fulfil our engagement." When she sat by her bedside,

Mrs. Graham said, "Your face is very pleasant to me, my friend."

During Saturday night, a lethargy appeared to be overpowering her

frame. On Sabbath morning she was disposed to constant slumber;

observing Mr. B---- looking at her with agitation, she was roused from

her heaviness, and stretching her arms towards him and embracing him,

she said, "My dear, dear son, I am going to leave you; I am going to

my Saviour." "I know," he replied, "that when you do go from us, it

will be to the Saviour; but, my dear mother, it may not be the Lord's

time now to call you to himself." "Yes," said she, "now is the time;

and Oh, I could weep for sin." Her words were accompanied with her

tears. "Have you any doubts, then, my dear friend?" asked Mrs.

Chrystie. "Oh no," replied Mrs. Graham; and looking at Mr. and Mrs.

B---- as they wept, "My dear children, I have no more doubt of going

to my Saviour, than if I were already in his arms; my guilt is all

transferred; he has cancelled all I owed. Yet I could weep for sins

against so good a God: it seems to me as if there must be weeping even

in heaven for sin."

After this she entered into conversation with her friends,

mentioning portions of scripture and favorite hymns which had been

subjects of much comfort and joy to her. Some of these she had

transcribed into a little book, calling them her "victuals" prepared

for crossing over Jordan; she committed them to memory, and often

called them to remembrance as her songs in the night when sleep had

deserted her. She then got Mr. B---- to read to her some of these

portions, especially the eighty-second hymn of Newton's third book:

"Let us love, and sing, and wonder;

Let us praise the Saviour's name:

He has hushed the law's loud thunder,

He has quenched mount Sinai's flame:

He has washed us with his blood,

He has brought us nigh to God," etc.

Mrs. Graham then fell asleep, nor did she awaken until the voice

of the Rev. Dr. Mason roused her. They had a very affectionate

interview, which he has partly described in the excellent sermon he

delivered after her decease. She expressed to him her hope as founded

altogether on the redemption that is in Jesus Christ: were she left to

depend on the merit of the best action she had ever performed, that

would be only a source of despair. She repeated to him, as her view of

salvation, the fourth verse of the same hymn:

"Let us wonder: grace and justice

Join, and point at mercy's store;

When, through grace, in Christ our trust is,

Justice smiles and asks no more;

He who washed us with his blood,

Has secured our way to God."

Having asked Dr. Mason to pray with her, he inquired

if there was any particular request she had to

make of God by him; she replied, that God would

direct: then as he kneeled, she put up her hands, and

raising her eyes towards heaven, breathed this short

but expressive petition, "Lord, lead thy servant in

prayer."

After Dr. Mason had taken his leave, she again fell into a deep

sleep. Her physicians still expressed a hope of her recovery, as her

pulse was regular and the violence of her disease had abated. One of

them, however, declared his opinion that his poor drugs would prove of

little avail against her own ardent prayers to depart and be with

Christ, which was far better for her than a return to a dying world.

On Monday the Rev. Mr. Rowan prayed with her, and to him she

expressed also the tranquillity of her mind, and the steadfastness of

her hope, through Christ, of eternal felicity.

Her lethargy increased; at intervals from sleep she would

occasionally assure her daughter, Mrs. B----, that all was well; and

when she could rouse herself only to say one word at a time, that one

word, accompanied with a smile, was, "Peace." From her there was a

peculiar emphasis in this expression of the state of her mind: "Peace

I leave with you, my peace I give unto you," had been a favorite

portion of scripture with her, and a promise, the fulfilment of which

was her earnest prayer to the God who made it. She also occasionally

asked Mr. B---- to pray with her, even when she could only articulate,

as she looked at him, "Pray." She was now surrounded by many of her

dear Christian friends, who watched her dying-bed with affection and

solicitude. On Tuesday afternoon she slept with little intermission.

This, said Dr. Mason, may be truly called "falling asleep in Jesus."

It was remarked by those who attended her, that all terror was taken

away, and that death seemed here as an entrance into life. Her

countenance was placid, and looked younger than before her illness.

At a quarter past twelve o'clock, being the morning of the 27th

of July, 1814, her spirit gently winged its flight from a mansion of

clay to the realms of glory, while around the precious remnant of

earth her family and friends stood weeping, yet elevated by the scene

they were witnessing. After a silence of many minutes, they kneeled by

her bed, adored the goodness and the grace of God towards his departed

child, and implored the divine blessing on both the branches of her

family, as well as on all the Israel of God.

Thus she departed in peace, not trusting in her wisdom or virtue,

like the philosophers of Greece and Rome; not even like Addison,

calling on the profligate to see a good man die; but like Howard,

afraid that her good works might have a wrong place in the estimate of

her hope, her chief glory was that of "a sinner saved by grace."*

*This was Howard's epitaph, dictated by himself.

After such examples, who will dare to charge the doctrines of the

cross of Christ with licentiousness? Here are two instances of

persons, to whose good works the world have cheerfully borne

testimony, who lived and died in the profession of these doctrines. It

was faith that first purified their hearts, and so the stream of

action from these fountains became pure also. Had not Christ died and

risen again, all the powers of man could never have produced such

lives of benevolence, nor a death so full of contrition, yet so

embalmed with hope. Hallelujah, "unto Him who loved us, and washed us

from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests

unto God and his Father: to him be glory and dominion, for ever and

ever. Amen."

At the next weekly prayer-meeting which she had usually attended,

the circumstances of her death were made subjects of improvement. On

the 16th of July she was a worshipper with her brethren and sisters

there, and on the evening of the 30th they were called to consider her

by faith as in the immediate presence of her God, among "the spirits

of the just made perfect." The services of that evening were closed

with the following hymn from Dobell's collection, which is beautifully

descriptive of her happy change:

"'Tis finished! the conflict is past,

The heaven-born spirit is fled;

Her wish is accomplished at last,

And now she's entombed with the dead.

The months of affliction are o'er,

The days and the nights of distress,

We see her in anguish no more--

She's gained her happy release.

No sickness, or sorrow, or pain,

Shall ever disquiet her now;

For death to her spirit was gain,

Since Christ was her life when below.

Her soul has now taken its flight

To mansions of glory above,

To mingle with angels of light,

And dwell in the kingdom of love.

The victory now is obtained;

She's gone her dear Saviour to see;

Her wishes she fully has gained--

She's now where she longed to be.

The coffin, the shroud, and the grave

To her were no objects of dread;

On Him who is mighty to save,

Her soul was with confidence stayed.

Then let us forbear to complain,

That she is now gone from our sight;

We soon shall behold her again,

With new and redoubled delight."

Mrs. Graham's death created a strong sensation in the public

mind. Magistrates of the city were careful to express their sense of

the public loss sustained, and many charitable institutions paid

affectionate tributes to her memory. Several clergymen also made her

death the subject of their discourses, among whom was her beloved

pastor, Dr. JOHN M. MASON, who, on Sabbath evening, Aug. 14, delivered

the well-known powerful sermon, "CHRISTIAN MOURNING," from 1 Thess.

4:13, 14: "I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning

them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have

no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so

them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him."

Contrasting the consolations afforded to the Christian with the

darkness and doubt of the pagan or infidel; dwelling on the

Christian's death as "sleeping in Jesus;" his immediate entrance into

bliss, and his glorious resurrection and reigning with Christ in the

judgment, he thus proceeds:

"In this faith the apostles labored and the martyrs bled. Ages

have elapsed and it is still the same. It is not a distant wonder; not

a brilliant vision; but a solid and present reality, under the power

of which at this moment, while the words are on my lips, Christians,

in various parts of the world, are closing their eyes to sleep in

Jesus. It has come home to our own business and bosoms. It has chosen

our houses to be the scene of its miracles. But rarely does it fall to

the lot of human eyes to witness so high a display of its value and

virtue, as was witnessed in that blessed woman whose entrance into the

joy of her Lord has occasioned our assembling this evening.

"As we are commanded to be followers of them who through faith

and patience inherit the promises, we should have their example before

us, that we may learn to imbibe their spirit, to imitate their graces,

and be ready for their reward. With this view, permit me to lay before

you some brief recollections of our deceased friend.

"It is not my intention to relate the history of her life. That

will be a proper task for biography. I design merely to state a few

leading facts, and to sketch such outlines of character as may show to

those who knew her not, what manner of person she was in all holy

conversation and godliness. Those who knew her best require no such

remembrancer, and will be able, from their own observation, to supply

its defects.

"ISABELLA MARSHALL, known to us as Mrs. GRAHAM, received from

nature qualities which, in circumstances favorable to their

development, do not allow their possessor to pass through life

unnoticed and inefficient.

"An intellect strong, prompt, and inquisitive--a temper open,

generous, cheerful, ardent--a heart replete with tenderness, and alive

to every social affection and every benevolent impulse--a spirit at

once enterprising and persevering--the whole crowned with that rare

and inestimable endowment, good sense--were materials which required

only skilful management to fit her for adorning and dignifying any

female station. With that sort of cultivation which the world most

admires, and those opportunities which attend upon rank and fortune,

she might have shone in the circles of the great without forfeiting

the esteem of the good. Or had her lot fallen among the literary

unbelievers of the continent, she might have figured in the sphere of

the Voltaires, the Duffauds, and the other _esprits forts_ of

Paris. She might have been as gay in public, as dismal in private, and

as wretched in her end, as any of the most distinguished among them

for their wit and their woe. But God had destined her for other scenes

and services--scenes from which greatness turns away appalled, and

services which all the cohorts of infidel wit are unable to perform.

She was to be prepared by poverty, bereavement, and grief, to pity and

to succor the poor, the bereaved, and the grieving. The sorrows of

widowhood were to teach her the heart of the widow--her babes,

deprived of their father, to open the springs of her compassion to the

fatherless and orphan--and the consolations of God, her refuge and

strength, her very present help in trouble, to make her a daughter

of consolation to them who were walking in the valley of the shadow

of death.

"To train her betimes for the future dispensations of his

providence, the Lord touched the heart of this chosen vessel in her

early youth. The spirit of prayer sanctified her infant lips, and

taught her, as far back as her memory could go, to pour out her heart

before God. She had not reached her eleventh year when she selected a

bush in the retirement of the field, and there devoted herself to her

God by faith in the Redeemer. The incidents of her education,

thoughtless companions, the love of dress, and the dancing-school, as

she has herself recorded, chilled for a while the warmth of her piety,

and robbed her bosom of its peace. But her gracious Lord revisited her

with his mercy, and bound her to himself in an everlasting covenant,

which she sealed at his own table about the seventeenth year of

her age.

"Having married, a few years after, Dr. John Graham, surgeon to

the 60th British regiment, she accompanied him first to Montreal, and

shortly after to Fort Niagara. Here, during four years of temporal

prosperity, she had no opportunity, even for once, of entering the

habitation of God's house, or hearing the sound of his gospel.

Secluded from the waters of the sanctuary and all the public means of

growth in grace, her religion began to languish and its leaf to droop.

But the root was perennial--it was of the seed of God, which liveth

and abideth for ever. The Sabbath was still to her the sign of his

covenant. On that day of rest, with her Bible in her hand, she used to

wander through the woods, renew her self-dedication, and pour out her

prayer for the salvation of her husband and her children. He who

'dwelleth not in temples made with hands,' heard her cry from the

wilds of Niagara, and strengthened her with strength in her soul.

"By one of those vicissitudes which checker military life, the

regiment was ordered to the island of Antigua in the West Indies. Here

she met with that exquisite enjoyment to which she had been long a

stranger--the communion of kindred spirits in the love of Christ: and

soon did she need all the soothing and support which it is fitted to

administer; for in a very short time the husband of her youth, the

object of her most devoted affection, her sole earthly stay, was taken

from her by death. The stroke was, indeed, mitigated by the sweet

assurance that he slept in Jesus. But a heart like hers, convulsed by

a review of the past and anticipation of the future, would have burst

with agony, had she not known how to pour its sorrows into the bosom

of her heavenly Father. Trials which beat sense and reason to the

ground, raise up the faith of the Christian, and draw her closer to

her God. O, how divine to have him as the rock of our rest when every

earthly reliance is a broken reed.

"Bowing to his mysterious dispensation, and committing herself to

his protection as the Father of the fatherless and the Husband of the

widow, she returns with her charge to her native land, to contract

alliance with penury, and to live by faith for her daily bread. That

same grace under whose teaching she knew how to abound, taught her

also how to suffer need. With a dignity which belongs only to them who

have treasure in heaven, she descended to her humble cot, employment,

and fare. But her humility, according to the Scripture, was the

forerunner of her advancement. The light of her virtues shone

brightest in her obscurity, and pointed her way to the confidential

trust of forming the minds and manners of young females of different

ranks in the metropolis of Scotland. Here, respected by the great and

beloved by the good; in sacred intimacy with 'devout and honorable

women,' and the friendship of men who were in truth servants of the

most high God, she continued in the successful discharge of her duties

till Providence conducted her to our shores.

"She long had a predilection for America, as a land in which,

according to her favorite opinion, the church of Christ is signally to

flourish. Here she wished to end her days and leave her children. And

we shall remember with gratitude, that in granting her wish, God cast

her lot with ourselves. Twenty-five years ago she opened in this city

a school for the education of young ladies, the benefits of which have

been strongly felt, and will be long felt hereafter, in different and

distant parts of our country. Evidently devoted to the welfare of her

pupils--attentive to their peculiarities of character--happy in

discovering the best avenue of approach to their minds--possessing in

a high degree the talent of simplifying her instruction and varying

its form, she succeeded in that most difficult part of a teacher's

work, the inducing youth to take an interest in their own improvement,

and to educate themselves by exerting their own faculties.

"In governing her little empire, she acted upon those principles

which are the basis of all good government, on every scale and under

every modification--to be reasonable, to be firm, and to be uniform.

Her authority was both tempered and strengthened by condescension. It

commanded respect while it conciliated affection. Her word was law,

but it was the law of kindness. It spoke to the conscience, but it

spoke to the heart; and obedience bowed with the knee of love. She did

not, however, imagine her work to be perfected in fitting her élèves

for duties and elegance of life. Never did she forget their immortal

nature. Utterly devoid of sectarian narrowness, she labored to infuse

into their minds those vital principles of evangelical piety which

form the common distinction of the disciples of Christ, the peculiar

glory of the female name, and the surest pledge of domestic bliss. Her

voice, her example, her prayers concurred in recommending that pure

and undefiled religion without which no human being shall see the

Lord. Shall we wonder that her scholars should be tenderly attached to

such a preceptress; that they should leave her with their tears and

their blessing; that they should carry an indelible remembrance of her

into the bosom of their families; that the reverence of pupils should

ripen with their years into the affection of friends; and that there

should be among them, at this day, many a wife who is a crown to her

husband, and many a mother who is a blessing to her children, and who

owes, in a great degree, the felicity of her character to the

impressions, the principles, and the habits which she received while

under the maternal tuition of Mrs. GRAHAM?

"Admonished at length by the infirmities of age, and importuned

by her friends, this venerable matron retired to private life. But it

was impossible for her to be idle. Her leisure only gave a new

direction to her activity. With no less alacrity than she had

displayed in the education of youth, did she now embark in the relief

of misery. Her benevolence was unbounded, but it was discreet. There

are charities which increase the wretchedness they are designed to

diminish; which, from some fatal defect in their application, bribe to

iniquity while they are relieving want, and make food and raiment and

clothing to warm into life the most poisonous seeds of vice. But the

charities of our departed friend were of another order. They selected

the fittest objects--the widow, the fatherless, the orphan, the

untaught child, and the ignorant adult. They combined intellectual and

moral benefit with the communication of physical comfort.

"In her house originated the Society for the Relief of Poor

Widows with Small Children. Large, indeed, is this branch of the

family of affliction, and largely did it share in her sympathy and

succor. When at the head of this noble association, she made it her

business to see with her own eyes the objects of their care; and to

give, by her personal presence and efforts, the strongest impulse to

their humane system. From morning till night has she gone from abode

to abode of these destitute, who are too commonly unpitied by the

great, despised by the proud, and forgotten by the gay. She has gone

to sit beside them on their humble seat, hearing their simple and

sorrowful story, sharing their homely meal--ascertaining the condition

of their children--stirring them up to diligence, to economy, to

neatness, to order--putting them into the way of obtaining suitable

employment for themselves and suitable places for their

children--distributing among them the word of God, and tracts

calculated to familiarize its first principles to their

understanding--cherishing them in sickness, admonishing them in

health--instructing, reproving, exhorting, consoling--sanctifying the

whole with fervent prayer. Many a sobbing heart and streaming eye is

this evening embalming her memory in the house of the widow.

"Little if any less is the debt due to her from that invaluable

charity, the Orphan Asylum. It speaks its own praise, and that praise

is hers. Scores of orphans redeemed from filth, from ignorance, from

wretchedness, from crime--clothed, fed, instructed--trained in

cleanliness to habits of industry--early imbued with the knowledge and

fear of God--gradually preparing for respectability, usefulness, and

happiness, is a spectacle for angels. Their infantine gayety, their

healthful sport, their cherub faces, mark the contrast between their

present and former condition; and recall very tenderly the scenes in

which they used to cluster round their patron-mother, hang on her

gracious words, and receive her benediction.

"Brethren, I am not dealing in romance, but in sober fact. The

night would be too short for a full enumeration of her worthy deeds.

Suffice it to say that they ended but with her life. The Sabbath

previous to her last sickness occupied her with a recent

institution--a Sunday-school for ignorant adults; and the evening

preceding the touch of death, found her at the side of a faithful

domestic, administering consolation to his wounded spirit.

"Such active benevolence could hardly be detected in company with

a niggardly temper. Wishes which cost nothing; pity which expires on

the lips; be ye warmed and be ye clothed, from a cold heart and an

unyielding gripe, never imprinted their disgraceful brand upon

Isabella Graham. What she urged upon others she exemplified in

herself. She kept a purse for God. Here, in obedience to his command,

she deposited the first-fruits of all her increase; and they were

sacred to his service, as in his providence he should call for them.

No shuffling pretences, no pitiful evasions, when a fair demand was

made upon the hallowed store; and no frigid affectation in determining

the quality of the demand. A sense of duty was the prompter, candor

the interpreter, and good sense the judge. Her disbursements were

proportioned to the value of the object, and were ready at a moment's

warning, to the very last farthing.* How pungent a reproof to those

ladies of opulence and fashion who sacrifice so largely to their

dissipation or their vanity, that they have nothing left for mouths

without food, and limbs without raiment! How far does it throw back

into the shade those men of prosperous enterprise and gilded state

who, in the hope of some additional lucre, have thousands and ten

thousands at their beck; but who, when asked for decent contributions

to what they themselves acknowledge to be all-important, turn away

with this hollow excuse, 'I cannot afford it.' Above all, how should

her example redden the faces of many who profess to belong to Christ;

to have received gratuitously from him what he procured for them at

the expense of his own blood, 'an inheritance incorruptible and

undefiled, and that fadeth not away;' and yet, in the midst of

abundance which he has lavished upon them, when the question is about

relieving his suffering members, or promoting the glory of his

kingdom, are sour, reluctant, mean. Are these the Christians? Can it

be that they have committed their bodies, their souls, their eternal

hope, to a Saviour whose thousand promises on this very point of

honoring him with their substance, have less influence upon their

hearts and their hands than the word of any honest man? Remember the

deceased, and hang your heads--remember her, and tremble; remember

her, and bring forth fruits meet for repentance.

*The author knew her, when in moderate circumstances, to give,

unsolicited, _fifty pounds at once_ out of that sacred purse to

a single most worthy purpose.

"In that charity, also, which far surpasses mere almsgiving,

however liberal, the charity of the gospel, our friend was

conspicuous. The love of God shed abroad in her own heart by the Holy

Ghost, drew forth her love to his people wherever she found them.

Assuredly she had in herself this witness of her having 'passed from

death unto life,' that she loved the brethren. The epistle, written

not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of

stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart; yet read and known of all

men: that is, the Christian temper manifested by a Christian

conversation, was to her the best letter of recommendation. Unwavering

in her own faith as to the peculiar doctrines of the gospel, she could

nevertheless extend love without dissimulation, and the very bowels of

Christian fellowship, to others who, whatever might be their mistakes,

their infirmities, or their differences in smaller matters, agreed in

the great Christian essential of acceptance in the Beloved. Deeply did

she deplore the conceit, the bigotry, and the bitterness of sect. O

that her spirit were more prevalent in the churches; that we could

labor to abase our crown of pride; to offer up with one consent upon

the altar of evangelical charity, those petty jealousies, animosities,

and strifes which are our common reproach; and walk together as

children of the same Father, brethren of the same Redeemer, and heirs

of the same salvation.

"To these admirable traits of character were added great

tenderness of conscience and a spirit of prayer. Her religion, not

contented to justify her before men, habitually aimed at pleasing God,

who looketh upon the heart. It was not enough for her to persuade

herself that a thing might be right. Before venturing upon it, she

studied to reduce the question of right to a clear certainty. How

cautious and scrupulous and jealous of herself she was in this matter,

they best can tell who saw her in the shade of retirement as well as

in the sunshine of public observation. Perhaps it is not going too far

to say, that her least guarded moments would, in others, have been

marked for circumspection. At the same time her vigilance had nothing

austere, gloomy, constrained, or censorious--nothing to repress the

cheerfulness of social intercourse, or to excite in others, even the

thoughtless, a dread of merciless criticism after they should retire.

It was sanctified nature moving gracefully in its own element. And

with respect to the character and feelings of her neighbors, she was

too full of Christian kindness not to keep her tongue from evil and

her lips from speaking guile.

"These virtues and graces were maintained and invigorated by her

habit of prayer. With the 'new and living way into the holiest by the

blood of Jesus,' she was intimately familiar. Thither the Spirit of

grace and supplication daily conducted her; there taught her to pray,

and in praying to believe, and in believing to have 'fellowship with

the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.' She knew her God as the God

that heareth prayer; and could attest that 'blessed is she that

believeth, for there shall be a performance of those things which were

told her from the Lord.'

"Under such influence her course could not but be correct, and

her steps well ordered. The 'secret of the Lord is with them that fear

him; and he will show them his covenant, he will guide them in

judgment.' Thus he did with his handmaid whom he hath called home.

Wherever she was, and in whatever circumstances, she remembered the

guide of her youth, who, according to His promise, never left her, nor

forsook her; but continued His gracious presence with her when she was

old and gray-headed.

"You may perhaps imagine, that with such direction and support it

was impossible she should see trouble. Nay, but waters of a full cup

were wrung out to her. She often ate the bread of sorrow steeped in

wormwood and gall. Her heavenly Father showed her great and sore

adversities; that he might try her as silver is tried, and bring her

forth from the furnace purified seven times. It was during these

refining processes that she found the worth of being a Christian.

Though her way was planted with thorns and watered with her tears, yet

the candle of the Lord shone upon her head; and from step to step she

had reason to cry, Hitherto hath Jehovah helped.

"In a word, like Enoch, she walked with God; like Abraham, she

staggered not at his promise through unbelief; like Jacob, she

wrestled with the angel and prevailed; like Moses, endured as seeing

Him who is invisible; like Paul, finished her course with joy. Blessed

were the eyes of the preacher, for they saw the victory of her faith;

and his ears, for they heard her song of salvation. 'You can say with

the apostle, I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is

able to keep that which I have committed unto him?' 'O yes, but I

cannot say the other, I have fought a good fight; I must say, I have

fought a poor fight, I have run a poor race; but Christ fought for me.

Christ ran with me, and through Christ I hope to win,' 'But you have

no fear, no doubts, about your going to be with Christ?' 'O no, not a

doubt; I am as sure of that as if I were already in my Saviour's

arms.' It was her final conversation with children of the dust. The

next day, when her flesh and her heart had so far failed that she was

incapable of uttering a sentence, she still proved her God to be the

strength of her heart, and knew him to be her portion for ever. I said

to her, 'It is peace,' She opened her eyes, smiled, closed them again,

bowed her dying head, and breathed out, 'Peace,' It was her last word

on this side heaven. The attending spirits caught it from her lips,

and brought to her the next day permission to sleep in Jesus.

"From this review allow me to urge the value of private exertions

in promoting general good.

"In pursuing his gratifications, man is apt to look upon himself

as a being of great importance; in fulfilling his duties, to account

himself as nothing. Both are extravagances which it will be his wisdom

and happiness to correct. He is neither supreme in worth nor useless

in action. Let him not say, 'I am but one; my voice will be drowned in

the universal din; my weight is lighter than a feather in the public

scale. It is better for me to mind my own affairs, and leave these

higher attempts to more competent hands.' This is the language, not of

reason and modesty, but of sloth, of selfishness, and of pride. The

amount of it is, 'I cannot do every thing, therefore I will do

nothing,' But you can do much. Act well your part according to your

faculties, your station, and your means. The result will be honorable

to yourself, delightful to your friends, and beneficial to the world.

I advise not to gigantic aims, to enormous enterprise. The world has

seen but one Newton, and one Howard. Nothing is required of you but to

make the most of the opportunities within your reach.

"Recall the example of Mrs. Graham. Here was a woman, a widow, a

stranger in a strange land, without fortune, with no friends but such

as her letters of introduction and her worth should acquire, and with

a family of daughters dependent upon her for their subsistence. Surely

if any one has a clear title of immunity from the obligation to carry

her cares beyond the domestic circle, it is this widow, it is this

stranger. Yet within a few years this stranger, this widow, with no

means but her excellent sense, her benevolent heart, and her

persevering will to do good, awakens the charities of a populous city,

and gives to them an impulse, a direction, and an efficacy unknown

before.

"What might not be done by men--by men of talent, of standing, of

wealth, of leisure? How speedily, under their well-directed

beneficence, might a whole country change its physical, intellectual,

and moral aspect; and assume, comparatively speaking, the face of

another Eden, a second garden of God. Why then do they not diffuse

thus extensively the seeds of knowledge, of virtue, and of bliss? I

ask not for their pretences; they are as old as the lust of lucre, and

are refuted by the example which we have been contemplating: I ask for

the true reason, for the inspiring principle of their conduct. It is

this--let them look to it when God shall call them to account for the

abuse of their time, their talents, their station, their 'unrighteous

mammon'--it is this: they believe not 'the words of the Lord Jesus,

how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.' They labor

under no want but one, they want _the heart_. The bountiful God

add this to the other gifts which he has bestowed upon them. I turn to

the other sex.

"That venerable mother in Israel who has exchanged the service of

God on earth for his service in heaven, has left a legacy to her

sisters: she has left the example of her faith and patience; she has

left her prayers; she has left the monument of her Christian deeds;

and by these she being dead, yet speaketh. Matrons, has she left her

mantle also? Are there none among you to hear her voice from the tomb,

Go and do thou likewise? None whom affluence permits, endowments

qualify, and piety prompts, to aim at her distinction by treading in

her steps? Maidens, are there none among you who would wish to array

yourselves hereafter in the honors of this virtuous woman? Your hearts

have dismissed their wonted warmth and generosity, if they do not

throb as the revered vision rises before you. Then prepare yourselves

now, by seeking and serving the God of her youth. You cannot be too

early adorned with the robes of righteousness and the garments of

salvation in which she was wedded, in her morning of life, to Jesus

the King of glory. That same grace which threw its radiance around

her, shall make you also to shine in the beauty of holiness; and the

fragrance of those virtues which it shall create, develope, and

ennoble, will be 'as the smell of a field which the Lord hath

blessed.'

"Yea, let me press upon all the transcendent excellence of

Christian character, and the victorious power of Christian hope. The

former bears the image of God; the latter is as imperishable as his

throne. We fasten our eyes with more real respect and more heart-felt

approbation upon the moral majesty displayed in walking as Christ also

walked, than upon all the pomps of the monarch or decorations of the

military hero. More touching to the sense and more grateful to high

heaven is the soft melancholy with which we look after our departed

friend, and the tear which embalms her memory, than the thundering

plaudits which rend the air with the name of a conqueror. She has

obtained a triumph over that foe who shall break the arm of valor, and

strike off the crown of kings. 'The fashion of this world passeth

away.' Old Time approaches towards his last hour. The proudest

memorials of human grandeur shall be food for the conflagration to be

kindled when 'the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in flaming

fire. Then shall he be glorified in his saints, and admired in all

them that believe.'

"There are those perhaps, in the present assembly, who repute

godliness fanaticism, and the sobriety of Christian peace the gloom of

a joyless spirit; but who cannot forbear sighing out, with the prophet

of mammon, 'Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end

be like his.' If they proceed no further, their wish will not be

granted. None shall die the death of the righteous, unless by a rare

dispensation of mercy, who do not live his life. They only are fit to

be with God who love God and keep his commandments. In that day of

transport and of terror which we shall all witness, how many of the

thoughtless fair who now 'sport themselves with their own deceivings,'

would give all the treasures of the east and thrones of the west to

sit with Isabella Graham on the right hand of Jesus Christ. If ye be

wise betimes, ye may. Now is the accepted time; to-day is the day of

salvation. The gospel of the Son of God offers you at this very

moment, the forgiveness of your sins, and an inheritance among them

that are sanctified. The blessing comes to you as a free gift: accept

it, and live; accept it, and be safe; accept it, and put away the

shudderings of guilt and the fear of death. Then shall you too, like

our friend, go in due season to be with Christ. Your happy spirit

shall rejoin hers in the mansions of the saved. God shall bring you in

soul and body with her when he makes up his jewels. Then shall he

gather his elect from the four winds of heaven, shall perfect that

which concerneth them, and make them fully and for ever blessed. Be

our place among them in that day.'

EXTRACT FROM MRS. GRAHAM'S

LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT.

"My children and my grandchildren I leave to my covenant God--the

God who hath fed me all my life with the bread that perisheth, and the

bread that never perisheth; who has been a Father to my fatherless

children, and a Husband to their widowed mother thus far. And now,

receiving my Redeemer's testimony, John 3:33, I set to my seal that

God is true; and believing the record in John's epistle, that God hath

given to me eternal life, and this life is in his Son, who, through

the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot unto God, and being

consecrated a priest for ever, hath with his own blood, entered into

the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for me. I also

believe that he will perfect what concerns me, support and carry me

safely through death, and present me to his Father, complete in

his own righteousness, without spot or wrinkle. Into the hands

of this redeeming God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I commit my

redeemed spirit."

Mrs. Graham's epitaph on a tablet in the Pearl-street church, is

associated with that of her son-in-law Mr. Bethune, to whom before his

connection with the family she was a spiritual mother; who prepared

her memoir, wrote and printed tracts for her widows, imported Bibles

for her to distribute, replenished her charity purse when exhausted;

with whom she took sweet counsel and walked to the house of God in

company; and for whom she was pleased to leave the written and

honorable testimony: "He stands in my mind, in temper, conduct, and

conversation, the nearest to the gospel standard of any man or woman I

ever knew as intimately. Devoted to his God, to his church, to his

family, to all to whom he may have opportunity of doing good, duty is

his governing principle; cast upon his care, under God he nourishes me

with kindness," etc. They have entered into rest. One sepulchre

contains their sleeping dust, and one monument bears the following

tribute to their memory:

SACRED TO THE MEMORY

OF

DIVIE BETHUNE,

MERCHANT OF THIS CITY,

WHO DIED SEPTEMBER 18, 1824, AGED 53 YEARS;

AND OF

ISABELLA GRAHAM,

HIS MOTHER-IN-LAW,

WHO DIED JULY 27, 1814, AGED 72 YEARS.

THEY WERE BOTH NATIVES OF SCOTLAND.

THIS MONUMENT

IS REARED BY HIS BEREAVED WIDOW AND HER ORPHAN DAUGHTER,

AS A TESTIMONIAL OF TWO SERVANTS OF JESUS CHRIST:

THE ONE A RULING ELDER IN HIS CHURCH, THE OTHER A MOTHER IN ISRAEL;

WHO, LIKE ENOCH, WALKED WITH GOD,

LIKE ABRAHAM, OBTAINED THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF FAITH,

AND, LIKE PAUL, FINISHED THEIR COURSE WITH JOY.

THEY WERE LOVELY AND PLEASANT IN THEIR LIVES,

AND THEY REST HERE TOGETHER IN THEIR GRAVES.

"THE BLESSING OF HIM THAT WAS READY TO PERISH CAME UPON THEM; AND

THEY CAUSED THE WIDOW'S HEART TO SING FOR JOY." JOB 29:13.

"OH HOW GREAT IS THY GOODNESS, WHICH THOU HAST LAID UP FOR THEM

THAT FEAR THEE; WHICH THOU HAST WROUGHT FOR THEM THAT TRUST IN THEE

BEFORE THE SONS OF MEN!" PSA. 31:19.

PROVISION

FOR

MY LAST JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDERNESS

AND

PASSAGE OVER JORDAN.*

*Found in Mrs. Graham's pocket after her decease.

"'Prepare you victuals, for within three days ye shall pass over

this Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God

giveth you to possess it. When ye see the ark of the covenant of the

Lord your God, and the priests bearing it, then ye shall remove and go

after it: that ye may know the way by which ye must go, for ye have

not passed this way heretofore.'

"'Sanctify yourselves, for to-morrow the Lord will do wonders

among you.'

"'Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth

passeth over before you into Jordan: and it shall come to pass, that

as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of

the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters, that

the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down

from above; and they shall stand upon a heap.'

"'And it came to pass, that when the people removed from their

tents to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the

covenant before the people, that as they that bare the ark were come

into Jordan, and the feet of the priests were dipped in the brim of

the water, that the waters that came down from above stood and rose up

upon a heap; and the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the

Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the

Israelites passed over on dry ground.'

"'And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the

place where the feet of the priests that bare the ark of the covenant

of the Lord stood; and they are there unto this day.'

"'When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come,

saying, What mean these stones? ye shall let your children know,

saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land; for the Lord your

God dried up the waters from before you until ye were passed over, as

the Lord your God did to the Red sea, which he dried up, until we were

passed over; that all people of the earth might know the hand of the

Lord, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the Lord your God for

ever,' Amen. Josh. 1:11; chap. 3, 4.

"Oh, thou Jehovah; Israel's God, and by thy new covenant, my God;

thus far hast thou brought me through the wilderness: bearing,

chastising, forgiving, restoring. Well hast thou made out thy

wilderness name to me: 'The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,

long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for

thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.' Great have

been my provocations, but greater still thy covenant mercy. I have not

perished with them that believed not; sore bitten I am, but thou hast

fixed mine eyes on the lifted-up Healer, and I am in his hand for

further cure. My journey has been long, and my way devious; but my

blessed Joshua is still in view. I must be near to Jordan's flood; I

have been preparing victuals from thine own repository of truth. And

now, my blessed High-priest and Ark of the covenant, lead on my

staggering steps the little further. I have not gone this way

heretofore, but thou hast measured these waters while they overflowed

all their banks. Thou hast passed through, and made the passage safe

for thy people. At thy command the waters stand up upon a heap, and

they pass through in thy presence on faith's firm ground. Keep then

mine eye upon thee, and I shall fear no evil. And Oh, my, blessed

Leader, if it might please thee, I would ask a boon, yet with

submission, that thy sensible presence might be with me all the way

through; and that thou wouldst bring from my quivering lips a

testimony to the glory of thy grace, that my children may know that

thou hast pardoned, restored, perfected, dried up the waters of

terror, carried me triumphantly through, and put me in possession of

the purchased inheritance. Amen.

"'This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.'

1 Tim. 1:15.

"I have often inquired, What is there within us, or without us,

on which a sinner can rest in peace in a dying hour? If it be a holy

life, there can be no peace for me--taking the law of God for my

standard; backslider is my name; yet I think in this sacred volume I

find a hope even for me, the chief of sinners.

"'As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must

the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him should

not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he

gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not

perish, but have eternal life. For God sent not his Son into the world

to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.'

'He that cometh from heaven is above all, and what he hath seen and

heard, that he testifieth.' 'He that receiveth his testimony has set

to his seal that God is true.' 'The Father loveth the Son, and hath

given all things into his hand; he that believeth on the Son hath

everlasting life.' John 3:14-36. Here is a hope for me; the world is

made up of sinners, I am one of them, and though the chief, am not

excluded. The Son of man came to save that which was lost, Matt.

18:11; I am of that description. 'The Pharisees said, Why eateth your

master with publicans and sinners? Jesus said, The whole need not a

physician, but they that are sick.' Matt. 9:11. I am a sinner, and

sick. 'I will have mercy, and not sacrifice; for I am not come to call

the righteous, but sinners to repentance.' I am a sinner, and need

repentance. 'Him hath God exalted with his right hand, to be a Prince

and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.'

Acts 5:31. 'The Lord is long-suffering, not willing that any should

perish, but that all should come to repentance.' 2 Pet. 3:9.

"Christ said to the woman of Samaria, a notorious sinner, 'If

thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give

me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given

thee living water. Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst

again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him,

shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in

him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.' John 4:10,

14. Yes, my Redeemer, a draught of this water, received in faith from

the hand of the Spirit, will give life in death. O pour it into my

thirsty soul in that searching hour.

"Jesus said to a mixed multitude of sinners like me, 'Labor not

for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto

everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you; for him

hath God the Father sealed,' John 6:27. These sinners said unto him,

'What shall we do that we might work the works of God?' 'That ye

believe on Him whom he hath sent. My Father giveth you the true bread

from heaven, for the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven,

and giveth life unto the world: I am the bread of life; he that cometh

unto me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never

thirst. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man

eat of this bread, he shall live for ever. And the bread which I shall

give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Jesus

said unto them, Except ye eat the flesh, and drink the blood of the

Son of man, ye have no life in you: whoso eateth my flesh, and

drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father

hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, even he

shall live by me.' The Father giveth this bread, the Son giveth this

bread; whosoever will, may take of this bread, and the promise with

it. Father, I take this bread, I take and believe that I have in thee

eternal life, according to thy word. O holy and blessed Comforter,

Spirit of the Father and of the Son, whose office it is to take of the

things of Christ and show them unto his redeemed, when the bread and

the water that perish can no longer refresh this dying body, apply

this living bread and living water to my soul, that life may spring up

in the midst of death; and in that trying hour, bear witness with my

spirit that I dwell in Christ, and Christ in me, and that I shall

never die.

"'In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and

cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that

believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall

flow rivers of living water. This spake he of the Spirit, that they

who believe on him should receive.' John 7:37. This he proclaimed to a

mixed multitude of sinners like myself. Lord, I believe, and am sure

that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. Be it unto me

according to thy word: 'I am the resurrection and the life: he that

believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever

liveth and believeth in me, shall never die. Believest thou this?'

John 11:25. I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living

God, which should come into the world; the promised Messiah; the gift

of the Father, the covenant given to the people; the anointed Prophet

and King, and consecrated High-priest; who through the eternal Spirit

offeredst thyself without spot unto God; who came to do that most

perfect will of God, by which we are sanctified through the offering

of the body of Christ once for all. Lamb of God, which takest away the

sins of the world, on thee I lay my precious never-dying soul; wash me

in thy blood, clothe me in thy righteousness; sanctify me, soul,

spirit, and body, to thy service. I have no other foundation of hope,

nothing within me, nothing without me; my entire dependence is on thy

finished work; into thy hands I commit my spirit.

"Let me hear thy consoling voice, compassionate Saviour. 'Let not

your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my

Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told

you. I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again and receive

you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also,' John 14:1-3.

O seal this upon my heart, and it is enough. To be where thou art, is

heaven enough to me. To be where thou art, to see thee as thou art,

and to be made like thee, the last sinful motion for ever past--no

more opposition, no more weariness, listlessness, dryness, deadness;

but conformed to my blessed Head, every way capacitated to serve him,

and to enjoy him--this is heaven.

"'Jesus said, I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no man

cometh to the Father, but by me.' Blessed Comforter, do thine office;

take these things of Christ and show them unto me; lead me in this

way, feed me with this truth, and animate me with this life:

'Whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, that will I do,

that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye ask any thing in my

name, I will do it.' Blessed Comforter, here also do thine office: I

know not what to ask for as I ought; help mine infirmities as thou

hast said; suggest the prayer, be in me the spirit of prayer and

supplication, and especially in that hour of need, when sickness saps

the clay tabernacle, discomposing the spirit, and confusing perhaps

the ideas: still, still let my thoughts rise to my God. Oh, let no

unhallowed subject get hold of me in that hour, but keep my Saviour's

name in my heart, and on my lips. Is not this according to thy will?

watch over it then, and keep the avenues of my soul from every

vain idea.

"'If ye love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the

Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide

with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot

receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know

him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. He that hath my

commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that

loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will

manifest myself unto him; and we will come and make our abode with

him. The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send

in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to

your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with

you; my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto

you: let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.' In

that last warfare, when nothing on earth can give peace; when the

world recedes, and disappears; when friends must stand aloof and leave

me to the combat alone; Oh, blessed and promised Comforter, bring to

my remembrance, and impress on my weary spirit these sweet words of my

Saviour. But it has often occurred to me, and may in that hour, that

though Jesus received sinners, they were ignorant sinners. The Jews

understood not the gospel contained in their types and sacrifices;

they were unenlightened and unconverted; the Gentiles were totally

blind, serving dumb idols; neither had known the gospel, neither had

tasted the grace of God, neither were backsliders, like me. I have

known the truth, been enlightened, tasted of the heavenly gift, been

made a partaker of the Holy Ghost, tasted of the good word of God, and

of the power of the world to come.

"Fifty years ago the Lord convinced me of my sin, my misery, and

my total helplessness. I was also, I think, enabled to lay hold on the

hope set before me.

"I have, in numerous exercises and acts, accepted of God's gift

of Jesus Christ to me a condemned sinner; taking hold of the Scripture

words of invitation and promise held out for my acceptance. I have

pleaded his own covenant provision, in the substitution of his own Son

in my stead, making him to be sin, who knew no sin, that sinners might

be made the righteousness of God in him. I put in my claim as a

sinner, among the ungodly for whom Christ died. I believed his

testimony, and set to my seal that God is true. I rested on this

foundation--I yet have no other; I know there is no other. The

foundation standeth sure. But Oh, what am I to think of the fruits? I

have again and again turned back into the world, grieved the Spirit,

crucified the Son of God afresh, and put him to open shame. No wonder

I stand alarmed at the apostle's assertion: my conscience testifies

that my character is nearly, if not altogether, such as the apostle,

by the Holy Spirit, says it is impossible to renew to repentance.

Hebrews 6:4, 5. But thou hast renewed to repentance! Thy name is 'the

Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and

abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving

iniquity, transgression, and sin.' Thou wilt by no means clear the

guilty; but thou hast provided a substitute, and laid my guilt and

guilty person on thine own Son.

"By this gracious name thou wast known to thy backsliding Israel

in the wilderness; whose heart, like mine, was not right with God;

neither were they steadfast in his covenant; but he, 'being full of

compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not.' Many a

time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath. They

forgot God their Saviour, who had done great things for them; they

transgressed his commandment, and in their heart turned back again to

Egypt; they brought upon themselves many afflictions, and many times

did he deliver them; they provoked him with their counsel, and were

brought low for their iniquity; nevertheless, he heard their cry, and

repented according to the multitude of his mercies; while the blood of

bulls and of goats typified the great propitiatory sacrifice, by which

'God can be just and justify the ungodly.' By this name was the Lord

God, merciful and gracious, known in the pleasant land; and by the

same sacrifice, the blood of Christ, which cleanseth from all sin, was

typified. Psalms 103, 51.

"The prophets prophesied in his name. 'All we, like sheep, have

gone astray, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He

was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities;

the chastisement of our peace was laid on him, and by his stripes we

are healed.' 'Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a

ransom.' Even backsliders, among whom I stand chief, have been

recalled. 'My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me

the fountain of living waters, and have hewn out to themselves

cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. Is Israel a

servant; is he a home-born slave; wherefore is he spoiled? Hast thou

not procured this to thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy

God, when he led thee by the way? And now what hast thou to do in the

way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in

the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river? Thine own

wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove

thee. Know therefore, and see that it is an evil and bitter thing,

that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in

thee, saith the Lord God of hosts. For of old I have broken thy yoke,

and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon

every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the

harlot. Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how

art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?

Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be

ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria. Have I been a

barren wilderness, or a land of darkness unto thee? Wherefore say my

people, We are lords, and will come no more to thee? Can a maid forget

her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me,

days without number.' Jeremiah 2. 'They say, If a man put away his

wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return

to her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? But thou hast

played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again unto me, saith

the Lord. Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me. My Father, thou

art the guide of my youth?' What can I say to such grace? Thou art

infinite in thy mercy to pardon, and in thy power to save. Such has

been my character, and such the amazing mercy of my offended God.

Often, often has he pardoned, restored, blessed, and made me happy.

But Oh, just is the renewed charge against me. 'For the house of

Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously with me,

saith the Lord. They have belied the Lord, and said, It is not he,

neither shall evil come upon us.' 'Go and proclaim these words, and

say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not

cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord,

I will not keep anger for ever. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that

thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God; and ye have not

obeyed my voice, saith the Lord. Turn, O backsliding children, for I

am married unto you.' Jer. 3. What, O what can I say to such grace?

Truly, thy ways are not as our ways, nor thy thoughts as our thoughts.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are thy ways higher

than our ways, and thy thoughts than our thoughts. Oh, how is my guilt

aggravated by all this grace; and yet thou callest, _Return;_ and

thou thyself turnest me. I do, O Lord God, merciful and gracious, I do

acknowledge my iniquity; every time I turn back my eyes upon my past

life my sins rise in magnitude, heightened by more enlarged views of

thy goodness. It is of the Lord's mercies that I am not consumed,

because his compassions fail not.

"A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplication

of the children of Israel, for they have perverted their ways, and

they have forgotten the Lord their God. Yes, thou hast, my gracious

God, granted repentance. Thine eye has seen the tears I have shed;

thou hast given me a contrite heart. I have looked upon him whom I

have pierced, and been in bitterness as for a first-born. I feel it

now, and must feel it while the body of sin exists. But Oh, Lord God,

merciful and gracious, the cause is in thyself, that I hear thy voice,

and that I answer. 'Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal

your backslidings. Behold, I come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our

God. Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and the

multitude of mountains. Truly, in the Lord God is the salvation of

Israel. We lie down in our shame, our confusion covereth us: for we

have sinned against the Lord our God; we and our fathers, even from

our youth; and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord God. Thus saith

the Lord God, I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, who hast

despised the oath in breaking the covenant. Nevertheless, I will

remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth; and I will

establish unto thee an everlasting covenant, and thou shalt know that

I am the Lord. That thou mayest remember and be confounded, and never

open thy mouth any more, because of thy shame, when I am pacified

towards thee, saith the Lord God.' Amen, Lord God, merciful and

gracious. Be it so. It is so _now_--it _must_, it will be

so, until death shall open mine eyes on that mystery: The glory of God

arising out of the abounding of sin, through the superabounding of

grace, and grace reigning through righteousness unto eternal life, by

Jesus Christ our Lord!

"Till then, while sin dwelleth in me, let me enjoy the

blessedness of a contrite heart; yea, even shame and confusion, since

it is the sign that thou art pacified with me. Thou hast dealt with

me, thou hast chastened, and in some instances taken vengeance on my

inventions. But thou art pacified with me, and I dare look again to

thy holy temple, to the temple not made with hands, to the minister of

the sanctuary, and the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not

man; to the blessed High-priest, who through the eternal Spirit

offered himself a sacrifice without spot unto God, and by his own

blood entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal

redemption for us, and when he had purged our sins, sat down on the

right hand of the Majesty on high; to the blessed Mediator of the new

and better covenant, established on better promises; to the Surety of

the new testament, and sealed with his own blood. Oh, I will look unto

Jesus, the object, the author, and the finisher of that faith which

interests us in himself and the whole of his purchase. He bids me look

unto him, and be saved. I do look unto him, and I am saved. Who dares

condemn the sinner whom Christ acquits? Who shall lay any thing to his

charge? 'It is Christ that died; yea, rather, who is risen again;

who is even at the right hand of God; who also maketh intercession

for us.'"

ISAIAH 44:22. "RETURN UNTO ME.

A SCRIPTURE PARAPHRASE BY D. B----

"Return to thee, my God? dost thou

The invitation yet renew?

Return to thee! my chiefest joy,

Till sin did all my peace destroy.

"And yet, to hear thy pardoning voice

Must make my trembling heart rejoice;

Though sin is there, thou well dost know

It is my burden and my foe.

"O let me hear those gracious words:

Be still, my soul, they are the Lord's;

That God, who once on thee did shine,

And filled thee with a hope divine.

"'Thy black transgressions, trembling soul--

Thy sins so heinous and so foul,

Which like a cloud obscure thy day,

I've blotted out, I've washed away.

"'Return to me, thou 'rt mine; I own

Thee for my servant, and my son;

I have redeemed thy precious soul,

And none my purchase shall control.'

"I hear, I come, my covenant God:

Thy love's my life, my raiment, food;

Thy favor, through my Jesus given,

Is to my soul the bliss of heaven.

"I come, my Jesus; hold me fast,

Till, life and Jordan's journey past,

My faith to vision yield her place,

And I shall see thy unveiled face.

"Then, with the loudest of the throng,

Of sins forgiven I'll raise the song--

Of pardon bought with Jesus' blood,

Sinners made kings and priests to God."

PSALM 103. FIFTY YEARS AGO.

"Oh thou, my soul, bless God the Lord,

And all that in me is

Be stirréd up, his holy name

To magnify and bless," etc.

"'I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you. Yet a

little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I

live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my

Father, and ye in me, and I in you. Believest thou not that I am in

the Father, and the Father in me? He that hath seen me, hath seen the

Father. Howbeit, when the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you

into all truth. He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine, and

shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine;

therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto

you.' John 14; 16:14. 'Neither pray I for these alone, but for them

also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may

be one; as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they may be one

in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the

glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one,

even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may be made

perfect in one; that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and

hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also,

whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold

my glory, which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the

foundation of the world.' John 17:20, etc. 'All are yours; and ye are

Christ's; and Christ is God's.' 1 Cor. 3:22. 'Ye are dead, and your

life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall

appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.' Col. 3:3. 'For

in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are

complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.'

Col. 2:9. 'There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in

one hope of your calling: one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God

and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of

the gift of Christ.' Eph. 4:4.

"'I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but

Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I

live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself

for me,' Gal. 2: 20.

"'Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!

And looking upon Jesus as he walked, John saith, Behold the Lamb of

God!' John 1:29, 36.

"'Therefore let no man glory in men: for all things are yours;

whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death,

or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are

Christ's; and Christ is God's,' 1 Cor. 3:21.

"'It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He

sitteth alone and keepeth silence; he putteth his mouth in the dust,

if so be there may be hope; he giveth his cheek to him that smiteth

him: he is filled full with reproach.' Lam. 3:27.

"'That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open

thy mouth any more, because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward

thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord.' Ezek. 16:63.

_Amen._

"'A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of

thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains. Therefore,

also now, saith the Lord, turn ye unto me with all your heart, with

fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. Rend your heart, and not

your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God; for he is gracious and

merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of

the evil,' Joel 2:2, 12.

"'I will visit upon her the days of Baalim: she went after her

lovers, and forgat me, saith the Lord. I will allure her, and bring

her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will

betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in

righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in

mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou

shalt know the Lord.' Hosea 2:13.

"'O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thy help.'

'Return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.

Take with you words, and turn to the Lord; say unto him, Take away all

iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of

our lips. Ashur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses:

neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our

gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.' Hosea 13:14.

"'I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely; for

mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel;

he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.

Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard

him, and observed him. I am like a green fir-tree; from me is thy

fruit found.' Hosea 14.

"'O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, because we have

sinned against thee. To the Lord our God belong mercies and

forgiveness, though we have rebelled against him.' Daniel 9.

"'He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the

lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom; and shall gently lead

those that are with young. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O

Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over

from my God? Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the

everlasting God fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching

of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that

have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and

be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall; but they that wait

upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with

wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk,

and not faint.' Isa. 40:11, etc.

"'Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? Did not

the Lord, he against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in

his ways, neither were they obedient to his law. Therefore he hath

poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and

it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned

him, yet he laid it not to heart. But now thus saith the Lord that

created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not;

for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art

mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and

through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest

through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt; neither shall the flame

kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel,

thy Saviour. Since thou wast precious in my sight thou hast been

honorable, and I have loved thee.' Isa. 42:24, etc.

"Yes, my God, I remember and am confounded; amazed at my

ingratitude, amazed at thy grace. I am thy witness, just so has been

thy way with me. What can I say? Thou hast wrought with me for thy

name's sake. I am dumb before thee; Oh, I am vile--and yet I am thine!

Thou hast redeemed me; it is thy good pleasure to save me. Glorify thy

name. 'I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and

as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee. Sing,

O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the

earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest and every

green tree therein; for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified

himself in Israel.'

"'For if by one man's offence, death reigned by one; much more

they which receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of

righteousness, shall reign in life by one, Christ Jesus. Where sin

abounded, grace did much more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto

death, so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life,

by Jesus Christ our Lord.'

"'Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I

am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word is

gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto

me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely shall one

say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall

men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. In

the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.'

'Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house

of Israel. Even to your old age, I am he; and even to hoar hairs will

I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will

deliver you.' Isa. 45:22; 46:3.

"'Thus saith the Lord; I, even I, will both search my sheep, and

seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he

is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep,

and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered

in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the people,

and gather them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of

Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.

And I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of

Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and

in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. I will

feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God.

I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven

away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that

which was sick.' Ezek. 34:11. He hath done it, I am his witness: I,

the poor wanderer, the happy subject of this grace. 'And I will raise

up for them a plant of renown,' my Jesus, 'and they shall be no 'more

consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the

heathen any more. Thus shall they know that I the Lord their God am

with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people,

saith the Lord God. And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men,

and I am your God, saith the Lord God.' Ezek. 34:29. 'As the mountains

are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from

henceforth, even for ever.' Psa. 125:2.

"'When the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled

it by their own way and by their doings. And I scattered them among

the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries; according

to their ways and according to their doings I judged them. And when

they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my

holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the Lord,

and are gone forth out of his land. But I had pity for my holy name,

which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they

went. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God:

I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for my holy

name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye

went. And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the

heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen

shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be

sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among

the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you

into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye

shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols,

will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit

will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of

your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my

Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall

keep my judgments, and do them. I will also save you from all your

uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and

lay no famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and

the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of

famine among the heathen. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways,

and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in

your own sight for your iniquities, and for your abominations. Not for

your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be

ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.'

Ezek. 36:17, etc."

EZEKIEL 16:63; 36:32.

A SCRIPTURE PARAPHRASE BY D. B----.

"Not for your sakes; for, born unclean,

The slaves of Satan and of sin.

I saw no comeliness in you,

To bid my grace such wonders do.

"Not for your sakes; for when my love

And grace should your affections move,

The working of an evil heart

Still makes you from my truth depart.

"Not for your sakes; for, bold and blind,

To lust and avarice inclined,

Each shadowy idol you obey,

Disowning my paternal sway.

"Not for your sakes; with heaven in view,

For sin you sell your souls anew;

You barter, for a gilded bait,

The joys of an eternal state.

"Not for your sakes; for though you eyed

The cross of Christ on which he died,

You scorn his love for worldly ends,

And wound him in the house of friends.

"Not for your sakes; with Jesus' name,

You put him to an open shame;

And by your sins, consent again

To have the dear Redeemer slain.