f^'if*. •> ' \- ■ ■■ ■■■V ■ • •.:t- ■• >■■■ . .«. IT: ' . 'Vi CIHIVI Microfiche Series- i :*;■■- ■ ^. ♦. -*< ' .. ■^* :" »■■♦■ •.,♦' - / icMh Collection tje (rnonographles) t ^: Canadian Instltuta for Historical Mtcroraproductiont / ln|titut Canadian d4 microraproductions historiquas L/. f ■ ■ i ■ '. t : — *■ ttctinical «'nI Bibliograpdie. Nottt / Notvt Mchniqutt et bibliographiqufs Tht Imtitutchas ■tttinptt^ to obtain the bcit original copy available for filming, ^caturts of this copy which may ba biblipgraphically uniiqua. which may attar any of tha imagat in tlM raprodoction, or wh»di may fignificantly changa fha uiual method of filmiitg. ara chacfcadbabiw. . O Coloured covars/ ' Couverture de jcouleur - .>^- ■.:■■. , •■■■ Covert damaged/ Couverture endommagie □ L I La Covert rittored and/pr laminated/ Couverture rettturie et/ou pelliculie Cover tftie mitting/ titre de couverture manque D Coloured mapt/ Cartet gtegraphiquet en couleur /. L'Inttitut a microfilm^ la meilleur exemplaire qu'il ^ lui a M potiible. de te procurer. Let dktailt de cet exemptaire qui tont peut-4tre uniquet du point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier iine image ireproduite. ou qui peuvent exiger une modification dant la m^thode normale de f ilmage toht indiqu^ . cii^ttout. ' . ■■'•.■■•■.■ □ Coloured paget/ Paget de couleur I I Paget damaged/ 1 i Paget endommagto □ Paget rettored artd/or laminated^ / Paget rettaui'iei' et/ou pellicultot Paget ditcoloured, ttained or foxed/ Paget dtcojoriet. tachettet ou piqueet □ Paget detached/ Paget ditaehiet listoriques D D a □ Coloured ink (i.e. other than blucR Or Mack)/ Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou hdire) Coloured platet and/or illuttrationt/ Planchet et/ou illuttrationt en couleur Bound with other material/ Relie-avecd'autret documentt - . . ' tight binding may caute thadowt or dittor 4 5 , ^^^ ^ roduosii thankr ru.^; v'^-k >*' i.-^^ bfst quality and lagibllity with tha mm ara filmad anding on tratad impraa- ipriata«iAil Inning on tha id inipraa- . rithapriptad I. erbfieha ling "CON* ,g "END"J. imad at I jarga to ba I filmf d nar, iaft^to imaaaa latratatha • -7' Vtxmnpmn fnm« fiii raprodult grioa i to g4n4roaiti da: Tht Untod ClMirdi pf CaKliii Archim Victorii Uniwmity Arehim -*— ^ - Laa imagaa auivantaa pnt it* raproduitaa avae la plus grand aoin. eompta tanu da la conditicyh jpt da la nattat* da faxampialra fiimi^'at an / confomiit* avae laa conditions du aontral^ da ■fUmaga. ^ / . Las axamptoiraa originiux dontia eouvartura an , papiar ast imprimia soht filmte an commandant par la pramiar plat at an tarminant soit ur to darniira paga qui comporta una amprainta d'impraasion ou dllluatteation, spit parlraacond . plat, aajpn to eaa. Toiis las autraa axampiairaa originauit iont fllmAs an conimah9ant par to pramiAra jp^ga qui cOmporta una amprainta d'impraasidfi ou dlllustration at an tarmihant par la damiAra ppga qiii comporta una talto amprainta. V ; x lih das symbblaa ailivahts apparaltm sur to darniAra imaga d^ chaqua microflcha. salon la cas: la syriiboto «^«»- signifia ^A SUIVRE'V la symbotoV signifia "FIN". ' ■ . ■ ■ ^ > . ," Las cartas, planchas. tablaaux, ate., psuvanr Atra f ilniAs A das taujc da r6duetion diffiftranta. ""'' Lorsqiia to document ast trop grand pour Atra raproduit an un aaul elich*. il ast film* i partir ^ da I'angia aupiriaur jgaucha, da qaucha A droitf. at da haut an b*s, an pranant la nombra d'imagas nAcassaira. Las dia^rammas suivanta illuStrant to mithode. . ^ Miqtocorv RisoiutioN tbt chart (ANSI ond ISO TEST CHART No. 2) % '^ J y^PUED^m^VSE inc 16SJ East Main Street Rochester, New York^ 14609 USA (716) 482 -.0300 - PhOhi (716) 288 -5989 -Fox ■/ A. » c m SEFEl ■ ' - '' , ■ ■■ .■r-Brn«nHa«mp. Ca««le<8(MdL «rpool; 8iiDpkiii A Marsliall.Statiout-ra'.Cnurt.LuiUale-Siretfi; ^ Bainei,auil Bniloo A Son, Patarnosier-Row; aiut BUd«liafd, Ctt>-lload, London. , .*-, / v.^.. * ■■■• ft!' \ 'z. 1 V \» ' . ^--L- FEB 25 1948 THB IDIE!DI!(Si^VII(DI^ or A FATHER TO HIS CHILDREN A FATHER ! that name is a centre i 1 o you, my dear girls, 'tis a home : A haven you always may enter. When life is all tempest and foam. Your names on my heart are engraven • Time cannot the im&ge remove • ' While black are the plumes of the'raven. And plaintive the voice of the dove. Foryou my xvarm prayers have ascended, 1 hey re all on the heavenly file That each by God's Spirit attended, M^y walk in the light of his smile. Expand like a rose-bud unfading, . And beatity and fragrance impart '^ A beauty, that needs no parading, ' : A fragrance, that gladdens the heart. ^cjowjy and modest and simple, ^ Foy fliese make the fairest more fair • ^ot half 80 bewitching Jane's dimple, * iNor Fanny's blue eyes and brown hair. '$ "■'■^s^ 1*, • IV /''«l'«''"tNfimst|,„|.cHtoi,.ovej Hut H,n,,„nH ns .ml,i „„ n„. ,„„,„i An.l soft an the ,Jown of the dove. All inoi.tal luroiupliHlmiciitH tovot IJiit i.evfr desire Jo be fine • Lt^t the belle and the buttcfly love it j Ii« VBiuty H emblem and 8ign. . • Move on in the lirtle of duty' With dignity, wisdom and iraee ; i l'e«e «,ve the yonn^ fen.alc a beauty .^urpastiing the prettiest face. True meekness is H'omatrs chief merit = io rise any highcrneer aim; Who shows the bold Amazon spirit— forgive me~but blazons her shame. Youth, elegance, gaiety, beauty, May kindle the flame of desire ■ J 18 sympathy, meekness, and duty Alone, that can ^cherish the f«u. But these arc the Spirit's own planting ; i hey bloom in the garden of grace • Where er they are withcr'd or LJul ^o charms has the loveliest face. A danghter,_wife, sister or mother. Delightful relations we call • Ihe Christian sheds lustre on all. A Christian ! sweet appellation • _ J IS miniature Heaven on earth 1 'p."; ?//'' P'''^«*^n* salvation ; i^he child of a inystilal bjrth. f X ^ J- Tlicn chcmh, my ilcnrcst, ficMrs McNbinir, III spite of tiro rukc and the lieau ; 1 liiiik piety worth your posMcsHing, 'TiH Hcavcn'8 bright jowcl helow ! Hnve faith in the Laml. that was sinSttcn 5 Without It all virtue ia dross , In the vylumc of truth it is m littcn "We're sav'd by the blood of the' cross !' ' Redemption f—dcli^ht in the story ' Vwm writ l)y tlic pencil of love : I*air charter of liiuitlcss glory ; The song of the spirits alK)ve. A refuge! a rock of reliance j On this you may joyfully build ; Hid justice and vengeance defiancw. And boast in the blodd that was spill'd. Should folly ami fashion assail you Or vanity's bubble allure, And no other refuge avail you, llie Cross is a specilic cure.' No matter how private your station, lis love tliat enlarges the mind : 1 hat answers the end of creation. Which moves in the circle assign 'd. Wmt is there in classical pages 80 bright and so charming as this > Irue love is a lusli-e of ages. The day star of lieavenly bliss ! 'Bove vanity, riches and pleasure, _ 1 his sin-curing Anmlet prize j - . I he poorest, possessing this treasure, is rich in eternity's joys. - ' ._ _ ■ .,/.;^„,.. ^3^ -....■.. ;■.-;.--■. *: i.'- ▼I TIm» voyngn of IiTo in lioforo yc, YoH Nuil uith the Zioii-.|ionri(l fleet - M«v lovo Haft yoii oiiwiird to jjlory. And crown you nt Jchub'ii feet ! Your futluT tin's cl.tirt lias coiiHtrnctod. . Ai one of his heart's wwnicMt pledges • That y(M., by hid eounacl InHtincted, ' M«y Ijuftl againit urn's dismal ledges. AccqVt, ray dear daughters, the token, It tomes from a parent, a sire j A name that, or written ti spoken. Should filial affection Inspire. Adieu ! I to Jesus commend you j Be pious, 1)0 w ise, be discreet j ^*I,V'*'/"*'' "^y"""* '■'»*''^'" «>cfricnd you, liU w^ail shall in pwadistj meet. i 'SP- ■i I TO .•v vmiB mxAiDaiiri. 'BP- As the present .8 the third ecHtio,, of thU little nork tlu,ugh the first that lu.s appcHrcMl i„ K„«la,Hl, it ,,1 bo «cccH««ry hat the Author HlK,„ld aHHign ho.uo rea "7 1^^ appearing bef,H;c the p»I.Iic.-i„ f„ct, that heHhonld gh.nVi at he .,Ht<,ry of h.H Sketches of Karly Life. I„ the yci" 1812 he went from the Son.cr« hhUn to Kevv \wk n order to embark forEnglknd, but « hen he arrived the J ^ that country was upon the eve of a war with (Jreat iJritaln all her s „pp,„g. This laid l^ia. undorthe necessity of on- tinumg ,„ that c ty. till fi/mlly the declaration of C which was n.ado six weeks after Ids arrival, detained hm J prisoner under the care of the .nar«hal of the d trii? Having rmw a httle leisure, he published a small vo ume of Poems, " Amuseuients of a Mission, or Lei ureHo„r" or tw^nf "^ .•' ^"^ ""^ l^nown, he prefixed a pL or two of notices respecting his early Ufe. He sent a copy to John Bristead, Esq. counsellor, and author of aeveral popula^ works, viz. Resources of the. Brkisi Empire, of the Russbn Empire, and of the United St^es From th« gentleman he immediately received the foSg My dear Sir, > : ,^«' yofi, ^ug^si^^ ^812, ; • I heartily thank you for your very acceptable nresPfifr of your Poems, and the r«« W Sl/etche»Vfy^^^^^^^^ ^PhelitUe biographical notice of yourseiri via J "'■ t^* exceedingly J it b/eathes throughout the spirit of a'decn and fervent J)iety, a sound and manly understandinff. a ten- der and ^generous heart. It has but one fault.-lit is too 9/iort. I wislied much to have *een more of your CAmtian e.rpemnce, to have seen how tho Lord Jesus Christ enabled you, by the rnftuence of his Holy Spirit, to struggle with, incessantly and successfully, the evU heart of ufbelief- the rusts of the flesh, which war against the soul: how j^u have been strengthened into a fit temper and di^posi- t|on of soul to receive with gratitude whatever your heavenly Fathergives you j to desire nothing «'hich he withholds ; to yield up, with all obedience to his will, whatever he takesawayj_and to dedicate all that heaves, talents ' knowledge, time, opportunity, body, soul and spWt, ^ ♦^i S'l /k'"*' ^^'^^'i^^ Redeemer and your God : of the Holy Ghost, your Comforter, Sanctifier and God-1 • ■■■■ ■"•'■ : IX ' ■ ■/ ^ to himself, and his reasons for making it pnbllc may be found in the third page. He hopes they will justify him in the judgment of the candid/ the liberal and the pious. In giving, this third^ edition to the world, lie cannot deny himself the pleasure of subjoining the tcstimonv of a re- spectable gentleman, a member of the congress of the United btates, in a letter :vmtten to the Author since Us arriyal ID England. • _ . ' Canandatffua, Wh Maff, 1815. Kev. Sir, « I am persuaded by the kindness with which you men- tion me, ih your letter fi*om New York, to my neighbour and ffiend Mr. Beals, written in August last, that ypu will not look upon this address as impertinent j and I feel impelled, by t^e obligations of a grateful affection, to write to yon. The farewell address wa84 handed me, agreeabb to yonr request, and the deep interest you there display in the present and future happiness of your friends in this country, of whom you are pleasei^ito consider me as one, awakened much of my mother in my Jietet. Your friend- . ship, my dear sir, I most corfially reciprocate. Give me leave to say, that I have never, upon so short acquaintance with any man, felt myself so powerfully attached ; and the ties of this attachment I trust will never be broken, for they were framed in the mid^t of very serious impressions -T-impressions of a character which I hope will hereafter be approved in Heaven. Since your left us, I have made */»"* m profession of Christianity, and become a member of Mr. Torrey's society. To this profession, which 1. regard as the most important act of my life, I think your pray-ers, your sermons, your conversation and writings have contri- buted. Sir, I thank' you, and may God ih Heaven be your reward. At the age of nineteen T had read many infidel iwoks, and thought it a mark of spirit and genius to be »a gainsayer of revelation , but 1 desired happiness, and soon found that infidelity had none in possession, and . • The firit and second were published in New York. ^ h -iU?: .^ y ^;t. Paul, n^kJer.mklmi^f''''''' ^«"-e"ion of re .«ion. My heart wi S^^^^ evil habits and sometimes nTSfV^"* ? ^^'^ ^^ some now about six inonth S 7 ^j^l ^?* .^'"» *«»"• I' « day's duty to read the Bible a„H^' ''" ^^ *^^ «^^^ Renouncing all self-depeadenee ZJ^^'^i'^.^'y^^'^^l ) and imploring grace from above I ""^ """^"^''"^ "^X «'°« joy and hope.1 I bless God for tJoh "^ .^^^ ^^'»» 1 have experienced in mv W ^t.^ change which I thiqfc npon Him whose strenXs^ir ''^«°'^?* '^th a reliance that - as for ^e and "£ housTw^^''^' ^" <>" weakness, For your bopfe of iSems I ^ T" '""^^ '''« ^^^^d." nyself have rearf them Si.J*",*' yo'^- % ^vffe a«d «.e highest pJJXth^t'^J'^^fP^^^^ They deserve jTOimag5andei^:Sr^°?5^,and hive many Nity and zeal in the be^ of kn!?^ n'^^^y S'*^* «en«i- 'nll do the most good. Thev ^r\ ®."' y^""" M«^^^^^^ with avidity by moft afthlTu '''"l^^ace, and are read »ar « o/tL Sonedt Cal , • ^^^ Your gratifying to yoiir friends a^n/ST'.'" ^ ".anner very •endyouamoigusaffain^^ J„ ' ij^^^dence shou^ Withgreatjoy!;;:^:^^;^ S^byyo„r^erefHdtaani;be^^^ "Every flfifllrt, . Mybon Hollev. 2j ^4ed in TZ^:Zr^i^'-f- man's bei,;^ . F^napl^ofself-love^Sris uln?' P'"'""*' ^y that I* m :<-*.■ fea_ f? in prospeet.--- Conversion of was convinced on the side of left off some f» tears, it jg part of every th niy family, ssing my sios coarse with J'hich I think ith JK reliance nr weakness, he Lord." f y ^vffe and 'hey deserve i have many great isensi- or Meipoirs Jeen profit- nd are read each. Your lanner very ihould (ever 5 welcomed ^t, lotUsy. .* /'with 'seof our u»'s being. • hy that iquish its nnot but ave been feventSj, 3 ■ ■■':• -* .-^^ M . - « Wj^5«H>. yet he has felt it more important to himself than all other iZ^^^'% ^t" elapsed periods of life acquire importance too from the prospect of its continuance. -The smallest things become respectable when regarded as the commencement of what^hasadvai^ced, or is advancing, into magnificence. The little rill, near the source of one of the great Amenpan nvers, is an interesting object to the tra- veller, who is appnsed, as he steps across it, or walks a few miles along ts bank, that this is the striam Xh TfllS^si '^ndwndi gradually swells into so immense a flood. So, while I anticipate the endless progresi of life and wonder through what unknown scenes it is to take its course, its past years lose that character of vanity which would ^seem to belong to a train of fleeting, pSbg moments, and I see them assuming the dignity &"com? mencing eternity In Ihem I havl 6e^n to he ?hat Zl ITin'^T ^'"'^ ^ ""^ *" ^« througlvinfinite duratS^^ and I feel a strange emotion of curiosity about this little hfe in tvhich I am setting ont on such a progress. I can! not be content without an accurate sketch of the windinirs TW f «' ^•f7'»^Wch is to bear me on foTever^ The Author indulges the hope, that these letters Jy be a blessing to others as well as to his own children ^h! has told a plain simple tale of hiriielf : he E inth! sincerity of his heari, that all may knoi lowTuch he is indebted to divine Providence. His early e^riencehi^ been somewhat singular, but still enough witwS the ran^ taown The loving kindness of the Lord (O that he had sSrtlr'^ to^.his obligations!) has been a constant Stream following liim through all his past wandering in by rjd'tn^ SLhrft °i li i^he hath saved >im from the deep • he SffiLS sT/i. * *V'";»» 'danger, and directed him in Jitliculties. 80 that, in forty-three years* exnerience nf name, and a reason for everlasting gratitude, love and ^ __^ ^ . ■'. • - : ^ ^ . ^ ^J m i t fit" [ki ■ ■■^. ■■ xii ■ ■ than he had Snts in wh ohr'^'"'"'^^^ "•*»•■« •"««•"«« from thelatrhe L f^^^^^^^ "^ «''''» God or man : and from the foJ^rbSZ^^^^^ ^-'^^^y^ and render his dL f S "• i "*"" ^^'®^«' bankrupt rehgion; where tXoSroW^r^^^^ ''•'*' '^«^^^^ his poor veto is unnS^ h« ' *'?""^»>«» "« given, to s^; that it W?onJ^/w^Y.'''°'**'^*'''*'«'»'»<>^«d from the! r^JJ set hf? ^''' ■?' ''»>«« t^ken him people. rf^e^ro^Ln^J^Z\l^'^'^T^ "'^'^'*'« and toitsparticuWcieTewc^W^^^^^ testimony. He has W„ fn ° f ""* '^ *»«" a grateful and ocean: he has^iWdP^i T^J ^m^^B, both by land tj^elled s;>m:tS^S than tH^enty thousand uponXocin^H^^^^^ m snow storms, knoctednv«rL, ? 1 "« *»a8 been lost - th^ woods, thrown from hlt""^ ^' '"*' ^""^«»»*«d i» carriages; he^nif k T^j' overturned in wheel 8un.sTrucfew5thL™T/hrar^'* '"5 '."'^•'* ^^'»' «>W disorders J in pS ?n f^l' T'^^""^!? r*** ^<>»t««i<»°« An.riea,UenCt:^:^i:^ with ice J in perils on the Ll-£ T > .^ covered jhunder storn^, a^dlJS^Sea'S -InT^ ^^"^l'' land, ndingover broken bridZcrosshfJ^i ^ •"'' "" *••* canoes J but the providence S'r^i^K^'* "''''" ^°^^^ the exposed, a shelter to Z ^ ?^ ^'^^^^^ * «^'«W tl needy fn his'dJs ff )fatl^J«*''^ " ^^'^^^''^ '« "'« from the heat when' the S ??? ""* ''^™' "" ^^^^^ a Storm against the wa^l"L.%''"^^^" **"^ " « God upon these SketrhlV i.'^^y'"*^ *=>»• 'he Messing of ^et.^upoini^:!s:i^-2t^s^ ''^.^-^^ Bm, May tbe Z6tb, 1821, *■ I extend only'to B cannot refrain period. Thus, ids than either i more mercies ans to improve. 1 God or man : nd hospitality, fCver bankrupt 'ith regard to lies are given, er, be allowed has taken him «ces of God's ifinite debtor, )ear a grateful both by land ipon the iciB ; 1 sailed more has been lost benighted in ed in wheel d with cold, 'h contagious B8 of North linly covered >nd, squalls, lerils on the rivers in log a shield to !ngth to the Qj a shadow ones is as blessing of he reader's or sARiiY urs^^ I' ■ - ■■ ■•; ' IN BiSVEBAL .'■ ^'■■■■■" ■'■"■<■ . "..■'■-. . ; - ^ i ■ ■ ■ ; :. ■■■■»■-■ .-,'-; yiddrewd by the jivthor to hit CkUdrin^ " ■'■'.■■ ■,- ■'.'*«■ - '■ « T«rom vitcra .men, teoum obeam llbew."— Ho«4cb Cahmiii 0, With yoi I dKHOd love to Uve ; with you I would cheerfullf die. ' tETTER FIRST. Jify dear ChiMren» ' r.»d. .f fif.^*""/?? ^ *" -^«"«»' y^ know but Ksfr K * r*^ ^f y<»«r affectionate father. What Ir ^ ?**"' ". ^'^*^ little consequence to the jour parent This eiroimstance alone, will, he is ner waded, render it interesting to you. The ■ubj^of tC Sketches cannot however, flatteryour vanity bi^adngTi J descent from nch, honourable or illustrious LcS? * Se ? -I^L*'^"^ **•"* ^ '»'^» »»««» the ca«e,^lurtrcre fleeted from the tombs of the dead can impit onel^v of moral «ceUence to adorn the characters of the hW You ZS f ^^*"*''* *?^"*»* *»y «ny imputative worth derived from his progenitors. In whieve? light his dear cbldren may view this narrative, he believes Tt will ^ ^ 7^t' »ll?*«;f««"«^ The writer^ell rlme.^ bers, when he was but a little hoy, nothing gave him more pleasure than the recital of inddent. iiLhiSfe?h«^ ^ an^ aneMote, which in long winter nights fwhen thu Ubours of the Aiy were over) his fetW «L to teU Per! kHM. his yener*bie parwt, on these occaiiona, maThiiwdf f /f ,.■ 2 ■. ■ . V... ■KBTOHEf OF top prominisnt as the hem Af i.- V ^ a parent, and viewed in th^f JL^T H*' ^' ^ ^^ Jhade of vanity in his nwiirfv^ ;.t "r"*^^" »^^ «« feed his children, and hiH^' ^''^ "P« of a parent own life had beJn cheQue^*"lV" *" ^^^o^ce silver.'^ j^s «• In • nun tbe ».«». M *•"*» -IthaTT "^^^^^^ ?^ther ^y 0^^;,^;^;^.^^^ the learned Sr ^[^?K ' '^'>''« P'-^i^ f^d tt ""'y •*" ^^^^ w It IS, that no man «.„ k " *"® reason assimiiirf hil«T?'' P*'*"^« ^'*th thf St S^.'"*^ *«*>*"«» i jumsdf too prominent ; and h«^ • '"'^"''o*"^ has madi .elfr^rj^ -«^edZ^ briihfri.'" bold a S "n- 1^ indents, howei^\^ k ^ **<«<>»"• ^pon him- ^4vert,ngthereader'8iS;^*P^J^^^ :. they had occasi<,n to re^ijSf ^^ ^dejing what they S^W.^S-'^'*"?' *»d o^ thus •peafangofthem8el^^lfW 5..'"^<**»™i 'i^Mch was h« -method; n,, ^, .inguIari^ytlSiJr^ Zj^' ' Al . *^f.} but hi was children saw no »«i«p«ofaparent Jicesilver.*'^ His vicissitudes ; he uch of the world, draw, .1 Jtly diversified } lightly glance at ig the learned, ^^i there are >ay be adduced •««<»» assigned the master of !>nie-wise and 'hisj some in esting light of ■ experienciBs. nth egotism j Bs> has made *»oW a relief or lipon him. oliar method selves, when and of thus In'ch was by Yourilither, B«tf of this hut toreq. .'> lARLY UFB. der what he has bitten less inflated and egotistical. Hit Sr inTllST,* '^ *»»* "^',fr«' «d unmerited grac^ of Uod in Christ Jesus, secondly, to enconrage paTents to continue in prayer for nndntifiil and ungoSy children _thu-dly to^animate Christian exertion fST tie c«.t«: «.on of seaf«nng men, fourthly, to gratify and iTt^ wiuui he split. If he had another motive, it was hi* S:\J^wf '''' "^ ""** n^ive shodd'fTii^ i mirfL K-"^'"''*;' «rn«ariner, of any description 4 . "fy. lead him to reflect upon his wavi • and hi thl , tnat redeeming love, which has interwoven itself with th, I history of thewriter of these Sketches. '"^"^^^ *>* < _In biography, my dear children, it is common to sav .^hereamaawas bomj who were his parents rwhat^ YonJTh'"' ""^ IS:^ ""»y ye«» he halTlived ii ^i^l^Z Your father was bom on the 31st of December 1777 .' on the fast shortest day, ho was forty-three yearJoVi^' S^vS^'"'^.""!^ >lf«^»«to»> Habere it plSSJdlX; thert, the property had vanished iway, .o thi yT^ •• Ne'er brifhtea'd plpa|lii|M|w, fa jftin^ ^» " 4»1 bouad fa ihaUows and fa intaeriei.» / "» war ne etiate wu sold, tha hmjm paid, and a aam ■ 2" ' V'>?.. V \i"^ tKercHif 09 / ■ divided between your father*, .in,.!.. ♦!. - t >^« kept in a .tild J is nS ' '^.^ "^^ ^^yployed in tmde , Tence KU "E: ^V* 2"' »« inl«re.t „oJ •Uy dlminiahed till the W 1^*"^' '"'''*»• i* gradu- AtSer h«J . brothe JLd « StS'T.^'^rP*"''****- ^o^r the former wm ki| J^J ^ Jjf f^^ 'L'*^*V'"« '"""'^f I retuming^ fh>n, the fiine^l of ^le h- 1 I!. ***'"^ ' *»• ''•• rr^ .„„t.i„,^^^«ne he loved A. you h«r. mention of her i. unnei«L^*v*** ^'V'»°<*' »ny farther »>ood. was the .ubiertS 121 T?" »r«°' fr"" h" child- often reflected uZ^^.'^Tf *?""»"' ^ *^- «fi«»t Snd He 1 « early JX Sd^efli^lTSr' •"^."*'^*» '"^ Jhat h,. childhood was D«iii^„!^^^^^ «d coawdcring favourable to earlyXriii."^ „^T*"^ «'**• bjiddinga were doubtleea^STLii ^^S''^ «^o« vi«^ng, dioring. ahd stiAZ^UhL H^ !?«» "^ «^ " Light that llghteneth evelf 1 •^* '*^^** "'nd* the 7;»rf of reli- « the heart. i» nothing betS t^ . l'**^ Power of truth •*rc> •casket without jewd^T^ T****'°!' ^'^^out tn,.. tme religion, from tKSvJ^!,* ^"^P '^•'*>o»t oU. All iMt finish of igSS^«w!tr^''*"*'f™«'««' feeling to the fo«tering, and mSri^'^*P>°'«^''>«Holy'^£^^^ without^ pEf%iwi^S/^ PerfectiJnf^^^^^^^ the garden n^^y be inZ^ LJ '^ ^^^V ^owev^ well "d briars of fegotted^oS^ U^ ^ *»•« «'o™» ^ ^*™*****^»^ «^ produce neither ^ lo Ol fri nil hii ^ th th %f chi Pr> Bil > 01 ; bla 3 ing his ; to( of 1 he grir left the to t youi batl shot d,ay« and in ai vivic thei Mprl to ei mind or a alarn S' ««t of the money «t to interest nor irtben, it gradu- ixpended. Your er than himself J ^nc : he wa« t^ Am you hay« no, any further it from his child- bis in&nt mind ind Heaven and uid considering lOMtances littl* these gracious ■ Spirit of Gbd idermind, the meth into the ►ut the light of it peace I and tjr with which nee. ,....»■■ 'M were not a 1 admonitions >t then truly her children, her parents, '^grafted toe exterior form of reli-' ►wer of truth n'thout trea- wtoU. All eling to the . 'oly Spirit'* «tion: and mevei-well the thorns ice neither ' .:^ love, nor joy, nof peace, nor gentleness, nor mteknets. nor faith : and. however orthodox our notiois may bT wUh- out these, the temple has „o holy place , the aCC no fragrant .ncenso. the alabaster boi ha. no spikenwdTaSd nil that nny people possess, under such ciiSimstrcis. ia .u«mn dnll.ng. human invention. commwMlmwts of men • there la nothing i„ the whole economy. thatSn ^ S the '• plant of Qods r%U hand planting." *^**** ' f V, P'i**'™'^ grandfather wai a member of the^church .of England , so in thii> ^untry all are called, who ^o to tvtr tl "'* ■®*^"^° *»e would often read in the fouhitlllt 'r A "^^ ^'^V'''' ""^'S wheTa child! >ourfathei^ loved because it had cuts anJ was orinted 5n "f»"''y- When your grandfather/ read in the gospels his son was often struck with thos^passages whicf Ste to the destruction of Jerusalem ; 11 texS as the folbw! ng created ,n bis tender mind mo^painful apprehensions of the day of judgment, in referlnce to which solcmS he always understood them. A Two womon «l,»ii k^ {njndingatthemin thepnesl^^ I^^akenrd ttotl^^ eft : two men shall be in theLld. the one shall be tXn to them thf 'i'"'* woe unto/hemW are with ch^wln? to them that give suck in tl^e days. But orav ve f h«f sh^ld l;S"lTP' "'?\^"y* '^^"^^^^^ «»>«rtened there should no flesh be saved, but for the elect's -sake those &S?ll'? "^"^T^" ^^" '^"' « child he sT'ddL^l and started from the prospect of being called to iudirment m a^^unprepared stat^, allthe terrors^f the 1^^^ tie Sir^T.'** T"" ^' °»"'^ •» dreams and visiWs of li^^ Hsf* ^'^ ^ ^^'^'^^ with horror in beholding 'the v>prid pn.fii-p, or in hearing the judge condemn trSd ^tj^JTh ^-r-iVn§u.„ightalp^tffi orVfllh .f ? 1; "?P^**"T «^ *«"■<«•> a clap of thunder, H o^ f ^'^*'***'1"«' ^^'^'^'^ »" him the most scrS alarm, and he was often afraid of going to bed lest the daj "■/■ ..■/ * iKBTCHBf ©»• Vours affectionately. LETTER SECOND, M^ dear CkUdren. heard the hiirtories of m.?y^Uchea^^ r • ''^* ^ would injudiciously before hJr Jma * ?. 'Tf*' ""** towers i deadate Ln/wfu^I !j*^^? ^"^ «' ^^^ person. walk^thSrh the^LmV*"*??". ^^ '»»'dered fh* f^>«n'A^ « "trougn tne gloom of nudn ght. or viaitAw, with • I doctrine," tradition ib snuU world /x ■ARLT LIF»." 7 Mid a divine Proidence. i,t is so far favourable to CliriHtlan morals; but if it be countenanced by the word of God, the wiitdom is folly, and the reason abnurd, that would treat it as a childish superstition, and turn it into ridicule and contempt. Stories Heavenward, while yet, lubmiMive to your foice, \ ;* They riie not in defiance. Teach the tongue ' - \ The chant of angels; teaeh the infant thought, With it* flnt dawn; the knowledge of iu God. Vow father, through a restless, playful and active dispd- flition, was several times, when a little boy, exposed ta , imimnent peril ; and he desires to record it with lively gratitude, that a tender Providence watched over his infknt years, and often rescued lum froi^ the vicinity of death. Once he had climbed up ahigh wall inclosing a tan ^, when a large mastiff ran furiously towards him, and m a fright he was precipitated from the top headlong npon a stone pavement ; by this fall his head was greatly /fractured, and before it finally healed, several pieces of the ^--1 •\'' ^^ 8 'iv:- ■KBToiiac oy IIOUU from nluL^^Zriu^^^^^ """ P't. trivial .uatU.?. toXTh ^io yoZcyT^r' "'''"^ ••your verj. cvi,t«,.ce in ti,„e ,lS,3 rHm .:!;''"'*""'• to much irreater .« !^1 f. *'"'.''«'J''«'»<^m. it will riue uosuch thing „ c Wo In ♦!. ^^"''V^'''^" ' **»«'«" -not r„„ to thr^^iril-ttr . "i^~ V >' .^^ ; « Then C«a|inJgfct |»«,,p,,,,j ^ ^"^ round barrci,/--^ii^or«,«/iLl^^ Ji?«?' "^ '*•« fruit i do men mh39m&^ '^"«^** *»'**» «>^Pt When the morniJUm^A^'^*''\^ <'fi^tlt$r but the briijhtness olSHK Ji^i>™"«» "othing make the afterday pmmm^ fZ.elW^^^^" «" t«ll ««.. .r .-.-•../ r'^flFlW .fruitfulll^oralistg way tell you of native inMient^MW, — '""^*'"*"^wwt« may ?^ ''•fell tliroutfh ' ttie ariu piti r» «n»y Appear •II importiint. "» Ilia proaer. »>it A dtiliver- t'hcn taken in !•> it will ria« d at firat to nee } thcro ii biMMd Goe ^^L !."»* '".T'* l.*^^ ^^*» *•« ^^ done any thing .to^eh«mother, his heart Wed till the bre4 «S fce^ed. To «cene»of distrcsai his feelings were trembUngly -i%>^% Jhe^i:?^ HolyScripeure. book of Mr. B2njaa.i„ kS ^,2 ,?* w''^ * ^'''^^ time, before his lea,? wa« hatlt^^'r ^J^^"" ^^ «* thi. want of thi« eSl- Ji^Ju!cm^ 1^1^ of wcreaie , but for most of his ito3d imSl • ^'^ "*« P«rt of Us parent* think little how Uuch di>n^A . '^'* ' "»"»y parent* ^ 'J^e budding^ Jf^^«"f/ff in watcW^^ of serious' KSffriili? bejping^ the fi«t unfoldiW •hoot heavenwSi /^d'^!"^/;« ;be youny ideas how X >^er the miAd,^ s^h „" r^"''*^ *** ^^'b instructio? Y^i affecti«ateiyi ^9 ^nir Children, LETTfIR THIRD. J?^ed with the^affliSs^.^ ^ !?^y period m„ch b« mother's, all his Jifi seemed L '^i*''^'?^ P«rti"'larly bence, he has lain in bed ™anv . a ""? "^ *" ''«' '^^I'^J »nd sorrowing, whenl^v TJ l^^^¥^ hour, weepW »ond trials, wdgSd^^*"^"«f « the ^"°"y/orp ope instance she^was taieT aW ^'' ^^ «' ^°d. in ">»ht. iind was not exn^ J ♦ "^l?«*y "* ™ «be dead of be sent for. Her IZ^^a ^^^ ''" ^be doctor^uld JPMion of hermL'dtiot eo^S^^^^^ and'Tll; bpnr of alarm and danger l^ be described. During this ■■I BAItLT LIVB. M ■ I' I Jiat he ^mAd spare his helored mother : the Lord wkh- yprew his/afflictiiig baod from her body, but in a short time jHsited her soul with as lively convictioos as perhws ever J^ere tvmted. , ■:(! A gfat chan^ now took place in the family. Your grandi^other, who had been alarmed by the tormenting spasms wluch threatened her life, was further awakened ((to a lively sense of her lost condition by reading that excel- ilent book, "All|ene*s Alarm to the Unconverted." All (her feelings were roused to the highest pitch of distress • jehe was in that state so exactly described by David, in the .|thirty.eighth Psillm, "thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine ang^. Neither isthere any rest in my bones because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone oyer my head ; as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and are o(HTupt because of my foolishness. I am trouble^, I am bowed down greatly ; I go mooniing all the day long; I am feeble and sore broken j i have reared by reason of the disquietness of my heart." These agitations were not the spectres of a deranged intel- lect, or a disordered imagination; she was never ^more fuUy in the exerdse of these at any period. Her intellects, her reason, her judgment, w?re all clear, but her conscience was wounded by " the sword of the Lord." Such a state of things resembles what your father has sometimes seen in his wanderings ; a tempest at sea, with the sky blue, clear, and the sun shining in his brightness. Her distress was at times so great, as to Intermpt the peace and com- fort oliithe family • but the Lord, itt " the dark and cloudy day" €f her sorrow, was " walking upon the waves," and pqMnng her by the storm within, to enter the quiet haven of his pardoning love ; for ^ WUdom smiles when hambled mortals w«ep. yben somw -waDiids the breast, as plows the f Idbe, And brarts obdurate feel ber. softeoing sbower j H(WjMA«el«Miai,tben glad wisdom sowp; Her foldea hartvt triumphs in the soil. : / ■ c : , ;f > /( u feKBTCBBS O /'^ God, my dear children, makes Mc.of diflferent means to enlighten the mind, and to bring ^ to a true and experi* I mental knowledge of himself. No person, in these respects, can he a standard for another ; in his works of grace, as well as of nature, there is an infinite variety'; he deals •with men according to the innate peculiarities of their minds. It is not the weight of the burden, the clearness of ' the conviction, or the depth of the sorrow, that som^ might deem necessary, but that which works in the soul a true earnestness for salvation, and brings the penitent sinner to the feet of Jesus Christ, is all that is required by the wisdom of God. None should lay too much stress, eithe!r upon the measure of -^ penitential sorrow, or the particular means God may think fit to use in brining a soul to him^ selft OiM{ of the most common is the preaching of his blessed gospel: in all ages this has (when feithfblly preached) been " the power of God to salvation." " It is quick and powerful, sharper th'an any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul u!d spirit ; and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the tVughts^d Intents of the heart." Not a few have been brought into the way of life by a different order of means.' Some have been drawn to God by the silent in^uences of the Holy ^irit gently moving upoa theiiu minds, and creating a stropg conviction of .their want of happiness and Salvation. Many have been alarmed to reflection and con- aideration by the terrific appearances which sometimes take place in the naturtd world: a comet, a thunder stortn, adeluge, an earthquake, or a conflagration, may sqlemnize the mivA and excite to a serious exaibination of the state of the Boufc When the natural feelings are fineand tender, and the heart is susceptible of the gentlest friendship, the death of a beloved relative, the baseness of a husband, the nndnti- fulness of a child, and not seldom the cruelty or ingratitude of a friend, have been sanctified by the Lord, as his instru- mepts, to win the; alienated affections to himself alone. And as dark clouds contain the richest showers, sometime his judgments have been a blessing ; a scarcity, a desolating h- EARLY U?B. 15 '-^ !nt means to and experi* ese respects, jf grace, as v'; he deals les of theilr clearness of tsom^ might soul a tine iteut sinner lirecl by the ress, either leparticnlar ioul to him* hing of hi^^ n feithfoUy i" » It is ged sword, ^d spirit ; rrter of the V have been r of means.' nfluences of winds, and ppiness and m and con- sometimes uder stoiln, lemnizethe state of the ler,and the he death of ihenndnti- ingratitode his instro- self alone. > sometimes desolating :t malady, a heavy afl9iction, a reverse in circnmstanceA, nay probably, a dream or vision, the conversation of a friend, or the solemnity of a funeral, have made impressions upon the heart more deep than all the reasonings of philosophy, and more vivid than the theories of moralists could ever .effect. While thousands have been brought to God by reading livmg divinity, such " live coals from the altar" of a devout Iroart as Baxter's Saint's Rest and Call to the Unconverted; Alliene's Alajrm to the Unconverted; Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul; Ariidt's True Christianity ; Law's Serious Call to a miy Life, and Wesley's Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion. These works are w^rth a thousand tomes of dry- bone speculative geology ; they are' the stars that have directed myriads to, the '' Babe of Bethlehem :" sacred maps, pointing out the road to the paradise above. The authors learnt tbeir lessons at the '^ oracles of God," and "came down from the mountun" with their faces all splendour, and their hearta all flame, to teach mankind " the way of salvation." Surely, if good men, safely landed4n the baven of glory, can survey the benefits arising from their pions labours, their pure felicity must be greatly heightened by the recol- lection, that thdy are at the sam0 time, serving God upon earth, and glorii^ng hhn in Heaven. Snch writers impart to manldnd a more lasting benefit than the lahdnrs of a thousand mere preachers can possibly confer : the useful- liess of the latter ceases with thdr death, and sometimes " even before ; the foimer, *' though dead, yet continue to •peak," and ages after their mortal remains have mixed with the common dust, their usefulness, like a atr«ain, wideiis, deepens, and increases as it rolls along the conti- nent of time, which it fertilizes and beautifies in its course.' Could a Baxter, a Bunyan, a Fox, an Amdt, or an Alliene, some of whom wrote amidst the gloom of a prison, could * they have foreseen the immense good that would 're&ult from their devout meditations, the prospect wOuM have sh^ a halo of glory over their afflicted minds ; it would " . '.; •.. • ^ ■■■ g % -^ ^ ■ V^r' •> •-4 I r f'.- 16 "■ * ■" iKBTCHBl OF I.r«,| I we think o/ Jn SIh "";? L ^^ ^"^^^"^ «" «" We ble.. God for V b.^rln ^!u'''^l *"^ veneration. wiU now^XJnt tCt"b:^^'^^^ »>« conversion to God. Fw uwhnTfl^ ^'^'T «P-andnK>ther'. were of the most tMictil^n^lzJu'''^''^''''^ ''•^ »'"<« jpirits, which .ci«dy\Sed th«? ^J^"" '*" "P^" >>«• hope. -y^""'*" "•fiMntest niyof dirine WflMi /etu,, faiwiB J on the ira* 5^*E r^YwS? rSt s^-- hw expressed her feeling }„ n! *'.°®""^"- Dj^vid desponding heirt f 'V^L'"/^/««°'iness of hirjwn «ot drawn like fell upon her »y of dirine EARLY LIPS* 17 *»ghty rapid Bspair. The the reach of •ors. David I of his c|wn i lowest pit, rd upon me, . The sor- W hell gat w; all thy lah also has »^: "The the depths il about my the same ul words: "rings We 'i'itnessea against me, and increasest thine indignatidn upon me: changes and war are agunst me." Your father well remembers many of her words; they were like sharp spears pierckg his very heart. To have calmed the agitations of her distracted mind, he would have suffered the loss of every earthly good. She spent whole nights in widking up and down the house^ wringing her hands ; often stamping with her feet, and venting her emotions in language gloomy as the blackness of despair. She had no " messenger of mercy, no interpreter among a thousand, to tell her that the Lord would be gradotts, and would save her from going down to the pit, because he had found a ransom." Many an hour has your father (then only eleven years old) lain weeping, waking, trembling and agitated beyond mea- sure } not, indeed, on account of his own sins, but through sympathy with the gloomy despairing state of his mother's mind. These exercises, or strong religions emotions, are often called by the world enthusiastn, folly, madness. In the work you are now reading (Wesley's Life by Southey) the writer has treated most branches of experimental piety as delusion and insanity. Did yon believe him, he woiild steal from the Christian's crown its brightest jewels. *' Peace and joy in believing" are the cant of hypocrisy , the witness of the Spirit is a dotage of enthusiasm ; the conversion of the soul to God is mere Human drilling ; the "fruits of the Spirit" are ideal and visionary ; and com- munion with God U the extatic ardour of a heate^ imagina- ^on. In some such light may the cold moralizer treat the distress of your grandmother; for the judgment of the world will neither admit deep sorrow for sin, nor exalted joy for pardon. AU beyond the sober dictates of rational ethical unvital morality, is discarded as the high wrought feelings of visionaries and enthusiasts. ^ Each pure seraphic bim tl|ai warms the saint^ Bliss^bich no human eloquence can paint ;• .The peace that form» an Hdenjn the soul, ' • When floods ayise and sorrows' billpwg r oll.; '■ c.a 1 i.^- 16 / ■/ •KITCHIS OF ■7 Tto iterid cwnmeree or t loul with Goil / J£ ■"'•", ''•'"•«'P«''»'*lUlio lore; ' / IJ? *•■"' *'^* <*" our folll,» bbW <;«, An deMQM a .p,i,htly fanct, or at btt. ^ 7*»«of.emo.k«.ofananH;,;«;j;ir >: > J •po.lolio day., they wHl allow. "^'V ^ Jtir'"*"*' ^^' •»■* <^"'» l*"^ than. BOW- , . ; Thcw purer atfeaiiM above (heir lerel ri« Thl,«aBd.rd^too«.hedlbrthK^ ' B«»u« aboto Ihdr *n,e, bigrond their Ilii It will be 80} the Apostle Paul has said #h.* u *t. .»«fdr„y'5Sg •« lifer ir.ri;' "'•^"^ ^ The piety of the heart is a ricH^pm ;„ *!:- "^i?"***" !«<*■ ♦to, 1..M0M. »«t.»^ ■»»'«r "farMwith mZjityTfato •■I *'^?^Sr^-"'r1^r*;' . , ■ iif"^ lARlVT LIFB. ■>.i' 10 IV' ; ■ " the natu* a^Godj they ' them, they itified id her ver explored ) mountains, rivers J they ^h the mists UB from the »tttral for a I piety who ve may per* ile the pride ilatcd price, let of truth, an humble Never, my • Miy where ne but the Oodhead'i which can Boce} this si serve to Without ity/isbttt • a putrid cnfenJe In a silver coffin j '^ a death's head under a mask ofj^^nty.'* Scoflers may ridicule thcHO thiiif^n, but you WtJ^ikhink of the Goths; who hated all learning because thf^iiseivcs were ignorant. There are Goths in religion, who would gladly, but barbarously,. deface " what- soever things arp true, wlintsoovcr things are^ust, whatso- ever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things arc of good report." I^lio blessed God ^ roust " create all things new ;^' the bog may be covered . Ajwith flowers, and the volcano with vinyards, but without '^Plprrow for sin, and salvation by grace, through faith, man is in. the " gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity." Yours affectionately. • LETTER FOURTH. My dear Children, Your grandmother continued in a state of great mental distress for more than twelve months, extracting the poison of unbelief from those texts, which, in their true meaning, contun only the balm of' comfort. She had a singular facility of wresting the scriptures against herself; and those passages which only forbid the impenitent to hope, s^e levelled uj^nst her own peace. Because God had stud ** my Spirit shall Hot always strive with man," she judged that Ood had *' east her away from his presence, and taken, his Holy Spirit from her." As, in the matter of regaining the forfeited birth-right, Esau " found no place for repent- ance, though he sought it carefully with tears," she erroneously oondvded, that neither tears nor prayers coitld avul any thing in her case. An imagination covered ^^itli glowd. SpirtJJ I •« lo«t .. for ever lo,t. ulZ', ' •«• ^t ' I «, lo.t | of the blc«8cd G^'rvwti. »?'""* ^r*"*"- The u.^cT •re not „.ore durable ^/fort, 'p^^« ^ *»"• «««. of eternity H.. nature. '.iM>ro.n sc«; W. IS '"J^"'*'*' ^'^^ «^'«-- l«Ung antidotes to desna^^r *^S. ^/ glM« who ever saw thi .li.^ , ^' *<»^«' •"^ tie up the winds, restrain the waves, set bounds to ^pace, or limits to eternity, as confine the mercv of Ood. Though a sinner had lived to be as old as Mathuselah, and every day of his life had been devoted to folly, who shall dare to say, that the line of his transgressions exceeds the limits of Almighty mercy ? The whole Bible is a history of mercy— fthe Gospel is a fountain of mercy— ^the bleeding Cross is a pledge of mercy— his Throne is a throne of mercy— his People are vessels 4)f mercy — his Spi waa an angel of mercy. Trust, my childreq, always trest, in the mercy of your God, through the infinite merits and mediation of your adorable Redeemer. Do not disTfonour \ r " J* If >■ T >K£TCHE8 OF 'x>«om of it, co^u^oH^tt^ ;J"?i 'r -»«»* on t£ v;oi. to the unfailing and IS ^ ^^ 5"" ^''nmended i-'aeher. May it be* 3r ^!?' '?*'''^ ^^ »"*« heavenly ^death, andthe burdeKf v^ '**" ^"^^^^^ your glo^H »-d eternal ages. S^S -* *^W "m^j; ^tT^^"^' wSl^^fff^ mounded to descnber AW] heTJ JT^*' '' » impossible ^' He dreaded lest ?he S^^'^'«<^« of 4 oJn m some awful calamitv th«r»???^ *•"?"««* shouldend ,^fort and hop:"^'^^^7ojadbu,yinitsr„ins^ W^ ««°«i?>other'8 mahdr^^LZ ^^ ^"""^'^y ^^d^rntood your 4^ection in the S^ W\StL« °" ^"^"^^ «^^« ^^"^Y Jdvice of a godly minister t S^r^T-^*^''*"* " ^e »»^W were not aVhand v^ ™f''.^'*"**-^^^^^ these 1» o^urch aw, without understanSts dee^^^^^^^ *? '^« *>"'^'^d ' to minister t<^ a mindlstst ?• K'^ ^'^ "^^ »kin the " wormwood and the^ir? fc-' ^f ^^ never tasted mother, beipg broZtunfpl^ t'"''*^' ^^^yonrff^Z tothMfeth&ir'S^^i^ytc^n, ha^ S*„^,f/o one to " bear^£& **?:'»-«»'« «tood alone- ter of the chapel she had h«o!f^ i ""**' *« the minis- '^f aSodniaito^^ at W'l. *"*'»« «"»y of attendiW • J!j»e/' But Jre sS' sunk l^^ T. " * P^y^^an of n^^ bUlows of despair, the b^d of On^i "^ '"'*•" ""'^C her deliverance. He hS h i *^ ^"^ stretched forth S »P; he had wonnSd te h«'" ^'^^^^^ ' Md there was nonlU. \ -'«'•' *»«»!• " Hfe look^ none to deC AZretre hi; ^ ^""^*'-«** '^'^ "he ^^^^ ' >« own Spirit ia^^^^^^^ «•» wrought salvati:;^ igi ,1 I: '^i;^^!^-*£i slight it by ilent on the 8 commended his heavenly our glory in inuQoitality »Iy wounded I impodsible of his own tshouldend ^uinsallhis • rstood your ve her any We is the bat these i to church le outwiird ad no skin ver tasted ►w grand- prejudice ^od aloner he minis- »anof na 5 mighty forth for >ald bind e looked lere was 'ation;" 1 I EAULY LIFE. 23 Be Alls whom first hp hath prepttrM, ■§ With him the pprrect grace is (ifen ; Himself is here their great reward, Their future and their present heaven. , . '■- .- ■. ' *. Your grand iiiother's deliverance was brought about in the following manner :— After being shut up >n the iron castle of despair for many months, she had one day been unusually softened into something ]ike^divin«P> contrition • she wept and sorrowed (for the angel of mercy was doubt- less " troubling the water") till, as she sat weeping, she fell into something like a doze : during thjs abstraction she heard (as she supposed, and ever after avered) an audible voice, saying, *' J^e not of a doubtful mind." She immediately rose from her chidr, believing some one had spoken to her, but there was no person in the room. .The darkness had, however, passed away, and she seeitaed in a world of new light j a new bdm sensation shed its mild influence over her heart j the storm had subsided, and " the morning star" of pardoning love, beamed over as wounded a, spirit as ever felt the arrows of the Almighty. At first she did not recollect ever having seen the passage, nor could any of the family, of whom she enquiret), remember such a text :* its effects were, however, pleasingly visible j and when a little while after she found it in the course of her rending, it tended 'tiot a little to confirm the blessing she had received at the Lord's hand. But how, my children, shall M^e account for this sndtiejt dtttnge ? a cl^ange so evident, that one might sfty of ft, ** the storm became a calm j4' the darkness visible waa made " light in the Lord." 1 1 ** She 'woke*; flie daogeipli flam'd witb light'' 80 pleasant, that the barrenness of viinteir wiis ira(r-> ceeded by the beauty of spriiilg; so uhe]q)ected, that it was like the king's messengef brining a pardon to the cell of the condemned malefactor, upon the eve of execu- tion. Oh 1 how refreshing was; the return of spriiig aflMfr a winter of 8n€h storms aad barrenness !y<))nrgraiid^^^ ■'■f • .pr- Si SKBTCUCfl OF ing A, when n wretch, from thick, poUated «ir ■« HM , ,,„^ il, . <»^^^ Some would My, eye li«ai not .eon, nor ear hS -„•*?!" " K"ri«en, «« w^of n«„;,te etop ^rS'fer^ '»«<: them that love him Bnf r Ji ^ *i^ " nathirepared for deep things of God. PoV wh^^„ i«. JJ'T' y^' '^e a Ban, «fe the spirit of mrn^^hSitn^V**" ""'"S' «' things^of (Sod knoweth no man L ,?'"«. ^^^ «<> 'he Now Ve have received not thrsniriri- 5* ®P""'' <>^ G«d. apiritwhich is of God fw3^"^'.''('^^'^<>rfd,bntthe . '"-at „efreelygiven%of G J" "^^^"^^ ^^ receiveth not tSe tWnirs of th^ S^- ., ,^°t ?e natural mS, Wshness unto himTneUh Jr^^^^^^ for they^ t%^«piritually^S" tJ^^^^ ^saencethenatialm^Sypo^JS; S ?T' '*»™»»« Jlluaunatlon of that Spirit whicr - ' ' *'*''® "®* **»« ima^ heai in tl of f .cout " dl void thei the carri sciei 1 i, that reigned the transition fir EARtY LIFE. 25 re itered '( the learn e into m tation s wouM say., would very lear/WhaTt an written, into >repared for lem nnto'us rs, yea, the >e thingjs of 5ren so the it of God. Id* bat the the things atural man '»• they are ; I* beoinse ' learning ^e not the he Spirit 1 as trees r sdenct *' dfeamij voice,' the M the wav( .carri(|t^h r that gives him even a clue to the economy of inward sal- vation. This change could not be an illusion of sleep ; dreams seldom effect any change, either in t|ie mental or moral economy. Beyond the momdnt of their duration : it is not in sleep or mere dreams to purge from the bottom pf the soul a deep mental distress, and impart to the mind a " peace that passes all understanding." Could mere imaginationcliffuse through the heart such a devotional heaven j such love to God^ such faith in Christ, such joy in the Holy Ghost > Nay, my children, it was that birth of €lieS|)irit, which opens the kingdom of Heaven in thq contrite iieait. It wa$ the voice of him, that speaketh in and \'i8ion8 of the night," the " still small iat only whispers love ; the voice that " calmcth "of the sea} that stilleth the noisc thereof when '^**^-»* 1 *"^ that, by its own peculiar energy, . 'ace into the inmost recesses of the troubled con- science, ahd makes all calm in the a^tated heart. Need we wond*; teeing the blessed Jesus hks all power over his tleatures,|that he should begin joian's recovery where his ;riiin commtenced, the human heart j " and in this stron«r hold'of satkn" display the triumphs of his grace > Christ does not My take the outwork, he makes a conquest of -the citadel the life of God must be in the soul of man, or all our relijiottisJbut the tinsel and the paint, that give a false beat ty tj/corrtipt nature. in speak ng'^f tlus change, your grandmother passed^ through, yc ar father does not become the unqualified advo- cate^of ev^ y impression that may be injudiciously ,c&»ed bytlnsnamfe. Some maybe mistaken, and suppose the drawings of the fatho- are sufficient vouchers of a regene- rated state | but where fruits justify the genuineness of tlie change, land spring np in moral beauty and abundance, we may saf«ay. infer the tree of life is plante^ in the heart. In your venerable relative, these fruits were most app&rent j her conscience was so tender, that what appear to some trifles tight as air, and are thought expedient or incitpadi- ent, accurdmg to the complexion of circumstances, \vere ^ .** ■^-nSfe-- t ■ 96 •KETCHES OF ' a ■with Her matters of serious Hprnni^ a . *he always took the sS cS ' Th"^/'''" '^""^*^"'' daily prayers plainly indicatSZ; *K 1 ^^'"^''^y '^^ »>«•• tion wisiindjed in Ver sou S«l ! ^'^^' *^^ *"^^^^ proofof the tenderness oAtfe^^ » every one, rich or ixior wC «; J .„• ^'^ reproved HerLe W W si^^SSr^h^^^^' ^^^"^ »'«^- •hour every morpinir to re«i shn,^/- *^u 1? a^ «« early -. the records of eterna? m! Thff •'*•*'*'^*' ^'«*'' «»»« »»«« - '^•"HywasinterwoveiwUhJtrn^^ "^ ^ mother manifest greater ardencv S^^^ ' and^never did a of her children. Late wd S 1 k''^ '"^'^^^ «"*^^^^^^ laytvith weight^^'b^'S «^::^fK^"*^''^«^^^^ cries and tews 4id^he rlLmi^r i ^ '"*'' T^y ^^«^^^ God. Often has yo^faS^^ ^"^ "'^^y of hea^d the outS« Sf hi fe^^^^^ *'? -"^W'^g damned, .hfrchildren,.ffi:Sm;^%^^^^^^ pie we^ hand invalid with niSJr^^ ^^^^i but exam- tfie priesLs of h«^Si„P'Sf'' ""^ ^*« ^^ not only they^aW^eUgionir^SSS^ - »>- She tauijli them ftom her look * ^ ness of filid com^an^' t^T^ "^^'^^^^^^f ^^ the tardi- energy, change the h«it of a ST?' ^^ ^'? «^W»Jty turn a chiir^ It is iHwv tE J^ ^? \P,"*"*^ «^»<>'. joften, melt, and pierce SdOthe^ki "H^^^'y " ^ but such power bdon^^onhM^ g-^*^ p '^ ^*^ '" patiently <' sow their seSl in S J^^j ' f ^*°'» »tt8t % witlThold not their h^^^^^ even- the lord, we may .«ift24 th«^ ^,""1° **°»«'' fro» patient, ■thprefore!yiLte\JSf;if'P««'^f James, "Be Behold the'husbaidmrSSte^ f '^1.*^^^^^^ ">« ^^d. the earth, and hath wSn^ for if fn^T^"" ^^'' ^^ iirly and latter rain." ^Stll- '^' "?''^i* 'e'^^^e the " P ^ Mur timeg are i«.Gpd's hands/' ^ • ■■'■■'. ■ ■ ' r'-/\'- '■■' ': :'^ -■■ ■•*• : ■ ■■■■ I .■ ' f v^ .-.,«•■■■ k^ ■/ ^hen doubtful, rvencyof hqr of true devo- trutb was a sUe reproved d before her, p at «Q early igKt she held jlfare of her 1 never did a the salvation f their souls bany otrong he mercy of ing dawned, ercedJng for > but exam- 'as not only ^i in her EARLY LIFE. «7 nth of her the tardi- '? ^!'*'^!}ty ent (oinnot ighty "to ieh«ut J*' snts must the even- >me8from M/ "Be the Lord. I frnit* of iceive the * lands,'' ^ I he that 't bclievcth sljall not make haste :" it ii not for . parents to command sucbesS upon thehr own endeavours, and yet they should do all in their |)ower to secure such a result. The universal history of pious mothers affords ample encouragement to persevere in effort. The children of prayers, of tears, of vvarnings, of example, and of pre<* cept, are seldom lost. .•Joseph,. Moses, Samuel, Hmothy, were probably -the legatees of many an afTectionate prayer on the part of their parents ; and their Murly consecration to the service of God, the high rank they sustainei} in the - church, and the distinguished piety uid usefulness of their lives, might in the order, and through the blessing of Jehovah, jgprow out of parental solicitude and treasured np ' intercessions. ^ That learned and holy father in the church, St. Angustihe/and that brave eoldier. Colonel Gtodiner, were both reclaimed by the pra^ert tof pious mothers. Menti(tn might also be made of Gener^ Dykem, Bums, &c. but the time would fail to show in how many instances a parent's intercessions have preva[le4^th theAlmighty. " No sooner was youT grandmother dKnforted with the " joy of salvation," thain she sought communion with the church of God. Providence directed her to unite with the flock of a faithful, diligent and enlightened minister of the . church of England., The Rev. James Glazebrooki her pastor, was minister of St. James* Chapel, Warring^n ; under his minisj^ry she sat ivith pleasure and profit; As he had a select weekly meeting at his own house (for the serious and awakened part of his hearers, for the pu^se of Christiatt'eommunion, instruction and prayer), she was * fevoured with the advantage of this superadded ^means ^ of grace. • .• Yours atfectionately. LETTER FIFTH? Mtf dear ChUdre»i It was not long before the piety of ypnr relative was called to a test, which at once both proved its truth and c^ledjnto experiknentia operation aU^^ta soul helping ■:.». 2' ■ ■* •■ ■ •■■ ' v::^^-:,- SKETCHES OP ^^S^^^:^^ the -ck »vere not moved T^e ^.nZ^r^^'^V^'^ found«tiu,« of her faith beiij, Wh *^^^^^^^ '? "*« f^^ '> " «.e trial perisheth, tho^glTt W S f:^"'/''"" **^ ««^^ *»'»» praise, and honoltVand^L^'^."^^^^^^ ^i «PP?^«^ ""'« U'M 'inA^^A __v ..*. "7 fc*"*^/' ine surface of li«r a/^,.i ; was indeed ^t^tXVS\ ^^^ f^^ of l.er soul . calm and peaS. ^ * '^"P*''' >"' 'J^* ^e^^e wa» ^'^iKThS^^ in /-other plac, the an unfimeinnd tooit ^^Jt^^^'^'' "^'^«^> ^";cut off in the funeml^fl^Jf^^S^f^^^^ ^-*-ly loved, an^r^ S'^ ^^^^ »»« »>«* Bat death had .wifter wi^g, ihaa wwj _ She was interred at the viUaira-of^.* ^ i Chester. In company with sevSnli^J^^^ the village after nS yIii T *? ''f delations, he left inissed him on the ^td ti toZ^\''''^ ^^' "^"'P^'y indulge in Solitary g^S^ Th^£ h«! ^I^^ '>«W,rd tj • to towns, but no Hder Hit IE ^^ *"' ^^"^ rmmedl, went i^" search 5 Sm : he wrfoLd^^^ ^^*^' «"^ m a meadow, but the vital LS S. ? ^°« "P<*" ^"» ''«» nwks of viiience were I^ShT ^ ^°' *^** ««^- As no it«mcj.thaiw^St£Sl^^ the tender cQrds of life ...h^J^kiS^ .,****?'"' cut ried Um into eteraUy^' ^^^^ "^ broken heart hur- dealj^^hothastols^^^^^^^ • tte 4use will never be kS tiS f i. ^^^^'^ - ^^^ shall cast full \mhrZl^T-f , '*>«^ccord8 of eternftv Fat4r,horvSs towdeen\^^^^ '^' ^^ du«t and ashes ;Edb?wJlt^^^^^^^ Vf ^ ce: the rock foundatigiis 'e branches, J "the trial >f goja that' Jcared unto of her soul centre wm place, the •;cut offin ad been at om he had aear Man-. »8> heleft '■ company behind to 'returned ued, and ^ his face 1- As up Wsbody, ipirit cut cart hur« npoqhig perlu^ eternity . Eternal y ways ! '"■ ore thy we and adored, , deur of •^i?' .^ EAniiT LIFE. 1 S9 ^ his power, and the outgoings of his boundless love. /This ' afflictive visitjition was a crucible, -into which the Lord piit the golden graces of your paternal grandmother, and she came forth as gold purified : her grief was deep, silent and touching, but she justified the ways of Providenc6 ; and, humbled in the dust, acknowledged the chastening lod. Whate'er thy lot,— whtlie'er thou be^— Confess thy folIy,—-liiM the rod, And in thy cbasteniDg sorrows see • "^ - The hand of God.. ;.' A bruised reed be will not break i^ / • 'Afflictions all his children feel ; — _ \,V . He wounds them for his mercy's sake, • ' He wounds to beal. Humbled beneath his mighty Jiand, * Prostrate his providence adore : Tis done ! arise 1 he bids thee stand. To fall no mort^. There is, my children, a living, SQnl-snpporting principle" ■ in true grace ; " it is born for adversity." Founded upon tliis rock, the. winds may blow, the Tuns descend, and the floods rise, btit the fabric faHs not: the rock bears the surging waves, the pure gold the keen fires, the laurel the wibtry cold, and the deep rooted oak the fierce blast. Fiety> with her anchor c»st within thp yul, ; ' . - ~^ |ind thronghtbe howling wilderness, . «> Jfly way pursue. ^ ( '« D.3 'i .. / hiv/ •KETCHES op 90 Hng with God. A^tre *"i*Tf''«««"4«dvvre«t. grace and nature strove fi^S 1^/ ''"'^'1 "•« ^en felt. Her aon, who Xyns^l iffljTi'f ^ I '''"»' '*"«« ^ime death and his moTheAl^f tS'^ '"^'^ ^"^ ''f? '^'^^''er's the departed spirit, a^dlS^^^^^^^ of one passedinto eternky llV I. '' ^.^'^ "«'^'**''>'> that her-fervent pleadtls' wTre' for^^?'' ^^ Wived jupport her under the iniffhtTtll ^'^'"[^ ''^^'^tance to bowed down to rt.e ea2 uLcT L'^^^ h>8 arm was sufficient -for h^r o "'^^ ^^''""ty* 8»«e found «one ; ^he flood of Jer ^e(^^J?^J'' '^'^^^ '^^ «hed ivAPti.-n^. «_. ., J5"^*"a8 toodeen trt h«i.KU -._ ... 4'"'«''^'i^^rci3^ «nd she took refuire in them . »« « j Fo^wcs were open, .«he was deeply hurt w/l. ^ ^''*"«^''**'' ^^^ods people h the good P^hS<5 utrit^^^^ °f GHead was'applU ofcomfori sprang upJnth! Si ""?• ^^ fouitains the dark „ig|;toAe?^ief«„^^^ npo„ ;nd„ though the - clouds olSn! ? J5'?« ^''^ «^ pe«» ; ^ the "Sun ofRigSZtlJ^n^^.u''^'''^^^ ««««• thp rain," Jealing4n his wingf rrnrtho^^^^^^^^ ^^ "^ her strong affection and ^;&** '^^ conflict between waj" often^enewed" vT £^kT «^ "»^ divine will ^ Amalek, the hciy S^ £^^ between Jsr^, «.ig»«l t, ,K^^,'*',f » '„^ «."id little, b„. .S I V **■' -;■''? r r , ■ p- "^*y ■ M 8pnt j6nr "(ucd wrest- |"then felt j j Jong time. jH brother's /praying for ^ salvatioti J perceived Jsistance to 08 she was I she fonnd • she shed bble up in the day." 5hc fainted > vere open, •d's people as'applied fountains and upon of peace; thp rain," Mwrtwith between vine will ienlsrkel notftUy it, moral, chorch, arm, but k- His 'prayed seemed ' things atience. % <. / eault urr.:^ 31 In the early part of his life he had been of a roving, cxtni- vngant And unsettled dispobition," but for scveralyfarH before his death he had become Hcikiitc, tegubr and in- offensive ; he seemed h> die iaj>cacc. O ! that we niay:^ at last meet him in «' Immanttcl's ' land y" and th«n wo" sltall know that ^ * V A friend when deml U bqt renu^ from sigjit. Hid iri the Itiflfe of etfrnnl li^. '"^^ Your father- was now an ocfihau, left to the care of a poor widqvvcd mother, in nartow circumstances j he had lost his'earthly, but did not seek to his heavenly Father : the world was all bcfoi;e him, but h^ bad no interest in it; vet he was light-hearted and felt no care ; he had not then begun to look with eager and suspicious fears into futurity, or to call up from the ' vasty deep' of Providence spectres of want, affliction or troufcle. When he looks back upon life,, he is astonished at (he miraculous stream of goodness and mercy which has foUowejl him in all his wandering > through this wilderness wolrld ; be had neither reason to believe, nor right to espeJit, that D^^^cr he should b6 called to fill a station so truly honourable in the sight of (iod as that of a miftister orChrfat. The ri«h grace and goodness of God took him from tlie dust to sit among the princes of his people. Nothing in his early life afforded any promise of sucK a designation j grapeS we^e as likely- to grow on t^oriip> and ligs on thistles. He cannot, without the deepest wonder, survey the wondrous, dealings of Provi- dence. All he is, merc;^faas made liim; his present life seems not connected .by even a remote link with his early ' a8io((iations and prospects. • \ .While itiany a gem of pumt ray serene/ The dark iltifathom'd caves of ocean bear; : '; While map^ a row is born (o blush unseen> » . And waste its sweetnns'on the desart air; he, whd was bnly^a'. thorn in the wilderness, has been planted in the courts of the Lord's house, and grafted into the living vine, to partake of the fat and nourishment of the root; ■^ ■'.Ky r' ■■ ■■■*4 , ■ ;* ' ■■ ." •■ '.', ■.-■*-■ ./- ■^4 ^'^ ^^ ' Si flKETCH£g O? ■/ Of (o frare bow great A deluor. «f I?**" ^S ^'*"'"*"' ^'^^'"'''^ "vcr the intermediate nccne* ofl fc. «nd cotinocts the link of liia boyhood with the link of hi8 mnnhmHl, he i, led with gratitude to «ay. m this i. | the Ix,rd 8 doing, nnd it is nianellous in his eyes." "No fnond to take him by thej.^nd I uo father toVi^c hij you h J n9 nro,,erty to prooirfe him the friendship of the world 5 no leiirmng to fit hitt;tor the honourable walks of life ; cast upon the wide Wofta, the Lurd took him iin lis unseen |.and led hita on , and through the hidden daT^et tods a«d deaths of many coloured life, it gently cleared hi^ way. O my children ! this is mercy too great to be ex- pressed, too es^mable to be undervalued, and too evfd^nt tobe denied. Heaven knows the feeUngs of your fatS heart m reviewing past events, « ywir lauier m For how Rbnlt words with equal warmtb/ . The grRthude declare, . That glows within his ravjfh'd heart. But Gud can read it there I ■\ If every future moment of his life were devotion, everV ev^ feS^'anT^ff.!:- "^ prai^e, ev?ry abt faith, anJ every feeling and affectioa love and humility, still the retum^ would be small, the tribute would be imperfect! you w,U help htm to raise a monument of eternd Stude io the glory ofCJod with this inscription on the oiKde! I'i JM WILL BX A FATHKB TO *HB PATHE»LK88 ^^N uid upon the Other sidv ' : . V , \ I' Let *hy widows trust in God." " I WILL BE A«V8BANO TO THE WIDOW/' * BahJlJn^"* *^* "T'^ ^^ y*»" ^"^^^'^ narrative, yon will painfally perceive how unworthy he was of that merrv whicl^ was '. the guide of his youth," tlie gJardSm S S hfe, and the author of all his blessiigs. T^r^fat^e^ "tt^ *"" f «".**iv« ^'^U be a blessing, a^^SS^t he has been pleasingly surprised at the ^eama^f^d?e! i^ yXf ■\^-/:^wfm'.' rtc flecnes li the link '' this is I C8." -No |?uiflo bis liip of the walks of tn tip.^is dangers, eared hiit to be ex- , ) evident ' father'ji », every ith, and itill the lerfect ; ratitude sidej on wilt mercy of hlB t least, iting it fid re> ■AlltY tIPB i collection of past events, all traces of whicli lind vanished from his memory prior to his beginning to write j fwr, um In his youthful days he never gave to th«8o airy n^tliings a local hnlntation and a name, they had. puHsed away as things that had never been, or like the talcs of other tiuiesj they were forgotten and buried In the c»Ytt of /oblivion. For your sakes, however, he ha« Called the shapes of foruiir things Into existence, and although, in ItMnking b-.uk, he doubted whether dry bones so long into%od could live again, he now finds that the Valley of vision^ has not only » political and moral meaning, but even a mental or inteU lectnal one J as a vast army of past ideas has started into life since he began to write these pages. May God enable him, in looking at the wreck of early life, not to glean the refuse and the rubbish, bat that upon which God himself may pronounce his paid* probo, and from which you, his children, and others, if so the Lord pleiL!^, may gather ^struetion and pleasure. But ail it iu bit lund wImm praise I teek | , Wiioke fr0«i>a can ditsppoint tbe proudest itrain, WiKMe approbation prosper evwi miof. At school, your father neglected improvement} at nome^ the former tendernesk of his mother had made him a spoiled child ; among his companions he was playful, giddy and forward. The aiQictions of the family (as his mother was iSpared on whom he doated) made little impression npon his mind beyond the grief of the moment. When his father died he had not sense enough to feel his loss, nor hlial affection iiiifficient to be deeply &£9icted by |t : .^ A few Datural tears be sbed, but wipi'd tbmh soon. Boys have little forethought, and the wOunds of grirfjBOon close as the ripling wave after the parting keel : t^epi^- sent moment is all that en^osses them ; lasting feeling Is the legacy of ripei- years. iTliey have little nobleness of mind or gratitude ; the selfish principle is the master pas- sion of. tiie soul, and often, like Pliaroah's lean kine. * ■ - ■ ■/ ;■ . 'i f- \ ^ ./ V\W' 51 •KETCIIRt or M«, ...g » . i.riii?oV, .x:?",' ™tr '•""-«-•"''«» Sf"*^ IWM I, ia mjr cbwrftal mor. of life them on to happine", Th£ ?. .' ^"?' '*"•' '^^-'d leinl the c«e with jour fothe? "ftet C? ^' ^^^ ■^««'*»' '^- hejt of to atfectiormte .iotheJ wt^ t^t but pointed repS: ;hic^he nt"!? .T V"*?^ '«'"*^' • •orcne«s of feelinff it i^ n^/^ uf ^•^ **"'»^ ^^ "'•thout ■hade ! if thou «X I ? P*""**** *« describe. Dear child, belTi „r hoTr^r \'7 ^ ''»'^'»«- •ver planted one So« T« thr^H 15%*^** »'»^^ »». w%ht he hope ^ Hfidowed heart , wd o|» f Colli-n. P'^^" "«•''■ «<««1 farm. bat he did not Te^d irCnl S^'^T^u *'^*^'- •»» »>«««* e«thIyparent,/anT^lefS^^^^ behaved of an' and mwery. he sought not tHi^ M "*" » *'»«»*'-e of 8i„ affectionaMfy. :\ CAILT LIPR. 35 W^ . t^ LETTER sixnr.r Mg dear ChlMren, From an infnnt, your father had been arciDitomcd to aay his privyera at leaitt every uight, the Ijord'a Prayer and th€ Apoatles' Creed ; the last of niiich, though yiot itiiettY a prayer, if hardly no preposterous oi the oraiHon your youugpst aistor'a nurse UMcd to teach her UttU; folks. ()ue night as your father and mother visited her Uttl« cottage, she was in the act of putting her children to bed, laud must ^cvputly teaching them the fulluwiog prayer ; Four oorneri (o my brd :.' / ., /• . FiHir SDKeU fcaard my k^ad: MntlbeWf'Mark, Lukff aoil Jubn : God blvM tbo bed lliut I lay on. Your father's prayers were a, degree higher than th^it tftc scale of propriety. O that he had never discontinu,. them ! for, though only more childish scraps of (kvotion, they were not without moral effect upon bis coOMiiact ; ha jdurst not tell a lie, he was afraid to use a proEaue word> ■ and of sinning in general : hi* conscicneo was a little tender, and he had the rude outlines of the fear of God ; this, if early cultivated, might have issued in infant piety, ' but it had been neglected, and, through the influence and ' example of bad boys, he was become more hardened, bo that by little and little be left off to pray altogether, and then gently be^n to elide down tbe declivity of vice, without any thing to stop him but the admonitions of hit mother, and the checks of a still unquiet coitfcience, for he wae still much haunted with the dread pf going |o ' hell. A passage in the Plroverbs often stung him like' a \^ scorpion, " be that, being often reproved, bardeneth Tii|^*^ neckl ehall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remecy." Frequently that text made bim very uneasy, '1 the eye that mocketb his father, and despiseth to ''obey the voice of bis mother, the ravens of the valley shall pluck it out, and the young eagles shall eat it." Fears of coming to an untimely death x greatly distressed him ; he 1 /" SG ■> SKETcne« op ttmrlo vows affainst sin, nnd vet ainnpH ««;.'«.♦ 1 for, instead of ffoinir to church on fh. 2 ^\u\ ^"' "^"^"i rambled in thc^eldl roS^^^ Vfc ^u^^f^ '^''y-^^ ""^ So„.etime8baS.inrandfrem^ birds of their nests, company of o^^^S^^ bST '^t S^'j?^^'^ ""* *1f : often scoffed at the yoke ofUiZlf'T^ him away and >ame pla^S worship herce^ir'°"'^''\*"««^^ ^'^ T t4»at he had foi^ot^ tSe t^:nS ifo^t^^ ^ homeland by a ready He oreviS* l^ ' a»d then ran after eorrec^on. ^ Prevented a aevere reproof or an con„uon in th. S^^s^nefe L^l':;^''* "^"^ ment, either a ihere aHoi^ foTSn!.- ^ '^ ^ *"•"'*" ,to commit moral suicSeS^ «, idleness, or ah expedient . fashionable foS ^^ ^J,^ ♦^'■'"^"l *^'""- ^^ ^W« here it is - good for 1^800! 1 1 -?',!?' Y"^"^' ^^' As he was ardent L^w* ^ '*"*'^"' knowledge." frivoIouspJaSlrhStS'nS^' **" ""'"^^ «- ftaying^ii at night flS'^SSj;?^^^ would countcnancrthdrTI-f'^'-^S'''''^'^^* ^"°P»e time tliese amS qL iHl^r ' > ^ 'T ' ^^ *>«« mind of your father tlVT Jf^ ^o, '"'atmited the giddy to many L"uZ^^^^^^ "otW-g el^f anJ «.m of his 8, inotter, \^here was ng deceit-. inded the } from his retendiug then ran otof or an "8 pious . > though f. amuse- xpedient Of this ant, for vledge." »d, this ticiilarly id girls, •se folly ixample At one . giddy se, and ' )rocure mcs of crimes ominy (bit of £ARLY LIFB. »r \ {naming; they tend to idleness of body and frivolity ot mind ; they spoil the temper, alienate from useful studies and latidable occupations ; they make the heart a hot-bed for chicane, artifice and deceit, and yet thousands are pleased and fascinated with this amusement. For the pleasures of- the card table, 'they give up the company of their friends, the cultivation of their mindb, the rational : soJnce of religion, and the proper duties of their station : : yea, they sacrifice to the card table with an ardency of dcvotiim, that, in the pursuit of religion. Mould be branded by the world as the maddest enthusiasm. If tl^e great rule of a Christian's actions should be the word/ and. the end the glory of God, wluit arguments can support an amus^ ment, where neither rational improvement nor moral profit is to be expected ? You will pardon this digression, and. ^ allow an affectionate father to intreat you on no considera- tion whatever to learn this futile practice. There is aniutimateconitection in the whole family of folly, and an intimacy \t4th one introduces you to an acquaintance viXiAi all. . Cards and company led your father to t]m adop- tion of another youthful vanity : an old profligate tianciiig master had the art to allurt^ many. boys and girls to liis house ; the Mritcr was drawn into the snare without tile knowledge of his pious mother. Under the tuition of this hoary veteran in profligacy, hisi mind became daily more and more pois6ued, and his conscience so sleepy, that he dften told the most glaring falsehoods respecting where and how he had spent the night. Oh! what a fearful descent is there in the path of vice ! at first the mind starts < and trembldls at the brink of temptation j the conscience is alarmed, the soul shudders and revolts from the commission of great sins. By little and little 'it slides into smaller ; . the moral sense is blunted, fear subsides, the sinner tak^i courage ; a tempter, sly and insidious, urges him forward ; he Qonquer^ his repugnance; by repeating his offence ; he now lososth^ pawer of resisting, temptation finds hini ^ a willing prey, and at length he is " led captive by the devil at his will," and feels less remorse in the habit tbaa X ^ ^ •KETCHES OP hedidat first in the solitary act. Alearned pl-elate speakt !2riSftr'li,^V^''*'*- " ^'"^ " fi"' P»«"ing } then iiyJJr' '^•"-'^"^.'*'* *»»«» »«bitualj then confined, then th6 man is impemtentj then he is obstinate; then he resolves jjever to repent ; and then he is damned."* So also in Mr. Pope's Moral Essays • »»«"•««. Vtce is a monster of so frjghtftil mleB, ' » That to be Iiated needs but to be seen ; « But If we grow familiar with ber face. / We pity first, next hug, and then embrace. Your deluded father, though only fourteen years of a^e was now becoming familiar A?ith the first stageloTa^SJ' tha* bid air to end in a course of ,hacS vTce '^^^^ pirture only waifted a few shades to make it dark inde«l •till however, the curb of preventing grace checkS him' .ndjie was often strangely prevented frpm goSleS lengths in sin by an overruling Providence, Tdoubt^n answer to a pious parent's ferv-ent prayers? T?,^e inter" cessions his mother ueverintermitteS. Often hThehmd her pleading wih Strong cries and tears, for her unduS' JS minS fnl^rf^ '^o'^W not unfrequently rushtto wwT *• **"** fJ^** P'.»ye>-s would greatly agaravate both his sin and his punishment. Thu? he oftenSlrf h« >»othernot to prayVfor him, and yerhed^^^^^^ abandoned by the Spirit of God, and bLomr„g:,eS& ^spef Sst^ ^^occasionally sittiug undfr a sSg gospel ministry} to him, however, it was as "water apUled upon the ground j" the seed was sown Z the^h wayside, and, although heieveral weeks artendUpriJSe cjtechetjcal eWation, to prepare him for confiraatSrat l^wS "'y ^^"''"r'J^*'"^ impression was madeTon »i8 heart. Perhaps he had so grieved the Holv SnirS* *w «ny. Heh Mpftc teardhU pious aiotlier,J.gihVfoU«wr • Jer^aaiali Taylor's Sermon, p 260, I •.". * ■' ■^ . '■■'■:-■ V''- ■'•■■■ - ■ ' . -;".-■-_ 4 ^ t _ __ . - i Iw ■.>-M-; ;•:..-.■!. tta ;^"^- ,•■-:-■- - '.''■: . ■ :' _ ;■■■■ ." ; /• ■' .■- . "■/.■' .' * • ■PBi HPHKHHIBl ■■■■ ■■ ^ slate speak* Ming; then confirmed ; Date; then damned."* A arsof afc, ►f a career, vice: the k indeed ; eked him> ig certain doubt in lese inter- s he heard undutifiil' rush into aggravate en wished iedJbeing eprdbate. searching "water the high id private nation at ot recol- ule upon Ht/that, »ofit by ifoUowt .. EARLY Liri. 89 iog hymn, which perhaps contains as tnie «^qtiire of hit state at this time as could be drawn : ^ . ^ Tbtt rocks can rend, the rooiwtains thaki, ' Tbe Mft can roar, ,the earth van quake ; " Of f«f hg all ttiinga shew aooMi liiii But this aufediog heart of mine. ,:,.•' ^^^^ T To hear the'sorrowk thda hast felt, Dear IiOrd,an adamant wtiold.melt; But I can read each mOriw line. And Dotbipg Ittaelt iJiis h^i^ofaiii X. Truly it must have been a hard heart ^Hpip that could prompt insulting replies to the mild jr^mdhstrinceB of a pious and affectionate parent ; but Qftent would his proud will resent, and his angry feelings dictate, such language when he received a just rebuke. For, although her just ,, and severe admonitions f^nd advocates in his guilty and unquiet conscience, yet the infatuation of sin hardened him aj^nst her most resuonable and pious advice. Some- times he esteemed it a misfortune to have a pious parent> and regretted that he was not left like other boys whpUy without restraint. Never did the pure unmixeiji enmity of a buman heart more explicitly discover itself than in his case: he looks back with , horror at the bitterness he felt against all that was of God. If, on the Socinian •plQn, Unman nature is good, his was a decided^exception to the principle, and a standing evidence of the truth of a divine revelation, " that the carnal mind is eqijaiity against God.'* liie pious strictness of his parent was a curb that chafed him exceedingly, so that between the strong convictions and gnawing remorse of hisown consdence, fold the solemn reproofs of a mother, he wte the victim of internal anguish. andvfttr, that made the heathen fable of Prometheus no fiction. His feelings were a/' troubled^ sett/' but they oiify cast up " mire and dirt; "for he wish^ to think relir ^ous people were all hypocrites, that he might haye greater reason for neglecting piety ; ^nd eagerly did he listen to any reports uitfavourable to professing Christians ; yea, htf liatched the conduct of an affectionate parent with the • $ 3 i 40 •KEtcit% 69 V Bke thvself infiSo 1.. u « finite worm, but mercy was tT w«ri T *''* P**^" '^^^^ i* ?o«W : he was ripe foj for «« the m.i.oVu 7tgXl,iK M™"""^*;: ""^ ^ ^. ■,) r\ -^ ^^ ' I ■\ I sometliiog^ It rciuen to iti$wy,\ett testbw, the. » thy grace* mercy was y, thine of vsa ripe for ' ioner, and; HI foiip^ com-fi I tnore the pots of his i." Adored fwuralicl ill refused to 9 was the rent : the mercy was brimstone ►r destruc- lovej hh lidst save lood, but en he was isom, and^ •urning tp his heart 1 through on to thy 13 Christ, ^us the I, greatly r parents iraselves, cy sec no i^ ,_ '% ■ y '~\u ^,) "\ traits of mortil excellence, no judicion« parental anthority, • ftb sellT-eommand and affectionate dignity? Piwrents gene- ^ rally stfunp their own character upon their' offspring ; ' thiMisapds of children owe tltSir infamy and rqiii to, their parents ) and thousands of others are (Corrupted by them. Always,^ my children, be select in .your compiany | choose the discreet,< the prudent, the wise, .and> if possible, the pious andf thje refined. Our manners are genertdly fdrmed, bvjjie models exhibited in our companions j the near and ^Constant contemplation of excellence, leaves miuch of its own lovefines? upo|» the mind by reflection j so the came- leon receives much of his hu^from'theijerdant earth pr the contigiious object. Excellence and merit, ia our associate fire the soul vwii;h genecous emiilatioq f whil0 tKc poisonous atmosphere of vice ta'iuts M-lrtitever is ;helilthy;n morals or amiable iin conduct, as the fabled poison tree of JaT« is said to corrupt thf! afmosphere, and spread. desolatio|i, barrenness and death. Y|;ur father has dimply to lameiit . that he ci^ly came in cont'^t with the moral pest* of sinful associations: being, though but a boy^ tall, comely, x)pen ' and unsuspecting, he easily fell into the snares of tempters: At an early period of life, lus natural vanity \y{is 'fostered by the attention of others; hence* he 'fancied himself a man M'hen only a child in years and an inl^nt . in,expertence ; hence, as the men in the shop, where he' was learning his . business made him a companion, he strove by a fprccd > growth, to imitate them to whatever leiiKths they nju in levity, facetiousuess and folly. Tlius h^ became a kind of ' a chaimpion a)id lcader.,td others, and was «knovvn by most of the wicked, rude and forward^ boys of the town. Few plans of mischief or roguery wQre contrived by these varlets but he had a hand in them. He often rambled all night in the streets w ith' ojijier wicked boys and young men. He also Went to horse, races, wakes, dances^ fairs; attended the play-house, nay, so far had he forsaken the fear of his Maker and the counsel of his mother, that he sevei'al times y got intoxicated with liquor. He was an adept in sin^ng / profane songs, cracking jokes, and making risible and '■\ \ k ., ■ E 3 \ -V •'.\ I, -iA I. '} ■ r tf ^v^. ■ *• :.. ■■ tt RRETCHES pF ' fc. ludicrous remarks on anything that came under .his notice. Of singing songs he was immoderately fond, and so tena- ' . cious was his meitaory, that he has sometimes catchfed both the air and words of any new ballad by hearing it once repeated ; but, as he shall ftot become *he disciple of the -^ infamous Rosseau,* many of his sins mtist lie under the veil ^ of oblivion. Yourt affectionately. LETTER SEVENTH. My dear Children, ' ;: :^r': :■■■'■■ ■'■:^r- ■^- •■■-■:' ■''•■ V. Your father hopes that his being so minute will not on the one hand be disgusting, nor on tlie other tedious; he ■*»r .does not intend these pages as the lure to catch applause, but as a beacon to gua^d you and others j and as an hum-* ' Wing memorial to himself of a portion of his life lost to God, to society, to himself, and to useful purpose : he wishes to show the different shades of character under- which a youthful mind may pass who is governed by no J; fixed principle of truth and grace. The vane does not more readily shift with every wind that blows, than such aii one to. every impulse of temptation. A youngs flexible and. pliant mind is wax to every criminal impression. His levity wWps the stream of instruction into froth, and makers him a mere pupchinello to tha* evil spirit who moves the springs, white the corruptions of his heart, like the rank weeds in an uncultivated garden, choak every good see*. Headstrong and unruly, he wishes to have his own way, yet he is sure to go wrong. The prolific elements of his nature generate a thousand half formed vices, and, did not ' Prmidence often interpose, every viper egg of temptation ', would produce a cockatrice. His companipns, are the stream and he is ^he bubble that floats along with the cur^ rent. His vision is strong to behold all the prismatic colours of vanity j he is wicked for fear of being singular, and has the impious vanity of wishing to be thod|ht more . f See bis ConfeaiODf . *-^ i s. wick ^Ni^nw Ifean the c 5ow< ash aboy the < reefs ' yout peri< "S . ' alon then ^ "V A * » lAStT UFB. 43 ^ wicked than he really is, Eveiry object th«t captivates his ' ^••^nses has seveir-ibld charms, though it is the robe of ^eauty covering the* rottenness of vice. Already v^ithin the current of the vortex of desthiction, nothing bu't the Sower of Ood can prevent him from being drawn down and ashed to pieces. - Your father struck upon the, rm'kA above mentioned, and saved nothing from^ the wreck but the experience of his lo<8and and mud, and vnUked or sather limped home. * Still he' remained insensible both of the rod that corrected, and the hand that saved. His disobedience increased witli hi»i years. / Little, adorable and (^mpassionate Redeemer, did he think, that he was rejecting thee in spurning the counsel of a kind ^nd affectionai|ie mother! O! wy chil4ren, Iiinv vast is that |»tience which waits the tet'urn'ici^ a prodigal son, us though it were not insnlted, abused and trilled with ! God is indeed "long suffering and Slo|v*to anger:" ^While his m^cy 6ies like "the swift winged wrows of light" to the sinner's relief, the sword of wi-a|h is long suspended, , till the rebel's final bbstitiacy wears, aWay the thread «f divine patience, aiid invitesHhe stroke that cuts him down. Your father feels the keenest regret in looking back upon a conduct so hateful to God, and so &filicting to tlie miud s. ;i 1., *. ■M n,..-..-4-.-a'y >,-.. -d*' 44 SRBTOHBS OP / (;■ » ■ . - • ' of a^dear parent. O! thou compassionate " Father, w)ti|^ /art in Heaven/* let thy |nercy accept hia repcntiiucOf ^aifd save him from the rod of a retaliating Piovidcnce. And tmi» forgive hU lin^ confemM, deiilorM, * r- .'/ ' : ;■ -^-AgalMt thine Imaite in thy iwipt, O Lord t — ' ■ ' . ■ '':';_ . . Your dear grandmother would rea8on> plead, remonstrate and warn, but her updutiful son had neither ears to hear, eves to ftee, por tenderness of spirit to profit by her admo- , nitions. Hi^ moral feelinj?a were so drugged with the opiate of sin,- that: he was alike inseflBfible both to the voice of (jodjandth^jtears of his pious parVnt. She would often w^ep,^ but His stony heart did uol relent : the stream of , her grief ranjin many a bitter tear, and, had not the ground on which it fell been rbck, thV harvest of rcpcntaucd might have|_ succeeded: Sometimes ini secret he was deeply grieved ^t his' base Ct)nduet } thp horrors of remorse, like a black cloud, fell upon his spirits, and the fear of "going dow^v to" the pit" prciyed upuhishearti and alarmed him exceedb- ^JugTy. He ^ftieii thought of thdde words which had some'- — - got a place in his memor^ r )■ ■ Now I repent, and sin ngnio ;.'; . Now I revive, aiad now Qtn tUtin— > * iSlain with tiie tame anfaa^py dnrt, Which oh ! too bftefr wbor U iny heart ! He fe^ed^going to heJl, and yet, by akind of arithni^tical' •''""*"''• ^'-..would' calculfite upon beii^ig lost. He wais in jand thought he must inevitably, perish, ; .as well go on in §iri, for as he must j|tIon,., 1 - ipcntauce^ \ • BHCe. ■ ." p ... *■ . ' "■ monstrate ' 8 to hear^ f *" ler admo- the opiate " i ^ -■■■'_ e voice of uld often stream of • le Kround ICC might y grieved ', ■ e a black iug dow^v ■ .» ■ a exceedj- --'■ 1 ' « ' ad some* ^! :t ttieie ^forking* of your father's unhappy mind mnnt have iMMin influenced by that sataiiic Hon, " who gocth iihout ; ■ueking whom he may devour}" and who, either .W a*. I " angel of light" or a daemon of darkness, a drogon or ^ ft syren, tries every art, and lays hold upon every feeUpg^ of the soul, to dlure it into crime or plunge it into despair, r Thus he assumes a thousand forms to cheat our soul's int«-| ,everla«ting»ruin.^ -.■■■;.;•■■■- /-•v ■■ ;• -;; v^; % ^ ' ■■'''■■■.■•'.'■ \_ NiMf l»B appfsw almort HWloe, 1^ ,; ■ V Lrke innocence ami love, i ^ i 5: Bal the old wrpent larks wUbia ■ j Wbfn- be aMmnn tbe doT9. pi.;'' He (e«l« oar hopet with airy dreanw, •• r *? Or k Hit with ilBVldi fear }>^ ^ ' . And hoidf oi itlU in wide eitienlev Preurrptlon or despair* • ' Now he penaadet bow easy 'th To walk tht road to H«afe»; .'1* Anon he swpHs ow slnt, lind crioa, * , ,. MThejrlcanuofbefiorglwB.'* . . ' okl my children what a drudgery is tKb practice of sin; It is a base and low ^tiiication, purchased at the, expense of the peace, harmony and purity of Mtie soul. The means, are formidable (rebellion agianst God), Ihe end i» nothing, a bubble, a straw, an animal ebullition. Such a means to accomplish such an end Resembles ocean Into tentpeit wrovght, ■ .^ To waft a feather, or to drown a fly. Sinners sell their immortal « birth-right for a mess of pot- tage !" their crown of glory for the crunibs of worldly lust that fall firom the table of flense. Like the Hebrews in the desert they lust after gratification, though the fiery , serpent has begun to fasten upon them. They, boast of liberty, though they are tied and bound down by the phain of their sins. Alas 1 they "sow the wind and reap the whirlwind."^ The siilner spends the noblest kres^ure" of the soul for tlwt wbitrh is i^ot bread} he feedeth .j»p<«u -^f-. ■ ». i - tL \- % ;■' -W-- \ ■■■.■', iKETCHBt OF .'-■.,.. , '* .^11" Mhc« J he lycth down in lorrotv, and he U inJeopardT every hour. Who hath woe ? Who hath sorrow J Who httth contentious ? Who hath wounds without cause ? Al»9 ? Ihe tinner who feedeth iwine, yet cannot fill his belly with ^ the husks j who seereth his own conscience that he may more securely sleep in the arms of the devil j who " trea- sureth up wrath," though hia hoard will be his hell. " Destruction and misery are in his path :" his " steps lead down to death, and his ways take hold on hell." Tnily might the wise man say, " the way of transgressors is hard.*^ It IS to be questioned whether a guilty conscience, with all Its appendages of fears, remorse, glooms, stings, qualms, reproofs, re-actions, forebodings, anticipated judgments and •minature hel^,- be not harder to bear, and bitterer in the bearing, than all tfie congregate* evils of a pious life. The crosses, the trials, the thorns in the flesh, the conflicts, the contradictions, the persecutions, the reproaches, the fight- ings, the fears, the dlfficnlties, the afilictions, of a good man, -are the thorns in the wilderness through which he is tr^- jrelling to glory ; the gales that waft him to Heaven ^ the UboiOT that make rest aweot ; the crucible that purifies bis fcith ; the winter that kilh the vermin in the soil of corrupt nature, that would otherwise destroy the hopes of the husbandman.- But the miseries of the wickedxare an earnest of the perdition which terminates the path 6t4ce. ^' The pleasures of sin are at best but for a seaspk" Meanwhite there is a sting in the honey, a fthorn i/th» rose, a poison in the bowl, a sword suspended over the feast, a snake in the grass, a volcano beneath (the flo'wei^ patb,«nd an horrible tempest lurking in the debeitful calm The paradise of fools is in the suburbs of hell j ^he-flowery paths of vice take hold of destruction, and " thp wages of sin 18 death." On the contrary, the pleasures of piety pay no tax to after-thought , remorse, never elbows those who walkm the narrow way , the sweetness of «elf-dehial has no -counterbalance in stings of conscience j guilt neVer knocks at the door of pious pleasure; no black thynderstorid of (undemnation ever rolls over. the calm and sun-ifluuiinated \- ',4*' ' ■ .■ EARLY Lirl. vale of inward peace. Purity and truth give a silent, hotno-fclty rational delight, pure an the silver moon bt'am». and calm as the heavens of #hich it is an emanation ) but the horror of remorse liv'fes when the criminal pleasure i^ paHt, and i^ven in this world takes ample vengeance on the victim of guilty passions and ungodly deeds. The following remark is the sentiment of one of our bent poets ; you will' ever find it to be an echo of the true feelings of your heart, as your father has foilnd it in unison with his : To be Kood if to bfl happy ; angels Are ^Hpiiinr than men befnuiie tbnjrVe b<>Uer« Guilt is tb« MUiirce of mrrow ; 'ii» the flend', : , ' Th' avenKing flvnd^ ibnt folh>w8 ns behind , *^ ,Witb whips and stings : the bltsst'd know O^ne of (hb, But rest in everlnstinK peace df mind, And ftnd the height of 1^1 their Heaven is goodnew. iut a much greater anthority than the noblest- poet li'poh tarth has Hnidjr" Come unto mc bll ye that labour and are leavy laden, and I will give you rest : take iny,yoke upon /on, and learn of me y for I ani meek and lowly in heart \ and ye shall find 'rest to your souls." The Christian mav count the cost of every enjoyment, and look forward v^th composure and peace to the result of all his actions. Hia pleasures do not blossom upon the stock of sinful gratifies- • tiouj, they are found in the friendship of his Redeemer, the love of hisiGod, and the rugged but peaceful paths of self-denial. He goes upon" no - fool's errand to the mid- night revel, the alluring Delilah, the enti^in^ theatre, the guilt illuminated ball-room, or the fashionable promenade. ♦' He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most' High," has an internal shrine, where the Spirit of truth, and peace and love resides— a well, of water veithin sprii^ng up to everlasting life } hence^ ho "^^ drinli's witters out of his pivn cistern, and running wajfers out of his own well," and ia blcssea with quiet of conscience, peace of, lAind, harmony of passion, solace of reflection, the Calmness of contentment and the meekness of resignation. The pleasures of piety are rational } reason approYcs them, reaaon is La them. They arg 'M,. :( ' a' \ IK ITCHES OF not ft>tckiMrfiQ>in the temple of impure delight, culled from the pinnt of Be^»c, or dug w ith diumondN from the fluming mine. They are neither twined with the Heductivc UuroU of the poet, nor reujied in iron harveutH upon the held of hattlc, MfhfUr*! the pnco ta vatour, and the purdhase blood. N«, my children, happiocnn docn not dwell w ith tl^ne things^ how much soever the false glare of worldly opinion haa' •bed a halo of glory around th«m ; and how much loevcr m«n fly from themselves to these refiiges of lies. That happiness, of which you and all others are capable, is serene and calm j it does n6t sufluse the cheek with the blush of shame. It does not waste the vital oil of health, and cause the lamp of life to burn dim with premature dis- ease and decline. Here there is nothing to blast the rcpu- tation, or shipwreck the estate. In the inventory of pious happiness, there are pleasures of hope, plcwjures of read- ing, pleasures of metUtation, pleasures of prayer, when the pious, the devout heart, ia rais^ to converse with God, and Heaven lets down a strciam of its own beautifying glory upon the soul ^hat comes into the presence chamber 6f its Maker: and to crown the Christian's enjoyment, thcfe is the fine ol" But a pious man is satisfied from himself j the fountain within yields constant supplies j the mine is rich. He who \m these treasures of his own^ these riches of sweet and estimable consolation. i' ....: MAy leave a palacr or'a throne, J; >f>y quit die world and dwalUloae, ._i__^=^^ — - WiUiiD hli ipacloai mlad. =7--~^-tt^^^ While the men of the world are letting down lea^ bockoU into empty well<, «ad drawing up oply disappointment, he \. y \ .^M. -7/1 ullcd from tie flmning ivc Uuroli ifl field of Me blfKKl. me things, inion hua It'll aoevcr M. That ipubie, in with the >{ health,^ utiirc dJH* the rcpii' f of pious I of read- wbeD the vith God. iautifying presence hristian's ) of doing le source, licate its he things eiit often ruition of ^e joy?" fonntaiu ich He of sweet ' bnckots pent, he f ) Wiwn ■ f CAtiLY Lire. ■>¥ from the wells 49 salvation." "Ho rallt his «iith, it comes { he culls another, that arrives," Th9 hIcQsiiiKs.that iiinko him linnpy arc Hot like the i>hilo- sopher's ston* undiscovered. They dn not resemble the raiiilmMT upon the liill, the bnhhio upon the ocean, or the meteor in the sky. A poet has stud, " man never is but nlwkys to be blest," but this^ is not ti^e j in Christian exnericnce he hii a sober Vcrtainty of waking bliss. " Heaven owns her child on thiH Hide an hereafter." The bliis of eternity often begins below in the peac^ and joy of faith } and to give to a (/hriHtiiin'H happiness the highest lustre, it is lasting, it is perinaricnt. Uachcrs beauty was a transitory flowpr which quickly fwlcMJ from the human face divine; Joni^'s gourd sprang up in a night, and withered in a morning ; iSoloinon'H glory was soon beclouded ; and Hauinn's exaltation was but a Htep to the gallows : but the Christian's peace is like Melchizcdck, it has no end of years. The spring of his bliss shall Hourish through eternity ; the sun of his conifort shall never go down ; the fountain of his peace shall never be dry, nor shall the stream ever cease ; it shall be full above measure, and '^ lasting beyond liounds. The " light shines brighter and brighter to the perfect day." Thus, my children, the happiness of piety is the only permanent thing in the world. Moths may fret the garment, rust may corrode gold, envy may blast the fairest fame, and sickness may fade the loveliest face upon earth, but inward peace is not subject to time and chance and the elements. If riches fly away, and 8)iow their fickleness by their flighty this is constant. If our friends forsake us, this sticketh closer than a brother ; if our life decays, this is a life in de -#■ y ID «|t KETCHES- OF ■ t->. you sensible of the truth, purity and sweetness of viptuous pleasures, that you may not be drawn aside by the rainbow bubbles of worldly vauities, or Hie gaudy colours which V, often coverthefascmatingpaths of vice. You will remember tie^history of Moses, who nobly rejected the numientarv thHewarr' ""' " ^^"'"'B ^ ^yo to the recompense of •' •,^""*^"*'»« joy <'»"tP>wpeMiB vice objnl^^^^ ' Tis but what virtue flies from nwl disd«i0s. . .As happiness is the end and aim of ourbeinir, seek yours y . "» God, your heavenly Father, in communion by prayer, ineditation and' reading, with the Savour of sin,,ers,and > ^»n tner consofetions of that Spirit, who sheds renovated * #" I; i""''"^'' ^"^'•'^ soul, and makes his temple in "the ^.pnjht heart and pure;" You wiflthcn cnR* into all the i-ichftfiss^of the following sentiment of the poet, to„Mhich »ay,theUod of your father direct you for his n\ime 8ak« : Where's thy true treasure? Gold savs. "not in me," An* "not in me," the di'mond. Gold is poor ; India's insolvent ; seek it in thjsplf, Seek in thy naked self, nnd find it there : In bejng so descended, form'd, cmlow'd ; Sky-born, sicj-guided, &ky-re'tiiroing ruce! -Erect, immortal, rational, divine ! ?ur8 affectiQuatety. 1.-: '4: ■... < '*■; ^' . LETTE%ilGHTk My dear Children,. ' l the recollection of which hlls him with the liveliest regret ? fJf 1 /ii""?i 'l^"^ "^ ^ ''^''^''"' ^'"''^st the shoals of youthful folly and suffering on which he run, to warn every undutiful child and disobedient boy of the error of their ways 1^061 the time his mother became truly VeriouT her desire for the salvation of her children grew more and wore urgent, and Ux soUcitations more importunate Her \ EARLY LIFE. 51 of vitttiinun he mi n bow mrs M'hich [remember !iu>uientary tuipense o( seek yours fiy prayer, iiiers, and renovated e in "the to all tlie to .which le sake ; (^natel^y. s history St regret shoals of rn every •of their serious, lore and K Her , prAvers for tlicir salvation were fervent, and often breathed forth with strong cries and tears. None knows but God. the searcher of hearts, how earnestly truly pious parents pray for disobedient children. At a throne of grace only the wounded spirit of a tender mother gathers consolation and hope. " God," says she, " can turn the heart of n»y child ; he is in the hands of God } I cannot give Inm up, undutifuly disobedient and rebellious as he is. Who knows but he mav become a child of 'God> and repay me for all I have suffered on his account. Should that be the case, and the prodigal ever return, roy tears of sorrow will give place to tears of gratitude, and my twice-born child will be doubly dear tp tlie heart of his affectionate mother. These, probably,* had been the reasonings of your grand- mother in continuing to pray fir an ungrateful and hard hearted child. She continued, however, to reprove him as well as intercede for him, but what was duty in her was bitterness to her soli", who, weary of reproof, and Wcoming more wicked as his mother became more pious, forsook her affectionate care ; and, with a cruelty both unnatural and. desperate, left home and went w ith some other of his wild t companions and entered on board a ship of war. How regaidless, my deai- children, are wicked boys of the tender feelings and bleeding hearts of their aflTectionate parents. ITiey rashly plunge a thousand daggersjn a tender mother's breast ; ,that mother, whose whole life and maternal soli- citude have been devoted to their comfort j. who hafr fed them with the milk of her breast ; fostered them with the 'warmth of her body ; who has watched them with the most lively solicitude, nursed them with the tenderest care ; whose feeling heart has bled over their infant pans, and , from whose moist eye a thousand mother's tears have fallen in sympathy with their soirows. this tender parent, who has known no joy separate from their welfare, and who has. felt no pains so keen as those suffered by her children, whose life is bound up in the life of her offspring, this affectionate, afflicted and broken-hearted mothei, is put to, nameless tortures, by the disobedience and the hard heart- F 2 « I \ fit Ife 8KBTCH£« O^ .i. tenderness, and hmassed S ''?'-J«:i^'^«»«* "-epulscd her hduse. her Tht h? *^' '?'"'^' ''"""^ ^»e« from her iinduUfol indtt «f.H K P'^^^^^^^ '^ <>« punished for rwffi2fl. *°*" **^ ^'*''»'^«' M the ferocity of 't^- L.. #■ T«>u art not 10 unkind, I ^""MV Ingratitude: Thy tooth i« not so keen, -« BecBose thoa art not seen, Ahhoagb tb; breodr be rode. Freese, fte«e, thoq bitter ,ky. Thou dost not tile TO nith,. As pareois' tears forgot . Though ibpa tb« waters waro. Thy sting is not So sharp, -'As love renietnber'd opt. \ might ive^ hLt^^SXS^- Prf ^^ Afritat, or his ffrave mShrhavi k a *?^ "^''^^ «''*»'^««'<^ become too gallinir and wSE!? I £!T "'^'''«* »"«* rovihgdisposSoiLn^wTtt?''**"*^^'"** «»*»*» »"<* hm inleprool. or S^Ih l^^?d"S'''"Af ^t" Mitl ' Avai is( mid of ^ whi ,-i >X /■■ y So 4 |iai)( «¥ infli or t hut flesi hor£ He, mot •a pa fallc iron was sorr reta :«■■ EARLir LIFE. 53 id her with pulsc(J[ her 9 fruiu her Jished for oldnesH ul' erpcity:of. be would » thefoir*^ ve trade, ur&thef >hores,d' ofsomo ■her had., ind and mi visit I to sea J lad seen greater JQ^ had is cruel hetftill ii^nded as! he deeply cspoud M-ith his enslaved desires and depraved capacitie8---h« wanted a wider range, a larger field. Ah ! how patient is (lot! , not to cut down such young trangressors in the midst of their career. The subject of these lines had cast of godly fear, and had plunged into a vaiiety of evils over which silence must cast avail. — r-^"r-7- ■-.■:' - He never then bis God addreM'dv— - -ir - - : . ' . In Khiteful praise, or liuiiible prayer, ' . And if Gofor the fool's' back." He, who had been the beloved idol of a tender pious mother; who had never known a single hardship, or felt, •apajik but what excited her kindest sympathy, had now fallen into the hatids of straugers> whose rule was a rod- of iron; s[ih1 whose tender mercies were neglect or frowns. " The mad bull had got iiito the net," the wild ass's gplt was curbed by the strong hand of naval tyranny j and the sorrows he had inflicted ujfon a pious 'parent were now retaliated ineasure for measure upou himself. Here he saw «K* H IRfeTCHES OF P profaneness In all its diabolical features, and severity mall its forbidding forms. Tyranny ^id not ask leave of the law when or how often it should $trik«i its victim ; 86 that from the petty midshipman to the high, mighty and choleric captain, (whose ensigns of despotical power w^re the grating, the gangway, and tliecat-o* -nine, tails, with the articles 6f war to salvo the cruel measures,) all were cruel. Start him, give him a rope's-ending, tic him to the gangway, and pipe all hands upon deck, were the order of the day. Hence, though but a boy, he had to mix with men rude as t«i rock and boisterous as the storm. Doctor Johnson was in some degree just in his remark, respecting the degrading thraldom of a ship of 3var, and his preference of a prison as the least disagreeable of the two. There are several points in which the two subjects will admit a close parallel. A prison introduces within Its walls a'mixed multitude, some unfortunate, some imprudent, and othergdesperat^ly wicked j but all, in general, destitute of tffie relfgion, and sinking deepei" into the abyss-^f vice by being grouped toget^r. A prison I'i a state.of close confinement, and sometimes hard, labour • the most 8evere.discipline is uSed to- keep the pri^puers in •awe J the jailors are in sorte instances tyifnts, and the penalties crueir Men AviU, on every occtsibn, run from a prison, nay they sometimes er^ rise upon their keepers. A prison separates you from the^st of iflSnkind/ and hin- ders you from conversing with anP»ut the unhappy inmates' of your confinement. In allthes^ points the subject may be applied to a ship of war ; but jierhaps the writer is too severe. During the last twentyXsix years many happy changes have taken place in the navy, the captains are now moral, tlie men less profane ; th^ officers have become humane, the midshipmen are not so insolent, and the dis- apline is more mild. Doiibtless tiere are some good ships Md exceUent commanders. That* fine institution the Bible »>ciety, has " cast its bread upon the waters."- A noble admiral, has by his example made piety less odious to naVal •commaa^era. The British and foreign Bethel Seamatt> \±::lM I I I r * * 1 , ■■ ■ - V ■ . ■ :. ■ - '■■:'--,.' ■■ ■■: — ~-^— * 7— ■ '"-■■ ■■ ■■^■■/^ ■.' , \ ■ ■■ ~- \- -v^ ■^ V. \ . _ '.V. ■ , ■■■ ""."■■. ■•. .. ' .\' : ■ - - \ :■/'■■■ •[ H ■ h ■* ^^^y ;.',"■ ■ -."'■:;■■ «.^ -'■'■. .."'■'■ /. " ■ ' '■ I '^ EARLY UFE 'fv. % 55 Union/an4 the general interest excited f<^ tlic welfare of seamen by all classes df pious people. Mill grndiuilly ope- rate a'moral change both in merchant vessels and ships of war. But alas! the odds are so^nuch on t^hc other side, as still to (rive the subject in general a veryit^loomy, and 9 a pions mind afflicting aspect, >/ KYour father was some time on Soard the Nassau, of 64 ffuns ; bnt prcvioush' to the voyage, i^ which shaiwas lottt tn the NortliScar^-wlth part of her crew, he was drafted with someyilUiers on board of the beautiful frigate Amethyst, then fitting out in Portsmouth harbour. " Thus a kind Provideitee interposed for him, perhaps jn answer to the intercessions of a praying motlfer; for, had he continued in that ship, as he wished to do, the sea might have been his grave, and a more dismal gulf his eternal portion. (>'r, had he gone in the Ssilne ships with^wo of his early roui- panions (one of wh<]pin was dnvftcd on boiufd iflie Jkhou frigate, which foundered at sea, and the otlier^fterwurds QM board La Trifmue, which sunk in thgireatnuicc of Halifax harbour,- when all her ill-fated crew, but seven, shared a watery grave,) his life would have paid the forfeit of his disobedience. Lpving SaA'iour, how shall a ^or sinner praise thee ! . WLere shnll bis'tromlerinp; sool bopfln? How'shall he all to beuven Hspiref *Sf° A sliive retleemM frhm death and sin, • , A brand plackM frond eternal fife: ;, How ih^ll he equal honoar's raitt? , - ' ' •'^ . Or sing his great Ueliverer's,i)rtti/(^? :. Oh the depth ! his eaily companipns, w^re lo*st, he was saved. How mysterious fire t^e ways of God ! \,Here; Indeed, his *^ footsteps are in the^e&t deep,-^and hlsF^ath in the mighty ^Erai^s ;" '^clouds and darkness are round abO}it him, and his ways ar^e past finding but/' No)iuman , reason can be assigned ivhy he did not share a similai* fate ; it was not chance, but Providence that ordered it Qth&wiae. M « \ .- W' $ CSod moves in a .mj'sterioos way, His wonders to perform ; / r y ■ i ■* « - 1 , * 7 . -V. \ \ ^V'\' V * ■ *'-; ,{- ^#..,X_J1 1 '\ ;-.''. ■ ■■ » .\ '■■'. . ■ \ .-■ ■ - ] / • ■, \'' ' -" ' . -". ' ■. , - . t S'.' •Mi! 4 Bulb* do i»j* toi be f^ from risluu icktd 5 . int«yjf ** whatever tli|| ||W!«;f ^«Bf(i ■ til _ noi^ kre we liciis}hle''to l'»ve:a; [f^r^ (^e, whatsoevcjT things [^ areli8fc,;\vhaesoev<;r tUiiigs < I lpvcl|/ V His p^le aW li^Ofc fiy^n^e* (o. love Wintit^My justvicvsofthe'^ectitftde-jvradopi, . nruth and etef«ia!!fifl^uity of the great* (Jod. 1:^0 lis. well ^'^ ;awart that :irtcid«in{s,0f this ki»id Imvp ]A ma^ J^j^gooA I ^en; i^^sftgd apote yfc^s oC tliel)|-ine ^^... w — ..v*. v« j-wM. j.yi^ini, uvM« "" nus una mncr occasions, ^ Whilp others pwisfted^ is on<3 ofthose enigmas that iriust ' l^idaced fqwnJI^ Iil?t4)f an iiic«plieaUle IVoridence. By ^M bf the w hol«|j»rum€ m i^l be explainpd, and ProVidenpfe -^ »^^»^* W*'**^'^^^? a°d revehijion in its i]frofi)und doctrine8> wdlsi^etlyJiarraonlze. Me;un^hilc, you w ill subscrjW to X the , truth oif some lines Avrittcli by your father upon the premtlul-e and melatidwlH Heath «f a- ijHlr and amiable *^ ^Wtunatn, iiith herthrefelovely diikUcy, wJMfc-ished In tHe '.^ . iJay of Fuiidy :'■>;: ', , .^ ; '■''{'■ y~- 'W^'-'-' -V:^^- ^^^i^,^ 1.-' V Es > *• ' :,'.,: -^J ^ ' 1 ^''" pifKW ihe i^Poms^^icU TOuiidjlijr templeiise ; ^^ ■ ■■'> i' '■% LIFB lonff the hsible^to c have a et: things l!r thiiigs >. pie aloiie they arc ? Christ, ij'isdopi, oy«aoodr ' e Divine )r|ted,by h 6yery id book,, 1. ;rhe^ casioits, at iiiust ?e. % videnpe ' t'trinesi crjbe to |)on the unliable I in the ' . 47 |bod Hrt,en to ride, . h IWHtt'it liiixlity' tide, i' irk, that bHlf conoQjiU of .tbjr chariot wbeeMj' . trtfeielfetbadt defles an angel's kso,'v ' . (For herein angels flymbolitewitb men;) "'/ ■'- '■ And.otily ligbt proi^tic can illame ■'':.''';>.-■■ - !lrb«t ftwfdi .region oTiiDperviQiugiooin. : . ' . father said that he was drafted on boar4 the lyst frigate) this vessel had been recently taken from 'Snch, and was ° then preparing to cruise against' her Sters, la the crew^ consisting of about 300 souls, ;^t contemplate a complete assemblage of youthful r— r,^rw|i'» all Hs varieties. FVom the captain to the cabin ^i»oy,ltidd not recollect that there was one person on board Tv)»<»f^*»er truly "few-ed God, his maker, or at all cared j^thflffT»&T his own soul or the souls of those around him. j They were finei young mien fit for any service, but alas ! wi^^ed, daring tmd thoughtless . There was not so much as the shadow of jb chaplain, nor yet any reli^ous servica «Mf^|the^ Lord's day; >!The Sabbath was^otfly BUrfcl^iy wb|lto| ^rpwsers. than usual, and whilriiTharbour'a parthjl r^pi|||4rom.someof the^4^^ of the ship's dutyM H^^jyhfcre is theji'^AJie^that profoneness, undealiness* < artt|i!M|jDin^ss and gamlHing were carried to an uncommon. excent : and not even the mentioq'jpf religion to'ch'itek'the tbirient of iuiquity ? If itimcA. a random oj- h^l;y ej to .isayi that. 8uc|i a naan of war is a**—- -•-— •^-» ;>re8a not a Vin||)it behind many of . lonal rcnection w^uli^trud trayers, Che-intrcaties of a "* 1 their gracious, authority. ... , he wa«^ taken notice of by some of the officers ; allowed >'occasionaUu||p go on shore j in 4liort he to like a seafaring lifi^j^r t^u^k be sometimes got ^ t" of a rattan from the l^atswiun, or a cuff from a. idshipman in ^e boat, which he durst npt resent, ' ilence of his self-will hajdr settlld iaJMtoi txacntties. the care, flinlTOi?;^'*"^ ._ mother ^had not*^*^'" As he waS ttitall ^ : . IT" 4 J^' TT '■* #•3 \ ;:->^ '. f ■ V .58 SKBTCflBS OF !( x^uv with Ilis lot, and his religiouB impreiaions had mogt ol Uiem vanished away. Removed froAi all means of grace, fiom all religious iustructioii, and froiuT^evcry thing save the Mileiit workings of conscience that could recal piety to his nni.d, fie gr«w fond of the aea, and used to Entertain hi« cooipanions during the midnight watch, by /telling long stories, spun out of his Imagination, not haVing even tha semblance of truth, but like Milton's Pandeinonium, con- sjsting of all prodigious tilings, which he tWd together ^for the amusement of a group of young mkriners, who Sat rdnnd him listening with eager attention. Youv^ affectionately. LETTER NINTH.; My dear Childtent Our station was to cruise off the coast of Fran<;6, pUep into thcir^harbours, and annoy their trade as much as pos- sible. In this career the Amethyst /continued till Decem- ber, 1794. when she put' into TorbAv for w.iod and water >he sailed on the '28th of the same liionth. in company with the Leandcr, 50gun ship, and anotl/er frigate, to resume her station along the iVench coast, aiid then to proceed on a cruise off the western islands. The following evening she WBSovertrtlten with a severe gal/s of wind, which continued mfftt^ the whole of as dark aiid dismal a night as ever Vas e*)ei-ienced. During the first watch, a part of the \ crew >*a8 allowed to be below in their hammocks. Your father lay down and fell into a sleep, from which he was isoon roused by a terrific dream that the ship had struck vpon arock; he felt the dismal crash, the thundering and gnuding of the vessel, tnd awoke with the terror of the impi-ession. At midnight he took his,,sjtation upon dock ; the darkness was horrible, and the galc'furioiis : the ship with her courses close reefed, rolled on witli tremendous majesty before the dark billows crested with foam At tlu-ee Q clock in the morning, the prfeentiment in his dreau '■i' n US: ■■•i ■U ./> '. f ■ wtely. ■ r ''•v..,J EAntY LIFB. 09 M'ns realised ; the ship urh then going before the wind, ^' ¥ . wh'u;h still continued fuiiotiH, with a thtt-lc and rniny itky \ the waves r^jued, Iwit tlie gnlljint Amethyst gashed rapidly^ if'. . thi'ongh thel boiling foam. A giinuncriiig light was seen ''\i »t some distunce, whivh was snppos^ryto j>c a light from the coini|iodore, but alaa ! it must have been the light of' a walch-tower or light-house,** for iu'a few minutes, as thfe 6hip descended a tiea, she struck w ith a BQst dreadful crash upon a reef of rocks. Ah ! what a moment of terror M'as tliis'; the grinding aud crashing of the ship was horri- ble^ thojiurrbunding breakers were tremendous. Instantly all was confusion, dismay and despair. All hands and iniflicers crowded upon deck'; some half dressed, and others hurrying to and fro, perhaps in the diu'kncss and confusion, iusensibl^ what they did. ,Ile was partieulurly atruck with the dismal .outcry.'of the profane imatsvvain, running along the gang^vay c$:claiming, " Lord, have mercy upori us ; lior(U^»!»ve mercy upon us ;, Lord, have mercy upon us ! 1^ we arc aff lost !" ' The darkness and white roaring breakers, f^ with which we Ttere surrounded, formed a sublime and tenific contrast ^-and with our gallant ship gtinding uj)on the roctis, presented a scene of sublime and terrible distress, wild enough for the muse of av)'^alcoucr, or the pencil of a Salvator Ilosa. . 'f \ ' Not/n soal Bat Mt a fever of tlie nmd, aiui plny'4 Sonle tricks of desperutif a change was this j a fcyi- days preceding had of mirth, riot and* reyiil^; the ship's crew had been pmd a little time before >6ine bounty, and others wages ; JLhe banner of wickedness^ had been ^fitj^up, and all enlist(9d tbetnselves in the ca^tsc of 8in£iMlBugh the coanivandHi'fof the ^fliccrs the broadest vtlMV showepl^ its nnblip^ag front, aiid ccy9i|Kt-ed the ill-futM Amethyst into '« ' ' "g^ . ftat alas ! the picture is dark enougl! already. Now dcat^tared lis in the face, and coward guilt stood «entiael upon every countcnaiice ; nothing j,^y childrep, / / • Probably the Casket Ligbtf. Ah! what been day: 1 -v. %PL ■\, ■ ^ ■/ -■■'^' ' ' ■■■p. m 1 \:':' w it k ■?<. 60 IKlfoitES Of ■"•^^-« hilt blooH-M'MJiPrl ihn(^|liMfl ran rominnnfi with death. \'iro nmy liluHtcr for a iJ||W>iit in the iibaence of dangu/, but n peep into the *'terrti»lm;orM nmkcn the heart pal|>itate. lind the hiind treniblelJB»(^y fresh erasjh made the crew of the poor Amethyst triPlfnc to their centre ; ftnd some im- prisoned j^roan bespotce the hearts of many but ill at ease. The swapgcr, the caper and the stmt were for the moment forgotten ; and thofce who neve^>rayed but for the male- dictions of Heaven, would now Imve gladly, put themaelvfii under its protection, -Hovt" rinttiral is it in the time of danger to seek rcfiig6 and aHylum > in the bosom of an almighty mercy ! fotwho is thw'n}. in tlic fury of a storm, the devastation of arPflprtlHpiake, Or jthe desolating ravagca of a conflagration, U>at can help iifi|i{but God Almighty ? Adversity, like a tempest at sea, drives U8>y a kind of hard necessity into the haven of his ifterey.*^- He Iwg grn- dously said, " call up<^n nie in the time of trfiJ>1%and I will deliver thee." Cod will bo acknowledged b^ hwi creatures/ either in the way of gratq||dalove^jr perihpS fear : for even mj^riners, who arc oftlSPJhe pJfWanest i^ I acknowledged b '" " ^ mm most thoughtless of mcii, will in dajigef call upon God, and thus ncki^wledge his power 6 ' The ofiicers assembled upon the quartef-deck; in9p»si countenances might iie 8«f»(| the most rflari^cd sotj^ndc. The master advi sj^ letting go an anchor, and the leablea were accordingl|pPiged along fore an J'nft j but, when wc had reason t^uj^r that, in coi^sequcnce of her dreadful crashes, our gali|nt Amethyst would go to pieces, a most tremendous surge lifted us .over the ledge, and we once more rolled upon the yielding waves. This, however, seeined only a momentary respite, a small consolation, aa we were in.ajjnking ship, upon a stormy sea ; and, what added to oorrW)rfors^ we were surrounded with darkaesa r*- and bi the si board, -COIIV8I of the to 8CH hurdh has I) about punipi minat ^- 1 " '^ • , * ''I ' I Ih death, f danger, pal|>itate, ic crew of some im- II at ease, e moment the male- icmHclvffl 9 time of >m of an faHtorm. g ravagcR ilniifflity } at kind of y iMg gra- iU>i%and id by^ hia ■ perikuiii anest and [>on (iod, lents, hia that thj^ " stron the it ol^ndc. lie ioBblcA when wc ' drCadfnl , a most^ we once however, ation, as ind, what darkaesf EAnlr.lQilUilFG. 61 and hreaUcrs ; and the writer verily believes, «0 badly hid the i»hi4>'« courHe been nmnngcd, that not an officer on board, kiu'w her cxart Mitnation, or ever dreamed that the c«>iivs(', wc were steering would bring us among tlic breaker* of the Hannowny rocks. When llj| hml fairly got her head to Hoa, the carpenter sounded the well, and liia report waa huriUv lesN (li»niiil than the death warrant of a criminal who has been hourly expe(ti»lg a reprieve. We had, I believe, about ten Sf^ water in thefhold. The chain and hand puuips>crtiSflnvncd with an nHlMty thai indicated a deter- minatibn wc Should not go t<^^iM)ttoni |i lalMitir could prevent it. But, owing to,th'^^|||50 holes uirongh which ftfe water poured in upon us, every ^ort to^ain iy)on the leak was unavailing. Sails were Ictwwn under the bows, if possible to cover the fractured pnrtTm the bottom. The gun:*, anchors uml some of the boats were ttHMrn overboard, and this greatly Tightencil us, but still th^pik prevailed, and the ship appeared to be sinking very fast, as tile water from the hold was now nearly level with the coombings of the hatchway. Some of the men, in a kind of sullen despair/ left the pumps and lashed themseH'cs up in their .^Miumocks, unwilling to make any exertion. Several put Ml thetf bcft cloflies, either hoping to escape or die as deccnlllf'i'as pjH^siblS. At this time the officers, perhaps to inspirit tli^tiicn, gave out that the leaks did not gain ; fresh vigdhur rou.sed every one to exertion ; some employed themselves in biuling the water from tlie^.jy[||chways ; but th« moments appeared as hours, and disnm anxiety was depicted npon every countenance. '«, >, Your father gave up all for lost ; and, while liot employed in pumping, leaned his head upon the carriage of a gun. The horrors of his situation fell upon his spirits like a black cloud ; his heart was a prey to the liveliest anguish and remorse. He could not pray ; tluc heavens appeared like brass, the earth as iron, and his hopes sunk like lead in the' troubled waters of his soul; the ghosts of his past sins Stalked^ before him in ghastly forms, and a recollection of hi s 4< <' P^ * dieace a nd folly s tung h i m to the quick . A l l #'■ f #■ Gi lKBtClietN»f ^ .-Ti hope of mercy, in cnne tlic ahip wont down, mve up th« ghonr. Ilu could not realize that he had a pioiix mother then intertudiiitf for him, (it was about her unual time of prayer, Ax o'dovU in the iiioruinx) . Ah ! he wowhl have given uorlds, had he po»»He»«Mvl them, to have had one ghmnicr of mercy, one more opportunity of repentance, one ^ more interview with timt afni.ted parent, whone »dinoni. tions he had rejeetcd w ith worn. Litjio did !-- J.' RAni.Y LIFE. C3 1, j(»ve tip Kut a pioim It her uhiihI i! liewoul4 avehad ona ntnnce, oiiu HO Mliiioni. } then think wiia within oiTOr upon rulph ; and tal uiomcnt e him cter- his spiritH ; pftrified to lie deepest tlic nppeAr< pid(ir«cn- I n Mexican bless thee )or forlorn wished for a sinking Y sea. tosponding was seen, :he mighty All now »le, silent, » appeared t the ship very htiiir 'e seemed wh e n, to > (' n f I our inoxprcssihle satisfaction, the man aloft saw the Island of AhU-riu-y . luid tlu* Froiuh toM«t <»f NiUniandy i rocky pliucs, iHdcc