return, to shew them how gracious he is, and what tender compassions are found in his heart. When our earthly comforts fail, then we feel the blessing of having a heavenly and never failing friend, who is with us, and watching over us, at all times; but whom we are too apt to forget in what we call the day of our prosperity, and never truly to turn to, till repeated and sore disappointments have taught us the vanity of all earthly expectations and created good. Then, like the prodigal, dissatisfied with our husks, and our far and desolate country, we turn our faces Sionward, we call upon God our Father, and desire to be fed with that bread which cometh down from Heaven; and this is the Lord's opportunity; it is to bring us to this humility of spirit, this brokenness of spirit, this fitness to receive divine communications, that he sends us those afflictive Providences, which force our consciences to a stand, make us examine and try our ways, and lift our hearts, as well as our hands, to God in the heavens. Then it is, that God makes us feel his all-sufficiency to support and comfort us, to bring good out of evil, and by his divine presence and consolations, makes up to us all our earthly losses, and heals our bleeding hearts and thus it is, dear Miss Sproat, that I hope you will be enabled to sing of mercy, as well as judgment. Great have been your trials, but great also, has been the admixture of divine

compassion. You have good hope, through grace, for the dear friends, who by awful Providence have been taken from you, that they are not lost, but gone before. Your dear and honoured father, particularly, was ripe for glory, and is gone to receive the reward of his pious labours. And in the midst of your tears for yourself, your heart should feel some joy for your friends, that they have an everlasting period put to all their sins, and sorrows, and temptations here below, and have their souls full of holiness, their hearts filled with joy, and their mouths with the everlasting praises of that God and Saviour who hath brought them safely through their pilgrimage, and fixed them in the new Jerusalem beyond the fear of falling; and now what remains for us to do? but with faith and patience to follow those who are now inheriting the promises. God gives us line upon line, and precept upon precept, but perhaps

precepts sink so deep in our hearts as those which come in the form of crosses. We hear good sermons, we read good books, but whole years of hearing and reading do not teach us so much of the vanity of the creature, and of our dependance on God, as the running dry of one spring of earthly enjoyment; and we hardly ever feel this the wilderness world, which, in reality, it is, till some of our comforts fail or forsake us, and we begin,, one way or other, to feel very

much alone in it: then we turn to God, and desire to find in him that rest to our souls, which we can find in nothing else. I am no novice, my dear Miss Sproat, in the school of affliction. I have known outward trials, and inward pangs; and I pray the great Captain of our salvation, who himself was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, to give us both such a sanctified use of our respective crosses, that we may be the better for them in time, and praise him for them through all eternity.

I trust, the heavy cloud of your bereavements has burst with some blessings over us here. Our worthy Mr. Keith appears to have been affected and touched to a very good purpose; and has given us not a few such sermons since the visitation on your city, and the deaths in your family, as show his mind to have been most piously exercised, and of which he will see the blessed effects, when he comes to find out those perfectly in heaven, than he can or than it would be right for him to know on earth, the souls whom he has edified, strengthened, and comforted by his faithful labours among us. I have, by one circumstance or other, been much less with your dear sister than I could have wished; but I am happy to say, that God, in whom she believed, has graciously supported her under her pressures of mind, and great bodily weakness, and has enabled her to glorify him by a calm

and christian resignation to his will; and I trust he will bring her out of this furnace, as gold seven times purified. My dear Miss Sproat, I pray God to bless her, and you, and the remaining branches of your family; and feel my heart particularly drawn out for the little baby left in your care, that you may be a mutual blessing to each other; and I remain, with great sympathy and affection, your's,

MARTHA LAURENS RAMSAY.

Charleston, Sept. 13, 1796.

MY DEAR MISS SPROAT,

I FEEL myself under the awful necessity of being the bearer of heavy tidings to you; and, I confess, that I shrink so much from the task, that I have hardly resolution to hold the pen. Nevertheless, in cases of duty, we must not confer with flesh and blood, but endeavour to act with firmness. Need I keep your mind any longer in the anguish of suspense ?-Our pious friend, your sister in the flesh, our sister in Christ, our dear Mrs. Keith, shall I say she is dead? or, with more christian propriety, express myself by saying, she who has long lived the life of faith on earth, now lives, as our hope and belief for her in Jesus is, the life of vision and glory in heaven.

She who but a few hours ago was embodied in flesh, troubled by sin, depressed by weakness, is now a glorified spirit free from sin, free from sorrow, and has for ever done with the evils of mortality; it is so, indeed, my dear Miss Sproat. At five o'clock this morning, your dear sister bid farewell to sin and sorrow, after an illness (supposed to be an affection of the liver) not deemed dangerous till within these eight days. Mr. Keith and the little giri lately taken under their protection had both been sick for some time. Mrs. Keith was complaining, but not enough to alarm her friends, till about the time I have mentioned above. From the day she was thought seriously ill, she has declined very rapidly, and for some part of this time her ideas suffered considerable derangement. Nevertheless, she has given such testimonies of her confidence in God, of her trust in and dependance on her Saviour, even in the dark valley of the shadow of death, as are highly consolitary to us, who have witnessed them. As long as she could speak, she spoke for Christ, and when she had no longer the power of utterance, with any degree of ease, she gave signs of joy, and short answers, expressive that the promises which we whispered in her ear, were savingly, preciously, comfortably applied to her heart. And now, my dear Miss Sproat, what shall I say to you? I feel disposed to say to you, in the midst of the