the lives and deaths of those in whom the glorious object of his incarnation was accomplished, are held in remembrance, that by their examples we may be led to become followers of them, who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Among these we cannot hesitate to place the amiable and exalted woman, whose name and worth, as illustrated in these pages, will not soon be forgotten. Mrs. Huntington's Letters and Diaries, are principally valuable because they are genuine and true, in the best sense of those terms;-genuine, as written for the sole purpose of conveying her sentiments to others, or preserving memorandums for her own self-improvement, without any sinister reference to the possibility of their being ever laid before the world; and true, because they express the real, present feelings of the author, under various trials, in which heart and mind were equally and severely exercised from time to time. In these ingenuous and unsophisticated productions, there is little either of the warmth or coloring of imagination; no brilliancy of ornament; few descriptions of natural scenery: the narratives are brief; except the account of the last hours of her husband, but that indeed, penned under the inspiration of the subject, displays a power and pathos, rarely exhibited on other occasions. Her English is remarkably pure; the diction is flowing, and her compositions in general are distinguished by maturity of thought, and correctness of style, without extravagance in the one, or efflorescence in the other. The blossoms of her mind were like the delicate bloom of wheat, not the pageantry of flowers; they were the promise of precious seed, good for food, not the evanescent attractions of the butterfly and the bee. The letters and diaries grow more tenderly, and at length more intensely interesting, as the sorrows and troubles of the writer increase. The sufferer herself, indeed, grows brighter and brighter to the eye of the reader, as she passes through the fires, glorifies God in them, and more deeply receives the impression of the divine image. We must have delineations of human feelings and infirmities to touch our hearts, in works of this kind, or we should soon be weary of reading meditations and precepts, however excellent in matter, and unexceptionable in delivery. Were the writer of this introduction to describe Mrs. Huntington's character, as it has been fixed in his mind, by the perusal of this volume, he should prefer her own description of Harriet Newell's, as fixed upon her mind, af ter reading the memoirs of that illustrious handmaid of the Lord, who died as a missionary in India, at an earlier age than Mrs. H. herself:-"Such unreserved and disinterested devotedness to the cause of Christ, in so young a person, appears very extraordinary in these times of religious indifference and sloth. There was an elevation and spirituality in her character, seldom met with in the present day. No one can help admiring her excellence. Christians will be humbled by its contemplation, and stimulated to greater activity in the service of Christ." Mrs. Huntington had always a great desire to serve the cause of God, and benefit her fellow-creatures. She did both, in an eminent degree, according to her means, during her brief life. In this respect, however, her heart's desire and prayer has been granted in a manner which she never could have contemplated. She is already one of those invisibles, whose thoughts perished not in the day when their bodies died. Through the medium of her letters and diaries, here rescued from oblivion, she may continue to serve the cause of God, and benefit thousands of her contemporaries, if not millions of her successors. Returning to the idea, with which this Essay commenced-not by the invisible agents alone, whose memory and works are preserved to exercise unceasing influence in civilized countries, over successive generations, is such influence monopolized. Every individual who has been born into the world, and lived long enough to excite any emotion of love, antipathy, or fear in the breast of another, has done something towards making the world of the living what it is; and every one that dies, after having filled his station in society, however humble, leaves the world something different from what it would have been, had he never existed. Not one of us knows how far our personal influence extends over those around us; much less how remotely what we have been, and done, and said, may af fect those that come after, when we are dead, and forgotten, like the cedars of Lebanon that flourished before the days of David and Solomon,-which, though felled and wrought for ten thousand common uses, were yet the progenitors of trees from whose timbers the temple of God was framed and beautified. We have, therefore, not only each our own, but each the welfare of others to care for, -not to do them evil, at any rate; and by all means possible to do them good. How then ought we to act and speak before men, that we be not condemned before God! One talent well employed, may be made eternally beneficial to the souls of those, whom, though we never knew them as contemporaries, we may be glad to know and to love in that world where there is no succession of coming and going generations, but all who live shall live for ever there. In the volume before us, there are many brief sentences which will find their way into prepared bosoms, with a power and a glory only short of revelation; and these will be made blessings inestimable to those who receive them. From the entrance of one or another of these into the heart, many a sinner here, or at the ends of the earth, in the present age, or a century to come, may remember the moment of awakening that led to conversion-conversion that saved his soul from death, and covered his multitude of sins. The hand that is penning this paragraph on the 5th of June, 1828, belongs to a human being, in health and strength, who yet knows not that he shall live to finish it. Eyes which have never looked on him will assuredly read what he is now writing, and though but a few moments remain before this Essay must be concluded, or left unfinished forever, it is possible for those moments to be so well employed, in transcribing a "word in season," that the soul of an immortal may hence date the turning point in its career, when for itself it decided in the affirmative, the question which Mrs. Huntington, after "a solemn consideration," in her own mind, at the age of three years, decided in the negative, (but happily afterwards reversed the false judgment,)—"whether is it best to be a christian now, or not yet." What then shall the "word in season be, which may thus influence the everlasting destiny of some living or unborn individual? Surely it must be one that shall establish the wisdom of this most exemplary woman's better choice. Then let it be that which was selected for the text of her funeral sermon; the truth of which was proved by her whole experience, and testified by her lips, in life and in death,-"ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD TO THEM THAT LOVE GOD." Sheffield, June 5, 1828. J. M. "TO THEM THAT LOVE GOD." ROMANS viii. 28. YES; "all things work together for their good!" How can that glorious truth be understood? 'Tis like Jehovah's throne, where marvellous light Hides in thick darkness from created sight; The first-born seraph, trembling while he sings, Views its veil'd lustre through his shadowy wings, Or, if he meets, by unexpected grace, The beatific vision, face to face, Shrinks from perfection which no eye can see, Yes; "all things work together for their good!" How shall the mystery be understood? Ah, no, no:—all that troubles life is theirs; Hard toil, sharp suffering, slow-consuming cares; To mourn and weep; want raiment, food, and rest; Brood o'er the unutter'd anguish of the breast; |