than the pillars of the universe, and durable as eternity itself. Ye tender relatives and affectionate friends! let the thought of her consummate bliss and immortal glory con sole your anguished spirits, and impart serenity and peace to your bleeding bosoms. From yonder hill of Zion, she speaks in accents of mild affection and soothing tenderness, Dry up your falling tears, compose your restless passions with holy assiduity, follow me as far as I have followed my blest Redeemer, and prepare to meet me, where my Saviour and my God forever dwell." 66 With pensive pleasure I review the days of other years. My officious memory retraces those scenes, and joys departed never to return; but which are engraven in indelible characters on my heart, and shall often be the theme of my meditations. In the literary seminary in the beloved Bradford, I found my Harriet of congenial sentiments and feelings, and capable of all the sensibilities and refinements of amity; and with her I commenced that intercourse of heart with heart, and interchange of mutual endearments, which many years and many vicissitudes served but to cement, corroborate, and improve. Auspicious summer! grateful is the recollection of thee to my burdened heart. How often, in reciprocal embraces, did we traverse the verdant groves, conversing on the interests of Zion, and things partaining to the kingdom of God-on the celestial beauties of our Immanual, and the ineffable worth of our immortal souls. Ah! how little did we then think that mighty waters, and trackless forests, and towering mountains, were to separate our mortal frames, and debar a pleasurable interview. How little did I think that thou wast to tread a path, untrodden by the fair daughters of Columbia, a path strewed with peculiar and heart-appalling trials, ant through so many foes and tiresome toils, force thy way to the haven of rest. How little did we think, that in the far distant Isle of France, thou wast to close thy eyes on things below, and open them in eternal day. But though thy first and earliest friends witnessed not the last scene of thy mortal sufferings, nor smoothed thy dying pillow with their lenient sympathies and efforts, yet we trust the bosom of Jesus was thy rest, his heavenly smiles thy solace, and benignant angels thy guard; and thus attended and supported, thou didst greet the peaceful port of heavenly rest. Happy spirit, I congratulate thy safe accession to immortal joys. O may I meet thee on that blissful shore, where the parting sound and tear are known no more, where all the favoured inhabitants are cemented in the most endearing and everlasting bonds, in the presence of that Jesus who is all in all. O may the friendship, formed in these frigid regions, be transplanted to heavenly climes, and there glow with immortal ardour, and burn with a purified and exalted flame beneath the beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and surrounded by all the transcendantly glorious beauties of the celestial Paradise. O may I join my humbler voice with thine in everlasting strains of melodious praise, and vie with seraphim and cherubim in one harmonious concert of sublime adoration, and grateful homage to him that sits on the throne, and the Lamb forever and ever. Well, my dear Harriet, I leave you there; and when all the transient joys and sorrows of this mortal life shall cease to interest me, when my spirit is just ready to loose from earth, and commence its flight through the vast regions of boundless space. O may you hail its introduc◄ tion to that bright world, where you have arrived, tò spend endless ages in rehearsing the wonders of redeeming love. Ah! how many fervent prayers have been lodged in the court of heaven for my dear Harriet, while she was beyond their reach, employed in cheerful praise. Well, they shall not be lost, if offered in real faith and sincerity. But though I supplicate for her no more, yet O let me not cease to remember the little mission in which she was so ardently interested, and which she bore on her heart, when almost overwhelmed with personal trials. Let me not forget perishing pagans, whose hapless state she so pathetically deplored, and whose immortal salvation she longed to secure. Let me not forget to deposite her letters in my heart, as the surest pledge of our reciprocal affection, and the lively transcript of the interior recesses of her breast. Farewell this theme-I drop my pen, and sigh, Adieu. LETTER TO MRS ATWOOD OF HAVERHILL, and Beverly, July 27, 1813. O My dear Mrs Atwood, I know not how to address you on that heart-rending event which drowns my eyes in tears, and suffuses my soul in sorrow; but which you must feel in all its ineffable and overwhelming poignancy. Our dearly beloved Harriet has quitted this nether world, and all its chequered vicissitudes, joys, and sor rows. From the celestial hill of Zion, smiling with joy she retrospects the dangers, the toils, and the troubles of her earthly pilgrimage, all happily past, and all contributing to brighten her crown of glory, and enhance her R felicity. With what raptures does she strike her golden lyre to Immanuel's praise, and in notes divinely seraphic celebrate the wonders of redeeming grace and almighty love, absorbed in the full blaze of consummate beauty and uncreated glory! With what admiring extacy must she gaze on the splendours of Deity, and enjoy the beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and, rapt with an immortal flame, soar from glory to glory, making nearer and nearer assimilations to infinite excellency,-capacitated for continual and endless progression and enjoyment! O the millions and millions of pure and refined delights that fill her immortal soul, adequate to all its boundless desires, and durable as its existence ! May we, my dear Mrs Atwood, be prepared to greet her happy spirit on that peaceful shore, where those who have here been cemented in Christ, shall enjoy a union unspeakably tender, sublime, endearing, and eternal. Yes; if Christians, we shall ere long be done with all the toils and trials of the wilderness, and in the New Jerusalem meet all our pious friends, and spirits of just men made perfect, to part no more forever. Great is your trial, and indescribably tender and distressing must be your feelings, Gladly would I pour into your bleeding bosom the balm of Gilead, and wipe the anguished tears from your swoln eyes. But the hand that has wounded alone can heal. God is able to give you strength adequate to your day, and by the communications of his grace and love, cause you ever in this night of affliction to sing his praise. O that his tender hand may bind up your broken spirit, and be your stay and support in the house of your pilgrimage! He does not willingly afflict nor grieve the children of men; and he has consolingly promised, that all things shall work together for good to them that love him. O that he may give you the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, and cause you to glory in tribulation. Your trial, with all its destressing circumstances and aggravations, was ordered by him in infinite wisdom and mercy; and the Judge of all the earth has done right. The dispensations of his providence are often mysterious, but we ought to rest assured that he knows what is best, and that his ways are just and equal. Let me request you to direct your weeping eyes to the summit of Calvary, and there behold the blessed Jesus in the agónies of death, insulted, despised, and contemned, and offering up his life for the salvation of rebel worms. May you leave your sorrows and your griefs at the foot of the cross, rejoicing that you are counted worthy to suffer for Christ's sake. O that you may lean your weary head on the bosom of Jesus, and there sweetly repose all your tears and groans. He can be touched with a feeling of your infirmities, knows how to pity, how to succour you; and by the sweet visits of his love can impart rich consolation to your soul, and change your pensive complaints into songs of admiring gratitude and praise. "The Lord liveth, the Lord reigneth." He governs all things in the wisest and best manner, and he ever lives to protect his cause, to bless his children, and to be their unfailing portion, when earth shall be on fire, and time swallowed up in eternity. I lament my inability to comfort you; but I pray that he, who is the Fountain of living waters, the God of all comfort, and giver of every good and perfect gift, may suit his comforts and supports to your wants and necessi、 ties, make you an illustrious example of patience, submission, and cheerful acquiescence, a rich and lasting |