able to read much. Let a portion at least of what you read be calculated to familiarize you with trial, with the example of Jesus and of good men, with God's love and with heaven. How delightful and appropriate are some of the Psalms, and parts of the Gospels and Epistles! Valuable selections, moreover, may be made from our own best authors.

Sickness must always, and necessarily, give rise to reflection. Let therefore the thoughts flow in a suitable channel. Instead of murmuring within yourselves, "How much worse off are we than our fellow-creatures," indulge in a loftier, holier strain, "God calls us forth to suffering,we will go through it bravely, we know not what the issue may be, but God knows, for he appoints it, at some time we must bend our way to that bourn, whence no traveller returneth, but God will lead us, and then shall we be admitted to joys and privileges, which our imagination cannot yet conceive."

And most sustaining at such a season is

prayer. Let nothing prevent your holding frequent, heartfelt communion with the Father of your spirits. You cannot go up to the house of prayer with the multitude. on the Lord's day, you cannot kneel down at the family altar, but He condescends to come down into the smallest chamber, when a pure and contrite heart is there; your feeblest strains not less certainly reach His ear than do the acclamations of united millions.

3. Above all, let us impress upon you the necessity of resolving in all circumstances to fit your souls for life or death by cultivating that practical goodness, which is the sum and substance of all Religion. By goodness, of course we do not mean the cold, calculating morality of the schools. We include our whole Christian duty; our duty to God, as our Father, requiring love and obedience; to mankind, as our brethren, asking for our affection and sympathy; and to ourselves, as heirs of immortality, needing purity of heart, and continual steadfastness in well-doing. Such a goodness as Sir

Walter Scott spoke of, when, just before he quitted his tenement of clay, he called his son-in-law, Mr. Lockhart, to him, and said, "Lockhart, I may have but a minute to speak to you. My dear, be a good manbe virtuous-be religious-be a good man. Nothing else will give you any comfort, when you come to lie here." Such a goodness as the immortal Locke had in view, when he penned that letter to a friend, to be delivered after his decease, in which he writes, "This life is a scene of vanity, that soon passes away, and affords no solid satisfaction, but in the consciousness of doing well, and in the hope of another life. This is what I can say upon experience, and what you will find to be true, when you come to make up your account." And such a goodness as an aged minister had in his mind, when, at his last interview with a brother minister, having expatiated for some time on the importance of practical religion, he begged his friend to enforce it upon hist hearers, as the highest of all human concerns; and tell them," added he, speaking

with the authority of a dying man, 'tell them I say so!'"* Determine upon leading a life as much as possible like what you imagine would exist among the angels of light. Nor must you resolve merely that you will begin when you get well; the commencement must be made now.

Though

you are withheld from society, you have yet means and opportunities of goodness. Can you not be cheerfully submissive to God's all-wise appointments? Can you not endeavor to give as little trouble as possible to those around you? Can you not show your gratitude to them for their kindness, in a thousand little ways? Can you not do much towards laying the foundation of a very great improvement in your character? How much may you do! In your silent retreat, you may become great, yea, god

* "I know of but one remedy against the fear of death that is effectual, and that will stand the test either of a sick bed, or of a sound mind; — and that is, a good life, a clear conscience, an honest heart, and a well-ordered conversation; to carry the thoughts of dying men about us, and so to live before we die, as we shall wish we had when we come to it." Norris.

like. We maintain that there is no act of nobler virtue, than to be calm, self-sustained and devout amidst tribulation and anguish. You may rise above the hero or the philosopher; in your chamber you may accomplish within yourselves a work which will outlive oceans and stars. *

In now bidding our friend farewell, we will only add that this our pastoral visit will have been to us as well as to you a profitable one indeed, if we have undertaken the office of Comforter to some purpose. We have spoken to you from our hearts; and we trust that what we have said will find a

"If we cannot pursue a trade or a science, or keep house, or help the state, or write books, or earn our own bread or that of others, we can do the work to which all this is only subsidiary, we can cherish a sweet and holy temper, -we can vindicate the supremacy of mind over body, we can, in defiance of our liabilities, minister pleasure and hope to the gayest who come prepared to receive pain from the spectacle of our pain; we can, here as well as in heaven's courts hereafter, reveal the angel growing into its immortal aspect, which is the highest achievement we could propose to ourselves, or that grace from above could propose to us, if we had a free choice of all possible conditions of human life."— Life in the Sick Room.