'me, and I justly deserving to be cast into it; this being so strongly impressed on my mind, I was seized with great terror. But it pleased a merciful and gracious God to cover these fearful and terrible views from my mind in some measure, yet got no sensible outgate, but remained for several days in great terror, fearing every moment that the earth would open and swallow me up. Yet, for all this terror and confusion that I was in, there was a light in my mind, leading me back by reflection on the former discoveries I had got of the way of salvation by Christ, but I still cast all away, because I thought all my former experience were but common workings of the Spirit, and that which one in a natural state might attain unto. There was also a broad sight of my actual sin laid before me; here I saw that many a bitter fruit of actual transgression had sprung from the cursed root of original corruption, and I was made to mourn over all my prayers and sweet hours as nothing, yea vile, without God and his grace in them."

We pass over how she got some relief from her distress, through the application to her soul of John xiv. 6, to give an extract, in which she mentions a sweet deliverance, of a more clear, powerful, and enduring character than any she had before experienced:

"After this, I compared myself with those marks of grace given in Scripture, according to the conditional promises. Here I was led back. by a reflex light, to the dyke, the stone, and the hill-side, places where I had been informed in the way of salvation by Christ, and had felt the power of grace determining my soul to embrace him, as the forementioned light cleared up to me by the Scripture. Here I thought to have founded my faith and hopes of salvation by this rational reduction, because I found in my experience those marks of grace that the conditional promises did require; and while I was comforting myself with these things, that question was brought to me, 'Did you not cast away all those former attainments as delusions, and as what one in nature might attain to, and how dare you then venture to comfort yourself by them?' With this again I razed my hopes, and for all that Christ had done for sinners, I could take no comfort, because I could not win to ́know if I was one of them the Father had given to the Son to be saved by him.

"After this, I was in great distress for several days, still crying to God for an outgate; so it pleased a gracious God to display his sovereignty for my relief, which was one night in secret prayer. I was so raised in my soul that in some measure, I may say, whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell; but this I do remember, I was turned to behold the glory from which there shined a light into my soul that strengthened and capacitated it to behold glorious objects and inexpressible mysteries that were represented to my view; and here I was allowed, as it were, to come near God, and got a soulsatisfying blink of his glory, and would have been content to have lived so to eternity. And while I was thus beholding and enjoying, it was darted into my mind, as if a voice had spoken to me, Thy name is written among the living in Jerusalem,' and immediately the veil covered the glory which I beheld. After all this, there remained a light on my soul for a whole year; but sometimes it shined brighter than at other times.

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"Lo, here my question was answered, and I believed that my name was written among them that were given by God the Father to the Son, to be saved by him, according to the covenant of redemption. Here I desire to lay my hand on my mouth, and say no more as to those great mysteries I was allowed to behold; for I am persuaded they are better felt than can be told. For my mind could never indite, much less my pen write, what I was allowed to behold. O the height, the depth, the breadth, and the length, of this love of God that passeth knowledge,' in condescending so far to one of the vilest of all the race of Adam, who never deserved a blink of his reconciled face, much less to have the veil as it were rent, and to get such a view of manifested glory! But in none of all those attainments do I desire to glory, but in a reconciled God in a Mediator, for a portion to my soul in time and for eternity. And thus ends the eighteenth year of my age. This year, places,

and times, I desire to remember as long as I live, which were my Bethels and my Peniels, because there I had so great discoveries of God, and my life was preserved."

During this period of her life, the time of her espousals, she was favoured again and again in her soul as few saints of God are. Thus she writes:

"Those scriptures, and many more, were made the matter of my meditation, and frequently there shined a light on my soul when I was thus meditating that represented to my view inexpressible mysteries, so that I would have forgotten where I was and what I was doing. And thus when the veil was drawn aside, and I allowed to come to the threshold of the door, as I thought, allowed to behold the glory of the higher house, I would fain have been in; but, alas! I behoved to come down again; and I cried, 'O death, death, when wilt thou come, and when will the veil rend, and never return to cover the glory again?' This made me undesirous to keep company, or yet to follow my employment, which brought me in a great strait. So I went to God with those words in my mouth, that if he would not take me out of the world, he would give me two capacities, or a strength of mind, one to serve him, and another to serve the world. And accordingly as I asked he answered me, so that immediately after he endued me with a strength of mind by which I could accomplish my business and yet keep up my intercourse with heaven; so that even in time of harvest, when there was no absenting from company, nor yet time for prayer, yet when I lifted up my head with my handful to lay it in the sheaf, I would have sent up a short prayer, in which time there shined rays of divine light that filled my soul with sensible manifestations of divine love; and when I was thus engaged in company, and could not win out of hearing their idle and vain talking, I would have been as one deaf, while my meditation was taken up in maintaining my intercourse with God; yet at that time there was as much reason given me as guided my hand in my employment." One more manifestation must here suffice:

"I remember one Sabbath morning, it was remarkable to me, when I awaked out of sleep I began in meditation on the covenant of redemption, and there shined a light into my soul, by which I got a view of the glorious contrivance of redemption and wonderful transaction between God the Father and God the Son: here my soul was brought to such a capacity and strength so as to get a view of what the Father demanded of the Son, and proposed to him concerning man's redemption, as also the Son's sweet compliance with every particular required in that covenant, as in Ps. xl. 6-8: Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears has thou opened; burnt-offering and sin-offering has thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart.' My mind could never indite, nor my pen write, what here I was allowed to behold.

"From this I was left to view the covenant of works, and man's happy state in paradise before he fell, and how he fell, and his misery after he fell; and from this I was led to behold the glorious covenant of redemption, as displayed in a covenant of grace, and revealed to Adam immediately after he fell, in those words: The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent.' (Gen. iii. 15.) All this I was led to see in meditation before I arose that morning; so after I arose, I went to secret prayer, and there I was led to see the covenant of grace in a deeper view than ever formerly I had seen it. "Here I saw that all that passed between the Father and the Son in the covenant of redemption was displayed and applied to the believer in the covenant of grace; and here also I got another sight of my name in it; as also I felt a power bringing up my soul to a compliance with every particular therein represented to the view of my faith.

"Those glorious mysteries so filled my soul with joy, wonder, and praise, that I was made with the psalmist (Ps, cxlviii. throughout) to invite all the creation, heavens, earth, seas, and all things therein, to join with me in prais

ing. And I came from that place and that prayer in the clear view and felt impression of those glorious mysteries, so that I was forced to lay my hand on my mouth, and hold in my voice. For when I came to the family and saw my relations, I would have heartily invited them to join with me in the praises of free grace; but I had no will to discover myself to the world."

Now must we not say that this poor Scotch girl was eminently favored, and that there is a power, reality, and savor resting on her words which much commend it to the conscience, though there may be expressions in it different from the usual language of experience with which we are most familiar?

But some of our readers will be saying, But where were her trials? What did she know of the dark side? Did she go on all through her life thus favored and blessed? Indeed she did not. She had her bitters as well as her sweets, her deep waters, her hot fires, her desertions, and her hells, as well as her smiles, her kisses, her manifestations, and her heavens. For three years then, chiefly through the powerful temptations of Satan, that is, from the twentieth to the twenty-third year of her life, she walked under the hidings of God's face, in the greatest darkness of soul, and very great consequent distress of mind. During this period Satan was permitted to harass her with the most infernal temptations, presenting himself to her imagination in various shapes, and most especially assaulting her when engaged in secret prayer. But her fourth year was the worst of all:

"Thus passed these three sad years of my life. Now three years of this dark cloud are over, but, alas! the fourth year was darker than they all, for now I was not only deprived of the blinks of divine light, and of the sensible smiles of my Beloved, but also of the sensible exercise of all grace and all duties I had been exercised in; and this was not all, but the chain of the devil was let out, and all the troops of infernal spirits, and swarms of lusts, members of the body of death, did gather themselves together against me. This did holy Sovereignty see meet to permit for ends known to himself. Here I stood, stripped naked of all my armor as to my sense, and exposed to the open field of temptation, where I endured the thunderbolts and fiery darts of the devil; yet, notwithstanding all these, I was allowed to hold fast my grips of an interest in the covenant.

"One day, as I sat down to read my Bible, the tempter bade me cast it away, it was not only once or twice he did so, but for many days he continued calling me to cast it away; and I was so far deprived of my armor that I could do no more to resist him but hold my Bible with both my hands, and weep over it.

"Another day, as I was lamenting my wearied life when compared with the life I lived formerly, the tempter came with that temptation, Curse the day wherein thou wast born;' and I could say no more against him but this, "Oh! shall that which was Job's sin be my duty ? Thus I went for several days, thinking still my mouth would open and curse my day, but I desire to bless the Lord, who preserved me, for I do not remember that ever I opened my mouth, or yet gave the least consent to this temptation: this was still presented to me, 'Oh, shall that which was Job's sin be my duty?" Yet the tempter continued from day to day, so that the poison of his arrow was like to drink up my spirits, and I thought it was with me as it was with those people, In the morning thou shalt say, would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, would God it were morning! for the fear of thy heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.' (Deut. xxviii. 67.) But that which was worse than all this, my glorious Redeemer did still hide his face from me, and the spirit of prayer was withdrawn, and the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, was turned to be a dead letter; yet when I was in this sad condition, my soul clave to God, and said,

'Although thou shouldest kill me, yet will I trust in thee.' (Job xiii. 15.) Thus I was allowed to hold fast my interest in God, as my covenanted God, notwithstanding all that was come on me.

"After this, the tempter came with that temptation, and said, 'Murder thyself, for thou needest not fear, thy eternal interest is secured." This temptation he continued for many days.

"One day I was praying alone in a secret place, and he set violently upon me, and presented to me both conveniency and instruments to murder myself; upon this I was forced to fly out of the place. Another day, I was going some space of way myself alone, and in the way there was a ditch of water, where he set violently on me to drown myself, busking* his temptation with this: Thou needest not fear; thou wilt immediately go to heaven, and the world will never know what is become of thee.' Oh! now I was like to go distracted, for I could give no resentment†; but I was kept from yielding to him, and helped by an unknown support of an Almighty God to resist the temptation in all its appearances."

It was, however, full seven years before she got fully delivered-seven long years of dreary desertion, with occasional glimpses of love and mercy to keep her from despair. Though we have given more extracts than our space readily allows, we cannot leave her under the dark cloud :

“After this, one day as I was in prayer, it pleased a sovereign and gracious God, as it were, to rend the veil, where I met with a renewed discovery of a glorious Christ, in the sweet rays of his glory and manifestations of his divine love that ravished me and brought me near hand, and so filled me with such a sense of his love that I could hold no more.

So I remained as if I had been in possession for some time, but what I here both felt and saw I will neither word nor write, and so the veil returned and covered the manifested glory I then beheld. And when I saw the light of this world again, I earnestly desired to be dissolved, that so I might wint to behold the bright and glorious face of my Redeemer, and swim in his infinite fulness to all eternity. And while I was thus breathing after perfection, that word, Here am I, send me,' (Isa. vi. 8.) came with such power and rebuke that I immediately applied it to myself, and thought it was my duty to say with the prophet, Here am I, send me,' about whatever the Lord had yet to do with me in this world; either in the way of duty, or yet in the way of suffering, it was still my duty to be at his call."

There was something very remarkable connected with the publication of the above memoir.

When she was about 46 years of age a fire broke out in a house where she had left the papers containing the Lord's dealings with her soul. These were saved, with other things, but unknown to her were copied and spread abroad. As her writing was bad, and besides had been blotted, the copy made was exceedingly incorrect. For twelve years she was ignorant of the circumstance that this copy had been taken, for the papers were safely returned to her after the fire. When, however, she discovered that her experience had been spread abroad, and that through the incorrectness of the copy many mistakes had been made, she felt herself called upon to publish it herself, that the cause of truth and the glory of God might not suffer. In this singular way did the Lord work to bring forth into the light of day his secret and sacred dealings with his handmaiden, verifying the promise," For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed

Dressing out.

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neither hid that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the house tops." (Luke xii. 2, 3.)

Now, who that knows anything of divine matters by divine teaching will not acknowledge that Elizabeth Cairns was a woman taught of God, and led by the Blessed Spirit? Does she not condemn and put to shame the religion of many who would call her legal, and reject her experience because her language somewhat differs from their own? We cannot do so; and only wish there were more like her in the church of God, as simple, as sincere, as much in earnest, as much blessed, and we may add, as much tried and tempted. She was not an every-day professor. She was one of those rare persons who care more for the soul than the body, for eternity than time, and for God than man. Religion was not with her a thing to be taken up and laid down at will. Every inch of the ground was with her tried over and over again; nor did she rest in any view, any doctrine, any experience, until the Lord himself clearly set her down at it by his word and Spirit, presence and power. She was as much in the hands of God as clay in the hands of the potter. She was what he made her and no more; knew what he taught her and no more; had what he gave her and no more. What he communicated she felt, what he revealed she believed, what he bade she did, and what he laid on her she endured. Fath, and hope, and love were not at her command. When the Lord manifested himself she was happy, and when he withdrew she was miserable. When he hid himself she could not behold him, and when he came again she embraced him. If this is not true religion, vital godliness, where is it, what is it, and whither shall we go to find it? She had all the religion preached or professed by the advocates for works, and a great deal more, of which they are thoroughly ignorant. She prayed continually, read the Bible constantly, attended ordinances regularly, took heed to her ways diligently. Thus she could say, "Are they Hebrews? so am I. Do they pray ? so do I. Do they read? so do I. Do they watch? so do I.' But she could add what they could not: "But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may win Christ." (Phil. iii. 7, 8.)

Here, then, we close our Review of this remarkable book, and trust our readers will derive profit and instruction from the extracts that we have given of it, which will speak in plainer language than any that we can furnish either of approval or of explanation.

O WHAT a ravishing and delightful thing it is to walk with God! And yet by this, the whole work of a Christian is expressed, Gen. xvii. 1. Can any life compare with this, for pleasure? Can they be cold that walk in the sunshine? or sad, that abide in the fountain of all delights, and walk with him whose name is the God of all comfort, "in whose presence is fulness of joy?"-Flavel.