I entreat a place in your prayers.

I hope we shall meet in heaven; but let us never forget that without holiness no man can see God.

I purpose writing to Mr. William Fortune in a week. Since I have retired from public business, and have some leisure for looking back on my checquered existence, the scenes and society of Barnsmuir form those parts of the distant retrospect on which I most love to repose. My dearest Susan, yours most affectionately, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCXV.-To MRS. WATSON.

EDINBURGH, 23d October, 1845. MY VERY DEAR FRIEND-I must delay no longer to acknowledge your very welcome letter with the packet I received from your daughters, and for the contents of which I have the greatest value, both the testimony to one whom I never can forget or think of without emotion, and the letter from Kilrenny, with your own precious notes respecting the last illness of her who obviously died in the triumphs of the faith.

The picture you sent is superior to that at Barnsmuir, and in some respects more impressive; but there are in it a force, and vivacity, and decision, which, though at the distance of a thousand miles from aught that borders on the masculine, yet are not so true to the original as the other, which presents, I think, a more faithful exhibition of that sensitively and exquisitely feminine expression which formed the peculiar charm and grace of her character.

It were well if these tender reminiscences of the distant past led us onward in thought to the much nearer futurity which now awaits us both. My God, do Thou sanctify these strong affections of nature, and raise them to the things which are above, so that we may be prepared for that heaven where our dear and blessed Savior has gone before us, and where we may both love Him and love our fellows without frailty and without a flaw.

I have written William,* and scarcely looked for a reply. He has not written back, and this is very natural he must not be urged to write, it must be done spontaneously, and this is much better. There is in my heart a derived and descending love from the mother to the children, which I feel a pleasure in cherishing, though you are the only person in the world with whom I could talk about it. I felt a comfort and relief in our recent conversations, and am not without hope that ere another twelvemonth elapse we may have the same opportunity for the same enjoyment.

Meanwhile, let us pray for the souls of these dear youth. George I look upon as an altogether new acquaintance, and I think him a very likeable person.

Give my best regards to Mr. Watson, and also to the Misses Marianne and Christian, whom I had pleasure in meeting and conversing with. If Miss Brown be with you, present to her my kindest remembrances.

My winter campaign is on the eve of commencing, and I gladly anticipate its engrossments by these few lines to you. No bustle, however, of other affairs will lessen the interest I shall always feel in your communications, nor, I hope, prevent my replying to them, however briefly.

I pray for a blessing upon your own soul. Heavenly Father, save me from being deceived by the mere counterfeits or semblances of Divine grace. May my love for my fellows be genuine, heaven-born, spiritual love-such a love to my brethren as is like unto the love of Thyself. Let us feel toward each other as fellow-travelers to eternity; and though, reverting to the dear and long-departed object of my fondest recollections, I have not lived with her in one mansion, may I share with her in one blessed resurrection, and join her among the choirs and companies of the celestial above.

I like Miss Watson's idea of getting a copy of the picture; but before that, I wish to compare it with the one at Barnsmuir. I think a compound of the two would be as perfect Mrs. Fortune's eldest son. See p. 245.

as a black profile can be. You are very good to allow me the custody of yours, which I purpose, if God will, to return into your own hand.

With earnest prayer for every blessing on the head of my very dear sister and friend, I ever am, yours most affectionately, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCXVI.-TO MRS. WATSON.

BURNTISLAND, 1st February, 1846.

MY VERY DEAR MRS. WATSON-I received yours of two or three weeks back, and read it with much feeling and pleasure. I should have replied sooner, but am at all times much bustled, and therefore I am glad to avail myself of a few leisure moments here for the purpose of acknowledging your kind favor.

It is no ordinary recollection that I have of Barnsmuir, and should rejoice if, through grace and wisdom from above, it could be made to subserve that highest of all good which has fruit in eternity.

We are strangely compounded creatures, and much do I need a sanctifying influence to spiritualize the strong affections of nature, and give a right and holy direction to them. I feel the powerlessness of all human argument, and know not if I have made any good impression on the son of her who occupies far the most interesting place in my retrospect of days long gone by. I was favored with a reply, in which I could discern talent, and good feeling, and intelligence. May the all-powerful Spirit grant what He and He alone can give -the unction which remaineth-the grace which has fruit and holiness, and in the end life everlasting.

My best regards to Mr. Watson and your dear daughters. I am quite uncertain of my movements this summer. I had a letter from Jane lately, who says how much she was interested by my accounts of Barnsmuir, and how delighted she would have been to meet you there.

I saw Miss Inglis lately, who tells me that Miss Menzies

was better. My dearest Mrs. Watson, yours very affectionTHOMAS CHALMERS.

ately,

No. CCXVII.-To MR. WILLIAM FORTUNE

EDINBURGH, 5th October, 1845. MY DEAR SIR-I meant to have written much sooner, and told how greatly I was impressed by my visit to Barnsmuir. You may not be able to enter into all the feelings which are associated in my mind with the tender recollections of half a century. They were powerfully awakened when I stood before the tomb of your aunt in the church-yard of Kilrenny, and have just now been revived with ten-fold force by the perusal of certain documents which have been kindly put into my hands, and from which I have gathered particulars new to myself, but most deeply affecting, relative to the death of Mrs. Brown, and to that of your dear mother, for whom I have cherished, during the long period of fifty-five years, such regards and remembrances as can never be effaced.

You will forgive me, then, if under a near, and urgent, and practical sense of the realities of an eternal though unseen world, I implore both you and your brother, whom I love, not to suffer the evanescent objects or interests of time to shut out from your hearts the solemn considerations of the coming judgment and the coming eternity. I have now come to that period of life when I may be said to be hovering on the confines of both worlds. I can attest from experience the vanities and disappointments of earth, and that truly it is not here where the firm footing of our interest lies. The dear brother, who, though younger than yourself, has yet gone before you, has left behind the lesson, not only that time is short, but that we know not how short. The two sisters, loveliest of women, who died within a few months of each other, died more than twenty years ago, and yet were both of them my juniors. The lessons of our common mortality, though not yet within the circle of my own immediate family, yet within the circle of a very wide acquaintanceship, have flown thick

about me; and such is

my affection for

your now long-departed relatives-such my affection both for you and your brother, for their sakes, that I entreat you not to make a resting-place of that earth which passeth speedily away, but to aspire Godward and heavenward, and be the followers of those who through faith and patience are now inheriting the promises.

And do not think, my dear sir, that that knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, which is life everlasting, is something so lofty and mysterious as to be beyond the reach of your attainments. The Bible, if read with diligence, and the Spirit given to pour light upon the Bible, if prayed for with sincerity and earnestness, these are the great agencies and means by which even the poorest and humblest of men might be made wise unto salvation. And there are other helps besides the Scriptures not to be neglected, for by them we might be the better enabled to understand the Scriptures. But tastes and understandings are various, and the books suited to some are comparatively useless to others. The human author who did me most good was Wilberforce, by his work on the "Christianity of the Higher and Middle Classes." And yet I know some who felt no interest in this book, though some of the following might, perhaps, prove more impressive and profitable : Baxter's "Call to the Unconverted;" Alleine's "Alarm;" Doddridge's "Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul;" Baxter's "Compassionate Counsel to Young Men;" Guthrie's "Trial of a Saving Interest in Christ;" Bradley's "Sermons," &c. But, after all, let me state in a single sentence what the likeliest expedient is for passing out of darkness into the marvelous light of the Gospel. It is the PRAYERFUL READING of the Bible. "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think that ye have eternal life, and these are they which testify of Him, who is the way, and the truth, and the life;" and ask for God's enlightening Spirit: "Ask till ye receive, seek till ye find, knock till the door be opened to you" (Matt., vii., 711). Do indulge these overflowings of a heart which feels the strongest interest in one and all of your dearest mother's