ents, whose attentions to me at my first outset in public life have never been effaced from my memory, and, I will add, have never been effaced from my heart. The maternal care which I experienced at her hand I always felt to be peculiarly soothing; and from the days of Dr. Charters downward (but my intimacy with her began more than twenty years before his death) I have never ceased, amid all the varieties through which Providence has conducted me, to cast an eye of pleasing remembrance on the place that gave you birth, or to think of your dear departed mother with every feeling of the most grateful and affectionate regard.

But far the most interesting visit I ever paid to her was in 1833, when she told me that she had reached seventy; nor can I adequately express the joy which I felt on finding that the truth as it is in Jesus was so congenial to her heart. She had quite the tone and aspect of one who was ripening for heaven, and I trust has now entered upon its glories. Let us, my dear Mrs. Elliot, be followers of them who through faith and patience are now inheriting the promises; and then shall the friends who loved each other on earth, and loved the Savior, hold everlasting converse together in that region of blessedness where sin, and sorrow, and separation are unknown.

Christ casts out none who come unto Him. His blood cleanseth from all sin. God through Him beseeches us to be reconciled. He says, "Turn ye, turn ye; why will ye die?" He promises that if we turn unto Him, He will pour out His Spirit upon us. These are precious sayings; and both you and I are abundantly welcome to the full benefit of their accomplishment in ourselves. Let us believe in them to the saving of our souls. Let us venture our all on that foundation which God himself hath laid in Zion. Let us give ourselves up unto Christ to be ruled in by His Spirit-to be ruled over by His law. Give my best regards to Mr. Elliot and your brother; and ever believe me, my dear Mrs. Elliot, yours with sincerest condolence and regard, THOS. CHALMERS.

No. CCCLXXXII.-To MRS. ANDERSON.

EDINBURGH, 5th May, 1844.

MY VERY DEAR MRS. ANDERSON-This is a truly desolating stroke. God has been pleased thus to cut off the desire of your eyes (Ezek., xxiv., 16), in mercy, however, I trust and believe, and not in judgment. You have great reason, my dear madam, to rejoice even in the midst of this sore tribulation, though one of the sorest on this side of death, it being the breach of the nearest and dearest of all earthly relationships.

All here have been saddened and solemnized by it. We feel that we have lost a much-valued friend. Every recollection I have of the dear deceased enhances my sense of his worth and goodness, and the greatness of your loss. Never in the whole circle of my acquaintanceship did I experience a more uniform flow of all that was kind and gentlemanly. But the greatest charm of his society then, and incomparably the most consoling now to look back upon, is the evident value he had for the truth as it is in Jesus, the ardent love he bore to the Savior.

This is a mighty alleviation; and to the force of it I am confident you must feel alive. Blessed be God that while, with the example of His Son, who wept at Lazarus' tomb, He has given an impressive sanction to the sorrow of nature, you have such abundant reason to sorrow not even as others which have no hope. Let us but withdraw our affections from a world the nearest and dearest objects of which can be so speedily withdrawn from us, and transfer these affections to the world which endureth, where sorrow, and separation, and sin, are unknown.

It is my earnest prayer that the heavy bereavement may be blessed and sanctified to you all. Give my best and kindest regards to the dear Miss Andersons and the rest of your sorrowing family. Oh that we at length learned wisdom— that the oft-repeated lesson of our mortality at length told

upon us, so that instead of living here, as if here we were to live forever, we became followers of them who through faith and patience are now inheriting the promises.

And what a comfort to think of the errand on which our Savior came into the world, even to destroy death and him that has the power of death. Let us comfort one another with these words-assured that all who slept in Jesus, all who loved the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, will meet again and be forever with the Lord. In the contest between faith and sense, let faith have the victory. Take a firm confiding hold on the promises of the Gospel. Be persuaded of them and embrace them, and let them be your songs in the house of your pilgrimage. Cast your care and confidence on Him who is the husband of the widow and the father of the fatherless. And amid the changes of this eventful and evershifting world, let us steady our hearts upon the blessed assurance of that record which God hath given of His Son, even that God hath given to us eternal life, and that this life is in His Son.

The Bible-mark which you gave me I still use, and it is daily in my hand. The precious text that you wrought into it I often recall with the greatest interest, and I would present it now to your notice along with some others, Num., vi., 24, 25, 26; 2 Tim., i., 10; 1 Thess., iv., 13-18; 2 Cor., iv., 14, 17, 18; Psalm xc., 12; John, xi., 25, 26; 1 Cor., xv., 53, 58; Phil., i., 23; Rev., xiv., 13; xxii., 1, 5, 17.

Mrs. Chalmers and my daughters join in most affectionate condolence with yourself and the Misses Anderson; and with most affectionate and earnest prayers for Heaven's blessings on you and yours, I entreat you to believe me, my very dear madam, yours with the greatest esteem, and sympathy, and regard, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCCLXXXIII.-To MISS ABERCROMBIE.

MORNINGSIDE, 17th November, 1844.

MY DEAR MISS BARBARA―This striking and unlooked for

death never ceases to occupy my feelings and thoughts. It is not that Dr. Abercrombie filled so large a space in the eyes of his countrymen, but it is that, apart altogether from his public and general celebrity, there was so much of genuine goodness and real Christian worth; and then what a mighty influence on the side of truth and righteousness that he held out through life, and a noble and consistent testimony, and in all his publications gave such evidence of an intense affection for human souls. But over and above his claims to my reverence and regard as a religious philanthropist, there was such a uniform kindness to myself, and his offices of substantial friendship to my family have been so important and numerous, that beyond the circle of my own immediate relationship there is no removal from the world of any other acquaintance I have in life that could more affect, or solemnize, or warn me. It is well to speak and think of it as but a removal-not a dissolution or final breaking up. May you and all the family be enabled to realize this bright and cheering conviction, and look forward to that joyful morning of a blessed and glorious resurrection, when you shall meet again in that inheritance above which fadeth not away.

In John, xv., 2, there is the intimation of a process in the spiritual husbandry of God, which I have often looked upon as especially applicable to a case of bereavement, when the nearest and dearest of all earthly relationships is broken; when a branch beareth fruit, God pruneth it that it may bring forth more fruit. The vegetable juices are made to take a more healthful direction when all the luxuriant overgrowth is taken away. And it is so in the moral and spiritual economy. Our affections are apt to run sideward and downward to an earthly object, and this tendency God in His wise and righteous discipline is often pleased to arrest or to shift, by dissevering the object, and so causing the stream or current of our affections to arise from the things that are beneath to those which are above. How delightful to believe that this change in the bent of your affections may take

effect upon you all, and this without losing sight of their wonted object, but by following it upward to the place which he now occupies, thus causing you to feel as it were another tie to Heaven, an augmented interest in that eternal home which should henceforth be the grand object of all our aims and all our aspirations.

Give my most affectionate regards to your sisters, who one and all of them are the objects of my sympathies and prayers. I might have addressed this broken and imperfect effusion to Miss Abercrombie; but on her, as the eldest of the family, the main burden will fall of this sad and trying dispensation. Forgive me, my dear Miss Barbara, for having singled out you as my correspondent for the expression of feelings which I can not restrain, yet am unable to utter but in a way the most inadequate and feeble. Ever yours, most affectionately and truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

[MIDMILLS, near INVERNESS, 9th January, 1850.-REV. SIR-I can not deny myself the satisfaction of saying how much I felt gratified at finding, in the first volume of Dr. Chalmers's Memoirs, my husband's name so remembered in connection with a family he so greatly esteemed.*

A

I have often heard him, in after years, refer to the warm kindness of Captain George Chalmers, who even tried to find amusement for him when returning strength fitted him for a little exertion. bottle would be slung at the yard-arm to serve for a mark at which the invalid subaltern might fire; and having been fortunate enough to hit the object several times, Captain Chalmers accounted him so expert a marksman that he declared, should they encounter a hostile ship, he would station him "to pick off the man at the helm.' I am, reverend sir, your obedient servant, MARGARET MACKAY.

The Rev. Dr. Hanna, Morningside.]

No. CCCLXXXIV.-To MRS. MACKAY.

EDINBURGH, 16th March, 1845.

MY DEAR MRS. MACKAY—I received the affecting intimation from Hedgefield a few days ago, and not, I can assure

* See Memoirs, vol. i., p. 99.