-not only patient in tribulation, but rejoicing in hope. Let me die the death of the righteous, let my last end be like his. Ever believe me, my dear sir, yours with best and greatest regards, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCCLXXXVII.-To MISSES WALLACE.

BURNTISLAND, 14th May, 1846.

MY DEAR MISSES WALLACE-It grieved me exceedingly to hear of your brother's death, and it grieves me still further to hear of your sister's illness.

Short of religion and its blessed hopes, no adequate comfort can be given under the sore and afflicting bereavement which it has pleased the Almighty God, though often mysterious in His dealings with the children of men, to lay upon you. Yet poor and ineffectual as all other considerations are, I must. affirm the sufficiency of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to meet the calamity which else might overwhelm you. Not that I would forbid your tears, for our Savior himself, who wept at the tomb of Lazarus, gives to the sorrow of nature the sanction and the sacredness of His example. But let us not forget that when He went up to heaven, He took up along with Him all the sympathies and all the tenderness which Hẹ manifested upon earth. Nor can I name a passage of Scripture more endearing or more fitted to soothe and alleviate even the deepest of our sorrows than that in which He is set forth to us as touched with a fellow-feeling of our infirmities, and as having been tried in all points even as we are, and so able to succor and sustain them who are so tried.

Cast, then, the whole burden upon Him of this heavy visitation" Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain thee." It is not willingly that He afflicts the children of men; and let us assure ourselves both of the wisdom and the goodness of a Father in every chastisement that He inflicts, and every ingredient, however bitter, which He pours into the cup of discipline.

If poor Jessie can bear to be read to, I know nothing more

precious than our Savior's last lengthened discourse to His disciples. The fifteenth chapter of John has long been a particular favorite of mine. The 2d verse is peculiarly applicable to those who mourn the death of relatives, as making known to us the purpose of the great Spiritual Husbandman in pruning the branches which have been yielding some fruit, even that they should bring forth more fruit.

Offer my affectionate condolence to Mrs. Thomas Young on this sad occasion; and ever believe me, my dear Misses Wallace, the sincere and sympathizing friend of you both, THOMAS CHALMERS.

P.S.-You must know Dr. Buchanan's work on affliction. I have more than once recommended it as a fit companion in houses of mourning. T. C.

No. CCCLXXXVIII.-To MISS WOOD.

EDINBURGH, 5th July, 1846.

MY DEAR MISS WOOD-I should have acknowledged much sooner the affecting intimation from Elie of your sister's death, which I felt much at the time, and have borne the impression of in my heart ever since. There are not half a dozen surviving acquaintances in the world whom I have longer known-the period of my recollections as a visitor in your house going back to very early childhood. It must have proved to you a very desolating stroke; but what precious alleviations in the blessed assurance that she was one of God's own people, whose life throughout has been one of consistent discipleship, and who carried in her very aspect the expression of great peace and great joy in believing. May the thought of this comfort and sustain you under this heavy bereavement, and may it wean your affections still more from a world, the nearest and dearest objects of which may at any time be withdrawn from us. It is thus that the great Spiritual Husbandman (John, xv., 1, 2), in the exercise of a wise and salutary discipline, draws the affections of His children

upward and heavenward to Himself; and, superadding the lessons of His providence to the lessons of His word, teaches us a greater diligence and devotedness than heretofore, in being followers of those who through faith and patience are now inheriting the promises.

I feel quite sure that her most frequent and favorite volume must have been the Bible. I should like to know if there were any of our great old popular authors in whom she took peculiar delight. The truth is, that I am getting fonder of these every day; and the very books which formed the spiritual aliment both of my father and mother in their declining years, are now prized by me as, next to the Scriptures, the wisest and the best. I rejoice, for example, in "Marshall on Sanctification," and am pleased to think that he was one of my father's greatest favorites. But I have a far more vivid recollection, and had indeed the opportunity of more closely watching and observing my mother's death-bed than his; and she died, I would not say in the triumphs and ecstasies, but in the calm and settled assurance of the faith. I never understood so perfectly as from the view of her last hours, the expression of the prophet-the peace which is as a river.

This intimation from Elie, now lying before me, carries me back into a far retrospect of the years of my boyhood. Your father and mother, Dr. and Miss Reid, Miss Anna Wood, your aunt, the venerable Mrs. James Wood, Mrs. Peter Chalmers, her son and daughters, are one and all of them pictured on my remembrance, and I should add Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Wood and their sons, to complete my enumeration of a living society which has wholly disappeared. Truly this is not our abiding city. May we look to the city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God; and may the gracious manifestations of our reconciled Father in Jesus Christ brighten and cheer to both of us the remainder of our earthly pilgrimage.

May I beg my kindest regards to Mr. and Mrs. Walter Wood, as also to my good worthy Christian friend, Mr. Archibald.

Mrs. Chalmers and all here join in kindest wishes. Believe me ever, my dear Miss Wood, yours very truly,

THOMAS CHALMERS.

LETTERS TO MRS. KEITH DUNLOP.

No. CCCLXXXIX.

EDINBURGH, 2d February, 1829.

MY DEAR MADAM-I have great pleasure in assuring you of the success and the great benefit that attended the institution of the Catholic schools in Glasgow. The priest, on the one hand, insisted that they should be taught by schoolmasters of his own persuasion; but, on the other hand, he consented that the Bible should be one of the school-books. I have repeatedly visited one of these schools, and rejoiced in the opportunity of such an approximation to a sect with whom I hold it most desirable that we should have free and frequent intercourse. I always experienced a most cordial reception, and have even been asked to address the children, which I did, and was afterward thanked by the teacher for doing so, although the address was in the very spirit and sentiments that I should have reckoned the most appropriate for the children of any Protestant school.

In short, I hold an institution of this sort to be in every respect a wise and a hopeful one in every neighborhood where you have a number of uneducated Catholic children. I would rather have a reading than a non-reading Catholic population at any time; insomuch, that ev n did they refuse our Bible as a school-book, I should esteem the setting up of a school a step in advance in the cause of philanthropy. I have the honor to be, my dear madam, yours most respectfully, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCCXC.

28th July, 1842.

MY DEAR MADAM-We are still in Ireland, where we ex

pect to remain a few weeks longer; but if God will, I trust we shall be in Scotland before the expiry of the month of August.

Your letter came to me some time ago; and I was much interested by the perusal of it. I should like you to attain a settled comfort, and that, notwithstanding the defects of which you complain, in sanctification and personal meetness for heaven. It is the very faith which gives the first sensation of peace with God that must ever be recurred to and kept hold of in order to perfect our holiness. Hold fast your confidence, and the rejoicing of your hope firm unto the end." I wish that you could fall on the habit of repairing daily and currently to the atonement by Christ, for keeping up your peace with the God against whom you daily and currently offend. It is not one great act of mercy alone that Christ hath purchased for us; it is mercy in every time of need a piecemeal and ever-recurring mercy through Him who is our daily, morning, and evening sacrifice. "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father in Jesus Christ, who is the propitiation for our sins." It is thus that we should draw from His mercy as well as from His we stand in need of it. And let us not be afraid lest under this economy of a daily forgiveness for our daily offenses, we shall be encouraged to sin afresh that we may be pardoned afresh. These things," says the Apostle John, "I write unto you that ye sin not." (See 1 John, i. and ii.) The man who is truly desirous of mercy to pardon, is as truly desirous of grace to help him. Let us have faith for both, and we shall have the fulfillment of both. The great secret, it has been said, of practical godliness, or of the Christian life, is to keep up peace in the heart, yet along with it a vigilant care of our walk and conversation. Thus do we combine the security of the Christian faith with the diligence of the Christian practice.

grace, as

I am very glad you have written me; and I shall be most happy to reply as I can to all your communications. I feel