and reading the Scriptures. The peace of God flowed into her soul. Her whole temper and feelings became mellowed and subdued. She was ripening for heaven, The thought of death she endeavoured to render familiar to her mind, and to wean her affections from the friends she so ardently loved. Her end was fast approaching. Towards the middle of November her disease assumed a most alarming aspect. But her mind was calm and composed. Her experience, in view of the last enemy, is thus narrated by her affectionate biographer :

666 "O brother!' she said, 'it is so different to behold death near to us and at a distance so very different! The longest life I now find is too short to prepare to die; after all, the circumstances are so new and so trying!'

"I trust I know in whom I have believed; but all that I have known and experienced of the Saviour's grace, I have sometimes found only just enough to sustain and encourage me. Last night the agonies of the body were so great as, for a time, to affect the mind -my feet seemed quivering as I stood on the brink of Jordan! but the Lord strengthened me! Blessed be his name!-I know him!-he will not forsake me-he will be with me in the swellings of Jordan!""

In the course of the day she arranged all her worldly concerns, and bade a last farewell to her brother's family. The following morning she expected would bring her parents. They arrived. The meeting was deeply affecting. We describe it in Dr. Reed's beautiful language:

"Her fond mother first hastened to her

presence

with fixed purposes of suppressing her feelings while there; but scarcely had her affectionate eye glanced on her changed countenance, before her sorrows overcame her, and she fled from her chamber to weep at liberty, exclaiming, 'It's a lost case! oh it is a lost case! my chid, my child!'

"Her venerable father followed. He stood before her in speechless misery. An effort was made to speak, but his tongue clave to the roof of his mouth, and the lips quivered with excitement. She seized his hand, and saluted it, and broke the silence which it was so hard to endure. Father, my dear father! It has pleased the great Disposer of all events, that you should commit my spirit into his hands. It is wei! Lay it not to heart, father! It is the will of God! and his will is good and wise! I shall be taken the earlier from a world of sin and misery. We are botn, I trust, bound to one place, and it matters very little, father, which of us arrives first. I shall be waiting to welcome you to the habitation of God, and our separation will be but for a moment-a moment, or eternity is forgot! My dearest father, do not fret! we must not fret! Come, let us take our harps from the willows, and to the praise of grace divine bid every string-every string-yes, every string awake!'

"Her father still stood before her, with features burdened with woe; he could not at once overcome the shock he had received. Martha was moved by it. "Father!' she said.

"He turned a troubled look upon her.

"Could you pray with me, dearest father?"

"He shook his head in speechless agony.

"She saw that she had asked too much at this moment, and that he would best recover himself by retiring from her chamber.

"As her father left the room her mind was in the act of worship, as if to regain the composure which had been shaken, and which she feared to lose, waiting as she was for the hourly appearance of her Saviour.

666

6

'Now,' she said, alluding to these interviews with her family, the bitterness of death is past! Lord, I have waited for thy salvation. Now, Lord, lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.' Her thoughts were soon restored to rest on their chosen centre, and they were evidently wrapt in joyful anticipations of eternal blessedO heaven, heaven, heaven!' she exclaimed, "O the moment that will succeed to death!'

ness!

"Her pains increasing on her, she repeated the fllowing lines, to which she was partial, with a most gentle and resigned voice :

'I would not contend with thy will,

Whatever that will may decree;

But, oh, may each trial I feel

Unite me more firmly to thee!

'Tis better to suffer and die;
Beneath thy compassionate rod,
Than find my enjoyments run high,

But never have thee for my God!'"

The last moments of Martha were those of a dying Christian. She had committed her soul into the hands of her Redeemer, and she lifted up her eyes with joy, knowing that her redemption was fast drawing nigh. Some of her sayings may be quoted as illustrative of her feelings when about to enter the dark valley.

244

MEMOIR OF MISS MARTHA REED.

"O brother, my soul is in bitterness!—such pain! But the Lord is righteous-He is good.'

Yes; my 'Nor

dear, good when he gives, supremely good.'

less,' she replied, taking up the words, nor less when he denies.' And yet,' she continued, it is mysterious; is it not? To think how easily dear Miss Weybridge was dismissed; just walking across the room, and then lying gently down to die! How different is my situation; but I am sustained-just sustained!' • And will be sustained, my dear! and the more we are called to suffer, the more the strength of divine grace is manifested in supporting us; and the more, therefore, God is glorified in us. Yes, brother! let God be glorified, whether by suffering, or life, or death!'-' O brother, I am so frail-so helpless-so very helpless! In these deep waters I often seem just like Peter, ready to sink; and, like him, I cry, Lord, save, or I perish!" But you did not, like him, challenge Providence.' 'No, no, brother; the Lord brought me here, and he supports me, and will support me!'-O I cannot sufficiently admire the Saviour, who, in such circumstances as his, could say, 'Not my will, but thine be done!' He was human as well as divine; he saw all his sufferings beforehand; and his sufferings were every way peculiar and inconceivable; and he felt every thing as we do; and yet he said, 'Not my will, but thine be done!' Oh, what resignation!""

She lingered till Sabbath the 16th of May 1821, when she quietly fell asleep in Jesus, and entered upon that everlasting rest which remaineth for the people of God. To her to live had been Christ, and to die was doubt unspeakable gain.

MRS. HARRIET W. L. WINSLOW.

THIS devoted Christian female was born at Norwich, Connecticut, April 9, 1796. Her parents moved in a respectable rank in life, her father, Charles Lathrop, Esq., having been a graduate of Yale College. In early life Harriet Lathrop was chiefly remarkable for energy of character, a great perseverance, and a firmness of disposition approaching to obstinacy. This latter quality occasioned considerable annoyance to her friends for a time, but no sooner had she become a subject of divine grace than her temper was gradually moulded into that meek and gentle pliancy which the Christian evinces in matters not involving the sacrifice of sound scriptural principle. When she was no more than twelve years of age, her mind was first roused to a desire after the knowledge of divine truth; and such was the rapidity of her progress in the acquisition of this soulsatisfying and saving knowledge, that in the following year she was admitted into communion with the Church. At the same period, also, she wrote out, and solemnly