perish! O suffer me not to perish!" I then said, "Do you not think, my dearest child, that I most tenderly love you?" "O yes! she said, I am sure you do: kiss me," and she stroked my face, with inexpressible tenderness. "So great," I said, " is my love for you, that, if I might be permitted to exchange places with you, I would most gladly die in your stead. Now mark the language of the Holy Scriptures: 'Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him,' You see your heavenly Father pitieth you, as much as I do: will he then cast you away?" "I hope not! I hope not!" she replied. "You recollect, do you not, the case of Ephraim bemoaning himself, as you do: and what said God in return?" She immediately replied, "Is Ephraim my dear son? he is a pleasant child?" and was proceeding with the affecting passage—but her labouring breath would not permit her to finish it. I therefore concluded it," since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled

for him: I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord." "Beautiful! beautiful!" she exclaimed. I then mentioned many other passages of Scripture, in which mercy is promised to the penitent believer, in the most unlimited and unconditional terms; and added-"You see my dear, that the whole Bible seems to be written for the encouragement of the humble and penitent; and to meet a case like yours." I dwelt particularly on the case of the prodigal son, who said "I will arise and go to my father:" and on the father seeing "him a long way off, and running, and falling on his neck, and kissing him." I asked, "does this look like a reluctance on the part of our heavenly Father to receive those, who come to him for mercy?" "O no! O no!" she replied: "And," I said, "this history is the more remarkable, and encouraging, because our Lord recorded it for the direct purpose of inducing the very worst of characters to come to him, and of setting forth his abundant mercy towards

such as do return." She seemed considerably calmed, if not comforted, by this conversation; and after some interval, I said, "You have no doubt, my dear, of Jesus Christ being able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him." "O no !" she replied with peculiar emphasis, "none whatever. I only doubt whether he will save me." And then, clasping her hands, in an agony, she prayed, "God be merciful to me, a sinner! O Lord Jesus Christ, who wast lifted up upon the cross to save sinners, do not suffer me to perish!" She then exclaimed,

Rock of ages, rent for me!

Let me hide myself in thee;

and was endeavouring to proceed with this affecting hymn, with an energy and emphasis I never saw equalled;-but her breath and her strength failed; and she could only repeat, with a convulsive sob, here and there a word or two. I therefore read over the whole to her; and with her hands

still closed, and her eyes eagerly lifted up to heaven, she uttered now and then a word

after me; but when I came to the

Nothing in my hand I bring;

Simply to thy cross I cling;

passage

her whole manner and countenance instantly reminded me of Job's expression— Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him;" for never did a sinking mariner take faster hold of the last plank, than she seemed to do, upon the cross. When I proceeded to the following words,

Vile, I to the fountain fly,

Wash me, Saviour, or I die!

never shall I forget the effort and vehemence with which she reiterated,

Wash me, Saviour, or I die!

All

No language, that I am master of, can convey an idea of this affecting scene. around her bed were dissolved in tears; and what were the sensations of her parent's breast, others must be left to conceive. When we had, in some degree, recovered

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ourselves, I proceeded with the hymn; and again I must leave imagination to supply what I have no words to convey, when I read to my sweetest child, apparently in the last conflict with death, and who also made an effort to repeat almost every word after me:

While I draw this fleeting breath,
When my eye-strings break in death,
When I soar to worlds unknown,
See thee, on thy judgment throne:
Rock of ages, rent for me,

Let me hide myself in thee !*

* The reader may wish, perhaps, to have the whole of this beautiful Hymn. It is as follows:

Rock of ages, rent for me,
Let me hide myself in thee!

Let the water and the blood,
From thy riven side which flow'd,
Be of sin the double cure,

Cleanse me from its guilt and pow'r.

Nothing in my hand I bring;

Simply to thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to thee for dress;
Helpless, look to thee for grace;