PART III. Illustrative Cases known to the Writer. As already stated in the Preface, we may well associate many Early Graves," not with Infancy or with Youth alone, but with early Manhood or Womanhood. The following, as the above title indicates, are three illustrative examples of such, in which the writer had a sacred personal interest. He hesitated much about including the first of these, having been already published for several years, in fuller detail, under the title of "A Golden Sunset." He feels, however, as if he dare not omit, though in an abbreviated form, what, in connection with early death,' occupies so remarkable a place in the "Treasures of Memory." Among a hundred deathbeds which it has been his sad privilege, in the course of a lengthened pastorate to at'end, this was by far the most remarkable. HERE THEY WERE WITHIN SIGHT OF THE CITY THEY WERE GOING TO; ALSO HERE MET THEM SOME OF THE INHABITANTS THEREOF; FOR IN THIS LAND THE SHINING ONES COMMONLY WALKED, BECAUSE IT WAS ON THE BORDERS OF HEAVEN."-PILGRIM'S PROGRESS. 666 THEY NEVER STOP SINGING THERE, SIR, DO THEY?'-HIS THOUGHTS WERE WITH THE ANGELS IN HEAVEN.”—BISHOP PATTESON'S LIFE, vol. ii. p. 104. 66 HER MIND STILL WANDERED AMID GREEN PASTURES, WHERE SHE WAS STILL GATHERING THE LOVELIEST FLOWERS, AND WHERE SHE HEARD THE ANGELS SINGING TO HER."-MEMORIALS OF A QUIET LIFE, vol. ii. p. 246. "Dust, to its narrow house beneath, Soul, to its place on high : They that have seen Thy look in death No more may fear to die." A DOMESTIC SERVANT. HIS young Christian fell asleep on the 25th It was the writer's great privilege to have her as a servant in his household; to be much with her during her illness; to be present at the final scene, and to follow her to her grave. What follows aspires to nothing more than humbly to record the story of God's grace in the consistent life and triumphant departure of one of His lowliest children—a modest leaflet added to "the short and simple annals" of the Christian poor. There is only one disadvantage in which readers are placed compared with the writer-the inability to have their interest augmented by having come into personal contact with the original, in her gentle, winning ways. It is like the difference between perusing a printed speech or sermon, and hearing the same coming fresh from the orator or preacher's lips, aided and emphasised by impressive look and gesture, and the varying tones and modulations of a living voice. No countenance I ever saw had, if it may be so termed, such capriciousness in expression. To a casual visitor, it must have conveyed the idea of extreme pensiveness, if not sadness. Even her hazel eye shared the dulness and passiveness, whereas it could be lighted up full of beauty and vivacity; and, as we can well testify, it glowed in her last days, and more so as death approached, with an unearthly lustre. A voice of great sweetness, pronunciation devoid of any provincialism, ease and gracefulness in her outer deportment, gave rise to the frequent remark of strangers, "How ladylike she is!" "She would adorn an upper circle;” and yet this wealth of natural grace never made her more than she was the humble, faithful, hard-working housemaid; and all was glorified by her consistent walk as a child of God. If I wish to avoid by any "colouring" to invest either the subject of it or her words with an interest and attractiveness which did not belong to them. Her deathbed sayings were gleaned by loving hands almost as they fell from her lips; and if not, it was no great effort of memory to recall utterances alike so simple, so beautiful, and so memorable. Yes, reader! you had been one of that little group gathered on these different occasions around Hannah's dying couch,-if you had seen that countenance, and heard the music of that voice, you would have ceased to marvel at this tribute paid by a whole family at "a servant's deathbed." Those who stood there, "looking steadfastly on her, saw her face as it had been the face of an angel." You can only be told of "the golden sun |