care to the present hour, where it still exists among the Alpine heights, separate from its sister church of the Waldenses, yet owning with her "one Lord, one faith, one baptism."

The dispensations of the Lord towards his church, both in providence and grace, often contain rich lessons of instruction to individual Christians; may such be drawn from the history of the witnessing churches. They are to us, in the first place, a lesson of patience. Wait-is the constant exhortation addressed to us in the scripture. Passion and Patience, a beautiful sketch in Pilgrim's Progress, well illustrates this subject: Passion is the spirit of worldliness, looking for its enjoyment now,-Patience the spirit of Christianity, waiting for its happiness hereafter. "Behold," says the apostle, we count them happy which endure." And they are happy: the soul which, calm, contented, and resigned, has ‘patience,' is not-cannot be ruffled, by the thousand storms which blow so often from the opposing points of human wishes and human events. Affliction all must endure; but when it meets a spirit rebellious against the will of the Lord, its strength seems to deepen as the blast of the tempest rises louder when it strikes against the lofty battlement.

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They are to us an example of faith, which lives not for that which is seen, but for that which is not seen, and which trusts the Lord, although its sight cannot penetrate in the least degree through the thick darkness around. They are no gods, they have not fulfilled our desires! is the passionate exclamation of the disappointed heathen. 'Oh! what means this? and why should these things be?' is but too often the lamentation of the

Christian. Then, shutting his eyes against the terrors of sense, and the tribulations of time, he endeavours to realize the presence and the love of Christ, and to trust him to the uttermost, while all things seem unintelligible. ، Remove from us this temporal evil,' is often the Christian's prayer. Child of God! if you are really such-trouble may have been allotted you; sorrow may have taken hold of you; correction may have fallen upon you; but evil - surely it cannot be !

The witnessing churches are also an example to us of self-denial. Taking the promises of God for their rich heritage, they were willing to let go their portion of this world's inheritance. Exiles from the luxuries, the arts, the refinements of life, they were, even during the years of peace and security which they were permitted to enjoy, disqualified by their religion, from taking any share in the usual objects of human pursuit. The path of a Christian is ever a narrow path, nor should he be tempted to outstep its boundaries, though they be not fenced in with the lines of persecution. The love of praise, the desire of applause, the wish for pre-eminence, the thought of self-aggrandizement, the hunting after riches, the spirit troubled with this world's gain,-all, all is forbidden. "Thou art my portion, O Lord," is the Christian's thought; "my hope is in thee."

May He whose love has preserved his people of old, through so many ages of trouble, suffering, and woe, preserve us also through all the trials of this our mortal life, until it shall be given unto us to hear like them "the great voice from heaven," saying to us, "Come up hither!" and the words of our Lord be accomplished, in which He said, “ Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am."

B.

LETTER FROM REV. RICHARD BAXTER TO REV. J. THORNTON.

ON THE DEATH OF LADY BEDFORD.

May 17, 1684.

I RECEIVED yours, with the expressions of my Lord of Bedford's kindness, for which I pray you return him my humble thanks. I understand that since then God has taken away his lady. If the everlasting habitations were not better than this wicked miserable world, who could forbear wishing that he had never been born? But with this flesh the faithful lay by their imperfections; and bad as we are, there is so much pleasure in the entire love and society of good men on earth, that a little tells us what it will be to live with perfectly loving saints, in the perfected heavenly church for ever. If we had a world of men on earth as good as some of my acquaintance are in sincere love, humility, and good works, I doubt it would make us loath to die, and ready to say with Peter, " It is good to be here." And if all the whole world were as bad as the malicious serpent's seed, it would tempt us to think that man was never made for any better. But (for all our weakness) the conspicuous difference between the holy and the serpent's seed doth greatly tend to confirm our faith that there is a heaven and a hell, when we see

them both begun on earth.

And now the wolvish

part doth but tell us how much better company we shall have above. O that we had more of a holy love to God and one another on earth, that it might be a foretaste and notice to us (more than hearsay) what we shall be and have in heaven. What the light and warmth of the sun are to us on earth, that God, by communicated knowledge and love, will be to all that dwell with him. Light, love, and joy, are not mere accidents of heaven, but its very essence. O, that we did more study heaven, as it is love! Every saint there will love us better than husband, or wife, or the dearest friend on earth did ever love each other; and the whole society is but one love and joy, by the union of many. And Christ will love us more than they; and then we shall sweetlier understand that word (which I value above any word in the Bible or world,) "God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." To dwell in heaven is to dwell in perfect love; and they are the best on earth who are the likest to that state.

I pray thank my lord for his great liberality. Pardon this tediousness, and present my service to my lord, and to the lady Russell. I rest your unworthy brother, hasting homeward,

RICHARD BAXTER. From Memoirs of the House of Russell.'

DEBORAH. *

SHALL I be considered as trenching upon the province occupied by the fair writer of Female Biography of Scripture,' if I venture to make a few remarks on the character of that admirable woman whose name I have placed at the head of this page? I fancy that I shall not: perhaps it is not very probable that the ladies may undertake the subject themselves, and I have therefore chosen it the more willingly, lest so illustrious an ornament to the sex should be forgotten, amid the milder but less brilliant luminaries of the Hebrew church.

I profess myself an ardent admirer of Deborah, and I cannot help wishing that the general character of my country women resembled hers more than it does at present; for I regard her as one of the most eminent as well as highly-favoured among "the holy women of old," of whom the apostle speaks as ensamples to the women of later times. Perhaps some of the ladies will be disposed to differ from me here; for I verily believe that there are those of the tender and delicate women among you who are half ashamed of belonging to the same sex with such a masculine character' as they think Deborah to have been.

I fear I shall be considered as utterly beyond endurance, if I proceed to panegyrize "Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite;" yet Deborah declares her to