the Resident Minister, on the evening of October 28, 1849, only a few weeks after the solemn occurences here related, on occasion of the lamented decease, after a brief illness, of a young person of the Society, who had been, for several years, no ordinary pattern of piety, prudence, and usefulness, to all those who had the happiness of her acquaintance.*

It is time to close our remarks on Pastoral Psal

mody. Whatever may become of the arguments we have ventured to urge on behalf of that useful, and by no means difficult, exercise ;—the reader is certain to have sympathised largely with Pastoral sorrows, as delineated in this chapter.

"This cheek, a train of tears bedews;

And each tear mourns its own distinct distress;
And each distress, distinctly mourn'd, demands
Of grief still more, as heighten'd by the whole.
A grief like this proprietors excludes:

Not friends alone such obsequies deplore;
They make mankind the mourner.'

"THE COMPLAINT:" Night the Third, p. 68.

The name of this estimable individual was Arculus; and the genuine sorrow, on account of her loss, evinced by the highly respectable family with whom she resided, together with the immense crowd who filled and overflowed the chapel on the above occasion, served to stamp her memory with a distinction seldom awarded to one so young, and occupying only a subordinate position in society. Her "spiritual letters," continued for more than two years, are, of themselves, worthy of notice far beyond her own circle.

CHAPTER FOURTH.

PASTORAL SERVICES EXTRAORDINARY.

PRIVATE ORATORY, SACRAMENTS, ECONOMICAL AND

JUVENILE DEPARTMENTS.

"From glory then to glory, thou shalt rise,
Or sink from deep to deeper miseries;
Ascend perfection's everlasting scale,

Or still descend from gulph to gulph in hell.
Thou embryo angel! or thou infant fiend!
A being now begun, but ne'er to end."

"Birth of a Son."---President Davis.

"In the forenoon, I felt a power of intercession for precious immortal souls, for the advancement of the kingdom of my dear Lord and Saviour in the world, and withal, a most sweet resignation, and even consolation and joy, in the thoughts of suffering hardship, distresses, and even death itself, in the promotion of it; and had special enlargement in pleading for the enlightening and conversion of the poor Heathen. In the afternoon, God was with me of a truth. Oh, it was blessed company indeed! God enabled me so to agonize in prayer, that I was quite wet with sweat, though in the shade, and the wind cool. My soul was drawn out very much for the world. I grasped for multitudes of souls! I think I had more enlargement for sinners than for the children of God; though I felt as if I could spend my life in cries for both."-Brainerd's Diary.

There are several notable instances recorded in the Scriptures, of personal and solitary communion

with the Almighty, which may be elevated into Examples to the Christian, but emphatically, to every Minister of "the word," and Pastor of souls.

66

66

In another connexion, we refer to Abraham interceding for the already doomed cities; and to Jacob, wrestling with the Angel." But neither of these will exactly indicate the PRIVATE ORATORY of a man of God," whose " high calling" should attract him to his Master's more immediate presence, and who may have "boldness," not "once a year" only, but daily, to "enter into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus." (1 (Heb. xvi. 19.) The latter instance, indeed, while altogether unique in some of its circumstances, and normal or prescriptive, in its aspect towards future ages, and other sound conversions, cannot be contemplated as at all official in its character; or even as minutely illustrative of stated communion between the children of God and their heavenly Father, "who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ."

That class of divine audiences which we should wish to be daily enjoyed, whether for personal or pastoral purposes, appears to have been devoutly longed for, in that deep and remonstrant exclamation of the deserted Patriarch: "Oh that I knew where I might find Him! that I might come even to His seat! I would order my cause before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the words

which He would answer me, and understand what He would say unto me. Will He plead against me with His great power? No; but He would put strength in me. There the righteous might dispute with HIM; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge." (Job 23, 3-7.)

We differ from those who would impute any thing of the morbid to this truly dignified, and eloquent, appeal of a consciously upright sufferer, to the Searcher of Hearts, against the hasty and prejudiced decisions of his "friends." It is like the defendant (under advice) traversing, in order to have judgment reversed. He now becomes plaintiff; and not only himself and friends, but his well-instructed counsel, are, once more, primed for a favourable adjudication. Not only has he confidence in his cause, but in his "judge," who can, and, he believes, will," deliver" him from the false verdict by which his fortunes seem, at present, doomed. The higher the tribunal, the more emancipated from all undue influences; the better versed in legal subtleties, and moral perplexities; and the more certain to give a judgment according to law; or, if "in equity," according to right.*

* Mythology, with an unintended, but affecting, parody of the truth, has feigned that, in the golden age, ASTREA, the goddess of justice, lived on the earth, with many other deities, but that, offended at men's vices, they all fled to heaven. She, however, lingered the latest, being unwilling to quit a sphere, where her presence was likely to be even more necessary in proportion to the increasing wickedness of mankind.

Pre-eminently successful was the appeal of the stricken, and calumniated, Man of Uz, to the Supremest Court. He whose never-to-be-forgotten "afflictions" have been even set to music,† the better to convey the lugubrious notes which were wont to pour from his riven heart, was more than acquitted of wanton sin, or of any kind of cognisable offence whatever. That he was faultless had been never affected by himself; that there was any "secret thing with" him, might have been as fearlessly denied. How

"Divinely confident and bold,"

is his challenged access to the very council chamber of Jehovah, where he declares to his unadvised accusers, "I will teach you by the hand of God: that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal." (Job xxvii, 11.)

The master" doctrine” (moral is too worn a term to apply to the objective grandeur of "the mind of the Spirit" in Scripture) of this very ancient, perhaps eldest, portion of the sacred biography, is, doubtless, the cross-wise administration of the Almighty, in his providence, with his still loved, and yet more, and, more, loved people,-His "own" people. What an

+ Of course, we refer to that fine composition, called "Job's Anthem," an adaptation to the unrest (modern parlance "excited state") of the illustrious sufferer:-" When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day!" (Job vii, 4.)