"O God, in the multitude of thy mercies hear me, in the truth of thy salvation. Truth of thy salvation! thou only knowest the truth of thy salvation. How little do we know of thy work. Many of those providences which appear to us dark and dismal, are wheels turning round 'the truth of thy salvation;' opening our blinded eyes to the issues of sin, and also delivering from the snares of the devil. Deal not, O Lord, with me, and mine, as our iniquities deserve; this has never been thy way with us; but according to thy former loving-kindness, and to all the long-suffering, patience, and pardoning mercy which thy aged servant has experienced through her sinful guilty pilgrimage. Thou hast forgiven me all the way from Egypt. Leave me not now, when I am old and grey-headed; but when strength and heart fail, be thou the strength of my heart and portion for ever. Amen."

The winter of 1804-5 was unusually severe: the river Hudson was shut by frost as early as November; fuel was consequently scarce and dear, and the poor suffered greatly. Mrs. Graham visited those parts of the city where the poorer class of sufferers dwelt;* in upwards of two hundred families she either found a Bible their property, or gave them one; praying with them in their affliction. She requested a friend to write, first one religious tract and then another, suited to the peculiar situation of those afflicted people. One was called, "A Donation to Poor Widows with Small Children;" the other, "A Second Visit to Poor Widows with Small Children." And lest it might be said it was cheap to give advice, she usually gave a small sum of money along with the tracts she distributed. There was at this time neither a Bible nor Tract Society in New York. Mrs. Hoffman accompanied her in many of her excursions. In the course of their visits, they discovered a French family from St. Domingo in such extremity of distress as made them judge it necessary to report their case to the Honorable Dewitt Clinton, then mayor of the city. The situation of this family being made public, three hundred dollars were voluntarily contributed for their relief. Roused by this incident, a public meeting was called at the Tontine Coffee-house, and committees from the different wards were appointed to aid the corporation in ascertaining and supplying the immediate wants of the suffering poor. The zeal of Mrs. Graham and Mrs. Hoffman paved the way for this public-spirited exertion, which probably was the means of saving the lives of some of the destitute and friendless.

*The following notice of these scenes appeared in one of the periodical publications of the day:

"When sorrow shrunk before the piercing wind, And famine, shelterless, in suffering pined; When sickness drooped in solitary pain, Mid varying misery's relentless reign; Oh, then tumultuous rose the plaints of grief, And loud and strong the clamors for relief! Then active charity, with boundless care, From gloomy faces chased the fiend Despair, Dispelled the horrors of the wintry day, And none that asked went unrelieved away. "Yet there are some who sorrow's vigils keep, Unknown that languish, undistinguished weep; Behold yon ruined building's shattered walls, Where drifting snow through many a crevice falls; Whose smokeless vent no blazing fuel knows, But drear and cold the widow's mansion shows; Her fragile form, by sickness deeply riven, Too weak to face the driving blasts of heaven, Her voice too faint to reach some pitying ear, Her shivering babes command her anguished tear: Their feeble cries in vain assistance crave, And expectation 'points but to the grave.' "But lo, with hasty step a female form Glides through the wind and braves the chilling storm, With eager hand now shakes the tottering door, Now rushes breathless o'er the snow-clad floor. Her tongue soft comfort to the mourner speaks, Her silver voice with soft emotion breaks; Round the drear hovel roves her moistened eye, Her graceful bosom heaves the lengthened sigh. "I know thee now—I know that angel frame— O that the muse might dare to breathe thy name: Nor thine alone, but all that sister-band Who scatter gladness o'er a weeping land; Who comfort to the infant sufferer bring, And 'teach with joy the widow's heart to sing.' "For this, no noisy honors fame shall give, In your own breasts your gentle virtues live; No sounding numbers shall your names reveal, But your own hearts the rich reward shall feel. "ALBERT."

In the month of August, 1805, Mrs. Graham paid another visit to her friends in Boston, of whom she spoke with much affection and esteem. She used to mention, with peculiar approbation, a society of pious ladies there, who met once in every week for prayer and mutual edification.

On returning to New York, she again wrote to her friend Mrs. C——, renewing her endeavors for her consolation and establishment in the faith of Christ; and soon after informed her of the dangerous illness of two of her grandchildren, one of whom, in the righteous dispensations of an unerring Providence, was taken, and the other left.

To Mrs. C——, Boston.

"GREENWICH, N.Y., Sept. 26, 1805.

"MY DEAR FRIEND—I arrived here on Monday. I found my children in health, but much affected with the death of the amiable youth M——, and the melancholy situation of his bereaved parents.

"The epidemic spreads over the city in every direction among the few remaining in it. All the public offices are here; crowds of the citizens, and houses and stores spring up in a day; all is bustle and confusion, and all seem mad on business.

"Parting with my dear friend was most painful, so painful that nothing could alleviate it but the presence of my own children, who, could there have been room from deeper sorrows, would have shared it with me. O that I could put my God in my place in your heart. What are earthly friends? How few are steady against all change of circumstances; of these, fewer still have it in their power to supply every link of friendship's chain; a thousand unforeseen incidents disappoint their wishes and frustrate their hopes, rendering abortive their greatest exertions. But there is a Friend, everywhere present, thoroughly acquainted with every circumstance of the heart and of the life; all-powerful to relieve; whose love is invariable, and ever the most tender when every other friend stands aloof; a friend in adversity, 'a friend who sticketh closer than a brother,' whose love surpasseth the love of women. This Friend receiveth sinners—casts out none who come to him. He was never known to disappoint the hopes of any poor sinner. He receives them into his heart; he takes all their burdens and cares on himself, pays all their debts, answers all demands against them, and is every way surety for them; they become his own, no one has any thing to say to them but himself. He knows them—how apt to err, to wander, yea, to forget him, and prove ungrateful; all this he knows, but he has made provision for all. He has a rod, and he will subdue their iniquities. He will heal their backslidings, he will bring back and restore his wanderers. He will in due time perfect what concerns them, and present them to his Father purified, without spot or wrinkle.

"In the meantime he requires them to confide in him; to go up through this wilderness leaning upon him; to tell him all their complaints and griefs, and to comfort themselves: and he will impress the comfort by means of his great and precious promises, scattered like so many pearls through his sacred Bible, tabled there on purpose for us to ground our prayers upon, and delight ourselves in. This is your friend's Friend, and of ten thousand besides. This was the wicked Magdalene's Friend; this, the persecuting Paul's Friend, wicked Manasseh's Friend; the adulterous, murdering David's Friend. And he is your Friend, though your eyes are holden that you see him not. He is leading you by a way that you know not. This is one of his characters, 'I will bring the blind by a way that they know not.'

"I was happy to find your niece was to return with Mr. C——; but, my dear, a painful dread has assaulted my peace, lest Satan get the advantage by means of a stranger in the family, and undo what has been begun. The world may have peace without God; but you shall not. You have, however feebly, taken hold of his covenant, and he will keep you to your choice. 'If his children forsake his laws and go astray,' etc. Psalm 79:30."

"NOVEMBER, 1805.

"MY DEAR FRIEND—This is not our rest; through much tribulation all Christ's disciples must follow him. There is a rest prepared for the people of God: as far as tasted in this world—and in this world it is tasted—it consists in a mind resigned to the will of God in proportion as it can say, 'Thy will be done on earth, as it is done in heaven.' Christ himself was made perfect through suffering, and all his followers shall be so in their appointed measure. What is our cup to his? O my dear friend, we are ransomed, we are redeemed, and we are fitting and preparing for the purchased inheritance, that perfect rest prepared for the people of God when their warfare is finished. Let him do all his pleasure with us here; let him subdue our iniquities in his own way; let him glorify his name by our sufferings—his glory is ever connected with his people's best interests. We shall one day acknowledge that he has done all things well, and that not one word of all that he has promised has failed.

"It has pleased the Lord to take from us our dear sweet Rebecca; young as she was, through much tribulation she entered in: I have scarcely seen severer suffering, nor a harder dismission. It is well; the Lord will answer his own ends by it for the good of all concerned, as well as for his own glory. Our dear G—— was ill at the same time, and all hope was lost as to him also; for a whole week we looked upon him as dying, A bold measure was taken with him, which succeeded; the Lord had commanded life; it was not thought of for her. God had appointed to her entrance into life eternal. It is all well. Blessed, blessed be his name; for her he has taken and him he has restored, both equally. I.G. S—— was confined at the same time with a broken arm; N. B—— with the fever and pleurisy. Deep have been the wounds in this aged heart, not yet weaned from earth, but tremblingly alive to every thing that concerns my children. Yet I do give up. I have asked but one thing with importunity, and by that I abide. I did not ask for temporal life, but the life which Christ died to purchase, and lives to bestow; let him answer my petition by means of his own appointing: by health or by sickness, by riches or by poverty, by long life or early deaths—only let all mine by the ties of nature, be his by regeneration of his Spirit."

Having felt the trials and the responsibilities of widowhood, she wrote to her brother's widow, Mrs. Marshall, in 1805:

"You are now, my dear sister, the only head of your family. Will you take Joshua's determination? 'As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.' Take hold of God's covenant for your orphan children as for yourself, and consider them as his, to be brought up for him. Be a priestess in your own house, and keep up the worship of God daily in your family, and confess your Lord and Master before angels, men, and devils. Those who thus honor God, he will honor.

"You are indeed, my dear, arrived at an important stage of your journey through this great wilderness. You are now the head of the family, and are to God immediately answerable. No earthly consideration must make you give up the government of it, nor the prerogative which he hath given you, to counsel, and even beseech your household to serve the Lord. You cannot give grace; you cannot give life; and where there is no life there can be no spiritual exercise: but you may use means, although there is much prudence to be observed to avoid disgust.

"Be faithful, then, my dear sister, to your important trust. See that your household remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy; your children, of course, will accompany you to the house of God, but let not your servants absent themselves from his ordinances, and endeavor, on your return home, to explain and bring home the word that may have been spoken to their consciences. Above all, let it be your constant aim to set before them a godly, consistent example, and be much engaged in prayer for them—I mean for your servants as well as for your children, and God will, in all probability, make you a mother in Israel, the mother of many spiritual children, and turn your captivity into rejoicing, and fill your mouth with songs of praise; or should you not have this comfort, should the night of adversity last to the very valley of the shadow of death, the morning of eternal rest shall then beam forth upon your own soul, and your prayers may be answered for others, when the eyes that wept and the breast that heaved are at rest in the dust. O, then, my sister, possess your soul in patience, and seek to make daily advances in holiness."



CHAPTER IX.

ORPHAN ASYLUM SOCIETY—FOREIGN MISSIONARIES—LETTERS.

On the 15th of March, 1806, the female subscribers to proposals for providing an asylum for orphan children met at the City Hotel; Mrs. Graham was called to the chair, a society organized, and a board of direction chosen, Mrs. Hoffman was elected the first directress of the Orphan Asylum Society. Mrs. Graham continued in the office of first directress of the Widows' Society, but took a deep interest in the success of the Orphan Asylum also; she, or one of her family, taught the orphans daily, until the funds of the institution were sufficient to provide a teacher and superintendent. She was a trustee at the time of her decease. The wish to establish this new society was occasioned by the pain which it gave the ladies of the Widows' Society to behold a family of orphans driven, on the decease of a widow, to seek refuge in the almshouse; no melting heart to feel, no redeeming hand to rescue them from a situation so unpromising for mental and moral improvement.

"Among the afflicted of our suffering race," thus speaks the constitution of the society, "none makes a stronger or more impressive appeal to humanity than the destitute orphan. Crime has not been the cause of its misery, and future usefulness may yet be the result of its protection; the reverse is often the case of more aged objects. God himself has marked the fatherless as the peculiar subjects of his divine compassion. 'A Father of the fatherless is God in his holy habitation,' 'When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.' To be the blessed instrument of, divine Providence in making good the promise of God, is a privilege equally desirable and honorable to the benevolent heart.'"

And truly God has made good his promise towards this benevolent institution. He has crowned the undertaking with his remarkable blessing. It was begun by his disciples in faith, and he has acknowledged them in it. Having for fourteen months occupied a hired house for an asylum, the ladies entertained the bold idea of building an asylum on account of the society. They had then about three hundred and fifty dollars as the commencement of a fund for the building; they purchased four lots of ground in the village of Greenwich, on a healthful, elevated site, possessing a fine prospect. The corner-stone was laid on the 7th of July, 1807. They erected a building fifty feet square; from time to time they proceeded to finish the interior of the building, and to purchase additional ground as their funds would permit; and such was the liberality of the legislature and of the public, that the society soon possessed a handsome building and nearly an acre of ground, all of which must have cost them little short of twenty-five thousand dollars. In that house Mrs. Graham and Mrs. Hoffman spent much of their time; there they trained for eternity the children of those whose widowed dying mothers they had cheered with the hope that when they should be taken away, God would fulfil his gracious promise and preserve their fatherless children alive.

Mrs. Hoffman survived Mrs. Graham seven years. Her end, like that of her friend, was peace. But though God removed those mothers in Israel, their prayers are still before him, and the institution continues to prosper. In 1836, the city having extended to where the asylum was situated, and the property at the same time increased in value, the society became desirous to remove where the children would enjoy purer air, and have greater convenience for a garden and pasture for cows. With the advice of their patrons, they sold the property for about thirty-nine thousand dollars; purchased nearly ten acres of ground at Bloomingdale, and on the 9th of June the same year laid the foundation-stone of their present beautiful building.

In the Thirty-fourth Annual Report of the society for 1840, we find the following record of God's goodness:

"On no former occasion has the board of direction been privileged to make to the friends and patrons of this institution a more favorable report than the present. The orphan's home is completed, and the beautiful building on the banks of the Hudson is alike an ornament to the city and a memorial of the liberality of its inhabitants. Within it are found, not only ample accommodations for a numerous family, but a place for the Lord, a habitation for the orphans' God. On the 19th of November last the chapel was opened for religious worship; the services were performed by reverend clergy of different denominations; and a highly respectable and apparently gratified audience attended. All the children, one hundred and sixty-five in number, were present, from the infant in arms to the youth who will this day pronounce the valedictory.

"To those who have witnessed the progress of this institution from the small frame-house of 1806 to the noble edifice of 1840, accompanied by the recollection that the door has never been closed against the destitute orphan, how deep must be the conviction of an overruling Providence—the truth of the declaration, that God is the father of the fatherless in his holy habitation, and the fulfilment of his gracious promise, 'Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive.' Nor is the orphan family merely furnished with sufficient accommodation for dwelling and moral and religious education: the grounds afford ample room for exercise and recreation; the garden supplies them with fruit and vegetables; and there being pasture for several cows, wholesome milk is added to their simple breakfast, while the abounding river invigorates the frame by a saline bath, and by casting a net into it, furnishes an occasional dinner of fresh fish."

The society, ever grateful to the founders, have erected a tablet on the wall of the beautiful chapel, which bears the following inscription:

SACRED TO THE MEMORY

OF

ISABELLA GRAHAM, WHO DIED 27TH JULY, 1814;

AND OF

MRS. SARAH HOFFMAN, WHO DIED 29TH JULY, 1821.

THEY WERE BOTH FOUNDERS OF THIS INSTITUTION.

TO THEIR PRAYER OF FAITH, AND WISDOM IN DIRECTING ITS COUNSELS, THE SOCIETY IS INDEBTED FOR MUCH OF THE SUCCESS THAT HAS ATTENDED IT.

THEY WERE LOVELY IN THEIR LIVES, AND DURING MANY YEARS THEY TRAVELLED TOGETHER THE WALKS OF CHARITY.

WHEN THE EAR HEARD THEM IT BLESSED THEM, AND THEY CAUSED THE WIDOW'S HEART TO SING FOR JOY.

THEY NOW REST FROM THEIR LABORS,

PARTAKERS OF THE BLESSEDNESS OF THOSE WHO DIE IN THE LORD:

THEIR WORKS DO FOLLOW THEM.

The success which has attended the Orphan Asylum Society, furnishes strong encouragement to attempt great and good objects even with slender means. God in his providence will command a blessing on exertions of this character. It is too common a mistake, and one fatal to the progress of improvement, that great means should be in actual possession before great objects should be attempted. Ah, were our dependence simply on apparent instruments, how small must be our hopes of success. There is a mystery, yet a certainty, in the manner by which God is pleased in his providence to conduct feeble means to a happy conclusion. Has he not preserved, cherished, and blessed his church through many ages, amidst overwhelming persecutions, and that often by means apparently inadequate to this end? We must work for, as well as pray for the blessing which God has promised to bestow on our sinful race. We must put our shoulder to the wheel, while we look up to heaven for assistance, and God will bless those who are found in the path of duty.

In this asylum, the ladies have set no limits to the number to be received; and it has pleased God also not to set limits to the means necessary for their support. The institution is a great favorite with the public, and is frequently visited by strangers, who are delighted with the cleanliness, health, and cheerful countenances of the orphans.

The Society have received a charter of incorporation from the legislature; they have a handsome seal, with this inscription: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me."

For several years it was customary with Mrs. Graham to visit the New York hospital; and before the admirable provision since made for the separate care of those mentally deranged, she paid a particular attention to patients of this description.

To the apartments appropriated to sick female convicts in the state prison, she also made many visits; she met with some affecting circumstances among this class.

In the winter of 1807-8, when the suspension of commerce by the embargo rendered the situation of the poor more destitute than ever, Mrs. Graham adopted a plan best calculated in her view to detect the idle applicant for charity, and at the same time to furnish employment for the more worthy among the female poor. She purchased flax, and lent wheels where applicants had none. Such as were industrious, took the work with thankfulness and were paid for it; those who were beggars by profession never kept their word by returning for the flax or the wheel. The flax thus spun was afterwards wove, bleached, and made into table-cloths and towels for family use.

Mrs. Graham used to remark, that until some institution should be formed to furnish employment for industrious poor women, the work of charity would be incomplete. It was about this time that, deeming the duties too laborious for her health, she resigned the office of first directress of the Widows' Society, and took the place of a manager. She afterwards declined this also, and became a trustee of the Orphan Asylum Society, as more suited to her advanced period of life.

The lady to whom the following letter was addressed was Miss FARQUHARSON, a person of genuine piety and worth, whom Mrs. Graham had educated and prepared to become her assistant in teaching. When Mrs. Graham retired from her school, Miss Farquharson declined to succeed her, preferring to accompany and enjoy the society of her patroness and friend. Until 1804 she proved as efficient an assistant to Mrs. Graham in her charitable labors in the Widows' Society and Sabbath-school, as she had been in her boarding-school.

During the prevalence of the yellow-fever in 1804, she was called to attend her own dying mother, and underwent so much fatigue, that on her return to Mrs. Graham she broke a bloodvessel, and for four months was confined to her room, during all which time Mrs. Graham attended her night and day. Her medical attendants prescribed a long voyage and residence in a hot climate as the only means of saving her life. About that time Mr. Andrew Smith was preparing to sail for the East Indies with his family, by the way of England. With them she embarked. She sojourned several weeks in Birmingham, and there the circumstances commenced which eventually led Miss Farquharson to become a missionary's wife, and the first American missionary to foreign lands. Her history has been published by Rev. Mr. Knill, in a tract entitled, "The Missionary's Wife."

The London Missionary Society were preparing to establish a mission in the idolatrous city of Surat, but the East India Company would not allow Christian missionaries to sail in their ships. The Society thankfully availed themselves of the privilege of sending Mr. Loveless and Dr. Taylor in the American ship Alleghany. They arrived in Madras, June, 1805.

During the voyage an attachment was formed between Mr. Loveless and Miss Farquharson which death only could sever, and introduced her to scenes of usefulness for more than thirty years, for which she was eminently qualified by early training. As soon as Mrs. Graham heard how her friend was going to be employed, she wrote to her as follows:

"MY DEAR SALLY—Many tears have I shed over your letter. What a changing lot has been that of my family! The Lord's providences to me and mine have not been of the ordinary kind, and you, as one in it, seem to be a partaker with us. Surely, of all others, we have most reason to say, We are strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Oh that we may drink into the true spirit of that phrase, and enjoy the genuine, firm faith of an everlasting habitation, of living at home with God.

"My dear Sally, take the comfort of this, that it is the Lord who hath led you all the way by which you have gone. Of all persons whom I know, you were, from your temper and disposition, the least likely to travel, still less to continue a traveller. No ordinary means would have led you to leave your friends and religious privileges. And many a pang it has cost me, on reflection, to think how positive I was that you should take the voyage. But it was of the Lord. The physicians urged it as the only chance you had for life, and they had reason; for of all those who were attacked in the same manner, there is not one alive, within my knowledge, at this day.

"The Lord, by wonderful means, called you from your native land, and led you to the very spot where you met Mr. Loveless. The same God, being also his God, led him, by means perhaps equally unforeseen and uncommon, to the same spot, united your hearts to each other, and made you one in his hand, and I trust to his glory. You ask my blessing: I have carried both of you to my God and Saviour, and have prayed, and continue to pray, that the Lord will bless you individually and unitedly, give you much sweet communion with himself, and much social enjoyment with him and with one another. May he bless Mr. Loveless as a missionary, and give him the spirit of his office, and much fruit among the heathen, as seals to his ministry; and may you be a helper with him, and both be blessed and made a blessing.

"I feel my loss. You were a comfort and a help to us all, especially to me: but I do not mourn; I heartily acquiesce. This is not only agreeable to me, as it is one of God's wise arrangements to you and us all, but I think it will be more to your comfort. Religion and conjugal love will sweeten almost any lot. It is the Lord's appointment and his richest earthly blessing.

"My dear Sally, I have ever considered you as my child. You are very dear to my heart. Tell Mr. Loveless he must ever consider me as his mother.

"Your affectionate mother,

"ISABELLA GRAHAM."

In the month of January, 1807, the London Missionary Society, of which Mr. Bethune was a foreign director, sent to this country the Rev. Messrs. Gordon, Lee, and Morrison; the two first to sail in an American ship for the East Indies, and Mr. Morrison for China. These devoted missionaries shared largely in the hospitalities of Christians in New York, and spent much of their time with Mr. Bethune's family. Mrs. Graham took great delight in conversing and advising with them, and though none of her letters addressed to them have come to hand, it is believed she corresponded with them. The following extract of a letter from Dr. Morrison, indicates the respect and Christian affection with which he regarded her.

"ON BOARD THE TRIDENT, May 24, 1807.

"MY EVER DEAR MOTHER GRAHAM—I think you were led by the special interference of our gracious Lord, to put into my hands the work which you did, accompanied by the edifying and comforting letter which you wrote me.

"I thank you for telling me what God did for your soul, and join with you in ascribing to the Lord salvation and honor. I had, my mother, from the time of leaving my dear relations and friends, passed through waters deep as the fathomless ocean which I crossed; but with the Lord there is mercy; with him is 'plenteous redemption.' He is ready to forgive. He has restored to me, in some measure, 'the joy of his salvation,' and will not, I trust, take his Holy Spirit from me. This is my prayer. To-day he enabled me, on board of this vessel, to open my lips to teach transgressors his way. O, that sinners may be converted unto him."

To Mr. and Mrs. B——, at Ballston Springs.

"NEW YORK, August, 1807.

"MY BELOVED CHILDREN—A husband, wife, and child, make a family, and God ought to be acknowledged by them as such. I am anxious that you should meet in your room for that purpose some time every morning.

"If it cannot be accomplished at an early hour, redeem that time in a later, and also before going to rest in the evening. The Lord has honored your family worship with genuine fruits, follow it up in all places. Like Abraham of old, wherever you pitch your tent, for a longer or shorter period, there raise an altar to the Lord, to that God who has fed you all your life, carried you as on eagle's wings, and will carry you to old age and gray hairs."

To Mrs. Juliet S——, New York, one of her former pupils.

"BELLEVILLE, September 16, 1808.

"MY DEAR JULIET—Since the hour I received your letter, you have been little out of my mind. You call upon me as mother, friend, counsellor. Shall conscious unworthiness, or weakness, or ignorance, prevent my answering? No; for God often chooses weak instruments to bring to pass great ends, I have been once and again to a throne of grace, for wisdom to direct me, and grace to be faithful. If your desire after spiritual knowledge be sincere, and from the Spirit of God operating on your heart, you will bear searching.

"You are a communicant, my Juliet; this presupposes that a very great and important change has taken place in your mind—that you have been made deeply sensible of what the word of God testifies of every son and daughter of Adam's race. 'As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.' Rom. 3:10. Man is born as the wild ass's colt, going astray from the womb. Job. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; I the Lord search it. Having the understanding darkened, alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in us, because of the blindness of our hearts. Dead in trespasses and sins. Eph. 4:18; 2:1.

"Your profession presupposes that this chapter may be addressed to you, Juliet, by name: 'You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ; by grace are ye saved, through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast.' Works there are, my Juliet, most assuredly; every quickened soul will live, and bring forth fruits of righteousness; but these works are not attainable but in God's way and order. It follows, 'For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.'

"My Juliet says, 'To you then I look up to teach me.' Let me then bring you to the great Teacher and Prophet of the church, without whose teaching all human instruction will be ineffectual. We read of two amiable characters coming to Christ professedly for instruction. The first you will find in Matthew 19:16. The young man asks him, 'What good thing shall I do, that I may inherit eternal life?' Jesus answers him by referring him to the moral law: the young man, not made acquainted by the Spirit of God, either with the extent or spirituality of that law, or of the depravity of his own nature, answers, as many in like circumstances still do,' All these things have I kept from my youth up.' I do not suppose any one could contradict him. It is added that Jesus loved him, and he was a person of attractive character; but Jesus knew that the true principle was not there—supreme love to God, 'with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the strength, and with all the mind:' therefore he gave him a test which proved that the world was uppermost in his heart. He went away sorrowful, and we hear no more of him.

"Of the other person we read in that remarkable chapter, the third of John's gospel—Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, and also a teacher. Well knew he the law, as to the letter of it, both moral and ceremonial; he must also have been acquainted with all the Old Testament scripture types and prophecies, it being his office to expound; and no doubt, among others, was looking for the promised Messiah. Jesus does not send him to either the law or the prophets. This ruler comes with a conviction and an acknowledgment that Jesus himself was a teacher immediately from God; and Jesus immediately takes upon himself his great office, and begins with urging that which is a sinner's first business—'to know himself,' what he is by nature, and the necessity of the new birth. Nicodemus, with all his learning, was a stranger to this doctrine: 'How can a man be born when he is old?' Jesus repeats his doctrine, 'He must be born of water and the Spirit;' baptized with water and the Holy Ghost. 'That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto you, Ye must be born again.' Humble that proud reason that will believe nothing but what it can understand. 'The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.' A mystery it is; nevertheless it is true.

"Follow out the chapter, my dear: Jesus preaches his own gospel, and brings in that beautiful type, the serpent, which he had commanded to be raised on a pole, that those who had been bitten with fiery serpents, whose bite was death, should look upon it and be healed. Read it, my dear, in the 21st of Numbers; and in reference to this, he himself says, 'Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.' Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Quickened, renewed in the spirit, of his mind, old things pass away and all things become new—new principles, new desires, new pleasures, new ends. The work is God's. The whole plan of redemption is his from first to last. It is clearly revealed in Scripture, and there is no dispute among Christians concerning it. The fall of man, his corruption and depravity; his state under the curse of a broken covenant, and his exposure to eternal misery; his helplessness and total inability to gain acceptance with God; his ignorance of himself—'dead in trespasses and sins,' 'without God and without hope in the world:' this is his situation by nature. But there is good news proclaimed: 'God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,' to become the surety of lost sinners. He took our nature upon him, our sins upon him, our duties upon him: he was placed in our stead; sustained the penalty of the broken law; fulfilled its utmost demands; redeemed us; gave us a new covenant, of which himself is the surety: and there is 'no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.'

"The merits of Christ, exclusive of any thing of ours, are the sole foundation of our hope. Christ is set forth, in Scripture, as the atonement, the propitiation for sins, the one sacrifice for sin; Christ is the end of the law for righteousness; all is made ours by free gift. 1 John, 5:11. All is ready, justice satisfied, God reconciled, peace proclaimed. But what is all this to a thoughtless world, insensible of their situation, danger, and need? It is an awful saying, but it is of the Holy Ghost, If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the god of this world hath blinded their minds, and darkened their understandings, and hardened their hearts, etc. Therefore the application of this grace is also of God; it is all within his plan; he has appointed means, and commanded our diligence in the use of them. We have his Bible in our hands, his ministers in our churches, who are also pastors and teachers if we apply for their aid in private; we have a throne of grace to go to, and many great and precious promises held up in God's word for us to embrace and plead for Christ's sake: we have many prayers in the Scriptures which we may adopt.

"I acknowledge we are all still dependent for the effect; that must be from God himself. But he does honor his own ordinances. He puts forth his power, and convinces of sin; this is his first work. The soul is awakened, aroused, convinced of sin and misery; sins of the heart, sins of the tongue, sins of the life, press upon the conscience which never disturbed us before; misspent time, wasted talents, lost opportunities, neglect of God's word and ordinances, so that the soul cannot rest. O, my Juliet, this is a hopeful case. I hope you have experienced something of this. It is one of the surest marks of the operation of the Spirit of God, and a prelude to the new birth. It never takes place without it, for the whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. Only the weary and heavy laden will prize rest, and Christ is the rest they need; only a convinced sinner will or can prize the Saviour, and now the Lord opens his mind to understand the Scriptures. He sees the provision which God has made for ruined sinners, by providing a substitute to stand in his room; he perceives how God can be just and justify the sinner who takes shelter in Jesus; he falls in with God's gracious plan: receives the Lord Jesus as God's gift to sinners; trusts entirely in his merits for pardon, peace, reconciliation, and eternal life; resigns his soul into the hands of his Saviour, in the faith that he will save it, and devotes himself unreservedly to his service, in the faith that he will give him grace to live to him in all holy obedience. Now, and not till now, according to God's promise, he receives power to become his child; this is God's order, John 1:12. Now he receives life and begins to live; but there is yet a great work before him. It hath pleased God in his plan to finish at once a justifying righteousness; it is his own work, and was finished in that awful hour when he announced it in his last words on the cross. John 19:30. To this nothing of ours is to be added, with this nothing of ours mixed; it is for ever perfect, it is God's gift made ours in the hour when we first believe, receive it, rest our souls upon it.

"But it hath not pleased God in this plan to deliver the believer at once from indwelling sin. This is the subject of the Christian warfare, the race, the good fight. Now the believer receives life, and is called to work. 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do.' All the promises in this blessed Bible are his, they are yea and amen in Christ; Christ himself is his; his Spirit dwells in him. The believer is united to Jesus by as real a union as the branch to the vine, the members to the head, the building with the foundation. Yet sin dwelleth in him, and is to be expunged by constant applications to Christ in prayer; by means of watching, striving, fighting—fighting under his banner. In his blessed word we are informed where our strength lies, what our weapons, what our armor. But what can I say on those subjects? the whole word of God is on the subject of redemption; to this refer the whole labors of Christ's ministers, and the whole dispensation of God's providence.

"Are these things so? My Juliet, this is not the doctrine of any one church. About these subjects there is no dispute. Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Baptists, Independents, all agree in these great things. And are these things so indeed? O, my Juliet, where is the time to be spared for plays, assemblies, and such numerous idle parties of various descriptions? I must stop; the subject is great, and we have many excellent treatises on the various parts of it, by able, pious men. It would be improper to crowd it thus into a letter, unless to instigate to further investigation.

"Farewell; I ever am, my dear Juliet,

"Yours affectionately,

"I. GRAHAM."

The delicate state of health to which one of her granddaughters was reduced in 1808, made it necessary for her to spend the summer season for five successive years at Rockaway, Long Island, for the advantage of sea-bathing. Mrs. Graham went with her, it being beneficial to her own health also. In this place she met with many strangers; the company residing there treated her with much affection and respect. She always attended to the worship of God morning and evening in her room, and was usually accompanied by some of the ladies who boarded in the house. Her fund of information, vivacity of manner, and the interest which she felt in the happiness of all around her, made her society highly valued and pleasing. Few of those ladies who stayed with her at Rockaway for any length of time, failed to express, at parting, their esteem for her, and they generally added a pressing invitation for a visit from her, if ever she should travel near where they dwelt.

The following is one of her sweet meditations while at Rockaway:

"ROCKAWAY, August, 1809.

"Sweet health again returns, which, considering the agitation of my mind, surprises me; but it is the Lord's pleasure. I did not wish to recover. I was in hopes the Lord was about to deliver me from 'this body of sin and death.' Lord, reconcile me to thy most holy will. Health is certainly a great blessing. I feel its sweetness. O make me thankful. Great and numerous are my mercies. Every thing pleasant and every thing necessary to life, to godliness, is mine: food and raiment to the utmost desires of nature; the beauties of thy fair creation surround my ordinary dwelling; my dear little room, my Bible, and books of every virtuous kind—by grace, thy chief mercy, I desire no other—and by the kindness of my children, I possess all as if they were my own personal property. By thy wonderful loving-kindness, thou hast given me, instead of the contempt which I have merited, the love and esteem of thy people, and thou hast made the very stones of the field to be at peace with me, so that wherever I go I meet with kindness."

To Mrs. Marshall.

"NEW YORK, October, 1809.

"I find your letter dated 'Elderslie'—the very name gives a thrill to my old heart; in a moment the various scenes of my youthful days rise before me—the old mansion itself, and all its beloved inmates, every one of whom have now crossed the Jordan of death, leaving me a solitary wanderer in this weary wilderness. Ah, I can at this moment think of spots, by the burnside and the braeside, endeared to my heart by a thousand tender associations. There have I wandered with my beloved, idolized husband, and there has he delighted my heart with professions of love. These were indeed moments of ecstasy; but hush, there are you a widow with very, very different sensations, and here am I a widow with sensations equally different. The Lord has showed us many and sore adversities, but he will bring us up from the deeps below; we are much nearer our Father's house, and I hope proportionably riper for those joys which are at his right hand; and although your letter has brought some pleasing recollections to my mind—days of love and courtship, days, some of solitude, some of disappointment, some of ecstasy—yet I find they were all days of idolatry, therefore to be mourned over, not retasted, reenjoyed with delight. No, no; Father, forgive me."



CHAPTER X.

NEW YORK BIBLE SOCIETY—ASSOCIATIONS FOR PRAYER—HAPPY OLD AGE—LETTERS.

"In December, 1809, a Bible Society was organized in New York, and about the same time twenty respectable persons united in a society, to wait on the Lord, to know what their hands could find to do to promote his glory, to advance his kingdom, to spread the savor of the Redeemer's name, or in any way to benefit the souls of their fellow-sinners.

"On Monday a meeting for prayer was instituted in Hetty-street, and another in Mulberry-street, with which the Presbyterian ministers have agreed to meet in rotation. It is the Lord. We have heard of revivals all around, but feared lest the aggravated sins of New York might provoke the Lord to pass by, leaving our fleece dry, while the dew wet all around. Great have been our privileges; the gospel trumpet has sounded in every corner of our city. The Lord's servants have set before us life and death, assuring us, from God's word, that 'though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished;' beseeching us to flee from the wrath to come, and lay hold on the hope set before us. God in his providence has visited us with mercies and with judgments: stricken us, and healed us; scattered us, and gathered us: but alas, alas, we were 'eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage.' Many, very many, wasting their time, health, and substance, in all manner of immorality, and our rulers caring for none of these things; yea, many of them practising the same things; and Oh, God's own saved people sitting still, restraining testimony before men and prayer before God. What were we to expect but that God should say, Why should they be stricken any more? they will revolt more and more: they are joined to idols; let them alone. Such, O Lord, would be the case didst thou not deliver us out of our own self-destroying snares. If thou turn us not, we shall never turn; it is in our nature to backslide for ever.

"But is not the time come to pass when before thy people call thou answerest, and while they are yet speaking, thou hearest? Art thou not calling with power, 'Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings?' and hast thou not prepared their hearts to answer, Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God? truly, in vain is salvation looked for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains; truly, from the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. Hast thou not, O God, prepared the hearts of thy people to pray, and thine ear to hear? Is not this Bible Society, and are not these associations for prayer, tokens from thee for good? More and more, Lord, may thy people give thee no rest, until thou make Zion a praise in the earth. O the Hope of Israel, and the Saviour thereof, be not as a wayfaring man, that turneth aside for a night. May thy people constrain thee to abide with us for ever, to form us a people for thyself, to show forth thy praise.

"I have just conveyed dear Mrs. A——le to the confines of the eternal world. I trust the dear Redeemer received her spirit. I have a good hope that she is now in possession of the mansion purchased and prepared for her by that dear Saviour whose name she professed, and I think, in an humble, steady, quiet way, faithfully followed. She loved the word of God, the house of God, the people of God. She spoke little, but said she had a good hope: asked me to read the Bible different times, and also to pray; said the invitations of the gospel were sweet to her: observed that the Lord had been very merciful to her in her affliction.

"A few hours before her death she desired me to read that hymn,

"'To him that loved the souls of men,' etc,

Also,

"'Come, let us join our cheerful songs,' etc.

She asked if I thought she would continue long. I said, No, my dear, you will very soon be with Jesus; and encouraged her as the Lord enabled me. She repeated the question some time after, and I gave her the same answer. She then said, 'This night?' I answered, Yes, my love, this night. She bowed her head with a sweet smile, laid it in a reclining posture, and set herself to wait with patience the Lord's time. She was very much oppressed, and breathed with much difficulty. Some time after she asked me to pray, which I did, and begged that the Lord would increase her faith and patience, and, if according to his will, give her a gentle passage and an abundant entrance. In a short time her breathing became short and low; she shut her eyes and gently breathed weaker and weaker, till her God delivered her without motion or groan. I was on my knees praying. I then thanked God for his goodness in this sweet dismission; prayed for the husband, the children, the two young men present, and us all, gave glory to God, and rose to watch to future duty.

"O my God, is not my own death at hand? It is a hard battle. My Jesus, thou knowest the struggle. I too must drink of this cup; mix it for me, my Redeemer. O let a full sense of free pardon, the recollection of the great and precious promises, a bright view of the joys at God's right hand, as the fruit of thy death, be applied to my soul in that awful hour. Holy Spirit, pour in the oil and wine of thy consolations in that trying hour. O let me not be straitened. Open wide to my soul the leaves of that well-ordered covenant, of which Christ himself is the sum and substance. Redeeming God, may I experience proof in that solemn hour, that 'thy flesh is meat indeed, and thy blood is drink indeed.' O feed me with this living food; may I feel life spring up in my soul, and be assured that I shall 'never die.' O my God, grant one more request. Open my lips, and let them, as well as my heart, be filled with the high praises of my redeeming God.

"I know I am unworthy; the vilest of the vile; but magnify thy grace. I have much forgiven; O let my heart burn with love and gratitude in that hour, and my lips utter its effusions in songs of praise. Amen.

"When the short thick breathing comes, and the slow fetches, sealing up speech and expelling the spirit from its abode, O let me hear or understand thee saying unto me, 'It is I, be not afraid.'"

"JANUARY, 1810.

"'Come and let us return unto the Lord, for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us, in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.'

"O Lord, turn us and we shall be turned, draw us and we will run after thee. Revive us, and we shall live in thy sight. Thou must ever be first. It is in our nature to backslide for ever: and whenever we see a backslider restored, or a rebel lay down the weapons of rebellion, there we may trace thy footsteps, O God of grace.

"No external providence will touch our hard, our deceitful hearts. All that goes under the name of misfortune will but drive us from thee, never to thee, till thou teach us to profit, and lead us by the way that we should go. Thou callest, 'Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings;' but we have been foolish, sottish children, without understanding, wise to do evil, but to do good having no knowledge.

"Let the days come when the children of America—the earth is the Lord's—shall 'come with weeping, and seek the Lord their God;' when 'they shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward;' when they shall come, saying, 'Let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant, never to be forgotten.' O the Hope of Israel and Saviour thereof, is not that day and that time come? Hast thou not been working on the right hand and on the left? Thou hast given us pastors according to thine own heart, who feed us with knowledge and understanding: and thou art here and there proving thy gospel thy power and thy wisdom, to the salvation of sinners; casting down the imaginations of pride, and bringing all into subjection to thy Son Jesus.

"O pour out the spirit of grace and supplication, upon thy living members, that they may wrestle with thee, and not let thee go until thou bless us, until thou make this 'cloud like a man's hand' cover our heavens with blackness, and issue in a plentiful rain. O pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; thy Spirit upon our seed, and thy blessing upon our offspring. O Lord, hast thou not said that thou wilt do it, and that they shall spring up as among the grass, and as willows by the water-courses. One shall say, I am the Lord's, another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel. Amen, O our God, Amen.

"Last week the Lord's young servant, Mr. R——, received to the communion of the church seven adults, Mrs. B—— and her two daughters, Dr. H—— and sister, Mr. C——, and a black woman, servant to Mr. H——. It was a glorious sight, and revived the hearts of God's people who witnessed it. O God of grace, grant that the fruits of righteousness may prove that they are broken off from the wild olive-tree, and grafted into thee, thou living and life-giving olive-tree; from thee must their fruit be found. O cause them to bring forth much fruit. Herein is the Father glorified, that they bear much fruit; so shall they be Christ's disciples, and attain to the assurance of that happy state. Father, glorify thy name. Amen."

In the year 1810, while bathing at Rockaway, she was carried by the surf beyond her depth, and for some time there was scarcely a hope of her regaining the shore. Her grandchildren were weeping on the beach, and the company assembled there were afflicted but hopeless spectators of her danger. At that moment of peril she prayed to the Lord for deliverance, but acquiesced in his will, if he should see fit to take her to himself in this manner. Able to swim a little, she kept herself afloat for some time: she became at length very faint; and when her friends on the beach apprehended her lost, they perceived that the waves had impelled her somewhat nearer to them. A gentleman present, and her female attendant, stepped into the surf and extending their arms for mutual support, one of them was enabled to lay hold on Mrs. Graham's bathing-gown and to pull her towards them. When they brought her ashore she was much exhausted, and had swallowed a considerable quantity of water. It was some hours before she revived, when she addressed the company in a very serious and impressive manner that affected them to tears. Her health during the following winter was much impaired by the shock it had received.

"ROCKAWAY, June 15, 1810.

"Came here the first of the month, with the children in the whooping-cough. No 'church-going bell' here, but the Lord is everywhere; and I have found him here, warming my heart with gratitude and contrition, and drawing it out in prayer for his people met to worship in his sanctuary.

"When at a distance from my own people, it has been my practice to join with whatever class of professing Christians might be near me. Here it has been with the Methodists, who, I believe, enjoy communion with God. Yesterday I went to a meeting of ——, who lay great stress on good morals; but, O my God, what could I do, shut up with them? Without the finished work of my Saviour, I could have no hope; without his law-fulfilling righteousness, I must stand a law-condemned sinner.

"The preacher yesterday took no text; in the course of his sermon he said the Scriptures were only secondary guides. He began with the importance of thinking of death, and said it could not be possible for a rational being to live carelessly, with thoughts of death and eternity in view. Is it so? No; we see sinners die, under the full conviction that they are dying, as thoughtless as they have lived.

"He said, that by constantly attending to the motions of the Spirit and complying with them, Christians arrived at a state of perfection even here; and brought in that text, 'He that is born of God cannot sin,' etc. Spoke highly of watchfulness, and avoiding connection with the world; said a real Christian could not hold any office of power among men. Paul held one, but he gave it up when he became an apostle. Christ's kingdom was not of this world. Laws and officers were necessary among the men of the world, but not among Christians. Spoke of the cross of Christ as consisting in suffering and self-denial. His blood was the Spirit which cleansed from all sin, by delivering all who obeyed him from its power. He named not my blessed Saviour, except when he had occasion to mention some of his moral sayings. He said, indeed, that he was the Light that lightened every man that came into the world, and the condemnation was that men would not receive it; but one word of his blessed priesthood he spoke not, but said we were in a state of probation, and every one would be judged according to his works, taking into view the advantages he had enjoyed; recommended the reading of the Scriptures, especially the inspired books, the New Testament and the prophets; for it needed no inspiration to write the national history of the Jews more than that of any other nation. Said the Scriptures were good secondary guides, and contained excellent lessons and truths.

"When I was coming away he offered me his hand, saying that I was not a resident there. I answered no, I was separated from my own people, but wished to unite with any class of Christians who met professedly to worship God; but confessed I could not live upon what he had this day delivered. He asked what was wrong. I answered, he had given some good exhortations; I agreed with him in many things respecting conduct; but I missed the foundation. He repeated the scriptures, 'Other foundation can no man lay,' etc. I said, Exactly: off this foundation there is no salvation; on this foundation there may be loss, but no condemnation. We have a great and merciful High-priest, who can have compassion on the ignorant, and them who are out of the way; and there may be straw, hay, stubble, which will be burnt up, but the soul itself, being on the foundation, is safe. He said with firmness, That will be burnt up in this world; without holiness no man shall see the Lord. I said, True; but why avoid the tenor of Scripture? read all the epistles; the Lord Jesus Christ, the gift of God, the propitiatory sacrifice, the meritorious law-fulfilling righteousness, is set forth, in every one of them, as that which saves from wrath and entitles to eternal life. He said they were all emblems of our being made holy in heart and life; Christians were baptized unto the death of Christ, and rise with him to newness of life, buried with him, etc. I granted that as one reading of these words. He said every other view was shadow. I said, No—the blood of bulls and goats is shadow; Christ himself, his person, his offices, his life, his sufferings, his death, his burial, resurrection, ascension, and intercession within the veil, are all substance—the sole foundation of my hope, and my only plea at a throne of grace.

"Dear Name, the rock on which I build, My shield and hiding-place, My never-failing treasury, filled With boundless stores of grace.

Jesus, my Husband, Shepherd, Friend, My Prophet, Priest, and King, My Lord, my life, my way, my end, Accept the praise I bring."

"ROCKAWAY, August, 1810.

"Hebrews is my ordinary, when no other passage of Scripture attracts my particular attention. This is the third morning I have opened the New Testament on the 14th chapter of John, and have fed delightfully on the first three verses. There is at all times a thorn in my heart, keeping me in continual remembrance of my vile, ungrateful backslidings, so that I eat my sweetest morsels with bitter herbs. It was particularly painful to me this morning; nevertheless; the Lord God, merciful and gracious, repeated on my heart, 'Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.' I was arrested at the fourth verse, 'Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.' I have had many comfortable exercises on the eighth verse, the Redeemer's answer to Philip's inquiry. But this morning my mind was led to a different view of that saying, and which I think was literally included. The Redeemer was going to his Father, and his way lay through death, the death of the cross. The hour was at hand when he was to make his holy and righteous soul an offering for sin, that he might become the author of salvation to all who obey him. All the sins confessed and pardoned by the sacrifices under the law were laid on this blessed Surety—they were only the shadows, he was the substance—the real Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world, was now to be offered up. This was he who said, 'Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me; in burnt-offerings and offerings for sin thou hast had no pleasure; then said I, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God:' by which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

"He was going to the garden—Oh that garden! Peter had said he was able to drink of that cup and to be baptized with that baptism. Ah no, Peter; that exceeding sorrow in the garden, when no visible hand was upon him, was a cup the least drop of which would have overwhelmed the strongest angel. No strength short of omnipotent could have sustained that hour and power of darkness. It was not the scourge, the thorns, the nails, nor the last pangs of dissolution; through all these he was as a lamb led to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers, dumb. It was a mysterious horror, of which no created being can have any conception. It was this that wrung the great drops of blood through every pore of his sacred body—this that extorted the agonizing prayer, 'Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me;' and again, in his last moments on the cross, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' Blessed, for ever blessed be our Jehovah Jesus, who said, 'Not my will, but thine be done.' The will of God was done, and he said, 'It is finished,' and gave up the ghost.

"All his people must follow him by the way of death; nearly all his disciples followed by the death of the cross, and many others after them, supported by his almighty grace, rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for his sake; but they drank not of that cup.

"Some of his people, for holy and wise purposes, have had a taste in the hiding of God's face, but no curse; that he himself drank to the last drop: He trod the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with him. By his own death he destroyed him that had the power of death, and secured victory to all his followers: he changed its aspect from that of the king of terrors to that of a welcome messenger from their redeeming God, to conduct them to those blessed mansions which he has purchased and prepared for them; neither will he leave them alone with that messenger: 'And if I go, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. The world seeth me no more, but ye see me; because I live, ye shall live also. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.' Amen. 'Come, Lord Jesus.'

"'Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is in my heart.' Psalm 40:6. 'Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt-offerings and offering for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein—which are offered by the law—then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, 'This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,' in consequence of Christ's doing the will of God, fulfilling all righteousness: 'I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now, where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having, therefore, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having a High-priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; for he is faithful that promised.' Hebrews 10:8-23; 8:10. Again, 'The Lord sware, and will not repent; thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament; because he continueth ever, and hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them,' Heb. 7:21-25. 'Christ glorified not himself to be made a high-priest, but He that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee; as he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.' Heb. 5:5, 6. 'For the law maketh men high-priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.' Heb. 7:28. 'The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: He is Lord of all. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power; who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.'" Acts 10:36-38, 43.

How well she was qualified to give instruction to young disciples, will appear in the following letters to two, who died shortly after of consumption.

To Miss Van Wyck, New York.

"ROCKAWAY, 1810.

"MY DEAR, MY BELOVED ELIZA—Mr. and Mrs. B—— are here on a visit for one night. I did not expect to see them so soon, or I would have had a letter ready. I expect another opportunity in the course of a few days, when I will send you a long letter, from my heart, and, I hope, dictated by your and my Teacher.

"I learn by my children that you continue much in the same way in which I left you. It is your own God who mixes your cup, and it is to you a cup of blessing; there is no curse in it. Your Jesus drank that cup to the very dregs, that bitter as well as sweet might be to you a cup of blessing. O then, my darling, hold fast by your Redeemer: he is the Lord your righteousness, and the Lord your strength; he connects your profit with his own glory. You shall in this protracted affliction manifest it, and hold out the word of life to those around you.* You shall witness for him that he is the Lord, and besides him there is no Saviour—that he gathers the lambs in his arms, and carries them in his bosom—that he is to them a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest—as rivers of water in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. That it is he that teacheth them to profit, and leadeth them by the way that they should go, and that in due time he will perfect all that concerns them. Farewell.

*This prediction was remarkably fulfilled in the experience of this dear young saint; an interesting account of whose illness and death was published in the Christian's Magazine, and afterwards as a Tract.

"Yours with affection,

"I. GRAHAM."

To the same.

"ROCKAWAY, Sabbath, 1810.

"MY DEAR, MY BELOVED ELIZA—I wrote you a few lines yesterday by Mr. B——. I now propose to fulfil my promise. I expect an opportunity to-morrow or next day, for I saw a great many carriages pass this way to the tavern, as I suppose, from New York. It is a common thing with some to come here on Saturday and return on Monday, to spend this blessed day in pastime. You would not, I know, exchange situation's with them; you would rather be suffering than sinning.

"It is your own observation that God does all in wisdom; in this wisdom he is pleased to lengthen your day of affliction. Sin, my darling, is the cause of all suffering; but is not always the immediate cause. Besides particular chastisement for particular sins, there are afflictions to be filled up in the body of Christ—his church—a measure of which, in kind and degree, is appointed by unerring wisdom to each individual member. Col. 1:24. These sufferings bear no part in atoning for sin, nor in redeeming our forfeited inheritance. Christ trod the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none to help him. He was made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him; who when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. Heb. 1:3. Again, 'And every priest,' in the Levitical law, 'standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost is also a witness to us; for after he had said before'—see from verse 5—'This is the covenant which I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now, where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.' Heb. 10:11-18. Paul says the Holy Ghost is a witness, because he copies from the ancient Scriptures the prophecies of Jer. 31:31, and Ezek. 36:25, and from Psalm 60:7. Your mother will read to you also the eighth chapter of Hebrews, containing the same things, the new covenant, in consequence of Christ, as the surety of sinners, having made full atonement, magnified the law, and made it honorable; therefore there is now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.

"It has pleased God, my darling, in the adorable plan of reconciling sinners to himself by Jesus Christ, to perfect at once a justifying righteousness for them, and to bestow it upon them as a free gift. 'This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in his Son.' 1 John, 5:11. But it has not pleased him to deliver us at once from depravity; provision is made for final deliverance by the same covenant, and is effected by the same power: but in this believers are called to work. It is evident from Scripture, and the experience of Christians answers to it, that in the hour of believing they pass from death to life, considered as a state. This is the hour of the new birth: they then receive life for the time, and it is their privilege, by the constitution of the new covenant, to ask and receive, from day to day, grace to help in every time of need. To them, and not to the unregenerate, the exhortation is addressed, 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to do, of his good pleasure,' The means are of God's appointing, in the diligent use of which they go from strength to strength. The grand means is faith in God's promises, of which there are very many in the Scriptures. Believers are to put forth their own exertions, as the children of Israel were called to go out against their enemies, in the faith that God would give them victory and lead them to their promised rest. The battle was the Lord's, and he fought for them; but the means were their exertions. Believers are God's workmanship; but this work he carries on by exercising their natural powers, which he sanctifies to a different end from that to which they were formerly by their own spirit directed. Still, the Scripture testifies that if any man say he has no sin, he deceives himself, and the truth is not in him; and while sin remains, its consequence, suffering, must. The judgments of God, as the moral Governor of the world, are denounced against, and executed upon the workers of iniquity. The children of God experience personal chastisements for personal sins, as a provision of the covenant. Psalm 89:30. And, if I mistake not, there are afflictions experienced by individuals, as members of Christ's body, in which God does not bring into view the personal sins of the sufferer. In this sense I read Paul's epistle to the Colossians, 1:24: 'Who now rejoice in my sufferings, and fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ in my flesh, for his body's sake, which is the church.' 'I sent Timotheus to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith, that no man should be moved by these afflictions; for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.' 1 Thes. 3:3. 'Yea, if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all; for the same cause do ye joy and rejoice with me.' Phil. 2:17. 'And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation; or whether we be comforted, it is for your salvation and consolation.' 2 Cor. 1:6. There is no conscious personal sin expressed in these sufferings; on the contrary, Paul says, 'For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.' 2 Cor. 1:12.

"Most of the prophets and apostles suffered martyrdom. They indeed sustained public characters, but the beggar Lazarus, who, in addition to poverty, was full of sores, was carried by the angels from the rich man's gate to Abraham's bosom. And thousands and tens of thousands of redeemed highly sanctified ones have suffered lengthened martyrdom, and perished with hunger, in holes and caves of the earth, unknown in history, except in groups—unseen at the time, except by the eye of the omniscient Jehovah, by whom the hairs of their head are numbered; their tears are in his bottle; nor shall one sigh nor one groan perish without its result.

"O my Eliza, what delightful wonders shall open to our view when delivered from these prison-holds of earth.

"I have finished one sheet, my dear Eliza; I fear it is too much, and may prove too fatiguing, especially as there are many references requiring a stretch of attention. I have been reading the epistle to the Hebrews, and you have naturally got my thoughts on part of it.

"I remember once of your complaining that you had made small progress in knowledge, in comparison of a young person that had just left you; but you checked yourself, and said, 'The Lord has given me faith, let me be thankful.' I at that time considered your departure as very near, and advised you to keep your eye fixed on Christ, as your Redeemer and Saviour, who had performed all things for you, and would perfect all that concerned you; and added, one hour in heaven will make you wiser than the most enlightened saint on earth. Since that it has pleased your Lord to add many days to your life. He has mitigated your pain, and given you some intervals of ease and composure, and our dear Eliza has grown in that time. Should it please God to spare you for a yet longer season, and continue your intervals of ease, no subject can be so profitable; and I hope your Lord will make it pleasant as that of the contents of the New Testament, which your Saviour bequeathed to you, sealed and ratified in his blood. There is a vast variety of precious promises contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, which are all yours with Christ; for, as a member of his body, 'you are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone.' And now I commend you to your own covenant God, who does and will support you, through life and through death, to that happy land where we shall all meet; and Oh then, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things he hath prepared for them that love him.

"I am, with much love and affection, yours,

"I. GRAHAM."

To Mr. James Todd, New York.

"ROCKAWAY, Long Island.

"MY DEAR JAMES—This will probably be handed you by our mutual friend Mrs. C——. The thought of her being with you, makes me part with her with less reluctance. You have not been forgotten by either; we have talked much of you, and have united in prayer to your and our God, that he may manifest himself unto you as your reconciled Father in Christ Jesus; and give you 'joy and peace in believing'—that he may give you patience in suffering, and entire resignation to his most holy will.

"It has, my dear young friend, been my earnest inquiry, especially of late years, standing on the brink of eternity, 'What is there within us, or without us, on which a sinner can rest in a dying hour?' If it be a holy life, there is no peace for me. Taking the law of God for my rule, backslider is my name; yet peace I have found, and on the best Security; this blessed Bible is my charter. I have searched it with diligence and prayer, and my mind is confirmed in the following truths: That the whole world is become guilty before God, and is under his wrath and curse on that account. This is our state: a miserable state it is, and as hopeless as miserable, for any thing we can do merely of ourselves. But I read in this Bible to the full amount of the following conclusions—that in the counsel of the mysterious Triune Jehovah, Jesus Christ, the second person of the incomprehensible Trinity, was sanctified, or set apart to become the Saviour of law-condemned sinners, to take their nature upon him, comply with the requisitions of the eternal immutable law of God, and become their surety. Man is a rebel, it is put to his account: a penalty is incurred—He, as their surety, is made liable. Are they again to be made heirs of eternal life? Perfect obedience is the condition—and of Him, as their surety, it is demanded. All this being fulfilled, sinners are become his property: he has paid their debt, and merited for them eternal life, all in their own nature, as their Head and representative; so that believers are complete in him. This is the righteousness of God, wrought out by Jesus Christ, in his own person, God-man, as their surety. To this nothing of the believer's is to be added—with this nothing of his mixed; it is for ever perfect; entirely distinct from that holiness of heart and life which is wrought in him in consequence of this. God has declared himself well pleased with this righteousness, and that being himself reconciled, he is in Christ Jesus reconciling sinners to him.

"Hence all the invitations scattered thick in the Old and New Testament, not only to the penitent, weary, and heavy laden, but to the stout-hearted, the backslider, to them that are wearying themselves in their own way. 'Ho, every one that thirsteth'—'Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely,' Hence all the promises annexed to believing, accepting, receiving, trusting, resting: Christ the Saviour is the object—the gift of God to sinners for all the above purposes. The Lord has convinced me that I have nothing in myself on which I can rest; my conscience echoes to his word in all that it asserts of my nature and my state; but this Saviour is provided for sinners exactly of this description. I am invited to put in my claim, I believe the record, I rest my salvation on his word; God giveth to me eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Jesus calls me to look unto him, and be saved; I do look unto him, and I am saved. He assures me that those who come unto him shall never be cast out. I do go to him and commit my sinful soul to his keeping; I shall not be cast out. As many as receive the gift of his Son, receive at the same time power to become the children of God. I do receive his gift, and lay claim to his promise. He is my reconciled Father, and I am his adopted child, and he hath sent his Spirit into my heart, by which I can say, Abba, Father.

"I have, my dear James, taken this method of laying before you the grounds of my own hope, because I think it the most simple method, and containing at the same time my counsel to you to lay hold on the same hope. The warrant is given us in God's own word, as sinners, without respect to fruit or any works of ours. I can, if necessary, give you chapter and verse, to the full amount; but you have those about you who can give it to you by little and little, as your weak state can bear it. This gift is held out to the sinner's acceptance in many places of the word of God, and becomes the sinner's in the moment of believing. Provision is made by the same covenant for his sanctification; but that makes no part of justifying righteousness. Christ is made of God unto him wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Try, my precious young friend, to lay hold on this hope, and enter into the rest provided for the believer here. Stretch forth 'the withered hand,' the Lord himself will give you strength. Commit your precious soul into his hands, and rest assured that he will perfect all that concerns you—work all his work in you—carry you safely through the Jordan of death, and put you in possession of the inheritance he has purchased for you. That all this shall be, is the prayer and firm hope of

"Your affectionate friend,

"ISABELLA GRAHAM."

The two following extracts, addressed to Mrs. C——, near Boston, present a very gratifying view of Mrs. Graham in her advanced years, and may well awaken the desire not only to die the death, but to enjoy the "fruitful old age" of "the righteous."

"I have, as you know, enjoyed much in life, enjoyed its dearest, sweetest comforts, love and friendship, with a heart tremblingly alive to both. Lover and friends of youth are long since gone, other friendships I have formed, and have been happy even in these; now I am shut up with ails and aches. The world, properly so called, is a dead blank to me; yet I do think I never enjoyed life more. I would not exchange my present happiness for the most transporting moments of my life—of which I have had a large share—though thousands of years were added to enjoy them. I do not mean barely that happiness which consists in the anticipation of pleasure beyond the grave; that is indeed delightful; but I enjoy life now. Books of taste are mine no more: still less those of science and history; but my dear Bible; precious subjects; my dear Saviour. The height, the depth, the breadth, the length of the glorious plan of redemption open to my delightful perception more and more, and the Spirit witnesseth with my spirit, that I have my part in it by the gift of faith. I believe the record, that God giveth to us eternal life, and I put in my claim as a sinner. I account it a 'faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief,' I still enjoy the ordinances of the gospel: my memory, as you know, is much impaired: I recollect very little of the sermons I hear; but I think I never heard with so much attention. I am delighted, instructed, and fed at the time, and the subjects open to me without my being able to recollect the order or the words of the speaker. O let me recommend this dear Lord to your heart and confidence; commit all your concerns to him; mistrust no part of his providential dealings with you; his wisdom shall manage for you, and you shall one day say, 'He hath done all things well.'"

"MARCH, 1811.

"I am daily on the lookout; one year and three months will complete my threescore and ten. I do not know one individual alive whom I know in my school-days; it has been the case for many years. I do not long for my dismission, neither am I tired of life; but nothing in this world, unless closely connected with another, interests me; and Oh, I am tired of sin; still it cleaves to me; in all things I come short, and many duties neglect altogether; for I still have a considerable, share of health, and might do some good, had I will equal to my opportunities; as to the power, it is not in me, but I know I have it in my blessed Head, and for the asking. I cannot but long to be delivered from sin, and sinful apathy in particular; for really my heart must be wickedly fertile, to find out opportunities of moral transgression. Food and raiment are mine without care; my children, under God, care for me. I have my dear little room, my Bible, and books founded on it. I have a dear pastor and Christian friends, lively ordinances, and also much of the Lord's presence at times; my cup runs over with blessings, but my gratitude bears no proportion; my zeal for the glory of God and the good of my fellow-sinners seems buried under self-indulgence and apathy. O that the goodness of the Lord may lead me to repentance.

"And now, my dear friend, let me know how it is with you and your dear family. The severe winter is past; how have you got along? with what temporal comfort, and how has the Lord dealt with your soul? Has the barrel of meal or the cruse of oil failed? Does the opening spring cheer your spirits, and furnish a song of praise? Does it find you in a situation to dig your garden, sow your seeds, and make provision for future comfort? Has the Lord turned your captivity, and dried up the bitter waters that flowed against you? How are your eyes, after all the briny tears that have steeped them? How are your poor nerves, after all the shocks that have agitated them? All these things have been on my mind; but from my long silence, you cannot believe it. What are we all, but broken reeds, which pierce the hand when laid hold of for support? There is but one Friend to poor, fallen, miserable man, in the universe. He is mercy; he is goodness; he is truth; he is wisdom; he is unchangeable, and never will fail you: take him to your heart; give it all to him; he only is worthy, no other is."

Her friend Mrs. C—— had now experienced new trials, by which she was again plunged into the depth of despondency. In the following we have a noble effort of Mrs. Graham's mind and heart to raise her up to "sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."

"JUNE 27, 1811.

"I received my dear friend's letter this day week, and have been answering it ever since. Never was I in such a strait. It contains the effusions of disappointed hopes and anticipations of sore evils; indicates a soul deeply wounded, and taking in Christian principles under temptation. Where shall I begin? I have laid it before our compassionate High-priest, I have requested direction. Assist me, O thou blessed Comforter, whose office it is to convince of sin, as well as to minister consolation. Do both, from the heart and by the pen of thy handmaid.

"It appears to me salutary to call your attention first to the sovereignty of God. The silver and the gold are his, and the cattle on a thousand hills; he gives them to whomsoever he pleases; he setteth up one and putteth down another, doing whatsoever pleaseth him in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of this earth; none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? He attributes to himself all events; men and other creatures are but instruments. Men's wicked hearts impel them to commit evil, but the events are of the Lord, which he overrules for his own glory, and for the good of his people. 'Him being delivered by the determinate counsel' of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified him. Joseph said, 'Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it for good,' 'to save much people alive.' The Lord does not often, at the time, give his people reasons for afflicting them, though they can often read them at an after-period.

"Job was a holy man; his afflictions from God's own hand were very deep; the teasing unkindness and injustice of his friends made great part of the temptation, and he spoke unadvisedly with his lips. When God did appear, he did not answer his cavils, nor give him one reason why he had dealt with him thus; but silenced him with views of his majesty, power, and wisdom—of his own meanness and vileness, though correct in his conduct beyond most others. I believe he spoke truth when he said, 'I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor, and the cause which I knew not, I searched out.' God allowed the weight of the trial to be upon his spirit, with the conviction of his presumption, till he brought him to his feet. 'Behold, I am vile, what shall I answer thee?' 'I will lay my hand upon my mouth.' 'I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.' These things were written for our example and profit.

"This afflictive providence is now finished, at least so far. What you now possess is the allotment of your God. Set all instruments aside and listen to the Holy Ghost: 'Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, and he shall exalt you in due time.' In order to this, I would recommend to you to take a close, retrospective view of your past life, with earnest prayer that God would search you and try you, and show you what wicked ways have been or now are in you. Go back to the days of your youth; take a close view of the use you made of affluence and influence; not comparing yourself with others, but judging yourself by the law of God, the only standard of right and wrong, truth and error. Seek for humbling views of yourself in yourself. If the Holy Ghost enlighten, you will find sufficient grounds. Seek for consolation in the free promises of God, through Jesus Christ, of which there are also abundance, even to the chief of sinners. What I recommend to you has been my own practice, especially in times of trial; and if health will admit of it, add fasting, because I think it is the Lord's ordinance. 'The days shall come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, then shall they fast in those days.'

"Read the third chapter of Jeremiah's lamentations; endeavor to come under the feelings of contrition on account of your sins, and derive consolation from faith in God's great mercy; ever keeping in view the only channel through which mercy can flow to sinners of Adam's race. Take also a view of God's dealings with his elect nation, in the wilderness: they had nothing but manna, and were punished for murmuring; while at that very time the nations in Canaan, the Egyptians, and Assyrians, were living in all manner of luxury. What was their whole history but backsliding, threatening upon threatening? then chastisement, turning, repenting, pardon, reconciliation, and the same round again, every chastisement severer than the last, while worldlings in general have their day to the end; then 'are they brought into desolation as in a moment.' I wish you to take a particular view of God's dealings with them, before Nebuchadnezzar sacked the city of Jerusalem. The decree was passed after many warnings, and much long-suffering. How many pauses, as it were, did the merciful Lord God make before he gave them finally up to their enemies; and when the decree was irrevocable, and the chastisement to take place, still he followed them with mercy. See Jeremiah 27:12; and chapter 29, the letter which God commanded Jeremiah to write to those who had been carried away captive with Jehoiakim, advising them to build houses and plant vineyards, and to make the most of their situation. Those at Jerusalem were commanded to submit to the king of Babylon, as in that case he would not destroy the city; but no, they stood it out, and the threatened vengeance overtook them.

"The poor were left to take care of the vineyards. Jeremiah remained with them in preference to going with the king of Babylon to be promoted to honor. God offered to take them under his protection and be their God: but no, they would go to Egypt, and put themselves under the king of Egypt's protection. Jeremiah told them from the Lord, that Egypt itself should soon go into captivity. But to Egypt they went and carried Jeremiah with them. See Isaiah's prophecy on this occasion, chapter 30:1-4. Now look at chapter 42:24; there you see God's judgment and chastening; follow him in the beginning of chapter 43, and view his mercy; in the end of the same chapter, again, see his charge against them, but it is followed, with mercy, not judgment.