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blessed Saviour. The study of the Scriptures and social prayer seem to be greatly blessed to their souls. Some of them have formed themselves into a Bible Class, and meet with me once a week, for the purpose of studying the Scriptures. They are now examining the 'Life of Christ,' with 'Questions,' which I prepared on the work some years ago. I think it does my own soul good, thus to ponder over the life of our blessed Lord. This Bible Class has increased, from about five to upwards of fifteen, within the last few months, and I see no signs of the number's diminishing. Some of them are quite elderly women, with gray hairs. You would be pleased to see them, with their spectacles on, sitting in a circle, reading the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, and conversing with each other, respecting their duty. One of them, upwards of seventy years old, amused me a few days ago, by saying she was the same age of my little daughter AbbyAnn. I asked her what she meant by that. She replied that she was converted the year that Abby-Ann was born, and it was not till then that she began to live.”

In the last of her letters that I have in my possession, she says, "It is nineteen years, last month, since I parted with you, and bade adieu

to my native land; and I can say, with unfeigned gratitude to God, that amid all the vicissitudes through which I have been called to pass, I have never, for one moment, regretted that I had entered the missionary field. We are not weary of our work—it is in our hearts to live and die among these people. I feel conscious of being a most unworthy, and unprofitable servant; and I often wonder that my life has been spared, while so many, to human view so much more competent than myself, have been cut down. Even so,

Father, for so it seemeth good in Thy sight.'"

These nineteen years had, of necessity, wrought many changes; but they were like the changes which autumn perfects in the fruitbuds of spring. The eye was not so full of vivacity as formerly; and there was at times a pensive drooping of the lid, which spoke of familiarity with tears; but they were not tears to dim the centred light of a quiet, serenehad almost said holy-happiness. The cheek had lost some of its roundness, and the skin its fairness; but the beauty of the ripening spirit had gradually stolen out upon the face, and none could regret the exchange. The step was not quite so elastic as in former days, but it had gained in freedom and stateliness;

and though the figure exhibited none of the fragility, sometimes mistaken for grace of outline and proportion, there was more than enough to compensate, in the full, healthful development, seen much oftener in the women of England than those of America. The fresh-hearted maiden was transformed into the wife and mother;-the teacher of little brightcheeked New-England girls, was the guide of gray-haired heathen women, blinded by idolatry; but she was fresh-hearted still. Disappointment had passed over her, but it had left no blight; sorrow had wrung tears from her eyes, but they had fallen back upon her spirit, a fertilizing dew; trials had risen in her path, like flames, to scorch and wither, but she meekly bowed her heart to the Hand that sent them, and so they consumed only the alloy, and passed away, leaving the gold purified and burnished; and the death of beloved ones had only served to unlock a door between her soul and Heaven. Since the time of her first child's death, her course had been gradually upward. Her life had increased in holiness, and her spirit in meekness; for she had grown familiar with the one spot, where the unquiet human soul may find rest-deep in the shadow of the Cross. The first impulse of life, in

the spirit of the young Christian, was, as the quick, joyous up-shooting of the green blade in spring. Next, her course through the world was shaped-the ear of corn was fashioned, and stood in the field, light, graceful, and fresh in summer verdure. But at length it began to bow beneath the weight of its own wealth, the green sheath gradually swelled with the increasing richness of its treasure; then the grain grew golden with ripeness; and angelreapers stood ready to dissever the drooping stem, and bear home the perfected fruit to the harvest of glory.

CHAPTER XV.

THE CHRISTIAN'S DEATH.

"Her suffering ended with the day,
Yet lived she at its close;

And breathed the long, long night away,
In statue-like repose.

But when the sun, in all his state,

Illumed the eastern skies,

She passed through Glory's morning-gate,

And walked in Paradise!"

Aldrich.

FTER the birth of a child, in December, 1844-the flaxen-haired,

sleek-shouldered boy, whose large, melting blue eyes follow the movements of my pen, in wondering-silence, as it traces these lines-Mrs. Judson visibly declined. She had been some months previous to this event suffering under the wasting disease, which had followed close upon her track, like the shadow

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