IX.

The Last Stage of the Journey.

"No wider is the gate,

No broader is the way;
No smoother is the ancient path
That leads to light and day.

"No lighter is the load,

Beneath whose weight we cry;
No tamer grows the rebel flesh,
Nor less our enemy.

"No sweeter is the cup,
Nor less our lot of ill;
'Twas tribulation ages since,-
'Tis tribulation still.

"No greener are the rocks,
No fresher flow the rills,
No roses in the wilds appear,
No vines upon the hills.

"Dawn lingers on yon cliff;

But oh, how slow to spring!
Morning still nestles on yon wave,
Afraid to try its wing."

BONAR.

THE progress of Eliza's illness will be best stated in a letter from herself to her friend, Miss D.

"BEAUFORT LODGE, CLIFTON, 23d July 1857.

"MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,-I am sure you will excuse this scrawl, when I tell you that I am hardly able to sit up. It is our Father's hand, dear friend, and I cannot say that I am sorry. I have been too ill to go to chapel these last two Sundays. Indeed, I feel it as much as I can well do to walk from the bed-room to the sofa, and I seldom get up before dinner-time, sometimes not till tea-time. Dr being away, I had our old doctor back again last Monday week, as dear father would not let me stay any longer without advice. I was then suffering from a very bad cough, and a pain through my left lung, weakness, &c. I had a blister on my lung, and, two days after, another on my side. Being able to eat but very little, and taking from six to eight doses of medicine a-day, together with the

blister, made me very weak. I have been out for several drives to get the air, as I could not walk. Oh, dear friend, I thought I could bear sickness so much better! What weak, helpless worms we are! at least I am. The thought comes so sickeningly, 'Suppose I may not be in Christ.' I think I can say, 'All my desire is before Thee'-at least I want to. Oh that to me to live might be Christ, and to die gain! Oh, dearest, I am so afraid I shall not glorify my precious Saviour!"

About this time she thus writes to her beloved friend at Lambeth :- "When I saw illness in the distance, I thought I could bear it quietly, and gently lie passive in God's hands, but it has come near me, and I tremble. Oh, if I could but feel, as I ought and want to do, how full of love and tenderness the heart of Jesus is! I would give the world, were it possible, to be able to say from my heart, 'Thy will, not mine, be done!' Will you pray for me just now, dear sister, that I may be made willing to be led by Him whatever way He sees best? Oh, Ellie! I cannot yet feel the beauty and preciousness of that promise, that neither things present, nor things to come, nor life, nor death, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the