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now, I am convinced I know very little of its evil and hateful nature. How can we trifle with it as we do?"

"This day had been set apart by the church to which she belonged, as a season of fasting and prayer; the forenoon to be spent, as far as paramount duties would permit, in private devotion, and a meeting of the church to be held in the afternoon, and again in the evening. She alluded to the subject, expressing a hope that it might be a pleasant and profitable season to the whole church, as pleasant and profitable as she had found the last church fast; and added, I wish I could be with you.' It was answered, 'You can; we are going to the throne of grace, and you can be there also.' She replied, I will try. May the Holy Spirit be in the midst of you, producing in every heart godly sorrow for past unfaithfulness, and reviving the spirit of obedience and of effort to promote the work of the Lord.'

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"She then inquired respecting the 'Ladies Distributing Bible Association,' and the Female Associations in connexion with the Auxiliary Foreign Missionary Society of Boston and Vicinity,' which had recently been formed in the city; and, upon receiving some account of them, expressed her satisfaction in being permitted to hear of these new and systematic efforts to extend the Redeemer's kingdom. It was observed, You see God's work on earth will go on, although you and other instruments are laid aside.' She replied, 'Oh, what have I been? Nothing. I have done nothing, compared with what I ought to have done. He needs no instruments; it is infinite condescension in him to employ them; and when he takes

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away those he has employed, he has no farther use for them here. I am going, I hope, where I shall serve him better-without sin, and with all my powers, for ever.'

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"Friday, November 7. To the usual inquiry respecting the state of her mind, she said, Mrs. Graham accurately describes my feelings, when she says, Thus far has the Lord brought me through the wilderness; bearing, chastising, forgiving, restoring. I am near to Jordan's flood. May my blessed High Priest, and Ark of the Covenant, lead on my staggering steps the little farther I have to go.' I have had no rapturous views of the heaven to which I hope I am going, no longings to depart. But I have generally been enabled to feel a calm submission, and to realize the fulness and the preciousness of the Saviour. I desire to feel a perfect resignation to the will of God, because it is his will. O how sweet, to be willing to be just where, and just what, God pleases! to rejoice that the Lord God omnipotent reigneth, and worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. This, in its perfection, is, I think, a principal source of the happiness of heaven. Pray that God would enable me to feel this while suffering from weakness and pain, and entering the dark valley.'

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Frequently, during her sickness, she had expressed to her pastor a desire that he would, if possible, be with her in her last moments. On Thursday, December 4th, he was informed, about three o'clock in the afternoon, that she had failed greatly since morning, and would probably survive but a little longer. He immediately repaired to her residence, and found her sleep

ing, but very restless, and breathing with great difficulty. She continued in this state, except that respiration became constantly more difficult, through the afternoon and evening. About eleven o'clock the difficulty of breathing became so great, as to overcome the disposition to slumber. Intelligence, it was found, still remained. She was asked if she knew she was near her end.'

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She answered with a sign, in the affirmative. It was said, 'I hope you feel the presence of the Saviour sustaining and comforting you.' She assented. Your faith and hope in him are unshaken ?' Her reply was in the affirmative.-A few minutes after, her sight failed: and, at twenty minutes past eleven, her spirit entered into rest.”

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Her end was full of peace,

Fitting her uniform piety serene.

'Twas rather the deep humble calm of faith,
Than her high triumph; and resembled more
The unnoticed setting of a clear day's sun,
Than his admired departure in a blaze
Of glory, bursting from a clouded course.'

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

WILIELMA VISCOUNTESS GLENORCHY.

THIS estimable and highly useful individual, who was the daughter of William Maxwell, Esq. of Preston, in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, was born after her father's death, on the 2d of September 1741. Her education and early training, as well as that of her sister, devolved entirely upon her mother, who, of a proud and ambitious spirit herself, strove to instil the same character of mind into her daughters. About the same time the two sisters, still in the bloom of youth and beauty, were married; Mary, the eldest, to the Earl of Sutherland, premier Earl of Scotland; and Wilielma, the subject of our present sketch, to Lord Viscount Glenorchy, the only son and heir of John the third Earl of Breadalbane.

Lady Glenorchy, besides being possessed naturally of a strong mind, had received a very expensive and liberal education, and was thus well fitted to adorn the high station to which, by her marriage, she had been raised. But amid all the amiable and endearing qualities which she possessed, she appears to have been nearly, if not, altogether, destitute of piety. Spending her whole time in the gay and giddy round of fashionable pleasure, she walked according to the course of this world; and she felt the more pleasure in the pur. suits and amusements of the world, from the habits and inclinations acquired in the course of two years'

residence on the Continent. This mode of life, however, was productive of considerable injury to her naturally delicate constitution; and often in her seasons of indisposition did she resolve to abandon her present pursuits, and devote her life to the practice of piety. These resolutions were, no doubt, in themselves good, but, alas! they too often proved "like the morning cloud or the early dew which soon passeth away."

The time at length came when Lady Glenorchy was rescued from a state of thoughtlessness in regard to the concerns of her soul, awakened to a sense of her sin and danger, and called effectually out of darkness into God's marvellous light. Her attention was first directed to the subject of religion, through an intimacy which she contracted with the pious family of Sir Rowland Hill, at Hawkstone, in the neighbourhood of her occasional residence, Great Sugnal, in Staffordshire. To this family she became much attached, and often wished that she could imbibe somewhat of their pious spirit. The impressions thus excited in favour of godliness were every day acquiring strength, when it pleased God, by means of an afflictive dispensation of his providence, to render them permanent and efficacious. Early in the summer of 1765, while residing at Taymouth Castle, in Perthshire, she was seized with a dangerous putrid fever. In recovering from this disease, her thoughts turned frequently upon the vanity and emptiness of all things here below, on the awful consequences of sin, and on her own melancholy condition, as in God's sight a sinner. For some time she continued in a state of despondency and deep dejection of mind, but by means of a letter from Miss Hill,

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