Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845, by H. HOOKER, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. PHILADELPHIA: T. K. & P. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS. Rare Books 4510 су ADVERTISEMENT. THESE Sketches of Mrs. Mead have many of them been published, but the demand for them continuing, the publisher now presents them in a new form with several new pieces. The simplicity of the style, the tone of piety which pervades them, the truth and quickening interest of all the narratives, will, he thinks, continue to commend the work as one from which the best and most affecting lessons may be drawn of submission to the Divine will. They are sketches of real life, and illustrate the dealings of God with his children, commingling with their sorrow the sweetness of hope, or supplying their lack of temporal comforts with the exceeding riches of his grace. They might be entitled Leaves from the Book of Providence, which reveal the grace of God in the sorrows and comforts of his people. Christian life never seems so beautiful, so divine, as when springing up in the broken. heart, or the heart destitute of other goods, it takes away the burden and shame of want, and touches the sources of grief as with the oil of gladness, making even sorrow yield the fruits of peace-so educing strength out of weakness, and coming in with joy and triumph at the point of despairing. Those who read this little book will see instances of this beautiful working, wherein the dross of our nature is parted from the gold, leaving all bright and fair without the help of any conditions or refinements of the world. |