on my poor thoughtless wife! What a treasure I once thought I possessed in her! Well, well, I thank God that she is a penitent; and the Lord make me a penitent too! For though I have been kept from all outward acts of injustice between man and man; yet I now see, by Mr. Lovegood's letters, and by some closer attention to my Bible, if I am not saved by mercy, I shall be ruined for ever." And seeing them both so very humble, I took courage, and asked them if I should go to prayer, and they immediately consented.

Loveg. And how did they seem after prayer?

Hen. Oh Sir! all the time we were at prayer, poor Mr. Chipman did nothing but sob and cry, till I was almost as much overcome as himself; and Mr. Reader was quite as much affected as either of us. I humbly trust Sir, through the mercy of God, it was prayer indeed.

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Far. [To Mr. Lovegood.] And what a mercy is, that my dear child can make such a distinguishment between real prayer and sham prayer. The Lord be praised!

Loveg. Well, but Mr. Littleworth, with your leave, we should be glad if your son would continue the story.

Hen. After prayer, I talked to them from my own experience as well as I could; what wicked hearts we all have, and how we all sin at least by our shortcomings, for as the apostle says, "we come short of his glory" every moment we live; and then I went on telling them of the glorious salvation of our blessed Redeemer, and the need there was that our hearts should be changed, or that we must be regenerate, and made new creatures in Christ, before we can be taken to glory. And I remember it was just then that Mr. Reader said, it was but the other day he thought it all nonsense to talk about a change of heart, if we were but moral; but that now he shuddered at his own ignorance.

Loveg. All this was blessed teaching. The first

work of the Divine Spirit is to convince a man of sin: we know nothing, till we know that" we are vile."

Hen. Yes Sir, and Mr. Reader seemed to be convinced of this, for he said to me, "1 seem to have been doing all my life, and have done nothing right after all.

Loveg. Well, well; this knowledge must have been not less profitable, than it was painful.

Hen. He even went so far as to say, that nothing shocked him so much as what he once fancied was his righteousness. He was thoroughly convinced, that even his prayers were but mere farce and form ; and that, as of late he had been seriously reading over the Church Prayers, he now saw he had been saying a thousand times with his lips, what he had never felt in his heart.

Loveg. Nothing but a knowledge of our misery, will ever prompt us to seek for mercy. How different the language of Mr. Reader now, to what it was when our correspondence first commenced? But as it seems by your letters to your father, the family would not let you leave them till after Mr. Chipman's death, you can tell us further of the good man's experience before his departure.

Hen. Why Sir, I first advised him to withdraw all his thoughts from the calamities he had suffered by the seduction of Mrs. Chipman, as all those temporal connexions would soon be dissolved by death.

Loveg. That was good advice. Was he able to follow it?

Hen. In a great measure he was. Mr. Reader and I went to see him every day, and sometimes oftener. He was never happy but when one of us was with him. Sometimes we went together; and at other times we would take it by turns. And when Mr. Reader was with him, as well as I could, I used to attend on his scholars; for Mr. Chipman was always complaining of his ignorance, and begging us to read to him, when his strength would in any mea

sure enable him to attend. He in general used to engage his father to read out of Beveridge's Private Thoughts; but when I was with him, he would scarcely suffer me to take any other book but the Bible.

Wor. I suppose, to speak the truth, you could tell him the meaning of it a little better than his father?

Hen. Why, Sir, I did it according to the best of my poor little ability. But it is amazing what questions he would ask at one time, and what surprise he discovered at the plain reading of the word of God at another. And the nearer he drew to his end, how delighted he seemed to be with the gracious promises of redemption and pardon through Jesus Christ, crying, "Nothing but mercy will now do for me." Then he mentioned those words in St. Jude, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus unto eternal life."

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Loveg. It is happy for us when we are brought to that blessed point. Christ on his mercy-seat, must be all our hope.

Hen. How he was charmed with such texts as these: "Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."-" Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world."- “Wherefore he is able to save to the uttermost, them that come unto God by him; seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us."-" Ye are complete in him." And when I was reading that text, "That we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus," I remember how he cried, "Blessed be God, I shall soon be presented perfect in Christ Jesus!" Then he said, "Mr. Littleworth, do I quots that text aright ?"-" Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth: who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us?" And then he added the other part of the text,

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." I remember he talked in this manner about ten days before his death.

Loveg. Then it should appear, that as the strength of his body decreased, his faith and confidence in God increased.

Hen. Indeed Sir it did; for often when I asked him a question, he would directly answer it by a quotation from Scripture. Once, when I asked him how he was, he answered, "The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keeps my heart and mind through Jesus Christ." Then he paused and said, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee :" He is "my resting place," and "his rest is glorious." Wor. It is really surprising how well he recollected the Scriptures.

Hen. Why, from a formal attendance at church, and from an occasional perusal of the Scriptures before he was taken ill, he was not altogether ignorant of that book; but after his illness commenced, nothing would do for him but the Bible; and from the first of his visitation, he was ever seeking after something, he was satisfied was still wanting. Mr. Fribble brought him Pope's Essay on Man, and recommended him to say his Universal Prayer, thinking that would do him good.

Loveg. Good! What good could he get from such heathenish trash? What poor sinner could ever find out salvation by Christ, by reading such divinity, if it deserve the name.

Hen. Indeed, when I was with him, there was very little danger of his being captivated with such books; for when I once told him that he liked the old book best, he cried, "Old book! why every letter of it is new to me. How a hamed I am of

myself, that I have so much overlooked its meaning till now; but oh! what grace and mercy, that God, at the eleventh hour of my short life, should have made it such a delightful book to my soul; though I never knew its real meaning till after Mr. Lovegood had corresponded with my father." Towards the conclusion of his illness, he grew so spiritual, that he seemed almost always in prayer, or engaged in quoting some promises of the Gospel, so that it was with some difficulty we could get him to settle his family affairs.

Wor. Pray Mr. Henry, who did you get to make his will?

Hen. Why Sir, it was mostly done by Mr. Reader and myself. The old gentleman is half a lawyer, and is often consulted on law occasions; and Mr. Chipman left that matter entirely with him: he only desired it might be mentioned, that he forgave his wife from the bottom of his soul; that as he trusted her repentance was sincere, she ought not to think of a second marriage, while their only child, and still an infant, demanded the utmost of her attention and care. That though he would wish to leave it under guardians, yet he recommended them to intrust it to the mother so long as she did her duty by it; that what little property he might have realized by his business, should be preserved for the child; but that under the direction of the guardians, the interest might belong to his wife for her maintenance, and for the education of the child; and Mr. Reader and I settled his accounts as well as we could.

Wor. This was very just and fair, and we shall all act in the same upright manner, while we are under the influence of divine grace.

Far. But Harry my child, I would rather hear you go on, and tell us how the good man died: it is mighty moving to me, to hear what precious things he was able to speak. Blessed be God, at times, I know something of the same experience; though, at other times, I feel myself sadly tosticated by the