ministry, by which they have so long been statedly conveyed to the community. May God, in his mercy, dissipate the clouds that have so long been gathering round us; and renew to the children, blessings which the fathers have slighted. Perhaps it would be wise not to speak my sentiments so plainly as I have done; yet in these days, even the lowliest and the weakest are called upon to use their little influence. The unfaithful servant in the parable is represented as having but one talent, which he could have employed in his Lord's service. May my Lord teach me how best to consecrate all I have and all I am to his service; blot out the iniquity of my holy things, forgive the worthlessness of my best, and grant to the Reader and the Writer, an admission at last into that kingdom, where, the "Realities of this Life" being passed away as shadows, there shall remain, in all their inexpressible glory, the unfading Realities of the life to come. DEC., 1837. REALITIES OF LIFE. OLD HETTY. Of all that me pass by, and this grave see, The toilsome journey or the traveller's rest?" IT is a dark blowing evening, just like the one on which I went to watch poor old Samuel's funeral. There is the difference only that one month makes. The trees are nearly as bare, but the damp leaves have not yet been swept away; they lie in heaps over our path. The Michaelmas daisy has not yet been cut down, because here and there still one pale flower opens to invite the bee as she passes on her last visit to the ivy blossoms. The evening is not quite B so dark, but the grey clouds drift about, and the branches toss and shake, and the poor little marygolds and the late heart's-ease look afraid of the hail-storm as they did then, and as if only a day had past, and yet it is really three years: -three years with their rounds of births and deaths, their heart-aches and their smiles, their summers, and their winters, and their autumns. An eventful three years it has been. As a nation they have been fraught to us with dark and tremendous interest. I need not record it. Will the sin of 1829 and the consequent punishments following so awfully and so soon, ever be blotted from the history of my unhappy country's downfall? And though so crowded with events, how silently have these three years passed: and how merciful is that dispensation of Providence, by which to each separate heart every day's evil and every day's support are together meted out in sufficient measure for each other. I dare say poor old Hetty, this time three years, did not think she should have toiled on so long alone. Nor did I,-yet she has. True, it has been labour and sorrow; and yet, strange to say, she has found herself capable of much more exertion than, whilst the old man was living, |