gotten or despised. We are told that such was the case in some instances; and so we see, that even in "this severe affliction " there was mercy still; and that, "oftentimes, celestial benediction" accompanied it, though in "dark disguise" indeed.

But you may like to know whether there were any persons at that awful time who were without fear, and who could see others dying around them, and feel death coming upon themselves, and yet be calm, and peaceful, and happy. There were such; and to show you that there were, I will now give you the history of one family, during the week in which the Plague visited their house. The account is given by an excellent man, a minister of the gospel in those days, who was himself a member of that household. The family consisted of eight persons of various ages. Some were young, some old, some in middle life; but they all appear to have been truly religious persons;-they were a Christian family. During the first months in which the Plague raged, they escaped. They continued, through God's preserving care, in their former health and strength. But though they were thankful for this mercy, they did not presume upon it; they did not grow careless, and insensible of their danger during that time. No, they endeavoured to live each day as if it were to

be their last; ready to die, if God in His Providence should call them away; but actively engaged in their appointed duties until that time should come. That was the way, the best, the only way to be calm, and peaceful, and happy then. At last the time came. One day, the good minister whom I mentioned, was called to visit a friend whose husband was dead of the Plague. He went, and returned, and was again requested to visit another whose wife was dead of the Plague, and who expected that very soon he should himself be smitten too. When the minister returned, he found that the fatal disease had meantime entered his own abode, the Plague had begun there! The servant was the first who sickened; in three days she died. This was on the Thursday. The following day, one of the young people was taken ill; on the Sunday he too was dead. That same day, another sickened, -a lad seventeen years of age, and he died on the succeeding Wednesday. The next night, the master of the house was himself seized with the same dreadful malady. He believed that, like the others, he too should die; and he sent for that good minister, who, without fear for himself, went from one to another, comforting the sick and the dying, and desired him to pray with him. He talked calmly of his own death; he said that he was

going home, and begged that his friends might be told that he did not repent having remained in the city during the time of the pestilence, for that God had been with him in his abode. And then, he requested that his funeral sermon might be preached from these words," In thy presence is fulness of joy; and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore." Contrary to all human expectations, it pleased God to raise up this good man, and to restore him once more to life and usefulness.

And to those two boys, who actually did die under the stroke of the plague, death brought no terror. One of them told his father, that he was enabled to look beyond the present world, to the bright heaven above; and when the fatal plague-spots, the fore-runners of death, appeared upon him, he calmly said, he was ready for them, and bade his parents not weep, for he was going to their Father, and to his,and so he died.-The other boy lay full of peace and joy in the midst of his sufferings, for the sting of death had been taken away in his case also. And yet he told his mother, that, for one reason, he should desire to live. She asked him what that was. He replied, that he should like to remain until the days of persecution came back again, the days of fire and faggot, that he might die a martyr, and receive

a martyr's crown. It was indeed a singular reason for desiring life; but it showed what that boy felt; and how he desired to glorify God by his sufferings in death, as he had endeavoured to do by his actions during his short life. His mother reminded him that he would receive a crown, even if he died now. He smilingly said, Yes, he should, but not so bright, not so glorious a one as that which martyrs wear; and so, as his minister, who stood beside his dying bed, observed, "he went away with great peace to his father's house."

But I must not make this affecting story too long. I do not wish to weary or to sadden you, but I do wish to impress upon you some very important matters; and to lead you to see what it is that can give comfort and peace in the expectation of death, sudden and terrible as that by the pestilence itself; and to feel that such a visitation as this may become a mercy, a "celestial benediction" from above.

Months passed away, and still the Plague continued to increase, until in one week the number of deaths reached the fearful amount of ten thousand! This was in September. As the cool weather of autumn approached, however, there was an abatement, and the deaths decreased gradually from thousands to hundreds, and from hundreds to tens; till, at last, in the beginning of December, the joy

ful news was announced, that seventy-three parishes were free from disease. The new year appeared, and health, and life, and activity were seen once again in the streets of London. The king and the royal family returned; the nobility followed; business began again, and all looked very much as it had done before the Plague appeared. But then, one hundred thousand persons, who, twelve months before, had walked those streets, as busy and as active as any who were to be seen in them now,-those hundred thousand persons were all swept away, and their place knew them no more. Thoughtful people would ponder over this, and rememper, that still "in the midst of life we are in death;" but as to the greater number, we may fear that they were so completely absorbed in their worldly cares and pleasures, as to retain no serious impression of the past, of those salutary lessons which that time of sorrow had so recently and so powerfully taught them.

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But the calamities of London were not yet ended. Another trouble of a different kind was approaching,-one which would be as destructive of property, as the former had been of life. This calamity was the great Fire, vhich took place the year after the Plague. Suddenly and unexpectedly that fire broke out; and its cause, whether accident or design, was