time, very keen, and she looked at me with surprise, and after musing for a while, said, "Well, you shall see; but," added she, "I don't make no complaint." On her lifting up the piece of cotton and an old gown, I saw a little straw on an old shutter, and a few bricks supported this at each end. "My bones," said she, "I'm so thin, gets very sore a-laying in winter, with scarcely any food, often none." The wonder is she was not perished; as it was, there can be no question but that the distressing asthma from which she laboured was much increased for want of food, as such invalids require warmth internally and externally. The gnawings of hunger she relieved by "a smoke of tobacco." I should have felt very happy to support Mrs. T., but surrounded constantly by a mass of sick persons daily, whose complaints, by the admission of the parish doctor, as often required food as medicine, and by hundreds of persons in extreme destitution in addition, I could not do so.

For several years previous to her decease it was an immense toil to attend my meetings for prayer and exposition, although she lived close by. She walked a step and stopped, her breath being very bad, and when she entered was fre

I should

quently obliged to be led to her seat, gasping for breath very painfully. "But," said she, "if I can crawl I likes to come, for it's an hour's happiness to me, a little heaven." suppose few persons who heard the impressive manner in which she would utter this, coupled with her remarkable appearance, would soon forget it.

Those who are at pains to attend worship are not likely to find the Lord invites to an empty entertainment.

Being a woman of exceedingly strong mind, although totally uneducated, unable even to read a syllable, which she deeply lamented, saying, “Oh! if I could read my Bible!" I could add many other very interesting sayings of Mrs. T.'s to this brief narrative, which I am sure would very much interest the pious reader, but must conclude her case. At last came that time which must come in the history of all, "a time to die!".

"Oh! death! great conqueror, to thee
Must all mankind submit,

Until a mightier conqueror comes,

To crush thee 'neath his feet."

This time comes to most in the morning of life,

and to fewest in old age-an affecting thought. Mrs. T., as her end drew near, appeared to wish to have me constantly with her. That, however, could not be; but the strong manner in which I hung upon her memory may be aptly illustrated by a little incident that occurred shortly previous to her death.

One of the most affecting attendants upon a dying bed is that delirium which so frequently is the precursor of dissolution. It is our lot sometimes to hear the lips that have instructed others in wisdom utter dark and foolish sayings. Delirium in a dying hour, and perhaps for a lengthened period previous, is not the lot alone of the poor and ignorant. Mrs. T. was delirious, and I was told would not know me, and knew no one. I addressed her, to which she replied, wildly, "I don't know you; who are you?" and then looking very hard at me, her countenance underwent a great change; she smiled, and said, "Oh yes! bless you; it's Mr. Vanderkiste; and gave me, considering her feebleness, a very pleasing account of the dependence and faith she was exercising in our Saviour, and the good hope she possessed of being happy in the world to come. So she died.

Jim did not at all like the idea of his mother being buried by the parish, but poverty prevented his being able to raise funds needful to bury her. Under such circumstances, some undertakers perform the last offices for the poor on condition of being paid at the rate of eighteenpence aweek; so he went to one of these tradesmen, and buried his mother, as he termed it, respectable."

Jim, the "Wild Indian," is only an occasional attendant on public worship; but I pray the careful burier of his mother may be himself buried with Christ in that baptism, from which he shall rise a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of

heaven.

Death is always a solemn matter—a solemn reminder of sin, by which it entered into the world, and of the anger of God against sin-a solemn reminder of disease and suffering, its heralds and accompaniments; but we have cause to joy over this old fortune-teller; "she died hopefully in the Lord," and those who so die are "blessed." She has gone

66 Where the hidden wound is healed;

Where the blighted life re-blooms;

Where the smitten heart, the freshness
Of its buoyant youth resumes.

"Where the love that here we lavish
On the withering leaves of time,
Shall have fadeless flowers to fix on,
In an ever spring-bright clime.

“Where we find the joy of loving,
As we never lov'd before;
Loving on, unchilled, unhindered,
Loving once and evermore."

May we not hope?—

"Sister, we shall meet and rest,

'Mid the holy and the blest."

Upon the subject of religion I have found the grossest ignorance imaginable to prevail amongst the lowest classes. Numbers of persons visited have astonished me to find them ignorant as to who our blessed Saviour was. I recollect being sent for to visit an elderly man who was very ill, and who was a stranger to me, not having resided any length of time where I saw him. According to my rule, when practicable, I catechised him. He knew who made him; and now, said I, my friend, do you know who the Lord Jesus Christ is ? "Why, sir," said he, "I have always been given to understand he was the