important and apostolic duty of visiting from house to house, that I first saw and became acquainted with her. She was sitting at the door of one of the humblest of our cabins, with the Bible on her knees, intently reading;-so intently that she observed me not until I was standing close beside her. You are blessedly engaged, said I. Looking up with some surprise at the unexpected ad. dress, she replied, she was; that having finished the little business of the day, she had taken the book of God, to hear his comforts, and to learn his will. She then in. vited me to enter her lowly dwelling. It was small-it was poor-but it was clean-and it had that air of regularity and order which I have ever observed the accompanying mark of a well regulated Christian

mind.

She appeared to have fully reached that limit of her years, beyond which the Psalmist says"are labor and sorrow.' In reply to my inquiries, I learned she lived alone, with the exception of a little grand-child, whose return she was expecting from a neigh. boring school. "But," said she, correcting herself, "I am not alone; I find that God is with me; I have his precious word to cheer and comfort me; I have seen his servant enter my humble dwell. ing; and though a widow of nearly four-score years, with no other inmate than that little child, yet I am not alone"-and she lifted up her voice in thanks and praises. At the close of a day in which I had much to grieve for, in that want of vital godliness, which I had witnessed in the conversation of many whom

I had visited-a day which impressed deeply on my heart the truth of the prophet's declaration:

"Many they are and dry,

Spread through the open vale;
Millions of lifeless souls they lie,
Within the Christian pale:
I pass the churches through,
The scattered bones I see;
And Christendom appears in view,
A hideous cemetry."

I found it had pleased God to guide my feet to one in whom the Spirit had wrought a saving work; to one of God's hidden ones, whom he would own as his, however overlooked by the world, in that day when he would make up his jewels. The last beams of the setting sun, as he was sinking with calm and peaceful radiance behind the low western hills, were shedding their parting light through the little window of Emblem, the widow's cabin. said I, of peace and rest, as I looked on the aged Christian, whose lowly dwelling he was thus illuminating with his lingering rays-sweet type of the closing days of the aged believer now before me. you, the beams of a brighter sun, even the Sun of Righteousness, have not dis. dained to enter, to comfort and enlighten the lowly dwelling of her heart; and like you, when a few days more shall have run their course, she will retire from this world in calmness and peace, only to rise with brighter radiance

in another.

Like

It reminded me that it was time to depart, as I had a considerable distance to travel to my own home; and I promised to the widow, if it should please God, I would again return to see her. On my way homewards, I felt comforted, my mind refreshed, and my spirits cheered. I had seen and conversed with one who was God's workmanship in Christ Jesus; one who had no other teaching than the teaching of God's Spirit and word, and by these had been made "wise unto salvation ;" and having breathed a prayer of thanks to God for having given me such a sight, I determined, if spared, to repeat my visit to the cabin.

It was, however, some consi. derable time before I was able to When accomplish my purpose. When I again saw her, it was a season of trial and sore visitation. The poor were suffering for want of bread. But I found the same unshaken trust, the same cheering confidence marked her conversation. In reply to my inquiries, how she was supported throughout this trying time, her appeal was to the word of God, and to the comforting influences of the promises. She showed that she had drunk deep of that spirit of the Savior, when he said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God." She had cast herself on the Lord, in confidence of hope, and she firmly believed, that the God who fed the fowls of the air, had left his promise and his pledge, that he would bountifully supply the wants of those who trusted in him. She knew that he who was ministering the bread

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of heaven for the wants of her soul, would provide the daily bread for the wants of the body: "O fear the Lord," was the language which came from her heart-"O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing." A cheerful submission to every dispensation of the providence of God, she declared was our duty; "and aged and frail," said she, "as I am, if the pressure of want will compel me, and no other opening in the providence of God appear for my support, with cheerfulness will I take up my bag and staff, and whilst begging from door to door, will bless his adorable name. It is evident the world, change as it might, could but lightly affect one, who had learned as an apostle had learned long before, "in whatever state" God's providence should place her, "therewith to be content.

This deadness to the world, with its accompanying unconformedness to the spirit of the world, was strikingly exemplified on another occasion. It was when a few of her neighbors, who were gathered round her, were discoursing on the subject of our late king's visit to this land: a subject which, at the time, engrossed almost every heart and every tongue; and whilst each was telling of some or other of the rich and the great who had gone to salute their sovereign, and to welcome him to our shore, I saw the tear trickling down her pale and furrowed cheek, as she sat a silent and apparently unconcern

ed auditor of their conversation. I asked the reason why she wept. And never shall I forget her reply. "I heard," said she, "while they told of the rich and the noble flocking to do honor, and to pay homage to their earthly king, a poor weak mortal like themselves; and I thought when my Savior, heaven's glorious King appeared; when he left the Father's bosom, the glories of heaven, the service of ministering angels, and the praises of adoring spirits-where were the rich, the noble, and the mighty of the world then? The stable of an inn was the humble dwelling-the manger was the lowly bed. I contrasted the splendor and the costly preparations for an earthly monarch's passing stay, with the sad, the cruel neglect of the King of kings, and therefore was it that I wept."

She wept much for the dishonor done to the Savior by sinners. But that which most sadly affect ed her was the deep, the destroy ing sin of blasphemy-that daring defiance of God, which the blas. phemer manifests, by taking his name in vain. So deeply was her heart penetrated with a sense of reverence and love to Jesus, that I never saw her name that sacred name without visible emotion. But let it not be supposed, that religion was with her a mere sentiment or a feeling; it was a principle deeply implanted in her heart. The result of the "love of God shed abroad" there "by the power of the Holy Ghost." It sustained her in loneliness and want, in age and infirmity, and it upheld her through the trying scenes of the closing hour. During the illness which preceded her dissolution, it pleased God to try the

graces which he had wrought in her. The adversary was permitted to assail her with his temptations, as she entered on her passage through the dark valley of the shadow of death. At that trying hour she felt not merely humbled, under a sense of her unworthiness, she was sorely harassed and distressed. These harassing and distressing thoughts rose like the boisterous waters around the disciple of old, until she almost felt ready to perish. But the distress was only for a brief season; her doubts and fears pass. ed away. The light of faith showed her the Savior near, with outstretched arm ready to sustain his servant: and her latter end was marked with that holy peace, which nothing but an assured trust, and a reposing confidence in a reconciled God in Christ, can impart. "Strong in the faith," she gave glory to God on the bed of death. Like the priests of old bearing the ark of the Lord, she entered the deep and dark, but narrow river. Its waters parted on either side. And the eye of faith as it followed her, could behold the aged believer standing on the happy shore. Nor is this conclusion unwarranted or unfounded. Her heart was filled with love to God her Savior. It was in truth emptied of every thing else. And whence could this love to God come, but from the source of love. Like the river of life, it springs from under the throne of God and the Lamb. "We love him, because he first loved us."

"How bless'd the righteous when he dies!
When sinks a weary soul to rest,
How mildly beam the closing eyes,
How gently heaves th' expiring breast!
So fades a summer cloud away,

So sinks the gale when storms are o'er;

This judicatory held its sessions this year in Edinburgh, commencing on Monday evening, the 25th April, at six o'clock. On opening the business an excellent discourse, on the obligations and encouragements to the missionary enterprise, from Luke xxiv. 47, was preached by the Rev. Stewart Bates, the former mode. rator; the Rev. Thomas Rowatt was elected moderator; several young ministers, lately ordained, were invited to seats in synod; and the Rev. Thomas Houston, Knockbracken, having produced his commission as a delegate from the Reformed Presbyterian Synod of Ireland, was invited to a seat in the court, which he accepted. The meeting was attended by about 23 ministers, and nearly an equal number of ruling elders. On Tuesday, the synod was occupied with reports on the synod's fund-the appointment of various committees― and the consideration of the minutes of the last meeting of synod. An affectionate letter from the committee of foreign correspondence of the Reformed Church in America was read, mentioning, among other matters,

that a meeting of the synod there would be held in Philadelphia, on the 3d of August, to receive the delegates from the sister ju. dicatories in Scotland and Ire. land, in pursuance of a plan mu tually agreed upon, that the sy nods of the Reformed Church in Britain and America should, in future, correspond by delegation. Professor Symington, who had before been appointed to this service, submitted the case to synod and professed his willingness to go, should the brethren deem it expedient to send him. After some discussion, it was thought that the object of the delegation would be better accomplished by waiting till another season, and it was agreed that he, Mr. S., should attend, not the approaching, but the next regular meeting of the American synod. The Rev. Wm. Symington having reported his visit to the last meeting of the synod of the Reformed Church in Ireland, and arrangements having been made for the publication of a Book of Discipline, formerly considered and approved of by the court, the synod was adjourned with prayer by the moderator.

evinced much interest in the statements made, and the mode. rator, at their direction and in their name, tendered thanks to Mr. Houston, and readily agreed to the proposal that there should be a junction of the synods in prosecuting the mission to the British colonies of North Ame. rica. A letter, which breathed a friendly spirit, was read from the Associate Synod of original Seceders, a correspondence hav. ing been commenced some time ago between the two bodies, and at a subsequent period of the business, a reply, prepared by a member of court, was approved by synod, and ordered to be forwarded.

The ordination of qualified individuals to the office of the sacred ministry, has always been regarded as one of the most solemn and impressive rites of Christianity; and when the act of investiture is accompanied by those additional exercises which the order of the Presbyterian churches requires, the fullest effect is given to this institution of the church, which appears to combine in itself an example of the most admirable adaptation of the external form to that of which it is significant, of the spiritual simplicity of the apostolic church,

and yet of that moral grandeur with which all her legiti mate ordinances are invested. Circumstances, too, may serve greatly to heighten the effect of scenes of this description, and confer upon them a relative importance, greatly augmenting their interest.

These observations were suggested to the mind of the writer by transactions of which he was a witness, in a recent visit to the city of Philadelphia.

On the evening of Thursday, June 16th, Messrs. John H. Symmes and William Wilson, were ordained as evangelists by the Philadelphia Presbytery in connection with the Reformed Presbyterian Church, and are now employed in the cultivation of a very extensive field of mis. sionary labor within their bounds. The exercises of the evening were unusually solemn and impressive. The sermon was preached by Rev. Samuel W. Crawford, from Jeremiah i. 10. "See, I have this day set thee over the nations, and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, and to build, and to plant." From this text the rev. gentleman exhibited, in his usually lucid manner, the fountain of ecclesiastical authority, the qualifications of the ministerial office, and the sphere of ministerial labor, most happily adapting his arguments and illustrations to the circumstances of the case. The ordaining prayer was made, and the charge given, by the Rev. Dr. Wylie, who furnished to a very numerous and deeply impressed audience a model for such an exercise, which was at once apt,