speakable, and, at the same time, humbles my soul, under a sense of its great unworthiness. Is it, indeed, possible, that God has condescended to notice the petitions of so ungrateful, so unsteady, and so disobedient a child, as I have been towards him, as in any way whatever to render me instrumental to the happiness, the everlasting hap-· piness, of my beloved father? O! the unbounded goodness of our Lord and Master. O! it is one of the most condescending mercies he could bestow upon such an unworthy creature as I am. A blessing, which calls for all the gratitude my heart is capable of feeling, and an increase of faithfulness and obedience to him. My beloved parent, I do ardently long to be with you, to hear from your own lips, the praises of our blessed Redeemer.

"December 8. Yesterday, there being no preaching in town, I passed alone in my chamber After offering up my private devotions, of which my dear father was the principal subject, I read in the scriptures, and then the excellent prayers of our Church. After going through the communion service on my knees, I sung the eleventh hymn, beginning

"And are we now brought near to God,

"Who once at distance stood?

"And to effect this glorious change,

"Did Jesus shed his blood? &c.

Though my heart was almost overwhelmed with the different feelings which agitated it while engaged in my devotions, yet my bosom felt calm and happy when I arose from them. If ever I prayed fervently in my life, I entreated for my dear parent yesterday, that God would vouchsafe to come down to you in spirit, and set his seal upon you, as one of his dear children; that he would be your staff and shield, your strength and glory from henceforth and for evermore. "O! how I rejoice over you in heart, though such a distance separates us; for God only knows how ardently I love you. Go on, my dear parent, in the paths of holiness, and may our blessed Saviour be your Pattern and Guide. O! how great has been the goodness of our God, that you have been preserved for the day of grace, while so many around you have been taken away. Let us ever bless his holy name, and always delight to promote the interests of his kingdom.

"I am not fit to write to you, at present, my beloved parent; for the precious tidings your last letter brought me, have so overcome my heart with joy, and humbled it under the recollection of its own unworthiness, that I cannot express myself as I would wish.”

* There is no Episcopal church in the place where she resided, and the Presbyterian meeting was not open every Sunday.

+ What a blessing is the Book of Common Prayer to numberless persons in such situations as this! Distance of place, or length of separation, cannot destroy the unity of worship in a family; nor prevent its pious members from holding spiritual communion in the same forms of devotion; and, at the same moment, offering up the same praises and thanksgiving to God, for the common blessings which he bestows.

The autumn of 1817, was a season of unusual sickness and mortality at Charleston,

The delicate sense of filial duty, expressed in the following extract, is deserving of the highest praise; while the happiness produced in the pious bosom, by the establishment of family worship, should be an incentive to the head of every family, calling themselves Christians," to "go, and do likewise." The letter is dated January

5, 1818.

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"My last to you was written two weeks since, and in such haste, that I was compelled to close it before I wished. It was my intention to have noticed to you, the affectionate interest my good aunt expressed in a letter to me, respecting your becoming a member, or, rather, a communicant, of the Church. It was written a week or two before I received your precious communication on the subject. She says: 'I know what delight it will afford you to hear what I have to

tell you of your dear father. Yes, my dear niece, my good and excellent brother, has lately had family prayers, going through the duty himself, as head of the family. He has also had some conversation (at his own request) with and I have every reason to think and hope he will shortly conclude to approach the altar. My dear , you well know the joy I feel, since we have often spoken together on the subject. Let us give glory to God, for our dear father. The saints in heaven are rejoicing." Thus did she express her feelings; and I would not have parted with mine, upon receiving such intelligence, not for all the enjoyments this world could procure me. O! said I to my husband, I have a letter here, that contains what is a thousand times more precious than any fortune that could be bestowed upon me. I could scarcely prevent myself from speaking of my happiness to you in the next letter I wrote you; but delicacy forbid my doing so, until you mentioned the subject yourself; and feeling assured that you would do so, I waited with great impapatience for the mail which brought me the welcome tidings from your own beloved hand. O! you cannot think with what increased happiness I now let my mind dwell upon you; and I often sigh for the blessed time to arrive, when my dear husband, brothers, and uncle, may follow your excellent example."

The following short extract from a letter, dated March 9, 1818, is too interesting to be omitted.

"Though I cannot enjoy the comfort of being with you, and sometimes looking over the sacred pages with you, yet, my beloved parent, I can here tell you, that when I began anxiously to look into the bible, for the evidence of a Saviour's birth, life, death, and resurrection; for a proof of that which I had been taught to believe; I gathered most conviction from the books of Isaiah, and Jeremiah, compared with the New Testament. I would therefore humbly recommend them to your particular attention. The marginal references will point out the parts in the New, fulfilling the predictions of the Old Testament. And (but no doubt you have it) I think Bishop Porteus' Evidences of the Christian religion, are very satisfactory."*

* This strengthens the argument of your correspondent F. in the Gospel Advocate for July last, p. 208. If this pious lady had never seen any other bible than

I shall conclude these interesting extracts with the following letter, dated December 22, 1818. It was written a few days after her death, but before it was known to the writer, and was addressed to her father, by the Presbyterian minister of the town where she had lately resided. The testimony which he bears to her elevated piety and moral excellence, and the sympathy which he expresses for her family, cannot 'fail to interest the feelings of every reader.

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I hardly know how to address you, or what to suggest most suitable to the unforeseen circumstances in which a letter may find you. And yet, the intelligence just received, forbids me to be silent without doing violence to my feelings. Mr. just called, on his way to Charleston, and, as well as his tears and choking grief would allow, gave me to understand what he had learned by the last mail, respecting the situation of his beloved wife, your inestimable daughter; one who has secured a very unusual place in my best esteem and regard. But, my dear sir, it is infinitely more to her comfort and prospects, whether longer to live, or soon to be removed from this vale of tears, that she has, as we doubt not, an eternal place in the heart of the best of friends, her divine Redeemer. O! that he may vouchsafe to her his most animating and comforting presence under her daily sufferings; and in the contemplation of whatever may seem to be before her. I would most cheerfully travel miles to see, and converse with her, and join with her in supplicating every needed influence of a gracious God in her favour. But this privilege is denied me by uncontrollable circumstances. Yet, I bless God, he is omnipresent; and the distance between your city and where I write, does not forbid our meeting with one accord, on one blessed errand, before his throne of grace. May the Lord of life spare her yet longer to the living, if it be his adorable will, that she may still shine a light in the world, a bright and winning example of that Christian sweetness of spirit, and moral beauty of deportment, by which his grace has distinguished her.

"The increased acquaintance of the people with her, and hers with them, has given opportunity for her worth to be more and more priz ed, and her usefulness more and more felt, the longer she has remained among us here. Our forebodings have been trying to our

one issued by the Bible Societies, how would she have been able to satisfy herself, by comparing scripture with scripture, that all the circumstances attending our Saviour's mission on earth, were the accomplishment of prophecies in the Old Testament? How could she have written to her father, that "the marginal references will point out the parts in the New, fulfilling the predictions of the Old Testament," if there had been no marginal references in her bible? Years might have rolled away, before she discovered that the scripture was the best interpreter of itself. For if the marginal references are omitted, the bible cannot be made use of to explain itself. Other works must be referred to. The reasons urged by your correspondent F. I think are conclusive. The original bible, "as it came from the hands of our translators, should be preserved unadulterated," and be the only version circulated by Bible Societies. I hope that in future, Episcopal bible institutions, at least, will neither publish, nor distribute any copy of the sacred scriptures, without hav ing marginal references.

selves; and yet our hopes have ardently followed her in her departure, that she might, after all, be restored to us. Perhaps she may still. But the information just now received, seems almost to decide against so desirable an issue. But tell her, if her ear is open to mortal accents, we can resign her to Christ, and to his call alone. It is better to depart, and be with him, where sin will never annoy; where an evil world will never interrupt, and a subtle adversary will never disturb, the communion of the disciples and the Lord of glory. O! that she may cleave to him with that sacred affection and humble dependance, over which sickness, pain, and death, can have no power. Tell her, that his loving disciples are the seal upon his heart, the signet upon his arm; that they are infinitely safe in the hollow of his hand, and kept, in every extremity, as the apple of his eye. Tell her, that their greatest distresses are in order to their greatest happiness, and the struggle soon terminates in joy unspeakable and full of glory. Tell her; O! tell her, that her almighty Friend stands at the gate of death, as the door of heaven. But I trust she feels it, and more than words can impart, in the blessed connexion. I leave her, then, in the arms of her precious Redeemer, whose heart is made of tenderness, whose bowels melt with love.

“While I may, I shall cherish the hope, that your dear daughter may be spared to you, and her affectionate friends, a little longer. But my prayer is, if the event be otherwise ordered, that, while she may be enabled to give a dying testimony to the blessedness of that religion, which consisteth t in meats and drinks, but in peace, and love, and joy in the Holy Ghost, you resign her cheerfully, whenever called; and find your anxiety to be in complete readiness to follow her, greater than the sense of bereavement."

AMICUS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE.

In your number for November last, is the Address of the Right Reverend Bishop Griswold to the Convention of the Eastern Diocese, holden at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, September 25, 1822.

This address is of so exemplary a kind, so full of love and good will to men, that one is insensibly carried back to the earliest age of the church, and to the very first days of its establishment by the Author of our holy religion. I have never read any thing more plain, more meek, or more in the character of an apostle. It appears to me that the perusal of so affectionate an address, and the simple and unadorned manner in which he states the various situations of the several churches throughout his widely extended charge, cannot but most seriously impress the mind of every Episcopalian, not only with great thankfulness for what the Bishop has been the instrument of accomplishing, but with the liveliest sensibility for the farther increase and extension of the Church, and with a wish that his mite may be also afforded to the furtherance of so good and so evangelick a cause; particularly so, when adverting to a more competent provision for the Episcopate, the Bishop states in his truly apostolick manner, "that without the pious

liberality of a few individuals, his efforts must have been wholly paralyzed."

The Bishop here undoubtedly alludes to the society incorporated by the legislature of this state, in the year 1810, under the name of the Trustees of Donations to the Episcopal Church. I propose, therefore, to lay before your readers a concise view of the objects of this society, in the hope that it may excite to an increase of the number of life and annual subscribers, who may be assured, that their bounty will be gladly received and sacredly applied to the promotion of so good a work.

At the origin of the society, about five thousand seven hundred dollars were raised, forming the Bishop's fund; the interest of which, together with the yearly subscription of nearly eighty members from various parts of the diocese, was to be appropriated to the Bishop. This has been regularly paid to him, but, the annual subscribers having fallen off to a very inconsiderable number, from six to seven hundred dollars, per annum, is now the whole amount our venerable Bishop receives.

A farther design of the incorporation is, to recover from loss, and to protect for the benefit of various particular churches throughout the diocese, a vast landed property, the benefit of which, several churches are now enjoying; and there is a reasonable prospect, that, in a few years, many others will realize similar advantages. To these objects the society have given constant and unwearied exertion.

The payment of five dollars, annually, to the treasurer, constitutes a member, and twenty-five dollars, a member for life, and the funds are safely vested in the publick securities of the state or nation. From the whole body of trustees, at the annual election on the Tuesday preceding the last Wednesday in May, a board of managers are chosen; they consist, for the present year, of the following, viz.

Thomas L. Winthrop, President.

I know not that any legacies have been hitherto left to the society, for the increase of the Bishop's fund, but I feel a well grounded confidence, that the objects of the trustees need only to be generally known. to ensure a share in the pious remembrance of the serious Episcopalian.

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GOSPEL ADVOCATE, VOL. III.

L.