In this retired contracted sphere, Richard Darracott found in Miss Risdon such a partner as

the world, to attend upon the Lord without distraction. "Isaac went out into the fields at evening to meditate." Here we may meditate on the grace that hath made us to differ from the rest of the world. Not in outward condition, here all things come alike to all. Is David rich, so is Nabal. If Joseph is favoured of his prince, so is Haman too. Was wicked Ahab killed in battle, so was good Josiah. But with regard to our better part, the inward peace of the soul, how hath our God distinguished us! A good man can look every way with comfort, but the sinner, if his reason were not blinded, would always be in Belshazzar's trembling fit.

"1. If they look downward. A Christian can take a view of the grave with comfort. It is only a resting place for his flesh. Death has no sting to his spirit. It is but putting off his clothes, or taking a journey. A stile or two more and I am at my father's house, amid my treasures, friends, and relations. 'Tis but winking, and I am in heaven. But if the sinner looks down, there is, first, a dismal grave to receive his pampered sinful body. A mighty change from former indulgences, the bed of down changed into a bed of dirt and putrefaction, and shortly after into a bed of flames; for when he looks lower, he sees, secondly, a dreadful hell opening for him, devils gaping for him. He dares not die, he cannot live.

"2. If they look backward. The believer says, with Paul, I have fought the good fight," or with Hezekiah, "remember how I have walked before thee in truth." But ah! the sinner dares not look back at all. He would dread to have God remember how he has walked. For he now remembers his swarms of vile thoughts, the many hard speeches which he has uttered against the ways and people of God.

"3. They look forward with different views. The Christian with comfort and boldness to the day of

would make any situation pleasant. She had -entered on her one and twentieth year when she was married, in the year 1714. Inheriting, with undiminished force, the spirit of martyrdom which had induced her mother's father to emigrate to the new world, she cheerfully took up her abode at Swanage, where her fine talents, cultivated by her father's care, rendered her a fit companion for a man adapted to more polished society than his flock could furnish.

But this lily of the valley was destined soon to be translated to Paradise. She first presented her husband with a daughter, who was early in life married to Mr. Peter Clark, a dissenting minister at Bow, in Devonshire. Shortly before

66

judgment, the second coming of Christ. He says, come, Lord Jesus, come quickly." But the sinner is described by Christ, when he says, "men's hearts shall fail them for fear, and for looking for those things which are coming upon them." For when he sees the Saviour that once woo'd him, coming in flames of fire to judge him, whither shall he fly ? Ŏ tremendum Dei judicium.

"4. See the difference between the righteous and the wicked, when they look upward. The Christian lifts up his head because his redemption draweth nigh. They see their crown, their treasure, in heaven, and their hearts leap for joy. It now makes their hearts beat gladly, how much more when just entering into possession. When the sinner looks upward, he sees a heaven that denies him admittance. The judge says, "I know you not." There is an angry God, whose face is a flaming fire against thee, though it smiles on thy pious neighbour.'

the birth of her next child, she was called to the painful task of committing to the grave the remains of her beloved mother, Mrs. Risdon, who was then in her sixty-third year. It is probable that the pangs of this separation contributed to hasten her own end; for about a month after, in bringing into the world the subject of these memoirs, who was designed to be so eminent a blessing to it, she expired. Could she have foreseen the character of her son, she would gladly have sacrificed life to bless the cause of Christ, which she loved better than life, with such a minister. But without this additional motive, her heavenly mind enabled her cheerfully to resign the husband of her youth, and the infant fruits of their love, to depart and be with Christ, which she deemed far better. She died in 1716, in the twenty-fourth year of her age. The remains of the mother and daughter are deposited in the same tomb, near the door of the established place of worship, in Swanage.

After remaining some years in a widowed state, Mr. Darracott married again. His former partner was a woman of such excellencies, as would have eclipsed the charms of most others; but Mr. Darracott remembered her with regrets more poignant, in consequence of the perfect contrast between her and his second wife. He hoped, indeed, to have found one of kindred spirit: but was soon alarmed

with the discovery of her hatred to the piety of which his heart was the altar and his house the temple. On remonstrating with her, and asking, "did I not witness your secret retirement for devotion, before I married you? and had I not reason to think that religion was your element and delight?" he received a reply which went as a dagger to his heart. "The greater hypocrite was I; for it was all done to gain you."

It must be perfectly unnecessary to say, that such an explanation blasted all prospect of domestic felicity. For as religious hypocrisy is an attempt to put a trick upon omniscience, it is most hateful to God, and operates by his just judgment as a deadly poison to the heart and conscience of the hypocrite. Whatever pains, therefore, this pious man might have been disposed to take for the conversion of the unhappy creature by whom he had been ensnared into a connexion fatal to his peace; she soon proved that a good husband, won by guilty arts, will become hateful to female depravity. Forsaking the guide of her youth, and renouncing an honourable connexion of which she was not worthy, she threw herself into the arms of a man fit for such fellowship of iniquity; and after having slept in the bed of the adulterer, she lay down at death in a bed of thorns.

Many interesting and instructive reflections

are suggested by this event. The anguish which it must have occasioned to such a man as Mr. Darracott will excite the sympathy of every reader. It is, then, consoling to know that he was not tortured with the reflections of his own conscience, for rushing with his eyes open into a connexion forbidden by the divine word. To search the heart is not our prerogative, and therefore not our duty. He might confidently look up to him who sometimes sees fit to wound his servants in the tenderest place, but ever affords them consolation under the afflictions of his providence, and converts the severest trials into eternal blessings. Far different was the case of a minister, who was thus warned by an elderly. female of his congregation against a connexion which he was about to form: "I shall expect no blessing to attend your ministry from the time you take an enemy to Christ into your bosom." The event justified the premonition.

This affliction which befel Mr. Darracott, furnishes a solemn warning against all dissimulation. in religion, which may perhaps accomplish its object, but will certainly blast the enjoyment. Here we see an unhappy female succeed in winning the person with which she was enamoured, not perceiving, till it was too late, that a kindred disposition is essential to the happiness of the married life. Young persons should learn from