yet secret prayer, was any sure evidence of grace. Oh the ignorance of the world! How are some empty, outward forms, mistaken for true religion!

"10. I rode near twenty miles homeward; and was much solicited to preach, but was utterly unable. I was extremely overdone with the heat and showers, and coughed up considerable quantities of blood.

"11. I rode homeward, but was very weak, and sometimes scarce able to ride. I had a very importunate invitation to preach at a meeting-house I came by, but could not, by reason of weakness. I was resigned under my weakness; but was much exercised for my companions in travel, whom I had left with much regret, some lame, and some sick.

"12. I rode about fifty miles; and came just at night to a Christian friend's house, about twentyfive miles westward from Philadelphia. I was kindly entertained, and found myself much refreshed in the midst of my weakness and fatigues.

"Lord's-day, Sept. 14. I preached both parts of the day (but short,) from Luke xiv, 23. God gave me freedom and warmth in my discourses; and helped me to labor in singleness of heart. I was much tired in the evening, but was comforted with the most tender treatment I ever met with in my life. My mind, through the whole of the day was exceeding calm; and I could ask for nothing but that "The will of God might be done."

"17. I rode to Philadelphia, but was very weak, and my cough and spitting of blood continued.

"20. I arrived among my own people; found them praying together; went in, and gave them some account of God's dealings with me and my companions in the journey. I then prayed with

them, and the divine presence was among us; divers were melted into tears. Being very weak, I was obliged soon to repair to my lodgings. Thus God: has carried me through the fatigues and perils of another journey to Susquahannah, and returned me again in safety, though under a great degree of bodily indisposition. Many hardships and distresses I endured in this journey, but the Lord supported me under them all.”

It is peculiarly affecting to behold a spirit so nobly ardent and zealous in the best of causes, sinking in the midst of youth, and in the full vigor of its faculties, under the pressure of bodily disease; to observe a life so admirably begun, which promised so fair, so soon closed: a light so powerful and steady, which the Redeemer seemed to hold as a star in his right-hand, so suddenly quenched in the darkness of the grave. But who shall scrutinize the high behests of heaven? Who shall say unto God what dost thou? When he ordains, the youthful traveller ends his journey, and his sun goes down while it is yet day: the heart warmed with benevolence must be chilled with the icy hand of death; the tongue that utters wisdom and kindness must rest in silence when he the great Arbiter of life proclaims "Return ye children of men." But let us with pious awe contemplate the last labors, and the last hours of Brainerd. And may the sight of his early tomb furnish the ministers of Jesus with a new motive to work while it is called day, and to work till the close of the day. If Brainerd had retired from the field of exertion before the last year, what would he not have lost? That his work was soon done was his happiness. O God, if thou givest me long life, may every hour of it be thine. But if few are to be the

days of my mortal pilgrimage, let ever improved as an hour; and suffer me not to the grave, without the meed of us cheering, yet humbling reflection, that, ment in thy hand, I have turned many t

His illness. The suspension of his labors. His journey His death. Concluding reflections.

WE have seen with what difficulty M performed his last journey. We are him closing the painful, weary journey body wasting under the influence of ease, while he is strengthened with n Spirit in his inner man. The time of h is at hand: he feels that he must soor 'Mortal coil.' But like the good sold Christ, he will wear his armor to the fight against Satan's kingdom to the late die, smiling at the thought, that the Capt must be victorious. One loves to visit where the good man meets his fate; a rally find that, amidst his consolations, of the least, that the cause of religion n after he is gathered to his fathers and seen. This is happily illustrated in David. "The whole earth shall be full c exclaimed the dying patriarch, and h

a poor underrower will be inconsiderable." And the friend of Brainerd, who wrote his life, and witnessed his last hours, says, "He expressed on his death-bed a full persuasion that he should in heaven see the prosperity of the church on earth, and should rejoice with Christ therein, and the consideration of it was highly pleasing to his mind.” One of our poets has illustrated, that the ruling passion is strong in death; and in the case of Brainerd it is strikingly exemplified; his ruling passion was love to God, and love to souls, and it reigned with undiminished predominance to the last. While he could walk and ride, he went about doing good, and while he could speak his tongue was never silent in recommending to sinners the Savior he so ardently wished them to embrace. These remarks are confirmed by his diary.

"Lord's-day, Sept. 21, 1746. I was so weak I could not preach, nor ride over to my people in the forenoon. In the afternoon I rode out, sat in my chair, and discoursed to my people from Rom. xiv, 7, 8. I was strengthened in my discourse, and there appeared something agreeable in the assembly. I returned to my lodgings extremely tired; but thankful, that I had been enabled to speak a word to my poor people. I was able to sleep little, through weariness and pain. Oh, how blessed should I be, if the little I do were all done with right views!

"27. I spent this as the week past, under a great degree of bodily weakness, exercised with a violent cough, and a considerable fever; had no appetite to any kind of food; and frequently brought up what I eat, as soon as it was down; I was able, however, to ride over to my people, about two miles

every day, and take some care of those who were then at work upon a small house for me to reside in among the Indians. I was sometimes scarce able to walk, and never able to sit up the whole day. Yet I was calm and composed, and but little exercised with melancholy, as in former seasons. It was many times a comfort to me, that life and death did not depend upon my choice. I was pleased to think, that he who is infinitely wise, had the determination of this matter: and that I had no trouble to consider and weigh things upon all sides, in order to make the choice, whether I would live or die. I could with great composure look death in the face, and frequently with sensible joy. Oh, how blessed it is, to be habitually prepared for death! The Lord grant that I may be actually ready also.

"Lord's day, Sept. 21. I rode to my people; and, though under much weakness, discoursed about half an hour; at which season divine power seemed to attend the word; but being extremely weak, I was obliged to desist; and after a turn of faintness, with much difficulty rode to my lodgings, where betaking myself to my bed, I lay in a burning fever, and almost delirious, for several hours, till towards morning: my fever went off with a violent sweat. I have often been feverish after preaching; but this was the most distressing turn, that ever preaching brought upon me. Yet I felt perfectly at rest in my own mind, because I had made my utmost at tempts to speak for God.

"30. Yesterday and to-day I was scarce able to sit up half the day. But I was in a composed frame and remarkably free from dejection and melancholy; as God has been pleased to deliver me from these unhappy glooms, in the general course of my pre