ny before men and
prayer before God. What were we to expect but that God should say, Why
should they be stricken any more? they will revolt more and more: they
are joined to idols; let them alone. Such, O Lord, would be the case
didst thou not deliver us out of our own self-destroying snares. If
thou turn us not, we shall never turn; it is in our nature to
backslide for ever.

"But is not the time come to pass when before thy people call
thou answerest, and while they are yet speaking, thou hearest? Art
thou not calling with power, 'Return, ye backsliding children, and I
will heal your backslidings?' and hast thou not prepared their hearts
to answer, Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God?
truly, in vain is salvation looked for from the hills, and from the
multitude of mountains; truly, from the Lord our God is the salvation
of Israel. Hast thou not, O God, prepared the hearts of thy people to
pray, and thine ear to hear? Is not this Bible Society, and are not
these associations for prayer, tokens from thee for good? More and
more, Lord, may thy people give thee no rest, until thou make Zion a
praise in the earth. O the Hope of Israel, and the Saviour thereof, be
not as a wayfaring man, that turneth aside for a night. May thy people
constrain thee to abide with us for ever, to form us a people for
thyself, to show forth thy praise.

"I have just conveyed dear Mrs. A----le to the confines of the
eternal world. I trust the dear Redeemer received her spirit. I have a
good hope that she is now in possession of the mansion purchased and
prepared for her by that dear Saviour whose name she professed, and I
think, in an humble, steady, quiet way, faithfully followed. She loved
the word of God, the house of God, the people of God. She spoke
little, but said she had a good hope: asked me to read the Bible
different times, and also to pray; said the invitations of the gospel
were sweet to her: observed that the Lord had been very merciful to
her in her affliction.

"A few hours before her death she desired me to read that hymn,

"'To him that loved the souls of men,' etc,

Also,

"'Come, let us join our cheerful songs,' etc.

She asked if I thought she would continue long. I said, No, my
dear, you will very soon be with Jesus; and encouraged her as the Lord
enabled me. She repeated the question some time after, and I gave her
the same answer. She then said, 'This