r our heads the revengeful sword of resisted authority, and
the unprincipled plunder of a lawless soldiery to complete the
devastation. This Pashalic was just about to fall an easy prey into
the hands of the Persians, who long to possess it, from their famous
place of pilgrimage, Kerbala, being in the neighbourhood, and perhaps
also to make up for their losses on their Russian frontier. Thus the
Lord seems preparing these two great Mohammedan powers for their final
overthrow, partly by the hands of each other, and partly by the hands
of the Christian power. In the province of Kourdistan, the Persians
have encroached much on the territory of this Pashalic already.

Oh! how delightful it is to turn from these scenes of present and
prospective strife to that happy approaching day, when the Lord shall
come with ten thousand of his saints to establish his kingdom of peace
and glory. Oh! may our cry never cease to be, "Come, Lord Jesus, come
quickly;" and when he does come, may he find us in his service among
the faithful, chosen, and true.

_Aug. 24._ _Thursday._--Three months and ten days have now passed
since the Lord took from me her who was on earth the supreme
consolation of my life; and now, this day, he has taken from me my
sweet little baby without a sigh, without the expression of pain
during the whole of her illness; for this my heart can, even at this
moment, bless the Lord; but it has left a void that has more than ever
made the world appear a waste. The incessantly returning wants made
even these times appear to wing a rapid flight; but now all is still
as death, except the weeping of the poor nurse, who truly loved her,
and watched over her night and day with unremitting care. Oh! what a
time would these three months have been for dear Mary, had she lived,
and what a day would this have been; but the Lord took her from the
evil to come, and has now taken the dear little object of her love to
her, to join her little sainted sister and dear little brother; four
of us are gone, and three are left. May the Lord quickly prepare us
all, and hasten his coming kingdom, that we may meet to part no more.
And, Oh! may he make and accept the remnant of the worthless life he
grants me, as a living sacrifice to his service. Notwithstanding I
acquiesce, I trust, in the Lord's will from the bottom of my heart,
yet I feel a desolation and loneliness of heart, on this last
dispensation, that surpasses all I have felt in my last