science of the reader, we now return to the course of our narrative.

Allusions have been made, in a preceding part of this memoir, to Mr. Richmond's mother. Her maternal care in the days of his childhood, her early endeavours to instil into his mind the principles of religion, and the interest she manifested in some of the subsequent events of his history, have been incidentally mentioned. She died in the beginning of the year 1819. But, before we enter upon the account of her decease, we shall introduce a brief memoir, from the pen of Mr. Richmond, in which the history of his family is so interwoven with his own earlier years, as to form a kind of episode, which we have no doubt will interest the reader by the simple and affecting character of its details. It is addressed to his children, as a memorial of the virtues of his mother: while his execution of it is no less the memorial of his own.

This little piece will appropriately form, by itself, the subject of our next chapter.

CHAPTER XII.

A tribute of affectionate veneration for the memory

of a deceased mother ;-in a series of letters to his children. By the Rev. Legh Richmond.'

LETTER I.

Turvey, March 3, 1819.

My beloved children,

The affecting summons which I so lately and unexpectedly received, to pay the last act of duty and love to the remains of my invaluable and revered parent, has impressed my mind with a strong desire to leave some memorial of her character, for your sakes, and for your instruction.

I am just returned from the grave of one whom a thousand tender recollections endeared to every faculty of my soul and I wish to preserve something of that solemnity of feeling, and gratitude of heart. which such a scene was calculated to inspire. How can I better do this, than by endeavouring to convey those emotions to your bosoms, through the medium of an epistolary communication, devoted to an affectionate retrospect of the character and disposition of the deceased? I feel myself, as it were, a debtor to two generations, between whom I now stand, as the willing, though feeble and unworthy agent, by whom benefits and consolations, derived from the

one, may be transferred for the lasting advantage of the other. The solid character of her religious principles, the superiority of her mental attainments, and the singularly amiable deportment by which she was distinguished, constitute powerful claims to your regard. If any additional plea were needed, I would derive it from the deep and affectionate interest which she took in whatever concerned your welfare, both spiritual and temporal; from the prayers which she daily offered up to the throne of mercy, for your happiness; and from the unceasing watchfulness and anxiety which she manifested for your progress in every good word and work.

Although she was far separated from you, by the distance of her residence from your own, and the opportunities of personal intercourse were thereby greatly restricted; yet her most tender and sacred affections were ever near to me and mine. We occupied her daily thoughts and her nightly meditations; and now that she is gone to rest, and her heart can no longer beat with mortal anxieties, it is highly becoming that we who loved her, and whom she so ardently loved, should give a consistency to our affection for such a parent, by a grateful inquiry into those qualities of head and heart with which God so eminently blessed her.

There is a solitary tree, underneath which, by her own desire, she lies buried, in Lancaster churchyard. I feel a wish, if I may be allowed for a moment to employ the imagery, to pluck a branch from this tree that waves over her tomb: to transplant it into my own domestic garden, and there behold it flourish, and bring forth "fruit unto holiness." I would gladly encourage a hope that this wish may be realized in you, my children, and that such intercourse with the dead may indeed prove a blessing to the living.

'But this can be expected only in dependence on

the free and undeserved mercy of that God and Saviour, in whom your venerable grandmother trusted: and "whom to know is life eternal." Whatever, therefore, of domestic narrative; whatever of earnest exhortation to yourselves; or whatever of remark upon the interesting qualities of the subject of this memoir, may intermingle with my present address, -keep invariably in mind, that my great object, as it concerns her, and you, and myself, is to give glory to God alone; and in the deepest humiliation of heart, to look up to Him as the sole fountain of excellence.

'In addressing you on such a subject, my children, it is natural that I should reflect on the varieties of age and circumstance in which you are placed. Even in point of your number, I can hardly pronounce it without some degree of fear and trembling. Ten immortal souls!-souls allied to my own, by ties inexpressibly tender, and inviolably dear;souls committed to my charge, not only as a minister, but also as a parent. Who is sufficient for these things?" has been the secret cry of many a minister and many a parent. In each of thesc relations, I wish to apply that divine promise to my heart, our sufliciency is of God." I have long cherished a hope, founded on another gracious intimation of His will to those who love and fear Him,"The promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." Supported by these consolations, it has been my aim to bring you up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and to train up my children in the right way; trusting, that if they live to be old, they will not depart from it. Yet sometimes the anxious fear, connected with a survey of the world in which you are placed,-its vanities and its vices,- its delusions and its dangers, will force itself on my thoughts. I have lived to see,

in other families, some of their buds of promise blighted, through the baneful and infectious influence of corrupt associations. I have seen what havoc the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, the sinful lusts of the flesh, and the wiles of the devil, have made in many a household. I have witnessed the sorrows, and mingled mine with the tears of my friends, when they have spoken of the wanderings and misconduct of some of their children: and then, I have occasionally trembled for my own little flock. But I feel it, at the same time, to be both my privilege and my duty to use this very solicitude for a higher and nobler purpose than despondency and unbelief would suggest. These anxious affections are planted in the paternal heart, and manifestly ordained of God, as incentives to caution, and stimulants to prayer. As such I would employ them for your sakes: I would thereby the more assiduously teach you to "abhor that which is evil, and cleave to that which is good; and above all, I would with the more earnestness and dependence on the covenant grace of God, present your mortal and immortal interests, in supplication to Him who hath said, "the promise is unto you and your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”

' And surely, I may be allowed to urge an excuse for dwelling upon this text, even in the way of literal application. For you, my first-born child, are indeed "afar off; and these pages may much more easily reach you, amongst your uncertain journeyings on the shores or the waves of India, than they can ever convey an adequate idea of the exercises of varied affection, which your eventful history has occasioned us.

Next to your immediate parents, no one felt so deeply on your account as my deceased mother. Her prayers and good wishes were mingled with