them out through them all. As the darkness of the world thickens around them, thou sheddest a brighter light on the cloudless clime whither they are travelling. As the cup, of which the wickedness of man forces them to drink comes nearer the bitterness of its dregs, thou pourest more copiously into their souls the sweetness of eternal life. As they have days of severe fatigue and wandering, and nights more wearisome and watchful, thou layest the repose of their souls nearer the bosom of their God. Wo unto him who seeketh his happiness apart from thee! He shall be miserably disappointed.

CHAPTER IV.

-Their blood is shed
In confirmation of the noblest claim,-
Our claim to feed upon immortal truth,
To walk with God, to be divinely free.
Yet few remember them. They lived unknown,
Till persecution dragged them into fame,

And chased them up to heaven. Their ashes flew
-No marble tells us whither."

COWPER.

FOUR years of suffering had now passed since Mr. Bruce and his family were driven from their comfortable home. But although many of his flock had been thrown into prison, and sent into banishment, had endured the cruelties of torture, or died on the scaffold, and although they had themselves often made the narrowest escape from the vigilance of their fell pursuers, none of them had yet fallen into their hands. The time was not far off, however, when they were to feel more severely, the cruelties of persecution.

a sermon.

On a Sabbath evening, in the month of September, Mr. Bruce, with his wife and children, left the cave, to meet some of his flock in a wild glen in the neighborhood, where he was to deliver When they arrived at the appointed place, there was about a score assembled;—some of them stood, some seated themselves on the cold turf, while Mr. Bruce took his station by a large stone, on which he rested the Bible, and read, or rather repeated, for the night was dark, the following verses from the twenty-third psalm:

"The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want;

He makes me down to lie

In pastures green: he leadeth me

The quiet waters by.

My soul he doth restore again;

And me to walk doth make
Within the paths of righteousness,
Even for his own name's sake.

Yea, though I walk in death's dark vale,

Yet will I fear none ill:

For thou art with me; and thy rod

And staff me comfort still.

Then, as it is beautifully expressed by Gra

hame,

Acclaim of praise. The wheeling plover ceased

Her plaint: the solitary place was glad;

And, on the distant cairn, the watcher's ear

Caught, doubtfully at times, the breeze-borne note."

After this Mr. Bruce lifted up their fervent prayer to the throne of grace; and then repeated his text, from the same psalm which had been sung, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, yet will I fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."

This consolatory passage he illustrated by shewing how they, who had the rod and staff of the Almighty to support them, needed fear no evil. This rod and staff, he shewed, were no less than the infinite love, and wisdom, and power of God, engaged in the preservation of the righteous. This truth he illustrated at considerable length, and with more of elegance than was common to the preachers of the time. We shall content ourselves, however, by giving the concluding part of the discourse.

"If then," said the fervent preacher, “we have the love, and the wisdom, and the power of God engaged in our protection, what have we to fear from the cruelties of men, the malignity of

evil spirits, or the terrors of death itself? His love fills our hearts with unspeakable delight, and secures us the guidance of his wisdom, and the all-shielding covert of his almighty power. If we had to set our faces to the machinations of this world, under the direction of our own wisdom, we would soon be entangled in its snares, and decoyed into the pit which is dug for our destruction. But to guide us through every footstep of this earthly journey, to guide us through every footstep of the dark pass of death, we have the infinite wisdom of God, which hath all things present to its eye in the natural and moral world, in heav en, in earth, in time, and in eternity. The most sagacious spirit that contrives our ruin in the darkest gloom of the bottomless pit, is noticed by our God, and those means taken, which can never err in their operation, to defeat its purposes against us. He observes all the plottings of man's wisdom against us; and turns the best laid schemes of their wickedness to the profit of his people. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his Anointed. But he that sitteth in the heavens laughs: the Lord hath them in derision. He casteth the glance of his all-comprehending