d to me that the temper of mind with which the pious poor
commonly meet death, is the grand compensation made them by
Providence for all the hardships of their inferior condition. If
they have had few joys and comforts in life already, and have still
fewer hopes in store, is not all fully made up to them by their
being enabled to leave this world with stronger desires of heaven,
and without those bitter regrets after the good things of this life,
which add to the dying tortures of the worldly rich? To the forlorn
and destitute, death is not so terrible as it is to him who _sits at
ease in his possessions_, and who fears that this night his soul
shall be required of him."

Mr. Bragwell felt this remark more deeply than his daughter meant he
should. He wept, and bade her proceed.

"I followed my departed parents to the same grave, and wept over
them, but not as one who had no hope. They had neither houses nor
lands to leave me, but they had left me their Bible, their blessing,
and their example, of which I humbly trust I shall feel the benefits
when all the riches of this world shall have an end. Their few
effects, consisting of some poor household goods, and some
working-tools, hardly sufficed to pay their funeral expenses. I was
soon attacked with the same fever, and saw myself, as I thought,
dying the second time; my danger was the same, but my views were
changed. I now saw eternity in a more awful light than I had done
before, when I wickedly thought death might be gloomily called upon
as a refuge from every common trouble. Though I had still reason to
be humble on account of my sin, yet, by the grace of God, I saw
death stripped of his sting and robbed of his terrors, _through him
who loved me, and gave himself for me_; and in the extremity of
pain, _my soul rejoiced in God my Saviour_.

"I recovered, however, and was chiefly supported by the kind
clergyman's charity. When I felt myself nourished and cheered by a
little tea or broth, which he daily sent me from his own slender
provision, my heart smote me, to think how I had daily sat down at
home to a plentiful dinner, without any sense of thankfulness for my
own abundance, or without inquiring whether my poor sick neighbors
were starving: and I sorrowfully remembered, that what my poor
sister and I used to waste through daintiness, would now have
comfortably fed myself and child. Believe me, my dear mother, a
laboring man who has been brought low by a fever, mi