privations, none is so great, or as painfully felt by a
truly devout soul, as the loss of religious ordinances. With what
deep pathos does the Psalmist lament his long exile from the scene of
solemn rites and holy sacrifice!

'How amiable are Thy tabernacles,
O Lord of Hosts!
My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth
For the courts of the Lord;
My heart and my flesh crieth out
For the living God.'

He envies the birds of the air, that free and unfettered, build their
nests hard by the temple of his God, while he, a banished man, must
seek a refuge in the wilderness.

'Yea the sparrow hath found an house,
And the swallow a nest for herself,
Where she may lay her young;
Even thine altars, O Lord of Hosts,
My King and my God.'

Mrs. Lyth loved the habitation of the Lord's house, and deprecated
the prospect of separation from its privileges, which was rendered
extremely probable by her increasing weakness. Eastfield House was
about a mile from the village, and between three and four from York.
In case of decided failure of health, she would not only have been
cut off from active usefulness in which she delighted, but entirely
excluded from christian ordinances. With the view of a little relief,
she had already relinquished one of her classes in the city, and
turned her attention more exclusively to the village; but now there
was every likelihood that she must soon give up the other. These
circumstances, with some others of less moment, determined the
propriety of a removal back to York. Shortly before this took place,
in one of her walks thither, for the purpose of meeting her class, a
circumstance transpired which is worth relating. She met on the road
an odd old man, whose extraordinary appearance made him, at that time,
well known in York and its vicinity. At one time above the average
stature, he was now bent nearly double with age, and hobbled along
with two sticks. A huge bunch of the old fashioned matches, attached
by a string to his neck, hung down before him, and was sufficient sign
of his occupation; while a long white beard, reaching well nigh to
the ground, completed the singularity of his appearance. This latter
appendage was, however, conveniently made to take off and on at
pleasure. He was fabulously reported to be a hundred and twenty
years old; and there was little doubt that he, and also his wife
who sometimes accompanied him, were on the eve of celebrating their
centena