dness, and animates the soul with the hopeful anticipation of a day
when the glory of the Lord shall be revealed in the assembling of all his
children together, never more to be separated. Whether they were rich or
poor while on earth, is a matter of trifling consequence; the valuable
part of their character is, that they are kings and priests unto God, and
this is their true nobility. In the number of now departed believers,
with whom I once loved to converse on the grace and glory of the kingdom
of God, was the Dairyman's daughter.

About a week after the funeral I went to visit the family at ---, in
whose service the youngest sister had lived and died, and where Elizabeth
was requested to remain for a short time in her stead.

The house was a large and venerable mansion. It stood in a beautiful
valley at the foot of a high hill. It was embowered in fine woods, which
were interspersed in every direction with rising, falling, and swelling
grounds. The manor-house had evidently descended through a long line of
ancestry, from a distant period of time. The Gothic character of its
original architecture was still preserved in the latticed windows,
adorned with carved divisions and pillars of stone-work. Several pointed
terminations also, in the construction of the roof, according to the
custom of our forefathers, fully corresponded with the general features
of the building.

One end of the house was entirely clothed with the thick foliage of an
immense ivy, which climbed beyond customary limits, and embraced a lofty
chimney up to its very summit. Such a tree seemed congenial to the walls
that supported it, and conspired with the antique fashion of the place to
carry imagination back to the days of our ancestors.

As I approached, I was led to reflect on the lapse of ages, and the
successive generations of men, each in their turn occupying lands,
houses, and domains; each in their turn also disappearing, and leaving
their inheritance to be enjoyed by others. David once observed the same,
and cried out, "Behold, thou hast made my days as an hand-breadth, and
mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is
altogether vanity. Surely every man walketh in a vain show; surely they
are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall
gather them" (Psal. xxxix. 5, 6).

Happy would it be for the rich, if they more frequently meditated on the
uncertainty of all their possessio