my
writing. My parents' duty and love to you are sent with these lines
from

"Your humble servant in Christ,

"E--- W---."

Epistolary communications, when written in sincerity of heart, afford
genuine portraits of the mind. May the foregoing be viewed with
Christian candour, and consecrated to affectionate memory!

PART VI.

Travellers, as they pass through the country, usually stop to inquire
whose are the splendid mansions which they discover among the woods and
plains around them. The families, titles, fortune, or character of the
respective owners, engage much attention. Perhaps their houses are
exhibited to the admiring stranger. The elegant rooms, costly furniture,
valuable paintings, beautiful gardens and shrubberies, are universally
approved; while the rank, fashion, taste, and riches of the possessor,
afford ample materials for entertaining discussion. In the meantime, the
lowly cottage of the poor husbandman is passed by as scarcely deserving
of notice. Yet, perchance, such a cottage may often contain a treasure
of infinitely more value than the sumptuous palace of the rich man--even
"the pearl of great price." If this be set in the heart of the poor
cottager, it proves a gem of unspeakable worth, and will shine among the
brightest ornaments of the Redeemer's crown, in that day when he maketh
up his "jewels."

Hence the Christian traveller, while in common with others he bestows his
due share of applause on the decorations of the rich, and is not
insensible to the beauties and magnificence which are the lawfully
allowed appendages of rank and fortune, cannot overlook the humbler
dwelling of the poor. And if he should find that true piety and grace
beneath the thatched roof which he has in vain looked for amidst the
worldly grandeur of the rich, he remembers the declarations in the word
of God. He sees with admiration that the high and lofty One, that
inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, who dwelleth in the high and
holy place, dwelleth with _him also_ that is of a contrite and humble
spirit (Isa. lvii. 15); and although heaven is his throne, and the earth
his footstool, yet, when a house is to be built and a place of rest to be
sought for himself, he says, "To this man will I look, even to him that
is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word" (Isa. lxvi.
2).

When a house is thus tenanted, Faith beholds this inscription written on
the walls, _The Lord