human hopes !-she received official information that the East Indiaman, in which they were sailing, had met with a succession of tempestuous winds, and on a certain coast had foundered and become a total wreck. Himself and his lady, with all their furniture, trinkets, papers, and everything valuable, were destroyed by the waves. With what an aching heart did I proceed to the palace on hearing the dismal tidings. How would she bear them? What should I say to comfort her? How bear up myself under such a trying dispensation? But, on approaching her, I soon discovered how needless were all such fears and surmisings. Never before had I seen such a spectacle of Christian heroism—such an instance of the power of faith in the wisdom, sovereignty, and righteousness of God as was then presented to me. At the door appeared her fine and venerable form, with the fatal letter in her hand; accosting me with these words, as I find them recorded in my diary; " My dear pastor-God sustains me-it is all right-I utter not a murmuring word 'the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away,'" and, clasping her hands together, and looking up to heaven, she added with fervent exclamation, "blessed be the name of the Lord!" I was lost in admiration at the elevation of her spirit. The speech of the heathen matron, who remained unmoved on hearing that her son had been slain in battle, saying, "I knew that I had begotten a mortal," has in it something unnatural; but the speech of this Christian lady, by showing her sensibilities to be alive, and yet her mastery over them by Divine aid, enlists our sympathies, and calls forth our warmest admiration. That tranquillity with which God had so mercifully endowed her, she never lost, but continued steadfast in the faith and hope of the Gospel, and abounding therein with thanksgiving.

The pious and eloquent Jeremy Taylor, before he was

made a bishop, suffered much from the troubles of the times and the persecuting spirit of the men in power. His living at Uppingham was sequestered, his house plundered, his estate seized, and his family driven out of doors. He found. an asylum in the house of a friend, where he composed one of the noblest of his works, his "Holy Living and Dying." About this time it was that he drew the following beautiful and touching picture of the state of his mind.

"I am fallen into the hands of publicans and sequestrators, and they have taken all from me: what now ! Let me look about me. They have left me the sun and the moon, fire and water, a loving wife, and many friends to pity me, and some to relieve me, and I can still discourse, and unless I list, they have not taken from me my merry countenance and my cheerful spirit, and a good conscience; they have still left me the providence of God, and all the promises of the Gospel, and my religion, and my hopes of heaven, and my charity to them too; and still I sleep and digest, I eat and drink, I read and meditate. I can walk in my neighbour's pleasant fields and see the variety of natural beauties, and delight in all that in which God delights-that is, in virtue and wisdom, in the whole creation, and in God himself. And he that hath so many causes of joy, and so great, is very much in love with sorrow and peevishness, who loses all these pleasures, and chooses to sit down upon his little handful of thorns."

The Preciousness of Life.

"Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.”

JOB ii. 4.

In the thrilling narrative of the wreck of an American steam vessel, in September, 1857, some remarkable facts are

stated, which afford striking comments on different portions of Scripture, and disclose the wondrous powers of human endurance in perilous circumstances, as well as the proofs of the preserving care of Divine Providence over human beings amidst the dangers of the deep.

The vessel was on her way from California to New York, with a cargo of five hundred passengers, and the treasure they had obtained in the diggings (about two millions sterling), with which to settle in their native country in wealth and affluence. Soon after leaving Havannah, they encountered a tremendous storm, which continued unceasingly till Friday, the thirteenth day of the month, when, owing to the stoppage of the engines from the want of a proper supply of fuel, the vessel was kept in a trough of the sea, and, a leak taking place, began to fill.

And now, says the narrative, occurred a noble instance of astonishing bravery and generosity. All night long the male passengers assisted the crew in baling out the water, being joined by some of the women, many of whom were on board. Till noon the following day they laboured, hoping against hope to save the vessel till some friendly sail might come to their help. As despair was coming upon them, they descried at a distance the brig Marine, which stood off to help those who could reach it. All the women and children, twenty-eight of whom were babes, were got into the boats, and with a portion of the crew, sailed off to the brig, not a male passenger interfering for his own safety till those were all launched. "There was not a tear shed on board the steamer," says a female survivor, that I am aware of, up to the time we first espied the sail which brought us relief. There seemed to be a perfect calmness, which I could not have believed to be possible for such a number of persons to exhibit under such fearful circum

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stances. Three or four hundred men, with death staring them in the face, stood solid as a rock, nor made a movement for the boats until they saw us all on our way, at about four o'clock in the afternoon, to the little brig that was waiting to receive us." To the noble intrepidity which was exhibited at that juncture, was owing the safety of many lives. Had there been any scrambling or rushing to the boats, they must have been swamped, and the whole have been lost in the confusion. Presence of mind in danger, if only as a means to keep others cool and courageous, is to be sought after and implored as an inestimable boon.

But now came the struggle for the safety of their own lives, of those who were left in the vessel, as it gave every sign of parting before the boat could return. Here was seen the immense value attached by them to the continuance of their existence above everything else. The adage was indeed verified in the strictest sense, which says, "Skin for skin (or skin after skin), yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life." Their first care was to avail themselves of their "life preservers ;" and being abundantly supplied with these, they braced themselves as tightly as possible, keeping nothing about them but what would be subservient to buoyancy, intending to commit themselves at all hazards to the boisterous waves. How differently did they now regard that hoarded treasure which a short while before had engaged all their hopes, and had been as their very life. Many were persons of large means, and there were but few whose immediate wealth did not amount to hundreds of pounds, while numbers reckoned their gold brought from the diggings they had left by thousands of dollars. But as the storm continued to rage, less and less was thought of gold; and when towards the close of Saturday it became

evident that they were likely at any moment to be buried beneath the waves, wealthy men divested themselves of their treasure-belts, and scattered the gold upon the cabin floors, telling those who would to take it, lest its weight of a few ounces or pounds should carry them to their death. Full purses, containing in some instances two thousand dollars, were lying on sofas untouched. Carpet bags were opened, and the shining metal was poured out upon the floor with the prodigality of death's despair. One of the passengers, who was subsequently rescued, opened a bag, and dashed about the cabin twenty thousand pounds' worth of gold and permitted any one to take it who chose. But it was passed by untouched as the veriest dust. They had said unto gold, Thou art my hope, and to fine confidence;" but where was it now? a vain hope, and that which would prove an injury to them. Thus is the state of the mind changed by circumstances. How well is it to have this change wrought in our disposition by grace, instead of waiting for it to be effected only by the prospect of immediate death!

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gold, Thou art my They saw it was but

They sink in the mighty waters, and to save themselves, cling to the broken spars, barrels, and planks of the floating wreck. Of the few who remained to the last by the captain, one survived to tell the extraordinary tale of his agonizing feelings and marked intrepidity, as he resolved not to leave his post till the waters should close over his head, "I felt myself," says a Mr. George, "drawn in by the whirlpool of the sinking vessel, which went down at last with the speed of an arrow to her ocean-bed. Night had closed in, and I was carried by her swift descent to a depth which seemed unfathomable, and into a darkness that I had never dreamt of. Compared with it, the blackest night, without moon or star, was as the broad noonday. I was stunned rather than