glint of sunshine, and closed with a deep and dreary shadow; years which have opened with a threatening gloom, which has melted away, amid the calmness and quiet clearness of a summer evening. What a blessed and happy thought it is, that in all these changes we have been together, ever sharers of the joy and of the sorrow. We have been together in the valley, we have been together on the hill. We have passed together through the waters, and even the furnace has not been wholly untried. How much cause have we to bless God that he has thus in this holy and close companionship brought a sweetness into every bitter, and made every blessing twice blessed. And still, as year after year rolls on, how sweet it is to feel that, amid the bustle and the toil and the strife of out-door enterprise, all our world is within the walls of our own dear home-that there our hearts are soothed and calmed-that we ever turn there, not with the mere instinct which makes the bird wing its way to its nest, but with the full intelligence of love; that there is to us a spring of earthly blessing, which our heavenly Father in Christ has graciously opened with an unsparing hand, to fill our hearts with joy and gladness. This we know and fully understand, and from our own sweet retreat we look around, and while on the one hand we can pass unheeded the coldness and the enmity of an unfeeling, because a godless, world, we are all the better prepared on the other hand to breathe forth the emotions of love towards those who are dear to us. May our gracious Master in his mercy continue to bless us and our household, and above all may he sanctify us in all our mercies and all our trials, and make us each a blessing to the other. I pray that the riches of his grace may be poured into your heart, and that without measure; that every year, as it passes away, may find you walking with a quickened step to Zion, with a livelier ear for your Master's voice, and a sweeter voice for him. May you continually rest upon the King, and your heart be filled with his love. May

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your feet be established on the rock, and may you come up the wilderness leaning on the arm of your beloved. May every spiritual blessing be yours. May every temporal blessing which is for your good be bestowed. May our children grow up at your side to be your joy. May you be a faithful friend, and a sweet counsellor, and a loving guide to them, both to our own dear child and to the adopted one who is also so dear to us. Bear with me, and, though it is little worth, accept my heart's fullest love so freely given to you, and cease not, dearest, to pray for me. Times of perplexity are at hand. My mind shrinks and quails within me when I picture before me what may be at the door. The deep conviction of a coming crisis often presses down and overburdens my soul-the call that there may be for a testimony soon, which shall be as emphatic and clear in its utterance as tremendous in its consequences, coming with its foreshadowing cloud upon the mind, making the soul first recoil upon itself and then take its flight to God for safety and support. You have been a little tested already. Thanks be to God for his grace which has kept you faithful. He that has strengthened you in times past will not fail you in years to come, when times that need decision and energy may arise. I know I shall not find you wanting, for I know the faithfulness of him who has recorded this blessed promise for you, "Thy shoes shall be iron and brass, and as thy day so shall thy strength be." But I must for the present say good-bye, and God bless you. May the eternal God be your refuge, and underneath the everlasting arms.

Ever your fondly attached husband,

MY BELOVED WIFE,

D. T. K. DRUMMOND.

May 30th, 1853.

Again I have the blessed privilege of wishing you many happy returns of your birthday. The last year was spent in Switzer

land, this sees us once more in dear old Scotland. Oh, how precious it is to think that the year which shall never wear out, in which no wintry blasts shall blight the bloom of summer beauty, will be in heaven. How delightful to look to that as the close of earthly birthdays, even the rest that remaineth for the people of God in the better land. It is to this that we ought to be ever looking forward; not so much counting the years as they rapidly pass away, but as diminishing the distance between us and that day which, strange as it may sound to the unsanctified, is by the statement of infallible truth declared to be better than the day of one's birth. We can recount many mercies since last May-mercies in going out and in coming in; and though we have not been without anxieties, yet has our cup been full to overflowing, and goodness and mercy have followed us continually. My greatest of earthly blessings is your being spared to me,-one so dear to my heart, and to whom I can always look with comfort and confidence. The Lord bless you abundantly, and give you sevenfold into your own bosom. How sweet it is to feel encouraged on the whole regarding our beloved children. Much yet to be done; many weeds to be pulled up, and much good seed to be sown; but I trust in my heart that there are some indications of hearts being touched. Oh for the former and the latter rain in their season, to refresh and fertilize, and for the south wind to blow softly on our garden, that it may give forth its spicy fragrance.

I do trust, dearest, that you may soon see some precious fruit from your careful training and unceasing prayers. And now let me wish you every spiritual and every temporal blessing that is good for you. May you be like Mary, ever at the feet of Jesus. May you be like the Syrophenician woman, a suppliant that will take no refusal. May you be like Dorcas for the poor, and Lydia for the stranger; and may your children read and keep the holy Scriptures as Timothy. May you have

unceasingly in your own heart the presence of him who gives light as well as peace, and understanding as well as comfort. May the year you have begun be the happiest of all years, and may each succeeding one be happier still, until time shall be no more. May all that is happy surround you, and all that is holy be in you. May Christ be hid in your heart, his peace abide with you, his joy be your strength. This and far more than I can express comes as earnest prayer from my heart.

Ever your most affectionate husband,

D. T. K. Drummond.

MY DARLING WIFE,

St. Fillans, May 30th, 1870.

Many many happy returns of your birthday. You are my Queen of May still, not only as much, but if possible still more than when I managed to give you the title in a wreath of flowers, in our first parsonage at Compton. Many years have passed since, but our love has always been coming and never going. The happy, holy bonds, which have bound us together in the Lord, have only brought us nearer to each other, as I trust they have brought us nearer to him. There is neither autumn nor winter in our love; it is ever spring, and ever summersome faint emblem, surely, of the higher, the deeper, and the more wondrous love, which shall exist for ever in the kingdom of our God, between Christ and the Lamb's wife. I am glad that your birthday happens this year amid the quiet and the peace of this glorious country, rather than in the bustle of Edinburgh. These everlasting hills tell their own story to us as years roll on. He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. And they tell us more: "The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith

the Lord that hath mercy upon thee." That sweet, lovely lake seems sometimes, as it did, you remember, the other day, a fit emblem of the sea of glass. These pure streams from the rocks tell us of the fountain of living waters, unto which the Lamb shall lead us for evermore. The trees, the flowers, the glorious lights on hill and valley, the voice of the singing birds in the land, touch the several chords of joyful expectation of what our inheritance shall be, when the earth, redeemed from the curse and every trace of it, shall be indeed and in truth Emmanuel's land. May we be refreshed by these fair works of our heavenly Father's hand, and go back again to the works of the Lord, amid the crush and pressure of these latter days, until the evening. I can say of you, as dear old Paul said of one in the Philippian Church, "true yokefellow." Your wise counsel, loving sympathy, tender thoughtfulness, and gentle firmness, have been my greatest and best of blessings. The day will declare what I owe to you as regards the steadfastness of my ministry, as far as under God it has in any measure been steadfast; and I owe to you much of my home peace and happiness and unalloyed joy. In health, in sickness, and in weakness it has been so, and I know it will be so as long as we are spared to each other. God bless

you.

Ever your attached Husband,

D. T. K. DRUMMOND.

MY OWN DARLING WIFE,

Ardtroshtan, May 30th, 1876.

A most happy and blessed new year to you; for although there is the new year to us which comes to us all, there is but one to each of us, in which the circle of our own particular life begins its course. May you be refreshed and happy and joyful in your new year's day, and have a bright and happy foretaste many to come. We have seen many changes in our one life.

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