ОР MRS MARY LUNDIE DUNCAN. BEING RECOLLECTIONS OF A DAUGHTER. BY HER MOTHER. No tears for thee-though our lone spirits mourn J C. L. NEW YORK: ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS. No. 285 BROADWAY. PREFACE. THIS little Work treats of the initiatory steps of an immortal being-steps, feeble and insignificant if viewed alone, but assuming value and importance when considered as terminating in an eternal destiny. By such steps is each human course commenced-and such is the solemn result involved in its mortal termination. The chief benefit derived from Christian biography, is its exhibiting to the eye, the image of Christ in the character of his servant; the manner in which that blessed image first began to be formed-and the various means and incidents which contributed to its advancement towards perfection. Growth is the only sure token of healthy spiritual life. The soul has its winter and its spring times, its seasons of seeming check and deadness, and its seasons of shooting upward from the earthly toward the heavenly charac/ter. A faithful writer remarks, that "the soul may suppose itself acquainted with its corruption in its length and breadth, while, perhaps, it has only moistened its lips at the bitter cup, and may subsequently be constrained to drink much more of it." And thus it is that the Christian must travel the same path more than once. Soul searchings must be renewed-repentings require to be repented of. Love to the Mighty Deliverer, who has performed the wonderful rescue, may at first be ardent and grateful-afterwards, it will become humble and intelligent, with the increasing perception, that not only the first deciding movement from death to life, but each particular step of the journey through the wilderness, must be guided and upheld by Him who bestows the temper of strangers and pilgrims, and who keeps his people by his own power, through faith unto salvation. The experienced reader may find both pleasure and improvement, in tracing the various seasons of spiritual |