Watts - Houston-Packer Collection BX5207.W3 S4x 1805 v.2

rose. Ir.] itE PlATCIiPIIL CIIIrISTIANDÌ ING IN PEAct. 371 which the God of nature had given her, '.and which was so well furnished with a variety of human and divine knowledge, and wa's $toyed with a rich treasure of the word of God, so that if providence had called her into a more public appearance, she might have stood up in the world as " a burning and shining light," so far as her sex and station required. This furniture of the mind seems, indeed, to be lost in death, and buried in the grave ; but we give in too much to the judgment of sense; did not this extensive knowledge lay a foundation for her early piety? And did it tìot, by this means, prepare her fOr a more speedy removal to a higher school of improvement, and a world of sublimer devotion? And does she not shine there among brighter and better company ? We' mourn again for our loss of a person so valuable, whenwe think of that general calmness and sedateness of soul, which she possessed in a peculiar degree, so that she was not greatly elevated or depressed by cómnon accidents or occurrences; but this secured her from the rise of unruly passions, those stormy powers of nature, which sometimes sink us into guilt and distress, and make us unwilling and afraid of the sudden surnrnons of Christ, lest he should find us under these disorders. We think of her firmness of spirit, and that steady fesOlution, which, joined with a natural reserve, was a happy guard against many of the forward follies and dangers of youth, and proved a "successful defence' against some of the allurements and' temptations of the gayer years of life: And then we mourn' afresh, that a person, so well formed for growingprudence and virtue, should be so suddenly snatched away from amongst us. But this steady and dispassionate frame ofsoul, well im-. proved by religion and divine grace, became an effec- tual means to preserve her youthmore unblemished, and made her spirit fitter for the heavenly world, where " nothing can enter that ìs defiled," and whose delights are not tumultuous as -ours are on earth; but all is a. calm and rational state of joy. We lament yet further, when we think of her native goodness, and unwillingness to displease But goodness is the very temper of that region to which she is goge, B

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