mosphere of great cities, Diaries were in vogue. They furnished amusement and correction to their authors, and many of them have come down to our own times, bringing with them facts and illustrations of the manners and events of that period, such as history, amidst its pompous detail of wars and dynasties, deigns not to communicate.

The memoirs of Hutchinson, Baxter, Evelyn, Pepys, and Hyde, afford abundant evidence of the value of this now-neglected practice; and from such stores the impartial historian, now the heat of party violence has subsided, collects materials to illustrate the peculiarities of the age, "and with blunt truth acquaints us what they were." They have, however, generally been employed as powerful moral instruments intended for selfcorrection, and have been so recommended. "Add, says a devout writer of the last century, a Diary, or the account you keep of the state of your own souls. In your offices or shops you have the state of your trade in journals, ledgers, and other books of accounts: in your oratories, have spiritual account books, several reckonings stated and recorded between God and you." *

Such a record, it has been well observed, might have the title of Marcus Antoninus's celebrated work, τῶν εις εαυτον, "himself to himself," or, more literally, "the things which concern himself." Mr. D'Israeli mentions, in his Curiosities of Literature, the Diary of a Colonel Harwood, in the reign of Charles the First, entitled, "Slips, Infirmities, and Passages of Providence." And such a title might be given to the curious manuscript before me. It is a thin quarto volume, com

prizing about two hundred pages, written in a plain female hand, and characterized by the negligent orthography of the times.

Though without a name, yet it commends itself to the confidence of the reader, by the simplicity and piety which mark every page; and though it does not possess historical opulence, yet it is rich in those details of Christian experience, which have made the Diary of Mr. Joseph Willianıs, and the Memoirs of Mrs. Graham, deserved favourites with serious persons of every communion. I propose, therefore, to select some of those passages which appear calculated to interest your readers, and on which I shall presume to make occasional remarks.

The volume commences with the following reflections;

" I doe thinke it my duty before it shall please the Lorde to take me to himselfe, to leave behinde me a true and faithfull accounte of God's mercys to me, and the manner of the spirits working upon my soul. The Spirit of God had begune his worke in the early days of my childhoode, and I have found great experiences of the Lord's tender love to me in Christ Jesus. O what fatherly care had the Lord over me in my maiden estate, and how has he kept me till now ! Yet I must own never creatture has more distrusted a good God than I have done. O how hard a thinge have I found it to believe what I had through the riches of grace experienced. O the feares and doubts that have bene in my spirit aboute my eternell estate; lying down and rising up, my feares here continued with me. Still I must confesse for the magnifying and extoling of the free and undeserved grace of God to me, that I have often experienced his great goodness in vanishing my

feares and causing me to hope for his free mercie through Christ. But as soon as the warme beams of God's love have bene with drawn, my feares have retourned, and I have bene led to question whether all be not a delusion. Indeede, when I considered how fast other Christians grow in grace, and thought that I could not tell whether I grew at all, I was greatly troubled. It was then given me to consider that the way to have more grace is to improve what I have received of the Lord. This stirred up a resolution in me to consider and looke backe upon God's past kindness to me, and tell to others what he hath done for my soule. I now implore, through the gracious promise of my Lorde, the assisting grace of the Spirit, that he may bring all things to my remembrance, and that bye his helpe I may declare what the Lord hath done for my soule."

The narrative of her early religious history succeeds. The following account of her early loss, child-like reflections thereon, and extraordinary recovery from sickness, will be read with interest.

"It pleased the Lorde to laye much sicknes and weakness upon me from my mother's breast, and my being so sicklie endeared me the more to my mother than any other of her children. About the age of 10 yeares, it pleased the Lorde to take my mother from me by death, and though I was but young, I had a great sense of my losse, which did cause many thoughts to arise in my minde. Fearing, now I had lost my mother, that no one else cared for mee, I thought in myselfe that if God would visibly owne me as one of his people, that my father would love me more than he did. These desires were surely the motions of God's Spirit in me, therefore did No. 37. N. S.

the Lorde take notice of mee, and did visibly own such a poore silley worm to be one of his deare children. O, I can say, when I was forsaken of my mother, then the Lorde tooke me up."

"The following accounte of the maner how I was taken was firste written by my father, and now written by myselfe, that I may declare God's goodness amongst his servants, in answering the requests which were then put up to the Lorde on my behalfe.

"On Wensday, July 13th, 1649, about fore of the clock in the afternoone, my daughter Elenor, of the age of aboute 13 yeares, was taken suddenly very sick, and grew light-headed, and within the space of one houre begane to have an inwarde and great conflict with Sattan, and being as it were in a trance, she prayed much, uttering such words as she usually did in her prayers.

"Then she uttered these and many such-like words

'O, who would have thought in the morning that I should have died before night.

'I am going into hell, where all drunkards, blasphemers, and liars are.'

'I have bene a liar-I have bene proude. O take warning by me, and do not sinne against your good God! O the devil will carey me away. But Christ is stronger than the devil. Canst not thou, O Lorde Jesus, gett me out of his power? I know thou wilt! Why dost thou delay? Why, Lord, dost thou not come and deliver me?"

O lay my head upon the stone where thou layest Jacob's head, and blesse me as thou didst blesse Jacob. I will not lett thee goe till thou hast blessed me.'

"After she lay still some time, she raised herselfe on the bed, and with a smyling countenance ut

D

tered, He telles me, he hath pardoned all my sins for his name sake. Looke, now looke, he is preparinge a robe of righteousness for me-now he is writing my name in the book of life, and says I shall live with him for ever, yea, and with all his saints, even with Abraham, Isack, and Jacob, Samuel and Daniel, and all his holy ones. He hath made me as righ teous as they, for they have only Christes righteousnesse, and so have I.'

'O my friends, see how good the Lorde is to my poore soul! Now he pours the oil of gladness into my soule! Let me alone-let me alone, that I may goe unto him - welcome sweet Lord JesusNow he is come into my soul, why will you not bid him welcome. O welcome, welcome sweet Lord Jesus.'

"Many more such glorious expressions did she utter for the space of three houres. She delivered these sayings with such a smyling countenance as was very wonderful to see. She then complained of thirst, and grew semingly to us very heart sicke. She neither looked up or opened her eyes, or even her teeth, to take a spoonful of any thing. She then strove to goe, as she said, to Christ, so that four were employed to holde her, and some times were enforced to put forth very much strength to keep her in bed. They then lett her goe to see what shee would doe when she soe earnestly desired to goe to Christ, but she fell on the ground, and had noe strength at all to stand; and whilst her limbs were at libertie, she beat them through the earnestness of her desire. There being a Christian meeting at my house at that very time, prayer was made unto God for her, and about halfe an houre past six there were many friends in the chamber

with weeping eyes, beholding her. I then went to prayer by her bed side, and as soone as I had uttered this request, that God would both pardon my sins and hers, whatever they might be, and that he would immediately restore her, and command the distemper to ceaseshe immediately opened her eyes, and looked up round about her, on which I earnestly desired the Lorde to give her strength to go down and declare his goodnesse to his assembled servants, that it might be a signe to them of his presence amonge them in their meetings, and that he would do it for the sake of Christ, who had purchased whatsoever a poor sinner should aske in his namewhen after manie more such petitions, I ended my prayers, and laid my handes on the bed to rayse myselfe off my knees, she reared herselfe up on the bed and said, Father, I thanke you, God has heard your prayers;' and she immediatelye rose up, and went down and continued very well. Praise, honnour, thankes, be unto God's holy name."

Extraordinary as this occurrence was, yet I am happy to find, that it produced no fanatical effects upon the mind of Elenor, either at that time or afterwards. She regarded it, indeed, as a wonderful answer to prayer, and as confirmatory of the apostolical declaration, that the prayer of faith shall save the sick; but there is no reason from her journal to suppose, that she rested her hope of salvation upon the impressions of an imagination, most probably at that time disturbed by disease. Therefore in the next paragraph she says,

"I must own ye hardnes and insensiblenes of my spirit, that I was not at all sensible of all the great grace and kindness of God to me; but for a considerable

time after this I went on in a formall waye professing to serve the Lorde."

"And now through the helpe of the holy Spirit, I will declare in what way and manner He wrought upon my spirit in my first conversion. I was from my childhoode well instructed in the

The land of Zebulon and the land of
Naphtali;

At the latter time, he maketh them glorious.

Towards the sea, on the coast of
Jordan, in Gallilee of the nations,

2. The people that were walking in dark. ness see a great light;

They who dwelled in the land of the shadow of death

The light shineth on them.

devoute example that was sett before me in my father's holy life. I was, therefore, never suffered to brake forthe into any grosse evills. The temper of my mind was fearfull and timid. Satan knowing my weakness, suited his temptations accordingly, and threw such suggestions into my mind, that I was afraid to go up and down the house; but these feares have

mentest their joy;

They rejoice before thee like the joy of harvest,

Like as men exult when dividing the spoil:

4. For their burdensome yoke, the rod for their back, the staff of their taskmaster,

Hast thou terribly broken; as in the day of Midian,

5. When every warrior put on his greaves

with trembling,

And the nightcloak was rolled in blood, And became a burning, food for the fire.

to pour out my complaints before

the Lorde.

son is given;

And the government shall be committed

to him;

"At other times I have had

such a great sense of my lost estate, that I have looked on the

And his name shall be called,
The Wonderful, The Counsellor, The
Mighty God,

The Eternal Father, The Peaceful Prince;

how much better their condition

than my owne whilst out of Christ these have made

me

runne to godlie prayer, and there I have had reliefe. My mind was also awakened to these duties, by considering the shortnes of life, and that if I died without

Christ I am undone for ever!

"It pleased the Lord to stir up in me holy purposes, and resolutions of giving up myselfe to him. To a constancie in his worship and ways, choosing God to be my God-his way for my ways, and his people for mine for ever." (To be continued.)

1. Spread abroad," מוצק, is generally taken as a verbal noun trom צוק ; and this might unquestionably be the case; for, with a slight variation of the pointing, the same word occurs, Job xxxvi. 16. Thus considered, however, the meaning, as every attentive reader must have observed, is embarrassed. The word in question may, with equal propriety, be considered as part. hoph. of יצק, which, besides the meaning of pouring forth, has that of placing,

or spreading abroad. (See Josh. vii. 23; 2 Sam. xv. 24.) It is thus rendered above, in construction with מועף, "darkness."

" In the former time"-" in the latter time." The periods here contemplated are the Mosaic and the Christian dispensations. "He treated with contempt." This is the literal signification of the verb הקל, as is " he made glorious," that of הכביד. There is no nominative expressed, and perhaps the more correct rendering in English would be, by the passive agreeing with the regions mentioned. Zebulon and Naphtali were, excepting Asher, the northernmost settlements of the twelve tribes; at the greatest distance from the Temple, and from the abodes of their kings. The people of those parts were proverbially ignorant and irreligious. Thus, both by the dispensations of Providence, and in the general esteem of the nation, they were despised. But " at the latter time," i. e. during the ministry of our Lord, they became glorious. There he chiefly dwelt, most frequently preached, performed very numerous miracles; and from thence he chose his apostles. See Matt. iv. 14-16. The same parts are otherwise denominated, in what is usually considered the conclusion of this sentence, but which is more correctly understood as the beginning of the following. "Toward," דרך commonly "the way;" it has also the adverbial use here assigned to it, (see 1 Kings viii. 48; Ezek. viii. 5.) which the absence of a prefix shows to be more appropriate in this place.

II. The happy change to be accomplished, ver, 2-5.

Ver. 3. " their joy ;" לא, the negative, is inappropriate. Most translators have therefore adopted the marginal reading, לו, and are here followed. "Harvest" was

an occasion not only of national, but of sacred joy; it was one of the seasons for assembling before Jehovah. (Exod. xxiii. 16.) Hence the propriety of the expression, "they rejoice before thee."

on

4. " Burdensome yoke:" literally, "yoke of his burden," which is here correctly divested of its idiom. "Rod for their back:" literally, "of their shoulder;" שכם is the upper part of the back, where burdens are borne, and stripes were inflicted slaves. The people are represented as groaning under oppression, pressed down with burdens, urged on by taskmasters, and lacerated by stripes. Whatever reference there might be to the civil condition of those parts, at the time predicted, the chief reference is undoubtedly to the state of moral slavery, into which they were reduced, bowed down with grievous burdens, which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear. "Hast thou terribly

The

broken." The verb signifies both to dash in pieces, and to terrify: I have associated the ideas"In the day of Midian." allusion is to the history recorded, Judges, chap. vii. Gideon with his chosen band surprised the Midianitish army by night. The sudden blowing of the trumpets, and display of lights in all quarters, roused that numerous host in the greatest alarm; and before they had time for completely equipping themselves, they rushed on each other. These circumstances are poetically described in the next verse, which has been misunderstood by most translators. G. B. Funk, a distinguished orientalist, appears to have been the first who justly illustrated the idea of the sacred penman. (Dathe in loc.)

5. "Every warrior, &c." סאן סואן The terms no where else