O, my dear ones, in this trying time, may we all so believe, and so do, that we may find ourselves approved, when men shall be finally judged. If any thing should occur which may separate us, let us direct our steps to heaven, where we shall meet, to part no more. Our church is now driven to the wilderness. The blood of her people flows on the scaffold: their groanings are heard in the desert. But God hath not forsaken her, she shall yet shout for joy, and clap her hands for gladness of heart. We may be gone, my dear ones, ere the day of her mourning end; but, by suffering cheerfully, we shall have done our part: we shall have our reward: and, when our church takes her sorrowful harp from the willow, and tunes it to the melody of joy in the peaceful temple, our memories shall not be forgotten."

When Mr. Bruce had thus spoken, he kneeled down with his family in the cave, and besought for them the blessing, even life that shall never end. And then you might have heard the psalm of praise mingling its holy melody with the blast of night.

Still, Religion, thou art happiness! Thou hast, indeed, trials appointed for thy followers; but thou comest in the strength of God, and leadest

them out through them all. As the darkness of the world thickens around them, thou sheddest a brighter light on the cloudless clime whither they are travelling. As the cup, of which the wickedness of man forces them to drink comes nearer the bitterness of its dregs, thou pourest more copiously into their souls the sweetness of eternal life. As they have days of severe fatigue and wandering, and nights more wearisome and watchful, thou layest the repose of their souls nearer the bosom of their God. Wo unto him who seeketh his happiness apart from thee! He shall be miserably disappointed.

CHAPTER IV.

-Their blood is shed
In confirmation of the noblest claim,-
Our claim to feed upon immortal truth,
To walk with God, to be divinely free.

Yet few remember them. They lived unknown,
Till persecution dragged them into fame,

And chased them up to heaven. Their ashes flew
-No marble tells us whither."

COWPER.

FOUR years of suffering had now passed since Mr. Bruce and his family were driven from their comfortable home. But although many of his flock had been thrown into prison, and sent into banishment, had endured the cruelties of torture, or died on the scaffold, and although they had themselves often made the narrowest escape from the vigilance of their fell pursuers, none of them had yet fallen into their hands. The time was not far off, however, when they were to feel more severely, the cruelties of persecution.

.

On a Sabbath evening, in the month of September, Mr. Bruce, with his wife and children, left the cave, to meet some of his flock in a wild glen in the neighborhood, where he was to deliver a sermon. When they arrived at the appointed place, there was about a score assembled ;-some of them stood, some seated themselves on the cold turf, while Mr. Bruce took his station by a large stone, on which he rested the Bible, and read, or rather repeated, for the night was dark, the following verses from the twenty-third psalm:

"The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want;

He makes me down to lie

In pastures green: he leadeth me
The quiet waters by.

Then, as it is beautifully expressed by Grahame,

rose the song, the loud

Acclaim of praise. The wheeling plover ceased
Her plaint: the solitary place was glad;

And on the distant cairn, the watcher's ear

Caught, doubtfully at times, the breeze-borne note." After this Mr. Bruce lifted up their fervent prayer to the throne of grace; and then repeated his text, from the same psalm which had been sung, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, yet will I fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."

This consolatory passage he illustrated by showing how they, who had the rod and staff of the Almighty to support them, needed fear no evil. This rod and staff, he showed, were no less than the infinite love, and wisdom, and power of God, engaged in the preservation of the righteous. This truth he illustrated at considerable length, and with more of elegance than was common to the preachers of the time. We shall content ourselves, however, by giving the concluding part of the discourse.

66 we

"If then," said the fervent preacher, have the love, and the wisdom, and the power of God engaged in our protection, what have we to fear from the cruelties of men, the malignity of