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his present abode. Adverting to the painfulness of the separation from his friends in general, he writes: "I often feel my heart sick when I recollect the sacrifices I must make of friends, such as few, very few, have been blessed with. But," he piously adds, "I am persuaded that prayer can traverse sea and land, and not only keep affection alive between absent friends, but send blessings from one to the other."

"I

On the day before he embarked he wrote an affectionate letter to his mother, which breathes the devoted Christian as well as the tender son. think," he says, "and I hope, I am going on God's service. I am not conscious of any unworthy or secular ends, and I hope for His blessing and protection both for myself and for those dear persons who accompany me, and whom I leave behind. God Almighty bless and prosper you, my beloved mother, may He comfort and support your age, and teach you to seek always for comfort where it may be found, in his salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord." To his sister he adds, in the same letter, "Bless you, dear, dear Mary, you and your worthy husband. May He make you happy in your children, and in each other, in time and eternity. I know we have all your prayers as you have ours. I hope and believe that we shall be useful, and if useful, happy, where we are going; and we trust in God's good Providence for bringing us together again in peace, when a few short years are ended in this world, if he sees it good for us; if not, yet in that world where there shall be no more parting nor sorrow, but where God shall wipe all tears from all eyes, and we shall join our dear father whom God has called to himself before us."

The circumstances attending Bishop Heber's untimely death are well known. The melancholy event took place about three years after he was appointed to the see. It occurred when he was on one of his laborious visitations to the southern provinces of his extensive diocese (April 3, 1826). The last mention we have of his mother is in a letter he wrote to his wife, when on a journey through such a pestilential district that even the monkeys and other animals generally inhabiting the neighbourhood fled from it at certain times of the year for several months together. Feeling the danger of his situation, and the consequent probability that he should never return to his family, he wrote to entreat his wife, in the event of his death, to bear his loss patiently, and trust in the Almighty to raise her up friends; adding a request that she would transmit his affectionate love and the assurance of his prayers to his dear mother, brother, (his younger brother was then dead), sister, and others bound to him by the ties of blood and friendship. He was preserved, however, through this hazardous tour.

Reginald Heber is best known and deservedly esteemed as a Christian Poet, but his pastoral and missionary labours are those which were, doubtless, most truly beneficial to the world.

The following lines from his own graceful pen are applicable to himself:

"Thou art gone to the grave! but we will not deplore thee,

Though sorrow and darkness encompass the tomb :

The Saviour has passed through its portals before thee,
And the lamp of his love is thy guide through the gloom.

Thou art gone to the grave! but 'twere wrong to deplore thee,
For God was thy ransom, thy guardian and guide;

He gave thee, He took thee, and He will restore thee;
And Death has no sting, since the Saviour has died.

MRS. GURNEY,

MOTHER OF THE GURNEY FAMILY.

THOUGH this excellent woman was removed by death from the family circle when the eldest of her children was only seventeen, yet she was spared to them long enough to inculcate principles, and stimulate benevolent feelings, for which, in after life, several of them were eminently distinguished. The indefatigable Mrs. Fry had her kindly sympathies drawn out for her suffering fellow-creatures, in the first instanee, by becoming the companion of her mother in her visits to the poor, in their neighbourhood.

Mrs. Gurney was the wife of John Gurney, Esq. of Earlham Hall, in Norfolk, a worthy individual, and a member of the Society of Friends; to which society she herself also belonged. She was a

woman of great ability as well as piety, and this was shown by the manner in which she educated her children. It was natural that in giving religious instruction she should lean towards her own peculiar views, but she was too liberal and christian in principle to endeavour to bias them in favour of any particular section of the Church of Christ. The following are some of the regulations she laid down to be adopted in her plan of education :

"As our endeavours in education (as in every other pursuit) should be regulated by the ultimate design, it would be certainly wise in those engaged in the important office of instructing youth, to consider what would render the objects of their care estimable when men or women, rather than what will render them pleasing as children. These reflections have led me to decide upon what I most covet for my daughters, as the result of our daily pursuits. As piety is undoubtedly the shortest and securest way to all moral rectitude, young women should be virtuous and good, on the broad firm basis of Christianity; therefore, it is not the opinions of any man or sect whatever, that are to be inculcated in preference to those rigid but divine truths contained in the New Testament.

"As it appears to be our reasonable duty to improve our faculties, and by that means to render ourselves useful, it is necessary, and very agreeable to be well informed of our own language and the Latin, as being the most permanent, and the French as being the most in general request.

"The simple beauties of mathematics appear to be so excellent an exercise to the understanding, that they ought on no account to be omitted, and are perhaps scarcely less essential than a competent knowledge of ancient and modern history, geography, and chronology; to which may be added, a knowledge of the most approved branches of natural history, and a capacity for drawing from Nature, in order to promote that knowledge, and facilitate the pursuit of it. As a great portion of a woman's life ought to be passed in at least regulating the subordinate affairs of a family, she should work plain work neatly herself, understand

the cutting out of linen; also, she should not be ignorant of the common proprieties of a table, or deficient in the economy of any of the most minute affairs of a family. It should be here observed, that gentleness of manner is indispensably necessary in women, to say nothing of that polished behaviour which adds a charm to every qualification; to both of which it appears pretty certain children may be led without vanity or affectation, by amiable and judicious instruction."

The wisdom of the above plans for instruction, was made manifest in the after conduct of the family.

Mrs. Gurney, at her death, left eleven children to deplore her loss-seven girls and four boys. Elizabeth, afterwards Mrs. Fry, is best known to the world on account of the prominent part she took in reforming prisons, and in other labours of benevolence. But all her sisters were highly intellectual and amiable women; and some of them exerted a singularly beneficial influence on society. The eldest daughter encouraged her sisters in every good work; assisting them with her valuable counsel, and on her devolved the principal management of her father's house. Hannah was married early in life to Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, but of her we shall have occasion to speak in the next sketch. Priscilla Gurney appears to have been a woman of extraordinary power of mind, as well as eminent piety. She gave up the pleasures of that elegant society she at one time adorned, to devote herself to God. She became a preacher in the Society of Friends; and her brother-in-law, Sir F. Buxton, speaks of her eloquence as being almost unparalleled, and of her

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