occasion to urge him. He tasked himself every day, and generally committed a long chapter accurately every week, besides his other studies. I have mentioned these circumstances by way of encouragement to his little cousins. For the great comfort he enjoyed on his sick bed seemed to be intimately connected with this application. During his sickness, whenever I repeated a passage of Scripture, he had an appropriate one to answer. He appeared to have a clear view of the great plan of Salvation; but could not apply it to himself, till a very short time before his death. I cannot, my dear sister, describe to you my feelings at this time. My mind, which for twenty-four hours had been in an' agony, was suddenly relieved, the burden fell off, and my dear son, whom I had viewed summoned at the bar of God not knowing what would be the final sentence, I now viewed as united with the heavenly choristers, singing halelujahs to Him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His blood. I could not mourn, but. rejoice. How little did I know myself! Nature often will prevail, and grief comes in like a flood. I then fly to the last scene, when I am compelled to silence, and cry out, "My Lord and my God, whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth. that I desire beside thee.' He will be better to me than sons and daughter. O my sister, when death comes in our family, how does it bring eternity to our view! May this afflicting dispensation be a means of making us all more faithful to ourselves, and those committed to our care and may his sisters and cousins be more earnest in that great preparation which will enable them to spend an eternity with him."

The father, in a letter giving information of this bereavement, thus

writes:

"The Lord has seen fit to strike precisely where I had not looked for it. I have often thought of my children's dying, but scarcely ever of Peter's; his life seemed to be indispensable, and his rugged health perhaps cherished this forgetfulness of his mortality. But the Lord had planned it differently, and by the execution of his plan, has said, "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils."

In addition to the general obligation to exercise patience and resignation, and to the many promises to bring a happy result from afflictions, there were some circumstances attending this dispensa. tion well calculated to inspire submission, nay more, to excite our tearful joy, and our ardent thanks even in the very midst of grief. Oh, Sir, if mercies mingled with afflictions were decisive evidence that afflictions were the chastisements of a Father reconciled in Christ, methinks I could never again doubt that I was a child of God. I know not that I could have asked the Lord for any circumstance to attend the death of my little boy, in which he has not mercifully anticipated my wishes.

On the morning of Saturday the 28th of Dec. he was taken very

ill, and had a very sick day.-The medicine administered had the designed effect, and on the Lord's day he was better-on Monday quite better; towards evening, however, he complained of severe pains. These increased through the night, and towards morning, being exceedingly restless, he exclaimed, "O mama, this pain will take me off, I cannot stand it long." I made a remark on the frailty of life, and asked what he would think if the Lord should call him to die? "O papa, said he, if I was prepared, I think I would not be afraid to die." His sickness proved to be the typhus fever, which from-this time rapidly progressed with its deleterious effects. We often spoke to him of death and its consequences, and found that the subject did not alarm or discompose him; he expressed no desire of life, and no fear of death, but frequently a desire to be prepared for it. His mother asked him, on Wednesday morning, whether he had heard his Papa's prayer; "O yes, mama," said he, "how beautifully he prayed for me. O that I could have an interest in the Lord Jesus Christ!" Through the course of that day and the next, I observed to him, My son, the Lord only can be your helper now, Do you pray to him? "0 yes, papa," said he, "I pray all the time."-For what do you pray, my son?" For a new heart," said he. At another time, in answer to the same question, he said, "For an interest in the Lord Jesus Christ." His mother asked him, on his saying he was a sinner, if he could not say with the Publican, God be merciful to me a sinner? "Yes, mama," said he, "I can say it, but this will not do, I must feel it too." He more than once express

ed his satisfaction that his mama had made him commit so much of the Scriptures to memory; "For," said he, "I can now recollect and think of many passages which give me comfort." On Friday morning, he wished his mother to raise the curtain of the window, that he might once more look out of doors, adding, "I may never have another opportunity." His mother gratified him, and observed, My dear son, if you become an inhabitant of the New Jerusalem, you will not need the light of the sun. "O no," said he, "the Sun of Righteousness shines for ever there," and immediately added this text: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." He soon after this began rapidly to decline, and we gave up our only son as lost to us. About 11 o'clock he seemed to be expiring, and we all stood around his bed to see the last. His mother took a last view of him, and after giving him up to God, she had retired into the adjoining room, unwilling to witness his final struggle ;-when, to our astonishment and inexpressible satisfaction, and as if ransomed for a moment from the grave for the express purpose of giving to his parents the best of all consolations in his death, he suddenly revived, and with an eager and impressive look surveyed his weeping friends, and with a strong and solemn voice exclaimed, "Why do you murmur, and why do you mourn? I am not going to hell, I am

going to heaven, God will not send me to hell;-he is my Deliverer-my Saviour-ny Refuge my Rock on which I buildmy Hope in life and death.' His dear mother, on hearing he had revived, flew to his bed. My dear son,' said she, can you now be sure the Lord is your Saviour?' 'Yes, mama,' replied he, " I shall not die, I think my God has told me so-My God has told me so. He is my Shepherd, he will take care of his sheep, and bring them into his fold. The good seed sown in good ground, will spring up and bring forth an hundred fold," (referring, as was sup posed, to the pains she had taken in teaching him the Scriptures and the Catechism.) In this strain he continued speaking for a time, and then lifting up his eyes to heaven, and in a most solemn voice addressed a continued prayer to God, expressive of the greatest confidence and joy in him as his God and Saviour. After this, for a few minutes, some more conversation ensued:-I observed to him, My dear son, you have often said the prayer, Thy will be done in heaven, and earth. O yes, papa,' replied he with a great emphasis, I have, as in heaven so on earth. He looked around, and with a remarkable force of voice, repeated that verse, Death, 'tis a melancholy day to them that have no God,' &c. On which his mama observed, I hope, my dear, when you pass through the valley of the shadow of death, you will fear no evil;' he immediately caught the passage and repeated the whole verse. His mother brought one of his young acquaintance to his bed, and asked if he knew her: Yes,' said he, Gertrude, Jesus is the Almighty Father and Prince of Peace, he is my Saviour.' 'Ann,' said he to his sister, will you meet me in heaven where the angels are always singing?' Margaret,' to another sister, Keep your tears for yourself.' The time had now arrived when all his hopes were to be realized. He looked around, as if to intimate to each of us individually, a last farewell, and said, 'Thou art my dear father, thou art my dear mother, thou art my sister, thou art my cousin, thou art my dear, dear uncle*, and then particularly addressed by name each individual in his view, and even raised up his languid head to see as many as he could. This was the last he spoke. The immortal spirit left its tenement of clay a few minutes afterwards, we trust to visit better friends, and be for ever with the Lord.

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The last hour of his life, my dear brother, presented a scene to which neither my tongue nor pen is able to do justice; his voice, his manner, his look, no less than the words he uttered, were unspeakably interesting and impressive, I believe, to all present, peculiarly to us his bereaved parents; who, though we mourn, yet do not mourn as those who have no hope. We miss our son, our only son, we miss him very much; yet we rejoice to indulge the confident hope, that our loss is his gain. He will never return to us :-may the Lord prepare us all to go to him."

* Doctor V. who had gained his warm affection by the constant, assiduous, and tender care he had taken of him during his illness,

THE LATE REV. DR. BACKUS.

Dr. Backus was the son of Jabez Backus, of Norwich, a man of respectability and property, who went to the West-Indies in pursuit of health, in which fruitless attempt, as Dr. Backus since told the writer, he spent a fortune, but returned and died of a consump tion, and left his son Azel in charge of his mother, who is now living, a daughter of John Fanning, of Stonington. The estate which he left his son was a handsome farm in Franklin, which a letter now before me, from Dr. Backus, says, "I wisely exchanged for an education in (Yale) College.'

Dr. Backus had however a sincere friend in his uncle, the cele brated Rev. Charles Backus, of Somers. He it was, who while he was still at Yale College, won him from infidelity, and while his mind was yet unsettled in his future pursuits, induced him to make a settlement in his family, where he was reared up to the ministry in which he afterwards entered at Bethlem.

A letter now before the writer, contains the following remarks on his early thoughts of religion:

"At the age of 17, I was like very many young men, balancing between two opinions-I was then not only theoretically but practically a Deist. Thank GOD, there was soon a revolution in my mind. Since then, though less than the least of Christians, I glory in the cross of CHRIST! I had rather have an approving God than applauding millions. "The world's dread laugh" may turn a modern philosopher pale, because its applauses are his all; but Christianity presents a boon beyond the reach of the mob, and eternal in the heavens. Twenty-one years study of the Scriptures has not failed continually to increase the evidence of their divinity and strengthen my faith in them. To the Christian religion we owe the civilization, science, and liberty, that make us differ from the Wyandot and Caffrarian. Be a Christian, would you relish the charms of nature or art; would you make your mind the storehouse of great and grand ideas; would you be a statesman, a hero, or a real philosopher.-Be a Christian, if you wish for domestic happiness and social pleasures. The dry and frozen speculations of cold and frozen infidelity, will wither all generous and noble sentiments and feelings. They are like the prodigal's store of husks; they tend to imbrute us with swine. Pardon then my zeal against the modern Goths, who would lay waste the fabric of the civilized world-who sacrilegiously plunder armour from the arsenal of revelation, to war with God and man. Had not light in Thomas Paine become darkness, he would not stab the breast that gave him suck. He might have been a Cherokee, or the property of a slave holder, had not the gospel been preached to the ancient Britons." U. S. Gazette

REVIVALS OF RELIGION.

A letter from Westminster, Worcester county, Mass. states that there is a revival of religion in that town; that the work appears to be genuine; that it has been slow and solemn in its progress, and without any appearance of enthusiasm.

A gentleman from Oxford, in the same county, states, that there is an increased attention in that town, in the Rev. Mr. Bachelor's congregation. The meetings are unusually crowded, attentive, and solemn. More than twenty have been recently added to the

church.

Considerable additions have also been recently made to the first church in Worcester, and to the church in Ward.

Bible and Foreign Mission Society.

On the 15th inst. a Society was formed in Falmouth, Mass. which is to be auxiliary to the Barnstable Auxiliary Society, and also auxiliary to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

The Ladies of the town of Braintree, Mass. have subscribed thirty dollars, to constitute their Pastor, the Rev. Richard S. Storrs, a Member of the American Bible Society, for life.

Education of Heathen Children.

The Ladies of Baltimore have formed an institution, entitled, "The Baltimore Female Mite Society, for the education of Heathen Children in India." To the object expressed in this title, the funds of the Society are to be "exclusively applied."

Education in Virginia.

The Committee of Schools and Colleges in the Virginia Legislature have made a report, in which they recommend, that the Counties in the State should be divided into Townships, in each of which one or more Schools should be established, and provision be made by law for their support. They recommend, that the State be divided into Districts of a suitable extent, in each of which an Academy should be located and supported by public endowTo complete the system, they recommend further, that a University be established in some central part of the Commonwealth, to be called the University of Virginia.

ment.

sorts.

Philadelphia Female Tract Society.

The first annual Report of the managers of the Philadelphia Female Tract Society, states, that during the last year they have been enabled to publish 60,000 tracts, consisting of 14.different And by the account of the Treasurer, it appears that the receipts of the Institution amounted to the sum of $506 81; which has been expended for the printing and purchasing of Tracts, and for other incidental expenses.-Religious Remembrancer.