poral things in her Lord's hand, but cleaving with a fervent faith and hope to the promise of spiritual life. "Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me."

Three months afterwards, she learned that a pressgang had boarded the ship in which her son had been; and, although he was saved from their grasp by a stratagem of the passengers, yet all his clothes were taken away from him. Reflecting on this event, she says, 'Shall I withdraw the blank I have put into the Redeemer's hands? Has he not hitherto done all things well? Have not my own afflictions been my greatest blessings? Lord, I renew my blank.' After undergoing many sufferings, this young man wrote to his mother from Demerara, in the year 1794, that he had been made a prisoner; had been retaken; and then intended to go to Europe with a fleet, which was soon to sail under convoy. His letter was couched in terms of salutary reflection on his past life; and a hope of profiting by past experience. This was the last account which Mrs. Graham had of her afflicted son. All inquiries instituted respecting him proved fruitless, and she had to exercise faith and submission, not without hope towards God, that the great Redeemer had taken care of, and would finally save, this prodigal son. She had known a case in her fa.. ther's family which excited their solicitude, and encouraged her hope. Her younger brother, Archibald Marshall, a lad of high temper, though possessed of an affectionate heart, had gone to sea, and was not heard of at all for several years. A pious woman, who kept a boardinghouse at Paisley, found one of her boarders one day reading Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul of Man, with Archibald Marshall's name written on the blank

leaf. On inquiry, the stranger told her he got that book from a young man on his death-bed, as a token of regard. That young man was Archibald Marshall-he was an exemplary Christian: and I have reason,' added he, to bless God that he ever was my messmate.' The woman, who heard this account, transmitted it to Mr. Marshall's family, who were known to her. Mrs. Graham had no such consolatory account afforded to her; but under much yearning of heart, she left this concern as well as every other, to the disposal of that God "who doeth all things well."

In the spring of 1792, she and her family were called to a severe trial, by the translation of their beloved pastor, Doctor Mason, to a better world. A few months before his decease, while preaching to his people, his recollection failed him, his sermon was gone from his mind, and he sat down in his pulpit unable to proceed. After a short pause, he arose and addressed his people in a pious and affectionate strain; he considered this event as a call from his heavenly Master to expect a speedy dismission from the tabernacle of clay; and solemnly admonished them also to be prepared for the will of God. His people, who loved him, were affected to tears. An illness soon followed, which terminated in the death of the body. He departed on the night when Mrs. Graham took her turn of watching with him. He breathed his last while she was performing this friendly office. This she always accounted a privilege and honour bestowed upon her by her divine Master. Great was the grief of Doctor Mason's congregation on his loss. In him, to great learning were united meekness, prudence, diligence, a knowledge of the world, and an affectionate superintendence of the interests, spiritual and temporal, of his flock. He so arranged his avocations

and studies, in regard to time, that he had always a few hours in the afternoon to devote to visiting the families of his congregation. So regular was the order he observed in his arrangement of time, that Mrs. Graham and her family knew when to calculate on seeing him, and always expected him with the anticipation of profit and pleasure. Once every week they were sure of seeing him, if in health. His visits were short, his conversation serious, awakening, instructive, and affectionate. He inquired about their temporal affairs, and, in cases of difficulty, he always gave them his best advice. His counsels were salutary; his knowledge of the world, and his discrimination of characters, rendered him well qualified to advise. In one of his visits to Mrs. Graham, she mentioned to him the want of good servants as one of her great trials: 'Mrs. Graham,' said he, 'have you ever prayed to the Lord to provide good servants for you? Nothing which interests our comfort is too minute for the care of our heavenly Father.'

To one of her daughters, who felt a strong inclination to profess her faith in Christ by joining the communion of his church, but yet was afraid that her heart was not sufficiently engaged for the service of God, Doctor Mason proposed the following question :-' If,' said he, 'the world, with all its wealth, pleasures and power, were placed in one scale, and Christ alone in the other, which would your heart freely choose as a portion?' On her replying there would be no hesitation as to her choice of Christ, he gave her encouragement to profess her faith, although it might not at present amount to the full assurance of hope.

He was, indeed, a faithful shepherd of his flock; and his people mourned for him as for an affectionate father. It is much to be desired that his example were more followed

by Christian pastors. To preach with eloquence and acceptance, is a talent of great value in a minister of the Gospel: this makes him respected; and his congregation admire him, because, for one reason, they are proud of him but, to gain their affections, to make a congregation the children of an aged pastor, or the friends and brethren of a younger one, let the minister visit the families of his people; this will seal on their hearts the regard which their understandings had already dictated.

Very few ministers have been more remarkable for a strict attention to this duty, than the late Doctor John Mason; and his venerable and attached friend, the late Doctor John Rodgers. When the former died, the latter exclaimed, 'I feel as if I had lost a right arm!' They who once laboured together, to promote the cause of the Redeemer on earth, are now singing his praises before the throne of the Eternal.

The congregation, bereaved of their pastor, wrote immediately to his son, Mr. John Mitchell Mason, to hasten his return from Edinburgh to New York.

After preaching to them with great acceptance for several months, he was ordained as pastor of the church in April, 1792.

Mrs. Graham entertained for him the most affectionate attachment; and this attachment was reciprocal.

Thus it pleased God to repair the breach he had made, and to build up this church by the instrumentality of the son, when he had removed the father to that "rest which remaineth for the people of God."

In July, 1795, Mrs. Graham's second daughter, Joanna, was married to Mr. Divie Bethune, merchant in New York. In the following month, her eldest daughter, Mrs. Stevenson, was seized with a fatal illness. Possessing a

most amiable disposition and genuine piety, she viewed the approach of death with the composure of a Christian, and the intrepidity of faith.

She had been in delicate health for some years before, and now a complication of disorders denied all hope of recovery. She sung a hymn of triumph, until the struggles of death interrupted her. Mrs. Graham displayed great firmness of mind during the last trying scene; and when the spirit of her daughter fled, the mother raised her hands, and looking towards heaven exclaimed, ‘I wish you joy, my darling.' She then washed her face, took some refreshment, and retired to rest.

Such was her joy of faith at the full salvation of her child; but when the loss of her company was felt, the tenderness of a mother's heart afterwards gave vent to feelings of an affectionate sorrow; nature will feel, even when faith triumphs.

Mrs. Graham made it a rule to appropriate a tenth part of her earnings, to be expended for pious and charitable purposes; she had taken a lease of two lots of ground, in Greenwich-street, from the Corporation of Trinity Church, with a view of building a house on them for her own accommodation: the building, however, she never commenced. By a sale which her son, Mr. Bethune, made of the lease in 1795, for her, she got an advance of one thousand pounds. So large a profit was new to her. 'Quick, quick,' said she, 'let me appropriate the tenth before my heart grows hard.' What fidelity in duty! What distrust of herself! Fifty pounds of this money she sent to Mr. Mason, in aid of the funds he was collecting for the establishment of a Theological Seminary.

In the year 1797, a society was instituted at New York,