passed away. Little more than their names are left behind them. But blessed are the dead that have lived and died in the Lord. From henceforth they rest from their labours. But their works follow them; and in their works going on and never ending, they are reaping the fruits of a great harvest, and earning even upon earth the renown of immortality.

'He who would endless glory reap,

Must here the word of patience keep,—
That word which gives the eye to see
The glorious harvest yet to be.
The husbandman his seed who sows,
Must wait with patience while it grows;
And he who would the oak uprear,
Must cherish hope from year to year.

The architect who lays the while
The basement of a lofty pile,
By slow laborious toil alone

Can reach the turret's topmost stone.
Nor must the Christian hope too soon,
Faith's more sublime immortal boon:
None win by slight or brief emprize
The rich reversion of the skies.

Meek pilgrim Zionward! if thou
Hast put thy hand unto the plough,
Oh, look not back, nor droop dismayed
At thought of victory delayed.
Doubt not that thou in season due
Shall own His gracious promise true;
And thou shalt share their glorious lot
Whom doing well hath wearied not.'

'He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.'-Ps. CXII. 7.

N spite of his antipathy to Popery, and his strong attachment to Protestantism, Mr. Nisbet was somewhat startled and

annoyed by a report, which obtained for the time a wide and rapid circulation. The report originated in a mere mistake, and soon met with a complete contradiction. But the letter in regard to it, which he received from his warmhearted friend, Joseph Wolff, is so characteristic, that I take the liberty of quoting a brief extract :

'ISLE BREWERS, SOMERSETSHIRE, August 30, 1847.

'Messrs. Nisbet and Murray.

'MY VERY DEAR FRIENDS,-I write to you, I can

assure you, in the greatest excitement, and in a state of consternation and sorrow, and the cause of that state of mind is none else but yourselves, my dear friends. I, a few days ago, read in the Morning Post, that an eminent and successful bookseller had entered the Church of Rome. I thought that that bookseller must be one of the Tractarian party, when, to my utter astonishment, I heard whispered that that bookseller was nobody else but Mr James Nisbet, his whole family, and my old friend Mr. Murray, with the observation, "One extreme leads to the other extreme." Now, having known you for these twenty-five years as sober-minded members of the Kirk of Scotland, I cannot conceive what may have induced you to embrace the tenets of the Church of Rome; for I, having been a pupil of the Propaganda, know that true Romanism is as different from the amiable spirit of Fenelon, whose writings may perhaps have misled you, as black is from white. If you like, I am quite ready to come to London to talk over the whole matter with you. My dear Nisbet and Murray, what could induce you to do such a spite to your John Knox, Chalmers, and Gordon, and join with a rotten church? Nobody is more impartial in acknowledging the good things still to be found in the Church of Rome than myself, yet I rather would see the Pope and all his cardinals fly into the moon than become a Papist again.

M

In fact, I never was one. -Your affectionate but

deeply afflicted brother,

JOSEPH WOLFF.'

"They in the Lord that firmly trust

Shall be like Sion hill,

Which at no time can be removed,

But standeth ever still.

As round about Jerusalem

The mountains stand alway,
The Lord His folk doth compass so,

From henceforth and for aye.

For ill men's rod upon the lot

Of just men shall not lie,

Lest righteous men stretch forth their hands
Unto iniquity.'

罪

HERE are some men who, while scrupulously observant of all the outward forms of religion, are yet notorious, in their business transactions, for acts of meanness and of selfishness not less discreditable to themselves than inconsistent with the profession which they make. It was otherwise with James Nisbet. His religion was as apparent in the counting-house as it was in the sanctuary. While he made it a matter of conscience to exclude from his stock every book which was not of a moral or religious character, he was distinguished, in his dealings with the authors of publications of which he thoroughly approved, by the exhibition of more than ordinary kindness and liberality. He was not satisfied with purchasing the copyrights on terms highly advan