and he will take care of them as they grow up. Many parents make great rejoicings at the birth of a child; but, alas! how few wrestle, like Hannah, with God in their behalf! Many are solicitous to heap up large fortunes for their children; but let it be our ambition and aim by the abundance of our prayers to secure to them a large inheritance above the skies. May the Lord give his blessing to you, and to what I have written. Adieu. Yours, &c. M. M. A. Mrs. Isabella Graham. ISABELLA MARSHALL (afterwards Mrs. Graham) was born on the 29th of July, 1742, in the shire of Lanark, in Scotland. Her grandfather was one of the elders who quitted the Established Church of Scotland with the Rev. Ralph and Ebenezer Erskine. She was educated in the principles of that Church. Her father and mother were both pious; indeed, her mother, whose maiden name was Janet Hamilton, appears, from her letters yet extant, to have possessed a mind of the same character as her daughter afterwards exhibited. Isabella was trained to an active life, as well as favoured with a superior education. Her grandfather, whose dying bed she assiduously attended, bequeathed her a legacy of some hundred pounds. In the use to which she applied this money, the soundness of her judgment thus early manifested itself. She requested it might be appropriated to the purpose of giving her a finished education. When ten years of age, she was sent to a boarding-school, taught by a lady of distinguished talents and piety. Often has Mrs. Graham repeated to her children the ims of Mrs. Betty Morehead. With ardent unwearied endeavours to attain mental owments, and especially moral and religious wledge, she attended the instructions of Mrs. rehead for seven successive winters. How e and how gracious are the ways of the rd! Knowing the path in which he was erwards to lead Isabella Marshall, her God is pleased to provide her an education of a uch higher kind than was usual in those days. 'ho would not trust that God who alone can THE GUIDE OF OUR YOUTH? Isabella had no precise recollection of the period at which her heart first tasted that the Lord was gracious. As long as she could remember, she took delight in pouring out her soul to God. In the woods of Eldersley she selected a bush, to which she resorted in seasons of devotion; under this bush, she was enabled to devote herself to God, through faith in her Redeemer, before she attained her tenth year. To this favourite, and, to her, sacred spot, she would repair, when exposed to temptation, or perplexed with youthful troubles. From thence she caused her prayers to ascend, and always found peace and consolation. The late Rev. Dr. Witherspoon, afterwards president of Princeton College, was at this time one of the ministers of the town of Paisley. Isabella sat under his ministry, and at the age of seventeen she was admitted by him to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. In the year 1765, she was married to Dr. John Graham, then a practising physician in Paisley, a gentleman of liberal education and of respectable standing. About a year after their marriage, Dr. Graham was ordered to join his regiment, the royal Americans, then stationed in Canada. The regiment was quartered at Montreal for several months, and here Jessie, the eldest daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Graham, was born. They afterwards removed to Fort Niagara on Lake Ontario, and continued in garrison there for four years; here Joanna and Isabella Graham were born. Mrs. Graham always considered the time she passed at Niagara, as the happiest of her days, contemplated in a temporal view. The officers of the regiment were amiable men, and attached to each other. A few of them were married, and their ladies were united in the ties of friendship. Thus secluded from the world, exempt from the collision of individual and separate interests which often create so much discord in large communities, they were studious to promote the happiness of each other, and enjoyed that tranquillity and contentment which ever accompany a disinterested interchange of friendly offices. This fort being in a situation detached from other settlements, the garrison was consequently deprived of ordinances, and the public means of grace; and under such disadvantages the life of religion in the soul of Mrs. Graham was at a low ebb. A conscientious observance of the Sabbath, which throughout life she maintained, proved to her at Niagara as a remembrance and revival of devotional exercises. She wandered, on those sacred days, into the woods around Niagara, searched her Bible, communed with God and herself, and poured out her soul in prayer to her covenant Lord. Throughout the week, the attention of her friends, her domestic comfort and employments, and the amusements pursued in the garrison, she used to confess, occupied too much of her time and of her affections. The commencement of the revolutionary struggle in America rendered it necessary, in the estimation of the British government, to order the sixtieth regiment, which was composed in a great measure of Americans, to another scene of action. Their destination was the island of Antigua; |