The Dairymans Daughter | Page 9

rejoice to see you there.
"From your humble servant in Christ,
"E--- W---."
It was impossible to view such a correspondent with indifference. I had
just returned from a little cottage assembly, where, on Sunday evenings,

I sometimes went to instruct a few poor families in one of the hamlets
belonging to my parish. I read the letter, and closed the day with
thanksgiving to God for thus enabling those who fear his name to build
up each other in faith and love.
Of old time, "they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and
the Lord hearkened and heard it; and a book of remembrance was
written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon
his name."
That book of remembrance is not yet closed.
CHAPTER III.
The mind of man is like a moving picture, supplied with objects not
only from contemplation on things present, but from the fruitful
sources of recollection and anticipation.
Memory retraces past events, and restores an ideal reality to scenes
which are gone by for ever. They live again in revived imagery, and we
seem to hear and see with renewed emotions what we heard and saw at
a former period. Successions of such recollected circumstances often
form a series of welcome memorials. In religious meditations the
memory becomes a sanctified instrument of spiritual improvement.
Another part of this animated picture is furnished by the pencil of Hope.
She draws encouraging prospects for the soul, by connecting the past
and present with the future. Seeing the promises afar off, she is
persuaded of their truth, and embraces them as her own.
The Spirit of God gives a blessing to both these acts of the mind, and
employs them in the service of religion. Every faculty of body and soul,
when considered as a part of "the purchased possession" of the Saviour,
assumes a new character. How powerfully does the apostle, on this
ground, urge a plea for holy activity and watchfulness! "What! know ye
not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you,
which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought
with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit,

which are God's" (1 Cor. vi. 19, 20).
The Christian may derive much profit and enjoyment from the use of
the memory, as it concerns those transactions in which he once bore a
part. In his endeavours to recall past conversations and intercourse with
deceased friends in particular, the powers of remembrance greatly
improve by exercise. One revived idea produces another, till the mind
is most agreeably and usefully occupied with lively and holy
imaginations.
"Lull'd in the countless chambers of the brain, Our thoughts are linked
by many a hidden chain; Awake but one, and lo, what myriads rise!
Each stamps its image as the other flies; Each, as the varied avenues of
sense Delight or sorrow to the soul dispense, Brightens or fades: yet all
with sacred art Control the latent fibres of the heart."
May it please God to bless, both to the reader and the writer, this feeble
attempt to recollect some of the communications I once enjoyed in my
visits to the Dairyman's dwelling!
Very soon after the receipt of the last letter, I rode, for the first time, to
see the family at their own house. The principal part of the road lay
through retired, narrow lanes, beautifully overarched with groves of nut
and other trees, which screened the traveller from the rays of the sun,
and afforded many interesting objects for admiration in the flowers,
shrubs, and young trees which grew upon the high banks on each side
of the road. Many grotesque rocks, with little trickling streams of water
occasionally breaking out of them, varied the recluse scenery, and
produced a romantic and pleasing effect.
Here and there the most distant prospect beyond was observable
through gaps and hollow places on the road-side. Lofty hills, with navy
signal- posts, obelisks, and lighthouses on their summits, appeared at
these intervals; rich cornfields were also visible through some of the
open places; and now and then, when the road ascended a hill, the sea,
with ships at various distances, was seen. But for the most part shady
seclusion, and objects of a more minute and confined nature, gave a
character to the journey and invited contemplation.

How much do they lose who are strangers to serious meditation on the
wonders and beauties of nature! How gloriously the God of creation
shines in his works! Not a tree, or leaf, or flower, not a bird or insect,
but it proclaims in glowing language, "God made me."
As I approached the village where the good old Dairyman dwelt, I