A TEACHER: A STUDENT OF LAW, AND TUTOR. 85 



an appointment which will afford me a comfortable and 

 honorable support through life, with the prospect of exten- 

 sive usefulness to youth and to my country. My wants 

 have all been supplied, and I am in health and comfort 

 This moment the funeral bell tolls for I know not whom, 

 and I am alive ; and is not this a great mercy ! 



But what have I done to show my gratitude to God ? And 

 have I received these blessings with humility, and with a 

 sense of my entire dependence upon the Giver of all good ? 

 Have I striven to keep up a lively intercourse with Heaven 

 by prayer, by reading, and meditation ? Has my deport- 

 ment before the world been so guarded that no reproach 

 may be brought upon the Christian name ; in short, have I 

 striven to lead the life of a Christian ? I must plead guilty, 

 inasmuch as my obedience has been very imperfect, and 

 sin has not always been excluded. Still I hope that God 

 may have seen something good in me by his grace, and that 

 I have not wholly neglected my religious duties while I 

 have received innumerable blessings. 



My devotions, although generally performed at stated in- 

 tervals, have been sometimes omitted, or performed with 

 coldness and constraint, and worldly thoughts have too often 

 intruded in the hours of public worship, and opportunities 

 of doing and obtaining good have not always been made 

 use of as they should have been. My deportment has been 

 too unguarded before the world, and I have been wanting 

 in zeal, in love, and engagedness in the Christian life. 



For all these things I desire to humble myself before 

 God ; and I ask his gracious aid to walk hereafter more 

 worthily of my Christian profession. 



This day I have again approached the table of the Lord, 

 and I hope I may not have partaken unworthily of the 

 sacred elements that represent the great sacrifice of our 

 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 



" God only knows whether another anniversary of this day 

 will be granted to me, or whether I shall sooner be called 



