CLOSING YEARS. 459 



during his youngest grandchild, some four years of age, dressed as 

 "Little Red Riding-hood." This picturesque small figure, in a scar- 

 let cloak, with a shock of long curls hanging about his merry fixce, 

 made his entree into grandpapa's room, holding up in his chubby 

 hands a basket neatly adorned with leaves, out of which peeped 

 sticks of barley-sugar and other bon-bons. Trotting to the bedside 

 where the old man lay, he offered his dainty repast with a sort of 

 shy fear that the w T olf was actually there, and was greatly relieved 

 by the kind caresses and good welcome he received, observing 

 that grandpapa's hands were so white, and that he never once 

 growled. 



The tender aud anxious question which he asked concerning 

 Robert Burns, " Did he read his Bible ?" may, perhaps, by some be 

 asked about himself. On a little table, near his bedside, his Bible 

 lay during his whole illness, and was read morning and evening 

 regularly. His servant also read it frequently to him. In the strong 

 days of his prime, he wrote, not without experience, these words 

 in reference to sacred poetry : — 



" He who is so familiar with his Bible, that each chapter, open it 

 where he will, teems with household words, may draw thence the 

 theme of many a pleasant and pathetic song. For is not all human 

 nature and all human life shadowed forth in those pages ? But the 

 heart, to sing well from the Bible, must be imbued with religious 

 feelings, as a flower is alternately with dew and sunshine. The 

 study of The Booh must have begun in the simplicity of childhood, 

 when it was felt to be indeed divine, and carried on through all 

 those silent intervals in which the soul of manhood is restored, 

 during the din of life, to the purity and peace of its early beiug. 

 The Bible to such must be a port, even as the sky — with its sun, 

 moon, and stars — its boundless blue — with all its cloud mysteries — 

 its peace deeper than the grave, because of realms beyond the 

 grave — its tumult louder than that of life, because heard altogether 

 in all the elements. He who begins the study of the Bible late in 

 life must, indeed, devote himself to it night and day, and with a 

 humble and a contrite heart, as well as an awakened and soaring 

 spirit, ere he can hope to feel what he understands, or to under- 

 stand what he feels ; thoughts and feelings breathing in upon hirn, 

 as if from a region hanging, in its mystery, between heaven and 

 earth." 



