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62
JAMES THOMASON

a blessing denied to many.' Further on he proceeds: 'If there has been laid up a plenteous store of faith in God's word, the impulse we now receive will carry us through the gloomier portion of our course that yet remains to be run.'

Despite the avocations of them both, her domestic cares, and his official duties, there had been a thorough companionship between them. Her bringing up, like his, had been earnestly religious. They read together passages from divines or other writers upon religion. He used to copy these passages with his own hand into a manuscript book, carefully indexed for her to study, and many of the passages had been suggested by her. For example, Keble's 'Christian Year' having recently appeared the beautiful morning hymn was transcribed; so also were Coleridge's lines on the Mother and her Child; several passages from Sir Matthew Hale, and from divines of the olden time, as Tillotson, Hooker, Hooper, Fuller, Leighton, Jeremy Taylor, one or two translations from Fénelon, and extracts from other authors, exclusively on religious subjects. About this time, on the occasion of his birthday, he writes in this book of hers some reflections of his own, from which one or two sentences may be quoted, as they illustrate his mode of thinking.

'It is a solemn thought that as life advances and ties multiply which bind the anxious soul to earth, so does the time hasten on when all these ties must be dissolved, when the spirit must part from all the objects of its care and