By the side of a rippling brook, in one of the secluded glens of Scotland, there stands a low, mud-thatched cottage, with its neat honeysuckle porch facing the south. Beneath this humble roof, on a snow-white bed, lay, not long ago, old Nancy the Scotchwoman, patiently and cheerfully awaiting the moment of her release. By her bedside, on a small table, lay her spectacles and her well-thumbed Bible-her " barrel and her cruse," as she used to call it-from which she daily, yea, hourly, spiritually fed on the " Bread of Life." A young minister frequently called to see her. He loved to listen to her simple expressions of Bible truths; for when she spoke of her "inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away," it seemed but a little way off.

One day the young minister put to the happy saint the following startling question:"Now, Nancy, what if after all your prayers and watching and waiting, God should suffer your soul to be eternally lost?" Nancy raised herself on her elbow, and turning to him a wistful look, laid her right hand on the "precious Bible," which lay open before her, and quietly replied, " Ae, dearie me, is that a' the length you have got yet, man?" –and then continued, her eyes sparkling almost with heavenly brightness, "God would have the greatest loss. Poor Nanie would but lose her soul, and that would be a great loss indeed; but God would lose His honor and His character. Haven't I hung my soul upon His exceeding great and precious promises? and if He brake His word, He would make Himself a liar, and at the universe would rush into confusion!"

Thus spake that old Scotch pilgrim. These were among the last words that fell from her dying lips, and they were like " apples of gold in baskets of silver." Let the reader consider them. They apply to every step of the pilgrim-path, from the first to the last.

By faith the old Scotchwoman had cast her soul's salvation upon God's promise in Christ by the gospel. She knew that His dear Son had said, " He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." She knew that God had said, " By Him [Christ] all that believe are justified from all things," that " the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin;" for " He bare our sins in His own body on the tree." This was the first step. And all through life the Scotch pilgrim hung upon His " exceeding great and precious promises," for all things and in every hour of need. The divine argument of Rom. 8:was hers by faith:" He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" In every sorrow she had found Him a " very present help in trouble;" and now, about to leave the weary wilderness for her everlasting home, could she think that He would prove unfaithful to His word? No. Sooner than poor old Nancy's soul be lost, God's honor, God's character, God Himself must be overturned, and "a" the universe rush into confusion!" Dear old pilgrim!