"7th May. "The account which my best beloved friend gave of herself, at the conclusion of her letter the day before yesterday, has greatly delighted me. God grant power, grace, and blessing. I am at present, by his great goodness, well and happy both in spirit. and bodily health."

"My beloved Friend,-At this moment of my wishing to write to you, the above words occurred to me, and I could not refrain from heading my letter with them, as a salutation and expression of my best wishes to you; and may the power and import of such words be manifested as shed abroad in both our hearts! I continue, through the divine goodness, quite well and happy, and hope to hear the same and more of my beloved friend. The arrangement between our parents respecting the marriage ceremony quite accords with my own feelings, particularly about not inviting too large a company on the occasion."

"14th May.

"I must now close my letter; and I do it with sincere prayer to God, that at this pentecostal season, he may fill the heart of my beloved, and my own heart likewise, with the spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind."

"18th May.

"Time will not allow me to add more, or I should most gladly have concluded with a few christian thoughts of a pentecostal kind; but the Spirit of grace can himself teach us all things. To Him let us open and surrender our hearts, that he may sanctify us wholly, and may glorify in us the name of the Lord Jesus."

"21st May.

"If my beloved friend has enjoyed through this closing festival season the same spiritual comfort which it has brought by divine grace and goodness to my own unworthy self, I shall have a fresh occasion to rejoice and be thankful."

The following remarks were made by him in reference to his marriage.

"The marriage service in the Würtemberg liturgy is very beautiful, and I have reason to remember to the present hour the deep impression it made upon me. I came to the ceremony quite in a collected frame of spirit; and when that part of the form was read, which relates to the cross, (which no married person can expect entirely to escape,) the whole subject of the cross came into my thoughts; and my heart was inclined, though with much fear and trembling, to resolve entirely to take it up. But when the words, 'O well is thee and happy shalt thou be,' were read, a sweet and cheering composure, with respect to any trials in the married state, came over me, and has never left me to this day."

The choice he had made proved indeed a happy one. He spent the remainder of his life, namely, thirty-eight years, in the married state; and all those years were marked with contentment and the divine blessing. He said, "all along I have been blest with a most valuable helpmate; which has often induced me to pray fervently to God, that, notwithstanding her many critical casualties, he would grant me the mercy of retaining her to the end of my pilgrimage. My petitions have hitherto been answered."

"The married state has been the means of so much benefit to me in the way of christian experience, that even on this one account, I have the highest esteem for it as an ordinance of God. It is only the pride of self-sufficiency that makes some persons disparage and distrust it. What God has ordained for the happiness of his creatures, must surely be ever preferable to what men in their own wisdom prefer.”

His following words will tell us how his own marriage became so peculiarly blest. "Real communion with each other in prayer is above all things needful between two married persons: and, next to this, there should be a kind of emulation to outdo each other in mutual forbearance. Patience is at first particularly necessary, till both have learnt how to adapt themselves to each other's dispositions. The greater their mutual esteem, the more tenderly is their love carried on. No other communion, as between brothers, neighbours, friends, &c., is equal to this, in which the parties are always together, and have continual attentions to pay each other. Thus, if they know how to improve their moral and social advantages, they may do it to their daily mutual refreshment. Even when the first charm of novelty is over, the communion between such a christian

pair is still incomparably sweet; it is as old wine compared with

new.

"We must live always as in the presence of God; this, however, must be done with simplicity, and not with affectation. "A married man should conduct himself towards the partner of his life, in every respect, as if the thought were always present to him,-Should my wife this day close her eyes in death, how should I then wish I had conducted myself?

"I have learnt by a variety of instances and observations, that marriage is commonly attended with mutual disappointment to those who give way to raillery and repartee, and who, with all their professed knowledge of the truth, indulge a light and trifling spirit. Such disappointments in each other, then come to them as a wholesome rebuke of Providence. Most of those who are in this situation endeavour to conceal it from others, because they hope for no good by talking about it; but their sufferings are pitiable."

God gave him twelve children, half of whom entered the eternal state in their infancy. Of the surviving half, the four eldest were daughters, whom he lived to see happily married; viz. Sophia Elizabeth, born 6th of May, 1717; married 11th of February, 1738, to Dr. Reuss, afterwards physician to the Duke of Würtemberg.-2. Joanna Rosina, born 29th of February, 1720; married 23d of July, 1737, to Christian Gottlieb Williardts, afterwards official counsellor to the Emperor Francis I.— 3. Maria Barbara, born 30th of November, 1727; married 23d of June, 1744, to the Rev. Philip David Burk, A.M. afterwards Dean of Kirchheim.-4. Catharine Margaret, born 24th of November, 1730; married 7th of September, 1751, to the Rev. Everard Frederic Helwag, A. M., afterwards Dean of Göppingen. The elder son, Victor, born 16th of August, 1732, was a student in medicine, but survived his father only seven years. The younger, Ernest, born 12th of March, 1735, was a divinity student, and afterwards Dean of Tübingen.

That the early loss of his other children should have occasioned severe sufferings to so affectionate a father, and that he should have found many pleasures and many cares in educating the rest, was to be expected. But the following extracts from his letters will show his remarkably christian state of mind in such circumstances.

"Our joy of late has been considerably moderated by many a concern about our dear children. In endeavouring to cheer

myself and others under the cross which continually attends us, I find use enough for what christian knowledge and experience I have acquired.

"Our heavenly Father has again brought my dear wife safely through her sorrows. On the morning of the 29th of August, the same day on which, three years ago, our little Joanna Regina, now reposing in the churchyard, was born, we received in safety a healthy little girl, to whom, as she was born on the same day of the year, we have given a similar name, Anna Regina. We would not choose quite the same name, because we thought it ought to have some distinction from hers whom we still regard as one of the family, though she is fallen asleep."

That child, however, lived only a year. The following very interesting and affecting letter was written by Bengel to his parents immediately after her funeral.

66

Regina's Day, 7th September, 1722. “We thank you for the wreaths you sent us to dress the coffin, &c. of our departed and still beloved babe, Anna Regina, and we thank you still more for your affectionate and parental sympathy, as also for your consoling letter. I feel constrained in return to give you some simple account of what God has discovered to us under this visitation of his love.

"When, six weeks before our child's illness, I was suffering by scarlet fever, I endeavoured, as I had done during a former illness, to get my heart into a state of more than ordinary tenderness; but I was unable, this time, to bring my feelings into such entire self-abasement as I wished. I complained of it to a friend who visited me; and expressed to him my expectation, that some severer affliction, which would better answer the purpose, awaited me. It has arrived, and has answered my wishes. While our dear child was lying under so much suffering, and very near its end, I felt the keenest pangs at the thought of losing it; far more so than I had ever felt before, even when I lost our other dear children. Indeed no occasion of the kind ever distressed me so much. Still I was enabled, without feeling the presence of others any interruption, to attend the dear child with prayers, supplications, and tears, till its soul had gained the victory. I was led, during the whole time, to me. ditate deeply upon two things: 1. The righteousness of God, which had thus disfigured and destroyed such a little tender

frame of body, on account of sin inherited from its parents, and through us from the stock of Adam: and 2, That grace of God by which such a transit through death conducts to life everlasting. Hence our little sufferer's pitiable convulsions and labourings for breath no longer aggravated my distress. My spirit became so cheered and strengthened, that notwithstanding this additional affliction at the prospect of another bereavement, I felt in the inward man, more comfort and enjoyment than I had ever realized in the best pleasures of my life. And as I reclined my head upon my dying child's little couch, I thought I could gladly die with it that moment. After its precious soul was departed, I went into the room where it was laid out, and reclined again by the side of it to repose awhile; and again thought how desirable such an exchange must be. David, at his wretched Absalom's death, was urged by his feelings to exclaim, 'O that I might have died for thee!' But there was no need for me to use such a lamentation as this for a child that had never lived to enter into the seductions of a wicked world. In my own case it was a satisfaction that I could utter the sweet plaint of a christian parent's love, 'O that I might have died with thee!'

"The bills of mortality show that more than half the human race die in infancy and childhood. As God then gave us five children and has now taken away three, we are not to think ourselves more hardly dealt with than others; especially as these dear little ones have doubtless entered upon a good exchange. There is much in the consideration, that so many immortal human beings are just shown to this world, and so quickly removed into another; and that the number of the elect is mainly accomplished in this way. They are as those plants which are gathered and housed the moment they are in season; while others, who arrive at maturer age, are as the fewer plants, which, being left for seed, remain longer out in wind and weather. What pains one's natural feelings most is, that we so much miss the delight we have enjoyed in the lovely innocent ways of a thriving child. But even this is made up for by the sure and certain prospect of what is far better. We do not regret the fall of the sweet and delightful blossoms of our plants and trees, though they soon drop off in such multitudes, because the fruit which succeeds is attended with more substantial enjoyment. Had we had no such child born to us a year ago, it is true we should not have been in our present sorrow; but having attended