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with the very best appearance. A reserve, that may look a little like austerity upon that matter, is more becoming, and has its use."

Bengel was able to add :-" As I have always accounted it a thing of importance and conscience to bring up my children in the right way, so I have never yet experienced from them, or from their children, any thing to wound my heart, but much to afford me unmixed joy; and the blessing of a father and grandfather will rest upon them."

In the year 1748, he found it requisite to send his eldest son to the university, and his younger son to the theological seminary of Blaubeuren; but as he still felt the same tender concern for them as when they were at home, the following extracts will show how affectionately he could advise, and how seriously reprove, when necessary. Subjoined to these extracts are a few others, addressed to his married daughters and sons-in-law, which are quite characteristic of his kind sympathy and affection upon every occasion.

From Bengel's Letters to his younger son, Ernest.

"Nov. 20, 1748. "Be diligent in prayer and in study; act prudently, forbearingly, modestly." "Nov. 22, 1748. "As to parties of entertainment with music and wine, be on your guard against using yourself to take more of the latter than is good for you. There was no need for you to be concerned as to what you should do for money; never have any anxiety on that account. Be economical in every thing, and you may be sure we shall do for you what is necessary. When you go out (for healthful exercise,) beware of venturousness with rash fellow-students.* God bless you. Pray earnestly and constantly; and be ever thinking upon and looking to Jesus."

"Dec. 3, 1748.

"You are by this time accustomed in some measure to a student's life, and you find it, I trust, agreeable. Be very attentive to all my advice, particularly about prayer, taking care of your health, benefiting by the lectures, and judiciously conducting

* Literally, "Beware of the Blau-caldron," the source of the Blau, (near Blaubeuren) is thus called in Germany, as being round and deep, and the temptation of the younger students was either to bathe in it, or to amuse themselves upon it with small rafts or skiffs.

yourself towards various associates of your own standing. Every thing has its difficulties at first; but you will soon become quite familiar with matters about you. The Lord our Saviour bless and keep you. We all send our love."

"Dec. 19, 1748.

"We are pleased at your gaining the fifth place in your class. Be diligent; and though you may find others going to study directly after their meals, or that they sit up late at night, I hope you will keep to the habits you have learnt at home, taking your needful recreation and rest, and thus turning your hours of study to the better account. And may God bless you."

"Jan. 2, 1749.

"Your having thought so soon beforehand of the anniversary of my baptism, by writing an ode for the occasion, I take as a token of your love. We hope you have spent the Christmas holidays as days of holy remembrance, in a way that has been profitable to your soul; and that you entered on the new year yesterday in good health. God bless and be with you."

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"June 8, 1749.

"Be diligent in prayer-and especially for your two married sisters, as they are just now requiring our particular intercessions."

"Feb. 13, 1749.

"I have received a sad account from Maulbronn respecting some of the students there; and I understand they have been keeping false keys, by which they have got out at night for bad practices, &c. This reminds me to charge you ever to beware of being led away by others. If we keep ourselves in the fear of God, by using diligent prayer, we are not easily seduced. May He preserve and bless you."

"March 12, 1749.

"Endeavour to keep thy heart' in continual recollectedness, and in a consciousness of love to your Saviour. May God, who has now upholden you to the return of your fourteenth birthday, continue to bless you."

"Feb. 11, 1752.

"God grant you plenteous grace at the holy communion. Δοκιμάζε σεαυτὸν, ( Prove thy own self.)

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Pray diligently; give to no one any just cause to oppose you; learn to yield obligingly to others; but not so as to be a partaker of other men's sins. Never utter any thing which might not be safely repeated after you."

To his elder son, Victor, whose habits at one time, when he was between eighteen and nineteen years of age, seemed to threaten some deviation from rules of order, he wrote (without having occasion thus to write again,) as follows:

"Foolish son!

"Jan. 18, 1751.

"No sooner had we begun to hear something tolerable about you, than we have been made exceedingly unhappy by the account we have received of your strange and irregular conduct. I positively command you to go every day from the supper table directly to your room; to abstain from all card-playing, tenniscourts, and places where it is not good for you to go or to find acquaintance; to keep out of all unprofitable company; to mind neither to neglect church nor private prayer, especially morning and evening; to keep your room in good order, as the rules enjoin, and to take special care of your fire and candle, so as not to put your neighbours in fear by your carelessness in this respect; to be always in time at lecture, and diligent with your studies in private; to be strict to truth in speaking and writing; to read the Scriptures regularly, and to think upon your temporal and spiritual welfare; and, moreover, to give me information this week, whether you are purposing to follow these admonitions or not.

"So then, after all, you are not going on well. This will never do. All my former misgivings about you are revived. Don't oblige me to consult about you with our friends, so as to act upon a resolution which no entreaties of yours will alter, and which will be to the following effect; that as we are to have no comfort in you, we will incur no scandalous disgrace on your account. Be concerned, I beseech you, once for all, about duty and propriety; and begin truly to care for your real welfare; instead of going on any longer in such an unpromising way, as obliges all your friends to think of nothing for you but warnings and admonitions. Whatever else may give me trouble at present, you are giving me the most. Well; I have fixed a boundary for you in my own mind; and if you pass it, you will have to thank yourself for any change that will be made in your situation and condition. Reflect then at once, whether you intend to value most the love of parents, relatives, and friends, or the good opinion of a parcel of bad fellows; and whether you prefer to be found a useful member of society, or to become a worthless character, an alien from your family, and dependent,

for the rest of your life, upon what strangers may please to think of you, and to do for you. God grant you a sound mind, and a better disposition! Troubled as I am upon your account, the good conduct of your brothers and sisters still enables me to subscribe myself,

"Your consoled father."*

LETTERS TO HIS DAUGHTERS AND SONS-IN-LAW.

I. On the Death of his first Grandchild (a daughter's son).

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"My dear daughter, Aug. 3, 1740. "Use every means to get your mind composed; seek your soul's satisfaction in God. Happy is the soul that knows its God. Learn this, my beloved child, and you will have no need of me; I at least shall be then as a supernumerary gift to you. We are at best as the clay in the hand of the potter; but He doeth all things well. The longer you seek him, the more I advise you to seek him as a Father, and as having a Father's heart towards yourself. Thus you will possess and increase in patience. May his grace dispose and govern every one of us!"

II. To a Daughter who was suffering by Illness.

"Nov. 5, 1741.

"We hear of your sufferings, my dear, with tender sorrow. Though the sad tidings reached us only this afternoon, we had been particularly remembering you of late in our prayers. We take comfort from this circumstance, as hoping that God may have already answered both us and yourselves. Do not suffer your thoughts to be occupied in needless anxieties. Take care rather to spread before the Lord both this trouble and whatever else may be upon your mind; do it with heartfelt humility; entreating him to manifest his Fatherly compassions towards you and towards your expected offspring. He it is 'who quickeneth the dead;' therefore it is an easy thing with him to remedy whatever may seem against you, and to couvert it into a benefit and a blessing. Come only to his paternal lovingkindness, with prayer and earnest supplication, till he effectually answer you, and make you perceive and taste of his perfect peace. Meditate upon the hundred and third psalm, applying it to your present

The good effect of this letter proved that the serious and determined tone of it was well timed.

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circumstances. Begin at the sixth verse, and go on to the end; after which take the first five verses; and what you cannot adopt in a way of thanksgiving, turn into prayer; till the divine blessing shall appoint it as thanksgiving for your own mercies. Apart from your immediate sufferings, remember we all carry our 'soul continually in' our 'hand,' though this may be more remarkably your own case at the present moment. Well; let it have the effect of leading you to look beyond mere human help and comfort; to commit and surrender yourself entirely into the hands of God, as your Creator, Father, and Redeemer. His we are, and his son Jesus Christ's; to him if we only live and die, all will be well, however we may be at present situated in other respects. Had we the power to choose concerning things future in this world, we ought to be willing to give it back into his own hands; for, even with our eyes shut, we may safely trust Him, that he will do all things well. It is good to be thoroughly convinced what a poor scheme of happiness it must be at the best, which we are eager enough to form, in a variety of ways, out of our earthly allotments. Hereby we shall learn the more ardently to long after our true paternal home, and steadily to hold fast by him, who is the way, the truth, and the life; abiding always in him, be our own strength ever so fluctuating. Whoso cometh unto him, he will in no wise cast out; if it were not so, the many mansions in his Father's house would not be half so replenished with inhabitants as they are already. What then he has actually done for others, exceeding abundantly above all they could ask or think, the same will he do for yourself, insignificant as you may seem; and this shall conduce to his own glory. Let us devoutly pray for one another and with one another; waiting patiently for the help of the Lord. Let us pour out all our heart before him, and abide steadfastly upon him, as our strength and our confidence. Farewell, my beloved. Your own faithful father."

III.-On the Death of a Grand-daughter.

"The now happy little E. F. J. is registered in our hearts, though the shortness of her stay in this world has prevented us from seeing her. But she was not born in vain. The difference between her own span of life and ours, was merely this, that she was permitted to reach the mark' by the shortest way. Let God now rejoice her spirit in the company of her little brother who preceded her; yes, let God comfort her now after

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