the time that he afflicted her, and thus bestow, according to the good pleasure of his will, the more abiding joy upon my dear Maria, their mother. More particularly with respect to thee, my beloved daughter, may he alleviate thy days and nights, till thou art strengthened to quit the sick chamber; and may it please him to grant to all of us, upon this occasion, renewed faith, love, patience, and hope, in measure ever more full and adequate to our necessities!"

IV.-Upon an Illness of the Mother of one of his Sons-in-law.

“We doubt not, that under the good hand of God, all is well with yourselves, and with our worthy and suffering friend, Mrs. in particular, whom may our great and faithful High Priest mightily superintend! We are very desirous to know how she is. May God manifest his help and salvation, causing his light to arise ever brighter within her, amidst all the feeling she has of her own nothingness. What is man! and yet what cannot the great Creator make of us, if we cast ourselves simply and entirely into his Fatherly hands! Let your beloved mother be assured of our constant and affectionate remembrance, and let her regard us ever more and more as friends who have her in our hearts. Indeed we are mutually quite assured that we are in her heart, and herself in ours. May the Lord our Saviour apprehend her mightily; show the riches of his grace in his care towards her; and, finally, present her faultless in the presence of his Father with exceeding joy!"

V.-On the Illness of a Grandchild.

“Dec. 27, 1745.

"I would add a few words to thee, my beloved daughter. You say you are become in some degree resigned about witnessing the continual sufferings of your dear little one; and well may we learn under the Fatherly hand of God. He is doing all things well; but then we must estimate every event, not according to what our nature feels by it now, but according to the end we shall find answered by it when we are got home. Let us plead and fully depend on the name of Jesus, for the little darling and for ourselves; and let that great name be a real comfort and blessing to us. Your dear uncle, my own brother, often suffered by convulsions in his infancy. As long as there is life there is hope, without requiring any special miracle. Let us only serve God, in prayer and supplication, always waiting

upon him and waiting for him. May he lead every one of us, with his own hand, out of the departing year into the new one!"

VI.-Upon the Death of this Grandchild.

"Feb. 14, 1746.

"I will now add a word of reply to yourself, my beloved daughter. We may safely say that all has been well with the precious child, while it was with us; and we shall go to it by and by. One benefit of its sufferings is, that our remembrance of it is the more dear and tenderly affecting to us. Heretofore thy child depended upon thee: now thy soul follows after it. This is all right. Our faithful Father in heaven does it out of mere kindness. He may have sent it as a chastening, but he designs it as a benefit. May the consolations of God, which are neither few nor small, be intimately experienced by both of you for permanent benefit! May he cause his face to shine upon yourselves the brighter after this tribulation! Trouble not thyself about the past sufferings of the dear little creature; she is now removed from all suffering, and among the spirits of the just who are made perfect. If the merciful God has commanded man to be merciful to his beast, and even to the bird upon her nest,* how is it possible he can ever gratuitously inflict so many sufferings upon our dear little ones? Doubtless there is a wise, good, and benevolent reason for it."

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VII. To another Daughter.

May the strength of Jesus our Lord be found perfected in thy weakness! Pray; yes, pray and hope. Venture a childlike look towards your heavenly Father and ours; relying upon the power and privileges he has already granted us in his dear Són: and let me know how that look has sped."

VIII.-To a Son-in-law, who was going upon a journey of business to Vienna.

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"Dec. 1749.

Heartily do I wish that your journey may be prospered. God grant you daily tokens of his paternal care over you! A Christian's manner of transacting any worldly business, especially in money matters, may be turned to a strong evidence that he is seeking the things which are unseen and eternal. Natural ties

*Deut. xxii. 6, 7.

oblige us to do all affectionate service to relatives and others; but how we are to do it is, for wise and good reasons, left to our own discretion. Yes, 'the ways of the Lord are right,' in this as well as in every thing else; it is only the transgressors' who 'fall here,' but 'the just' keep their footing, and 'walk uprightly.' Straightforward faithfulness, prudence, and discretion, will always have the best final issue. It is the faithfulness of God that preserves us, so that surrounding business of the world does not carry away our hearts, but only constrains us to be the more careful to keep them' collected with all diligence.' When the 'love of God' governs us in things temporal as well as spiritual, ́ all things must necessarily work together for our good.'”

IX. To another Son-in-law.

"Jan. 2, 1752.

"Your letter of yesterday serves as a good new year's beginning for another annual course of communion in christian love between us, upon all its most essential matters. The love abiding in your two selves owns and blesses with us the goodness of God; and commends us to that goodness in these days (of remembrance), as, indeed, it always does. We also do the same for yourselves. May God bless our beloved friend and son-in-law in his ministerial duties, and in all other concerns engaged in for his glory; may he bless likewise your mutual union, and your dear children with you! We remain assured of your love, even as you continue to be assured of ours.

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Yesterday I attended court as one of the deputation appointed to carry up the new year's address, in company with Counsellor Moser, who read it. To-day I have been at the sermon, and heard the court chaplain preach, as I did yesterday the senior preacher to the court. The wishes expressed by them in their sermons (particularly with reference to the new year,) were very energetic and full of meaning.”

CHAPTER II.

AS A FRIEND.

THOUGH We have already seen much of Bengel's christian communion with a variety of friends in correspondence, yet, for a clearer view of his private life, it is worth while here to notice further particulars of the kind.

A large part of his early life was spent in pretty much retirement. That disposedness to true religion, that holy seriousness, which characterised even his childhood and youth, necessarily kept him aloof from all circles of worldly frivolity. But his various knowledge, his integrity, and affectionate behaviour, made him kindly regarded everywhere, and drew the hearts of many towards him. Thus even in his younger days at Stuttgart he was not without friends, whose intimacy he retained to the end of life. At Tübingen the number of his particular friends was increased; and a common fellowship of faith, love, and hope bound them for ever together. Bengel, at that period of his life, was remarkable for preferring the friendship of persons much older than himself; but in his later years, as if desiring to repay with interest the benefits he had thus received, he was equally remarkable for his familiar friendship with those who were far his juniors, some of whom were either then, or formerly had been, his own pupils. When he was at Halle, upon his tour for educational and literary information, he had the happiness of commencing the valuable friendship of Matthias Marthius, the well known and accurate editor of the Byzantine MS. We have already noticed him and Bengel frankly and affectionately cor`responding upon apocalyptical subjects, (see chap. xvii.) The union between these two friends is further beautifully seen in the following passage of a letter from Marthius, in the year 1720:

"I am at present so fully occupied, that I should not easily have been persuaded even to sit down and write a letter, were it not, that having been thinking of you, my dear friend, before God, I feel at this moment a strong impulse to express to you my christian love and remembrance. And how can I help loving

you, with whom I have so often bowed the knee at the throne of Grace, and thus laid the foundation of a friendship which is to last for ever! May He who, undoubtedly of his special goodness and wisdom, brought us together at Halle, held us so long together under the same roof, and fed us at the same table, sustain us still from the plentiful table of his own grace, and grant us to meet one day in glory as in our Father's house, where the Saviour is preserving many abiding places for them that love him!”

This valuable friendship had extended to the 9th of August, 1734, when Marthius sweetly fell asleep in the faith of his Redeemer. Only a short time before his death, he had given directions that all his sermons should be buried with him in his coffin, and that his funeral should be as private and plain as possible.

Bengel enjoyed a longer term of friendship with prelate Ph. H. Weissensee, whose numerous and most affectionate letters, found among Bengel's papers, fully testify it. We much regret that Bengel's answers to them have not been found, as passages of them, which reappear in those of Weissensee, are of so amiable and delightful a character, that one cannot but wish to peruse the whole. The correspondence of these faithful friends was upon every subject connected with their ministry, the state of their own minds, and their family concerns; and all their communications were evidently seasoned by mutual love to their common Lord. Had we not already somewhat exceeded the prescribed limits of this memoir, we should gladly have inserted many extracts from those interesting letters of Weissensee; but we have only room for the few which follow :

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During nearly the whole of this vacation our heavenly Father has led me in a different way from that I should have chosen for myself. Thus I am returned home, almost discontented in some respects; especially about the shortness of my hurried visit to yourself. But the Lord is hereby showing me more and more how good and requisite such things are for me; and the more inefficient and unworthy I feel myself to be, the oftener does he grant me moments in which I am overwhelmed by a sense of the glory of Christ, my interest in him, and communion with him; still my unworthiness of such vouchsafements fills me with sacred awe, and makes me almost tremble.--Hallelujah!