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'Would you say, Jessy,' asked the lady 'that the instructions you received at school were blessed to you?'

'O! yes, yes.'

The lady was moved. 'You find, Jessy, that the truths you learnt there, now support you in this severe illness?'

'Yes,' replied Jessy, and after a little added, 'and in the view of death.'

'Have you no hopes of recovery, Jessy?'

'None: I do not wish it.'

'And have you no fears?'

'Not now,' replied Jessy.

'The effect of speaking seems so distressing to you, Jessy,' said her friend, 'that I think you would perhaps answer me more easily by turning up passages of Scripture. Could you, in that way, tell me how your fear for that 'king of terrors' has been taken away?'

Jessy turned up the following passages, one after another. -- 'The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. If God be for us, who can be against us? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died; yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh continual intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?'

'These are indeed precious words,' said the lady, 'and they are happy who can apply them to themselves.

Jessy answered by turning to these words -- 'The Spirit and the bride say come. And let him that heareth, say, come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.' And again, -- 'Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk, without money and without price.'

'The offer is, indeed, altogether free,' said the lady; 'was there any heavenly gold, any pure righteousness, required of us to make it ours, we should have no hope.'

'O no!' said Jessy, 'it is free, -- all free.'

After conversing for some time in this manner, the lady rose to go. Jessy held the hand she gave her, till she had turned up the 41st Psalm, and pointed to the first verses. Her friend read them, then shaking hands kindly with Jessy, said, -- 'I trust I may be the means of some temporal good to you, Jessy; and, I am sure, it must be my own fault if I do not receive good infinitely more valuable by seeing how God supports you.'

This lady continued to visit Jessy very frequently for the five or six following weeks during which her sufferings gradually increased, and each time received some new proof of her readiness for her great change. During this time, Jessy could speak scarcely any, but she contrived, as long as she was able, to converse by turning up passages of Scripture. At last she became too weak to do this, and could then answer only by perhaps a word or two, or by the sweet and pleasant expressions of her countenance. Several ladies, friends of the one she knew and loved best, also visited her, and provided for all her wants. These ladies always read to her when they came, and the lowly, but heavenly expression of her looks, as they read, conveyed as much as words could do, how precious the word of God was to her soul. Mary Scott, also, devoted herself to her friend, and never left her but when her own strength failed. The excessive breathlessness with which Jessy was afflicted, continued to increase so much as to bring on fits of extreme suffering. During these fits Jessy's friends often expected to see her breathe her last. The doctor saw her often, but no earthly skill was of any avail. Her fits became more and more frequent, and though, when she had any ease, Jessy continued to look even cheerful and happy, those who knew her could not wish her sufferings to be prolonged. When it was found necessary for a person to sit up all night with her, one of the ladies went herself to Jessy's mother, (who now scarcely ever came to see her,) and told her how ill her child was, and asked her to sit up with her at night, by turns with her other friends. Her answer was, That she would do so if the ladies paid her for it. Poor Jessy was not told this; but she never afterwards saw her mother.

At last the time came when Jessy was indeed to bear the cry, -- 'Behold the Bridegroom cometh!' But now her lamp was trimmed, and the cry was welcome. The day before that event, one of her kind ladies visited her. When she was going to read, Jessy attempted to speak, but was so weak her voice was inaudible. The lady put her ear close to her, and she said, 'The 17th of John.' This the lady read, and Jessy seemed to feel every word. When the lady was leaving her, she made an effort, and looking smilingly at her, and then up to heaven, said, 'Farewell.' That night she had many severe fits; and, at last, after one in which she suffered much, she at once ceased to breathe, and lay in perfect stillness. Her friends at first scarcely believed it was all over; but when the stillness continued, and the face relaxed into that look of inexpressible calmness which follows death, even Mary Scott thanked God that her beloved friend would suffer no more, and followed in solemn, but delightful thought, her spirit now made perfect, into the presence of that glorious Redeemer, whom, while on earth, she had loved so ardently.