back the soil till they came again to the coffinplate, that I might see and read it : "Sir Marc Isambard Brunel. Born April 25th, Died December 12th, 66 1849. There came one hurrying along the gravelwalk while I was watching the removal of the soil. "Ah," said he, looking into the grave, "he was a good man! He was good to his workmen !" "I believe he was good to everybody," said I. Yes, sir," said he, "but I speak feelingly with regard to myself, for many is the penny, and many is the pound, that I have had of his money." "Are you from the Thames Tunnel?" said I. "I am, sir," was his reply, "and should have been in time for the funeral if I had not been hindered. No time have I lost in hastening here; and glad am I that I have seen his coffin-plate." Thus it is that kindly qualities bind us to those who possess them, not only through life, but when they lie in the grave. There was an elderly female in black, of some threescore years, perhaps, lingering at the gravea poor woman, but well-spoken, and evidently better brought up than her appearance indicated. She seemed much interested, and spoke of all who had attended the funeral, particularly the little grandson. Very likely she had been a domestic in the family in former years. The brink of the grave is a suitable place for reflection; and happy is he who, while pondering on the sentence of death passed on man, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return," is able to say in the fulness of belief and the exultation of faith, "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God," Job xix. 25, 26. As I walked away from the cemetery, the garden of death, I thought awhile of the high endowments of the deceased, and of the renown he had acquired in the different departments of science; but what were these compared to the well-grounded hope of an eternal life? I had in my pocket an epitaph, written by an affectionate and talented friend of Sir Marc, of which the following lines are a copy: "Hark! 'tis a nation's voice to speak his fame; From Portsmouth, Chatham, Rotherhithe it came; But how utterly insufficient and inappropriate for the tomb would have been this friendly and affectionate record of success and earthly honours, save for the concluding hope that all was laid at His feet, who will "beautify the meek with salvation," and make them shine as the stars in heaven. But now having dwelt for a time on the great works of man, let me turn to the greater works of his Almighty Maker. The works which I have mentioned are great only when compared with the lesser works of man; but how inconceivably small are they in comparison, when contrasted with the mightier works of Him who sitteth upon the throne of heaven? "Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity," Isa. xl. 15, 17. When we read in holy writ, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," Gen. i. 1; "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God," 2 Tim. iii. 16; and "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," 1 Tim. i. 15; or, in other words, when we ponder on the three great works of the King of kings and Lord of lords-the work of creation, the work of revelation, and the work of redemption, well may we humble ourselves in dust and ashes before him : Well may the holiest angel feel An awful fear around him steal; "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable." "Great is our Lord, and of great power; his understanding is infinite." "O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!" "Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord," Psa. cl. 6. A LITTLE GOSSIP ABOUT A LAME FOOT. HE that has carried here and there with him a lame foot for twelve months, may well be indulged in a little gossip about it; for either he must be very backward in turning opportunities to profit, or he must have something to narrate not altogether undeserving of attention. A certain surgeon used to say that he knew comparatively but little about fractured limbs, till he broke his own leg; and I promise my reader, that should he ever meet with an accident as severe as that of my sprained ankle, he will soon know many things much better than he knew them before. It is wonderful how an affliction quickens our sensibilities in regard to visitations of the same kind. I am much more familiar than I was a year ago with the account of Jacob halting on his thigh; the great supper to which the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind were invited, and that declaration of the Redeemer, "It is better for thee to enter into life halt, or maimed, rather than having two hands or two |