And when he viewed the sheep and the oxen and the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air and the fish of the sea, he was constrained to cry out, "O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!" I am the poor man's friend, and wish more especially that every poor labouring man should know how to connect the goodness of God in creation and providence with the unsearchable riches of his grace in the salvation of a sinner.

And where can he learn this lesson more instructively than in looking around the fields where his labour is appointed, and there tracing the handiwork of God in all that he beholds?
Such meditations have often afforded me both profit and pleasure, and I wish my readers to share them with me.
The Dairyman's cottage was rather more than a mile distant from the church.

A lane, quite overshadowed with trees and high hedges, led from the foot of the hill to his dwelling.

It was impossible at that time to overlook the suitable gloom of such an approach to the house of mourning.
I found, on my entrance, that several Christian friends, from different parts of the neighbourhood, had assembled together, to pay their last tribute of esteem and regard to the memory of the Dairyman's daughter.
Several of them had first become acquainted with her during the latter stage of her illness; some few had maintained an affectionate intercourse with her for a longer period; but all seemed anxious to manifest their respect for one who was endeared to them by such striking testimonies of true Christianity.
I was requested to go into the chamber where the relatives and a few other friends were gone to take a last look at the remains of Elizabeth.
It is not easy to describe the sensation which the mind experiences on the first sight of a dead countenance, which, when living, was loved and esteemed for the sake of that soul which used to give it animation.

A deep and awful view of the separation that has taken place between the soul and body of the deceased, since we last beheld them, occupies the feelings: our friend seems to be both near, and yet far off.