"As we are commanded to be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises, we should have their example before us, that we may learn to imbibe their spirit, to imitate their graces, and be ready for their reward. With this view, permit me to lay before you some brief recollections of our deceased friend.
"It is not my intention to relate the history of her life. That will be a proper task for biography. I design merely to state a few leading facts, and to sketch such outlines of character as may show to those who knew her not, what manner of person she was in all holy conversation and G.o.dliness. Those who knew her best require no such remembrancer, and will be able, from their own observation, to supply its defects.
"ISABELLA MARSHALL, known to us as Mrs. GRAHAM, received from nature qualities which, in circ.u.mstances favorable to their development, do not allow their possessor to pa.s.s through life unnoticed and inefficient.
"An intellect strong, prompt, and inquisitive--a temper open, generous, cheerful, ardent--a heart replete with tenderness, and alive to every social affection and every benevolent impulse--a spirit at once enterprising and persevering--the whole crowned with that rare and inestimable endowment, good sense--were materials which required only skilful management to fit her for adorning and dignifying any female station. With that sort of cultivation which the world most admires, and those opportunities which attend upon rank and fortune, she might have shone in the circles of the great without forfeiting the esteem of the good. Or had her lot fallen among the literary unbelievers of the continent, she might have figured in the sphere of the Voltaires, the Duffauds, and the other _esprits forts_ of Paris. She might have been as gay in public, as dismal in private, and as wretched in her end, as any of the most distinguished among them for their wit and their woe. But G.o.d had destined her for other scenes and services--scenes from which greatness turns away appalled, and services which all the cohorts of infidel wit are unable to perform.
She was to be prepared by poverty, bereavement, and grief, to pity and to succor the poor, the bereaved, and the grieving. The sorrows of widowhood were to teach her the heart of the widow--her babes, deprived of their father, to open the springs of her compa.s.sion to the fatherless and orphan--and the consolations of G.o.d, her refuge and strength, her very present help in trouble, to make her a daughter of consolation to them who were walking in the valley of the shadow of death.
"To train her betimes for the future dispensations of his providence, the Lord touched the heart of this chosen vessel in her early youth. The spirit of prayer sanctified her infant lips, and taught her, as far back as her memory could go, to pour out her heart before G.o.d. She had not reached her eleventh year when she selected a bush in the retirement of the field, and there devoted herself to her G.o.d by faith in the Redeemer. The incidents of her education, thoughtless companions, the love of dress, and the dancing-school, as she has herself recorded, chilled for a while the warmth of her piety, and robbed her bosom of its peace. But her gracious Lord revisited her with his mercy, and bound her to himself in an everlasting covenant, which she sealed at his own table about the seventeenth year of her age.
"Having married, a few years after, Dr. John Graham, surgeon to the 60th British regiment, she accompanied him first to Montreal, and shortly after to Fort Niagara. Here, during four years of temporal prosperity, she had no opportunity, even for once, of entering the habitation of G.o.d"s house, or hearing the sound of his gospel.
Secluded from the waters of the sanctuary and all the public means of growth in grace, her religion began to languish and its leaf to droop.
But the root was perennial--it was of the seed of G.o.d, which liveth and abideth for ever. The Sabbath was still to her the sign of his covenant. On that day of rest, with her Bible in her hand, she used to wander through the woods, renew her self-dedication, and pour out her prayer for the salvation of her husband and her children. He who "dwelleth not in temples made with hands," heard her cry from the wilds of Niagara, and strengthened her with strength in her soul.
"By one of those vicissitudes which checker military life, the regiment was ordered to the island of Antigua in the West Indies. Here she met with that exquisite enjoyment to which she had been long a stranger--the communion of kindred spirits in the love of Christ: and soon did she need all the soothing and support which it is fitted to administer; for in a very short time the husband of her youth, the object of her most devoted affection, her sole earthly stay, was taken from her by death. The stroke was, indeed, mitigated by the sweet a.s.surance that he slept in Jesus. But a heart like hers, convulsed by a review of the past and antic.i.p.ation of the future, would have burst with agony, had she not known how to pour its sorrows into the bosom of her heavenly Father. Trials which beat sense and reason to the ground, raise up the faith of the Christian, and draw her closer to her G.o.d. O, how divine to have him as the rock of our rest when every earthly reliance is a broken reed.
"Bowing to his mysterious dispensation, and committing herself to his protection as the Father of the fatherless and the Husband of the widow, she returns with her charge to her native land, to contract alliance with penury, and to live by faith for her daily bread. That same grace under whose teaching she knew how to abound, taught her also how to suffer need. With a dignity which belongs only to them who have treasure in heaven, she descended to her humble cot, employment, and fare. But her humility, according to the Scripture, was the forerunner of her advancement. The light of her virtues shone brightest in her obscurity, and pointed her way to the confidential trust of forming the minds and manners of young females of different ranks in the metropolis of Scotland. Here, respected by the great and beloved by the good; in sacred intimacy with "devout and honorable women," and the friendship of men who were in truth servants of the most high G.o.d, she continued in the successful discharge of her duties till Providence conducted her to our sh.o.r.es.
"She long had a predilection for America, as a land in which, according to her favorite opinion, the church of Christ is signally to flourish. Here she wished to end her days and leave her children. And we shall remember with grat.i.tude, that in granting her wish, G.o.d cast her lot with ourselves. Twenty-five years ago she opened in this city a school for the education of young ladies, the benefits of which have been strongly felt, and will be long felt hereafter, in different and distant parts of our country. Evidently devoted to the welfare of her pupils--attentive to their peculiarities of character--happy in discovering the best avenue of approach to their minds--possessing in a high degree the talent of simplifying her instruction and varying its form, she succeeded in that most difficult part of a teacher"s work, the inducing youth to take an interest in their own improvement, and to educate themselves by exerting their own faculties.
"In governing her little empire, she acted upon those principles which are the basis of all good government, on every scale and under every modification--to be reasonable, to be firm, and to be uniform.
Her authority was both tempered and strengthened by condescension. It commanded respect while it conciliated affection. Her word was law, but it was the law of kindness. It spoke to the conscience, but it spoke to the heart; and obedience bowed with the knee of love. She did not, however, imagine her work to be perfected in fitting her eleves for duties and elegance of life. Never did she forget their immortal nature. Utterly devoid of sectarian narrowness, she labored to infuse into their minds those vital principles of evangelical piety which form the common distinction of the disciples of Christ, the peculiar glory of the female name, and the surest pledge of domestic bliss. Her voice, her example, her prayers concurred in recommending that pure and undefiled religion without which no human being shall see the Lord. Shall we wonder that her scholars should be tenderly attached to such a preceptress; that they should leave her with their tears and their blessing; that they should carry an indelible remembrance of her into the bosom of their families; that the reverence of pupils should ripen with their years into the affection of friends; and that there should be among them, at this day, many a wife who is a crown to her husband, and many a mother who is a blessing to her children, and who owes, in a great degree, the felicity of her character to the impressions, the principles, and the habits which she received while under the maternal tuition of Mrs. GRAHAM?
"Admonished at length by the infirmities of age, and importuned by her friends, this venerable matron retired to private life. But it was impossible for her to be idle. Her leisure only gave a new direction to her activity. With no less alacrity than she had displayed in the education of youth, did she now embark in the relief of misery. Her benevolence was unbounded, but it was discreet. There are charities which increase the wretchedness they are designed to diminish; which, from some fatal defect in their application, bribe to iniquity while they are relieving want, and make food and raiment and clothing to warm into life the most poisonous seeds of vice. But the charities of our departed friend were of another order. They selected the fittest objects--the widow, the fatherless, the orphan, the untaught child, and the ignorant adult. They combined intellectual and moral benefit with the communication of physical comfort.
"In her house originated the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children. Large, indeed, is this branch of the family of affliction, and largely did it share in her sympathy and succor. When at the head of this n.o.ble a.s.sociation, she made it her business to see with her own eyes the objects of their care; and to give, by her personal presence and efforts, the strongest impulse to their humane system. From morning till night has she gone from abode to abode of these dest.i.tute, who are too commonly unpitied by the great, despised by the proud, and forgotten by the gay. She has gone to sit beside them on their humble seat, hearing their simple and sorrowful story, sharing their homely meal--ascertaining the condition of their children--stirring them up to diligence, to economy, to neatness, to order--putting them into the way of obtaining suitable employment for themselves and suitable places for their children--distributing among them the word of G.o.d, and tracts calculated to familiarize its first principles to their understanding--cherishing them in sickness, admonishing them in health--instructing, reproving, exhorting, consoling--sanctifying the whole with fervent prayer. Many a sobbing heart and streaming eye is this evening embalming her memory in the house of the widow.
"Little if any less is the debt due to her from that invaluable charity, the Orphan Asylum. It speaks its own praise, and that praise is hers. Scores of orphans redeemed from filth, from ignorance, from wretchedness, from crime--clothed, fed, instructed--trained in cleanliness to habits of industry--early imbued with the knowledge and fear of G.o.d--gradually preparing for respectability, usefulness, and happiness, is a spectacle for angels. Their infantine gayety, their healthful sport, their cherub faces, mark the contrast between their present and former condition; and recall very tenderly the scenes in which they used to cl.u.s.ter round their patron-mother, hang on her gracious words, and receive her benediction.
"Brethren, I am not dealing in romance, but in sober fact. The night would be too short for a full enumeration of her worthy deeds.
Suffice it to say that they ended but with her life. The Sabbath previous to her last sickness occupied her with a recent inst.i.tution--a Sunday-school for ignorant adults; and the evening preceding the touch of death, found her at the side of a faithful domestic, administering consolation to his wounded spirit.
"Such active benevolence could hardly be detected in company with a n.i.g.g.ardly temper. Wishes which cost nothing; pity which expires on the lips; be ye warmed and be ye clothed, from a cold heart and an unyielding gripe, never imprinted their disgraceful brand upon Isabella Graham. What she urged upon others she exemplified in herself. She kept a purse for G.o.d. Here, in obedience to his command, she deposited the first-fruits of all her increase; and they were sacred to his service, as in his providence he should call for them.
No shuffling pretences, no pitiful evasions, when a fair demand was made upon the hallowed store; and no frigid affectation in determining the quality of the demand. A sense of duty was the prompter, candor the interpreter, and good sense the judge. Her disburs.e.m.e.nts were proportioned to the value of the object, and were ready at a moment"s warning, to the very last farthing.* How pungent a reproof to those ladies of opulence and fashion who sacrifice so largely to their dissipation or their vanity, that they have nothing left for mouths without food, and limbs without raiment! How far does it throw back into the shade those men of prosperous enterprise and gilded state who, in the hope of some additional lucre, have thousands and ten thousands at their beck; but who, when asked for decent contributions to what they themselves acknowledge to be all-important, turn away with this hollow excuse, "I cannot afford it." Above all, how should her example redden the faces of many who profess to belong to Christ; to have received gratuitously from him what he procured for them at the expense of his own blood, "an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away;" and yet, in the midst of abundance which he has lavished upon them, when the question is about relieving his suffering members, or promoting the glory of his kingdom, are sour, reluctant, mean. Are these the Christians? Can it be that they have committed their bodies, their souls, their eternal hope, to a Saviour whose thousand promises on this very point of honoring him with their substance, have less influence upon their hearts and their hands than the word of any honest man? Remember the deceased, and hang your heads--remember her, and tremble; remember her, and bring forth fruits meet for repentance.
*The author knew her, when in moderate circ.u.mstances, to give, unsolicited, _fifty pounds at once_ out of that sacred purse to a single most worthy purpose.
"In that charity, also, which far surpa.s.ses mere almsgiving, however liberal, the charity of the gospel, our friend was conspicuous. The love of G.o.d shed abroad in her own heart by the Holy Ghost, drew forth her love to his people wherever she found them.
a.s.suredly she had in herself this witness of her having "pa.s.sed from death unto life," that she loved the brethren. The epistle, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living G.o.d; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart; yet read and known of all men: that is, the Christian temper manifested by a Christian conversation, was to her the best letter of recommendation. Unwavering in her own faith as to the peculiar doctrines of the gospel, she could nevertheless extend love without dissimulation, and the very bowels of Christian fellowship, to others who, whatever might be their mistakes, their infirmities, or their differences in smaller matters, agreed in the great Christian essential of acceptance in the Beloved. Deeply did she deplore the conceit, the bigotry, and the bitterness of sect. O that her spirit were more prevalent in the churches; that we could labor to abase our crown of pride; to offer up with one consent upon the altar of evangelical charity, those petty jealousies, animosities, and strifes which are our common reproach; and walk together as children of the same Father, brethren of the same Redeemer, and heirs of the same salvation.
"To these admirable traits of character were added great tenderness of conscience and a spirit of prayer. Her religion, not contented to justify her before men, habitually aimed at pleasing G.o.d, who looketh upon the heart. It was not enough for her to persuade herself that a thing might be right. Before venturing upon it, she studied to reduce the question of right to a clear certainty. How cautious and scrupulous and jealous of herself she was in this matter, they best can tell who saw her in the shade of retirement as well as in the sunshine of public observation. Perhaps it is not going too far to say, that her least guarded moments would, in others, have been marked for circ.u.mspection. At the same time her vigilance had nothing austere, gloomy, constrained, or censorious--nothing to repress the cheerfulness of social intercourse, or to excite in others, even the thoughtless, a dread of merciless criticism after they should retire.
It was sanctified nature moving gracefully in its own element. And with respect to the character and feelings of her neighbors, she was too full of Christian kindness not to keep her tongue from evil and her lips from speaking guile.
"These virtues and graces were maintained and invigorated by her habit of prayer. With the "new and living way into the holiest by the blood of Jesus," she was intimately familiar. Thither the Spirit of grace and supplication daily conducted her; there taught her to pray, and in praying to believe, and in believing to have "fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." She knew her G.o.d as the G.o.d that heareth prayer; and could attest that "blessed is she that believeth, for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord."
"Under such influence her course could not but be correct, and her steps well ordered. The "secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant, he will guide them in judgment." Thus he did with his handmaid whom he hath called home.
Wherever she was, and in whatever circ.u.mstances, she remembered the guide of her youth, who, according to His promise, never left her, nor forsook her; but continued His gracious presence with her when she was old and gray-headed.
"You may perhaps imagine, that with such direction and support it was impossible she should see trouble. Nay, but waters of a full cup were wrung out to her. She often ate the bread of sorrow steeped in wormwood and gall. Her heavenly Father showed her great and sore adversities; that he might try her as silver is tried, and bring her forth from the furnace purified seven times. It was during these refining processes that she found the worth of being a Christian.
Though her way was planted with thorns and watered with her tears, yet the candle of the Lord shone upon her head; and from step to step she had reason to cry, Hitherto hath Jehovah helped.
"In a word, like Enoch, she walked with G.o.d; like Abraham, she staggered not at his promise through unbelief; like Jacob, she wrestled with the angel and prevailed; like Moses, endured as seeing Him who is invisible; like Paul, finished her course with joy. Blessed were the eyes of the preacher, for they saw the victory of her faith; and his ears, for they heard her song of salvation. "You can say with the apostle, I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him?" "O yes, but I cannot say the other, I have fought a good fight; I must say, I have fought a poor fight, I have run a poor race; but Christ fought for me.
Christ ran with me, and through Christ I hope to win," "But you have no fear, no doubts, about your going to be with Christ?" "O no, not a doubt; I am as sure of that as if I were already in my Saviour"s arms." It was her final conversation with children of the dust. The next day, when her flesh and her heart had so far failed that she was incapable of uttering a sentence, she still proved her G.o.d to be the strength of her heart, and knew him to be her portion for ever. I said to her, "It is peace," She opened her eyes, smiled, closed them again, bowed her dying head, and breathed out, "Peace," It was her last word on this side heaven. The attending spirits caught it from her lips, and brought to her the next day permission to sleep in Jesus.
"From this review allow me to urge the value of private exertions in promoting general good.
"In pursuing his gratifications, man is apt to look upon himself as a being of great importance; in fulfilling his duties, to account himself as nothing. Both are extravagances which it will be his wisdom and happiness to correct. He is neither supreme in worth nor useless in action. Let him not say, "I am but one; my voice will be drowned in the universal din; my weight is lighter than a feather in the public scale. It is better for me to mind my own affairs, and leave these higher attempts to more competent hands." This is the language, not of reason and modesty, but of sloth, of selfishness, and of pride. The amount of it is, "I cannot do every thing, therefore I will do nothing," But you can do much. Act well your part according to your faculties, your station, and your means. The result will be honorable to yourself, delightful to your friends, and beneficial to the world.
I advise not to gigantic aims, to enormous enterprise. The world has seen but one Newton, and one Howard. Nothing is required of you but to make the most of the opportunities within your reach.
"Recall the example of Mrs. Graham. Here was a woman, a widow, a stranger in a strange land, without fortune, with no friends but such as her letters of introduction and her worth should acquire, and with a family of daughters dependent upon her for their subsistence. Surely if any one has a clear t.i.tle of immunity from the obligation to carry her cares beyond the domestic circle, it is this widow, it is this stranger. Yet within a few years this stranger, this widow, with no means but her excellent sense, her benevolent heart, and her persevering will to do good, awakens the charities of a populous city, and gives to them an impulse, a direction, and an efficacy unknown before.
"What might not be done by men--by men of talent, of standing, of wealth, of leisure? How speedily, under their well-directed beneficence, might a whole country change its physical, intellectual, and moral aspect; and a.s.sume, comparatively speaking, the face of another Eden, a second garden of G.o.d. Why then do they not diffuse thus extensively the seeds of knowledge, of virtue, and of bliss? I ask not for their pretences; they are as old as the l.u.s.t of lucre, and are refuted by the example which we have been contemplating: I ask for the true reason, for the inspiring principle of their conduct. It is this--let them look to it when G.o.d shall call them to account for the abuse of their time, their talents, their station, their "unrighteous mammon"--it is this: they believe not "the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." They labor under no want but one, they want _the heart_. The bountiful G.o.d add this to the other gifts which he has bestowed upon them. I turn to the other s.e.x.
"That venerable mother in Israel who has exchanged the service of G.o.d on earth for his service in heaven, has left a legacy to her sisters: she has left the example of her faith and patience; she has left her prayers; she has left the monument of her Christian deeds; and by these she being dead, yet speaketh. Matrons, has she left her mantle also? Are there none among you to hear her voice from the tomb, Go and do thou likewise? None whom affluence permits, endowments qualify, and piety prompts, to aim at her distinction by treading in her steps? Maidens, are there none among you who would wish to array yourselves hereafter in the honors of this virtuous woman? Your hearts have dismissed their wonted warmth and generosity, if they do not throb as the revered vision rises before you. Then prepare yourselves now, by seeking and serving the G.o.d of her youth. You cannot be too early adorned with the robes of righteousness and the garments of salvation in which she was wedded, in her morning of life, to Jesus the King of glory. That same grace which threw its radiance around her, shall make you also to shine in the beauty of holiness; and the fragrance of those virtues which it shall create, develope, and enn.o.ble, will be "as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed."
"Yea, let me press upon all the transcendent excellence of Christian character, and the victorious power of Christian hope. The former bears the image of G.o.d; the latter is as imperishable as his throne. We fasten our eyes with more real respect and more heart-felt approbation upon the moral majesty displayed in walking as Christ also walked, than upon all the pomps of the monarch or decorations of the military hero. More touching to the sense and more grateful to high heaven is the soft melancholy with which we look after our departed friend, and the tear which embalms her memory, than the thundering plaudits which rend the air with the name of a conqueror. She has obtained a triumph over that foe who shall break the arm of valor, and strike off the crown of kings. "The fashion of this world pa.s.seth away." Old Time approaches towards his last hour. The proudest memorials of human grandeur shall be food for the conflagration to be kindled when "the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire. Then shall he be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe."
"There are those perhaps, in the present a.s.sembly, who repute G.o.dliness fanaticism, and the sobriety of Christian peace the gloom of a joyless spirit; but who cannot forbear sighing out, with the prophet of mammon, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." If they proceed no further, their wish will not be granted. None shall die the death of the righteous, unless by a rare dispensation of mercy, who do not live his life. They only are fit to be with G.o.d who love G.o.d and keep his commandments. In that day of transport and of terror which we shall all witness, how many of the thoughtless fair who now "sport themselves with their own deceivings,"
would give all the treasures of the east and thrones of the west to sit with Isabella Graham on the right hand of Jesus Christ. If ye be wise betimes, ye may. Now is the accepted time; to-day is the day of salvation. The gospel of the Son of G.o.d offers you at this very moment, the forgiveness of your sins, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified. The blessing comes to you as a free gift: accept it, and live; accept it, and be safe; accept it, and put away the shudderings of guilt and the fear of death. Then shall you too, like our friend, go in due season to be with Christ. Your happy spirit shall rejoin hers in the mansions of the saved. G.o.d shall bring you in soul and body with her when he makes up his jewels. Then shall he gather his elect from the four winds of heaven, shall perfect that which concerneth them, and make them fully and for ever blessed. Be our place among them in that day."
EXTRACT FROM MRS. GRAHAM"S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT.
"My children and my grandchildren I leave to my covenant G.o.d--the G.o.d who hath fed me all my life with the bread that perisheth, and the bread that never perisheth; who has been a Father to my fatherless children, and a Husband to their widowed mother thus far. And now, receiving my Redeemer"s testimony, John 3:33, I set to my seal that G.o.d is true; and believing the record in John"s epistle, that G.o.d hath given to me eternal life, and this life is in his Son, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot unto G.o.d, and being consecrated a priest for ever, hath with his own blood, entered into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for me. I also believe that he will perfect what concerns me, support and carry me safely through death, and present me to his Father, complete in his own righteousness, without spot or wrinkle. Into the hands of this redeeming G.o.d, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I commit my redeemed spirit."
Mrs. Graham"s epitaph on a tablet in the Pearl-street church, is a.s.sociated with that of her son-in-law Mr. Bethune, to whom before his connection with the family she was a spiritual mother; who prepared her memoir, wrote and printed tracts for her widows, imported Bibles for her to distribute, replenished her charity purse when exhausted; with whom she took sweet counsel and walked to the house of G.o.d in company; and for whom she was pleased to leave the written and honorable testimony: "He stands in my mind, in temper, conduct, and conversation, the nearest to the gospel standard of any man or woman I ever knew as intimately. Devoted to his G.o.d, to his church, to his family, to all to whom he may have opportunity of doing good, duty is his governing principle; cast upon his care, under G.o.d he nourishes me with kindness," etc. They have entered into rest. One sepulchre contains their sleeping dust, and one monument bears the following tribute to their memory:
SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF DIVIE BETHUNE, MERCHANT OF THIS CITY, WHO DIED SEPTEMBER 18, 1824, AGED 53 YEARS;
AND OF
ISABELLA GRAHAM, HIS MOTHER-IN-LAW, WHO DIED JULY 27, 1814, AGED 72 YEARS.
THEY WERE BOTH NATIVES OF SCOTLAND.
THIS MONUMENT IS REARED BY HIS BEREAVED WIDOW AND HER ORPHAN DAUGHTER, AS A TESTIMONIAL OF TWO SERVANTS OF JESUS CHRIST: THE ONE A RULING ELDER IN HIS CHURCH, THE OTHER A MOTHER IN ISRAEL; WHO, LIKE ENOCH, WALKED WITH G.o.d, LIKE ABRAHAM, OBTAINED THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF FAITH, AND, LIKE PAUL, FINISHED THEIR COURSE WITH JOY.
THEY WERE LOVELY AND PLEASANT IN THEIR LIVES, AND THEY REST HERE TOGETHER IN THEIR GRAVES.
"THE BLESSING OF HIM THAT WAS READY TO PERISH CAME UPON THEM; AND THEY CAUSED THE WIDOW"S HEART TO SING FOR JOY." JOB 29:13.
"OH HOW GREAT IS THY GOODNESS, WHICH THOU HAST LAID UP FOR THEM THAT FEAR THEE; WHICH THOU HAST WROUGHT FOR THEM THAT TRUST IN THEE BEFORE THE SONS OF MEN!" PSA. 31:19.
PROVISION