early impressing her with the realities of an eternal world; and that her progress in religious experience was so gradual as scarcely to be perceptible even to herself. At the same time, there is reason to believe, that both her convictions, and her principles and habits as a Christian, became more decided after she entered the seminary of Bradford, of which she became a member in 1807; and in which about that time, a remarkable revival of religion took place. Here, to use her own words, she was made to feel that her heart was exceeding sinful, and opposed to God; and her will so stubborn that it would not submit to him." But after this," as she also wrote, "her feelings were changed: she saw God to be holy, just, and good; and as such she loved him."

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Bradford Academy must at this time have been highly favoured. Unlike many seminaries for female education in our country, where any thing. almost may be learned but religion, and where for a teacher of languages or of any other branch of lite tuition to talk about religion would be a sufficient excuse for never allowing him to enter it again, there appears to have been an equal solici tude on the part of its teachers and their pupils, to converse on the great concerns of salvation and: eternity. This at least may be inferred with regard to one of Miss Woodbury's preceptors, from the following extract from her Journal in 1809, which. we introduce here, with the view of shewing likewise how she was accustomed from nature's works to rise to nature's God."

"Oct. 1.-How short the time since spring commenced, and all nature seemed alive. The

fields clad in verdure, the gardens decorated with curious flowers, the trees in blossom, the melodious songsters in the groves inviting to rural walks, presented the most beautiful appearances. Many a time when I have rambled over the verdant fields, I have taken a flower, or a blade of grass, which the combined exertions of men and angels could never have made, and ruminated on the wisdom and goodness of God, the infinite case with which he created this huge globe, and the myriads of living creatures which here exist. Nor have I forgotten the three vernal months I attended the school of Mr P. O how pleasantly they passed. Many of his instructions are fresh in my mind. How frequently did he exhort his pupils to attend to the concerns of their souls, to devote themselves to their Creator, and to seek the one thing needful. How solicitous was he to infuse into their minds a love of learning and of religion."

Soon after her admission into this seminary, and when she was just sixteen years of age, she was received into the communion of the church, and made a public profession of her faith in Christ, and obedience to his laws, by partaking of the sacred memorials of his love and death. This was to her a season of peculiar solemnity. Far from being satisfied, as it is to be feared but too many frequently are, merely with giving satisfactory answers to the questions put to her by her Pastor, preparatory to being admitted to this delightful Christian privilege, and in the prospect of it; she not only gave herself to devout meditation and prayer, accompanied with jealous self-examination, but made a solemn dedication of herself to God in writing.

Nor did she retire from the communion service as if she had been observing only a rite a little more impressive than usual, or as if she had had nothing more to do as a Christian, after she had assumed this outward badge of discipleship: On the contrary, she viewed this act in its true light, as an expression of entire devotedness to her God and Saviour, the sincerity of which she was deeply solicitous to justify by her subsequent life and conversation. How she felt on the occasion will be best expressed in her own account of it:

"This day," she says, "I publicly gave myself to God, and was permitted to commemorate my Saviour's dying love. O what a wonder that I, the most unworthy of mortals, should be brought to the marriage supper of the Lamb.-I have now made a profession of the Christian religion, and given myself up to God in my youthful years. I trust I shall ever find satisfaction in what I have done. I have done it in the vigour of health, in the prime of my age. I choose to take up the cross, and daily to follow the blessed Jesus, rather than indulge myself in youthful pleasures. Indeed I have not the least wish for the vain amusements of life. Religion only is capable of giving that happiness which will remain when every earthly comfort fails. If we are destitute of this, we are destitute of every thing that can render us truly amiable in life and happy through death and eternity."

Her eager acquisition of useful knowledge, seems to have been uniformly connected with an earnest anxiety to render it subservient equally to the extension of her own acquaintance with divine truth, and to the increase of her power and means of be

ing spiritually useful to others. Her reading was not desultory, but select: and what she did read she endeavoured carefully to digest and make her own, storing instruction not in her memory only, but in her judgment and heart. Among other books, she speaks in her correspondence particularly of Dana's Memoirs of l'ious Women, Dr Buchanan's Christian Researches, and Scott's Force of Truth, as having afforded her much satisfaction and advantage in the perusal. But it was to the Bible that she especially "gave her nights and days;" regarding it as indeed the Book of Books, infinitely superior to every other, and counting it her choicest companion, and most precious treasure. At the same time she did not disdainfully reject, but diligently employed such private aids, in addition to public instruction, as she could obtain, for unfolding to her more fully the meaning of the sacred volume. Scott's Commentary she peculiarly prized on this account; and no slight estimate of the ardency with which she pursued her study of it must be formed, when it is known, that she read regularly through this excellent work twice; and at one of these times, the whole of it within the short period of six months.

The Sabbath she in reality felt to be "a delight, the holy of the Lord, and honourable." To her its hours were no uneasiness; its private exercises no task; and its public services no burden. When her deafness, as was sometimes the case, did not prevent her from hearing the word in the house of God, she listened to it with far more than the hearing of the ear; and even when her deafness was such that the preacher's voice was to her indistinct

and inaudible, still she anxiously desired to be found in the sanctuary. "I always long," says she in one passage of her Journal, "for the return of the Sabbath. Though it is seldom I hear the preached word, I love to join with the dear saints in worshipping God." This indeed was her habitual feeling For, to one who often walked with her to church, she was accustomed to say, when about to enter it, "Now I do hope our souls will be richly fed."-"Do let us hear for eternity." And at the distance of more than six years after writing what we have just quoted from her Journal, she could still express herself thus:-" The day of the Lord has dawned, grateful to the stranger's heart, while he wanders in this strange landsweetly refreshing to all who love the blessed service of God, and have raised their eyes to a region where one eternal Sabbath reigns. Welcome morn! my soul greets thee with fond delight; and as thou art hastening away, O wilt thou bear on thy wings a tribute of gratitude to Him who is mindful of his humble followers in this world of sin, and drop on their waiting souls some heavenly joys. I hail thee happy day, as propitious to the suffering, languishing interests of the Redeemer's kingdom, and reviving to this afflicted, solitary daughter of Zion. For thee, many ardent wishes, many fervent prayers have ascended to the Great Head of the church; and now thou hast arrived, God shall be glorified with praise."

It was not to public religious duties, however, that her attention was confined. Social intercourse, and especially social worship, indeed, afforded her sources of high enjoyment; but it was in the retirement of