instrumentality of the preaching of the Gospel among the Wesleyan Methodists, at Damerham. She consequently became a member of the Methodist society in that place, and diligently attended their public and social religious meetings, which were greatly blessed to the good of her soul. Often, however, did she seek the Lord in the assembly of his saints with a wounded spirit, which, at times, was almost intolerable to be borne. At this period there was a gracious outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Salisbury Circuit, and its blessed influence was felt in almost every place. Great numbers of persons joined the society, and professed what great things God had done for them. Many of these were doubtless deceived by momentary excitement, which, together with a variety of other circumstances, over which those who conducted the different meetings had no control, occasioned their falling away and return again to the practice of sin. But while several, affected more by sympathy than by a sense of sin, as is the case in many extraordinary revivals of religion, endured but a while, and then fell away; others there were who were deeply convinced of their awful state as sinners, and through the abundant mercy of God found redemption in the blood of Christ, even the forgiveness of sins. Of these some continue unto this day ornaments to the Christian profession, and useful in the

church of God; while others have finished their course with joy, and are now before the throne of glory. Among the latter, the subject of this sketch doubtless enjoys a glorious portion.

It was at a love-feast held at Salisbury, on Whit-Monday, 1816, that she was made the happy partaker of the pardoning love of God. When she went to this meeting she was deeply oppressed with a sense of her guilt and danger; the fear lest she should at last make her bed in hell, caused her to tremble before the Lord; and, from a dreadful apprehension of the wrath of God, she fled to the footstool of divine mercy, and for several hours, as in an agony, wrestled for the blessing. She refused to be comforted till Christ was formed in her heart the hope of glory. Nor did she seek in vain; the Lord in mercy heard her cry, she believed in her Saviour with her heart unto righteousness, and Jesus whispered in accents of forgiving love,

"Thy sins are forgiven, accepted thou art;

She listen'd, and heaven sprung up in her heart."

From this happy period, she uniformly evinced her love to Him who had first loved her, by her pious walk and conversation.

She had not long commenced her Christian course before she found that to continue and end in the faith of the Gospel needed much decision of character; for she soon met with opposition both from the world and from those with whom she was more intimately connected. Many were the scoffs that she had to endure from the ignorant and the profane, but this was not so acutely felt as the trials she met with from a closer quarter. The opposition and the sneers of those who were the open enemies of all goodness she could bear with comparative ease; such conduct from such characters drew forth her pity and her prayers. But when she felt herself called to meet the frowns of her nearest connexions she suffered most severely: These ranked amongst her heaviest trials at this time; but her judgment was with her Lord, and her work with her God.

As a member of religious society, she was steady in her attendance on the means of grace; classmeetings, and meetings for prayer, were the delight of her soul; and no trivial circumstance was allowed to prevent her going up to the house of the Lord to enjoy them. So far as her circumstances allowed, she was a useful member of our Connexon; she laboured much and cheerfully in the Sunday-school at Damerham, and shared largely in the affections of both teachers and children.

To Methodism she was warmly and from principle attached, and its prosperity in the village where she lived lay near her heart. Hence when the voice of calumny was raised against it by its enemies in that place, of whom there were not a few, she was ever ready, according to her ability, to stand forward in its defence.

Her enjoyments in the ways of religion were considerable; she generally walked beneath the broad

The

* The following instance of persecution and its consequences is deemed too important to be omitted here. The Wesleyan chapel at Damerham had been erected on waste land belonging to Lord Sy. There resided in the village an opulent farmer whose prejudice against the Methodists ran very high, and who wisely thought that the most effectual way to ruin their interest in the place would be to procure the destruction of their little sanctuary. He had some interest with his Lordship's steward, who was also a bitter enemy to the Methodists, and in due time their wicked scheme was accomplished. chapel was ordered to be pulled down; and as it stood near the farmer's premises his men were employed in its removal. The pulpit and other parts of the wood work were deposited in a barn, and often occasioned much merriment as spoils of the vanquished Methodists. The walls, which were composed of a mixture of chalk and earth, were spread over a field which was intended to be appropriated as wheat land the following season. But the crop almost wholly failed, and the countrymen said it was a judgment upon the owner, for impiously using the walls of the chapel as manure.

Be this as it may, from that period things constantly went against the farmer: His crops failed; his cattle died; and, being unable any longer to carry on the concern, he left the village comparatively a poor man.

beams of the Sun of Righteousness; yet a deep sense of her own weakness and unworthiness induced her to speak of her attainments with great diffidence. The following extract of a letter addressed by her to a pious young female friend, dated April 27th, 1818, illustrates her views of herself:

"As to my own heart, I assure you, my dear, it is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; it is the worst enemy I have to cope with. It would often lead me astray from the path of duty; and I am frequently led to mourn the hardness and unbelief that yet remain in it. But as we have such a merciful God, who hath provided a Saviour so suitable for sinners, if we look to him he will send us help from his holy hill. I am glad to hear that you do not mind the scoffs and jeers of a wicked world. I hope to meet you around the throne of God, there, with our friends and companions in Christ who are gone before, to mingle in the praises of Him who hath washed us from our sins in his own blood; to whom be glory now and for ever."

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In another letter to a Christian friend, bearing date December 3d, 1818, after speaking of the difficulties she met with in accomplishing a desirable object, she adds,