FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   >>  
ongregations were fully as large, after thirty years' labors, as when she first opened her commission among them." Where is the clergyman of whom more can be said? MISS CROSBY. While Miss Bosanquet was still living at Laytonstone, she had associated with her two other ladies equally eminent for their earnest piety, and for the diligence with which they prosecuted every good work. It was their delight, among other things, to assist Miss Bosanquet in dispensing her munificent charities, which were so managed as to be given without ostentation. These two intimate friends of Miss Bosanquet were Miss Crosby and Miss Tripp. From the very commencement of a regularly organized movement among the Methodists, class and band meetings had been found very useful as a means of instructing the people who had united with these societies, and, in the capacity of class-leaders and band-leaders, these three ladies were perhaps unsurpassed in England. By what some would perhaps call a mere accidental circumstance, Miss Crosby found herself, upon an occasion, in a position where she must speak to a congregation or send them home disappointed, and be guilty of what she deemed an omission of a duty clearly pointed out to her by Providence. She had given no intimation of any intention, on her part, of doing more than she usually did at this place--simply leading her ordinary class--and had designed doing nothing more, when, on her arrival there, she found nearly two hundred persons present anxious for instruction. To lead the class in the customary manner was impossible. She, therefore, after conducting the preliminary services, delivered a general address, dwelling particularly on the necessity of repentance, and presenting Christ as a compassionate Redeemer. This extempore address was attended with such beneficial results, that her friends insisted upon her exercising her very evident talent in this direction, and, though averse to any thing like forwardness, she did not feel that she was justified in refusing to comply with the wishes of those on whose judgment she relied. Wherever she went, success attended her efforts, and she traveled extensively throughout the kingdom, speaking sometimes to very large audiences. Dr. Stevens, the celebrated American Methodist historian, thus sums up the work of a single year. "In that time," says he, "she traveled nine hundred and sixty miles to hold two hundred and twenty public meetings,
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   >>  



Top keywords:

Bosanquet

 

hundred

 
friends
 

Crosby

 

traveled

 

address

 

ladies

 

meetings

 

attended

 
leaders

repentance
 

presenting

 

beneficial

 
Redeemer
 
necessity
 

extempore

 

compassionate

 
Christ
 

manner

 
persons

present

 
anxious
 
arrival
 

simply

 

leading

 

ordinary

 
designed
 

instruction

 

services

 
preliminary

delivered
 

general

 

dwelling

 

conducting

 

customary

 

results

 

impossible

 

justified

 

Methodist

 
American

historian
 
celebrated
 

Stevens

 

speaking

 

audiences

 
single
 

twenty

 

public

 

kingdom

 

forwardness