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,
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