r; and I have, of late,
felt the sense of a Divine Presence with her in a most unusual degree.
Has she opened her mind to you?"

"Mary was always a silent girl," said Mrs. Scudder, "and not given to
speaking of her own feelings; indeed, until she gave you an account of
her spiritual state, on joining the church, I never knew what her
exercises were. Hers is a most singular case. I never knew the time when
she did not seem to love God more than anything else. It has disturbed
me sometimes,--because I did not know but it might be mere natural
sensibility, instead of gracious affection."

"Do not disturb yourself, Madam," said the Doctor. "The Spirit worketh
when, where, and how He will; and, undoubtedly, there have been cases
where His operations commence exceedingly early. Mr. Edwards relates a
case of a young person who experienced a marked conversion when three
years of age; and Jeremiah was called from the womb. (Jeremiah, i. 5.)
In all cases we must test the quality of the evidence without relation
to the time of its commencement. I do not generally lay much stress on
our impressions, which are often uncertain and delusive; yet I have had
an impression that the Lord would be pleased to make some singular
manifestations of His grace through this young person. In the economy of
grace there is neither male nor female; and Peter says (Acts, ii. 17)
that the Spirit of the Lord shall be poured out and your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy. Yet if we consider that the Son of God, as to
his human nature, was made of a woman, it leads us to see that in
matters of grace God sets a special value on woman's nature and designs
to put special honor upon it. Accordingly, there have been in the
Church, in all ages, holy women who have received the Spirit and been
called to a ministration in the things of God,--such as Deborah, Huldah,
and Anna, the prophetess. In our own days, most uncommon manifestations
of divine grace have been given to holy women. It was my privilege to be
in the family of President Edwards at a time when Northampton was
specially visited, and his wife seemed and spoke more like a glorified
spirit than a mortal woman,--and multitudes flocked to the house to hear
her wonderful words. She seemed to have such a sense of the Divine love
as was almost beyond the powers of nature to endure. Just to speak the
words, 'Our Father who art in heaven,' would overcome her with such a
manifestation that she would becom