habitual consciousness of her
responsibility, well employed. Her hand was ready at every turn,
and knew nothing of that silly squeamishness which leads a woman to
suppose that she demeans herself by meddling with household affairs.
Fond of singing, and possessed of a good voice, she lightened her
daily toil with the voice of song, and discharged the humblest duties
as a sacrifice well-pleasing to God. Her conscientiousness in little
things was remarkable. She was a determined enemy of all trifling and
tittle-tattle, as not only unbecoming the Christian character, but
destructive of religious feeling; and the consciousness of having
uttered a useless word, or engaged in unprofitable conversation,
always occasioned her pain. Among other peculiarities she displayed
a singular aversion to debt, and if by any means such an obligation,
however small, was incurred, she never rested until it was discharged.
The writer remembers on one occasion walking a couple of miles to pay
the trifling sum of sixpence to a party, who was at the time indebted
to his father as many pounds. Notwithstanding the severity with
which she judged her own actions, her piety was entirely free from
asceticism;--it was always cheerful, recollected, and heroic; and
in her intercourse with others, characterised by great humility and
christian courtesy. In prayer she was simple and earnest, zealous
without passion, and often particularized in the devotions of the
family the special cases of its individual members. Her's was the cry
of a child to its father, the appeal for help, that felt confident of
success. Her prayers, which were offered continually, day and night,
might truly be said to be mighty; and her children, even when distant
from her, have often felt conscious that her intercessions were going
up on their behalf. But they were urged for many,--for all; and in
particular for the prosperity of Zion, and the ministers of divine
truth. The Rev. John Hartley writes, "I feel that in your mother's
removal I suffer loss. I have seldom been more affected than when she
told me, on the last occasion of my seeing her, that not a day passed
without her pleading with God for me. Who am I, I thought, that this
saint of God should thus remember me in her prayers?" Her zeal in
the cause of God was constant, patient and persevering; not as we
sometimes see, now bursting into a furious blaze, and then dying away;
it burnt with a bright and steady flame,--being fed