nd joy to that time, when "absent from the body," she should be
"present with the Lord."

Six months after her husband's death, she was removed, in an invalid
carriage, to the residence of her eldest son in Essex, whose house
continued to be her home the remainder of her days. In writing to a much
beloved friend, from this quiet retreat soon after her arrival, she
remarks,--"Every comfort and every indulgence is allotted to me by my
attentive children. Oh what boundless demands upon my gratitude are thus
poured forth. I would gladly hope not without a heartfelt acknowledgment
to that Almighty Giver, who is the author of all our manifold mercies.
For all things I reverently thank my God and Saviour, remembering you my
dear friends, whom I have left, with the truest affection." To the same
friend, who herself was suffering from illness, she again writes, "Oh,
dearest ---, how many of His dear children does the Lord keep long in the
furnace, yet if he do but grant his presence there, and watch over the
refining process he designs to be accomplished, there ought to be no
complaining either of the length of time, or the severity of the
operation, but through all, the full fruits of resignation should be
brought forth in perfection, to his praise, and his glory. That so it
may be, my dear friend, forms a wish on my own account as well as on
thine, day by day. The time has appeared long to me, that I have been
required to lay under the rod, but when we measure time as did the
Apostle of old, and think of it as a vapour that quickly passeth away, or
as a shadow that abideth not, we see that it is but for a little moment
that our chastening can endure. I cannot forbear beholding my day as far
spent; but I do rejoice to see heaven as a place of rest for me,--yes,
even for me! through the blood shed for my sins on Calvary's Mount. This
mercy in Christ Jesus, how precious it is to dwell upon."

Alice Waller loved the company of all those that loved the Lord Jesus,
and especially the messengers of the gospel were acceptable to her. On
one occasion when receiving a visit from a friend, whilst laid upon her
bed of suffering, she, in great contrition, expressed her sense of her
heavenly Father's love and mercy to _her_, a poor creature, adding, "I
feel bound to tell of His marvellous goodness to me, even to me, by night
and by day upon my bed, in seasons of trial I have been comforted by my
Saviour's presence."

In the begin