REV. DUNCAN M. YOUNG:

DEAR BROTHER--In the removal of Mr. and Mrs. James Knowles _we_
sustain a personal loss. The fact was unknown to us previous to your
letter. To enjoy such friendship as they admitted us into from our
first acquaintance, was not unlike a continuous salutation with the
impressiveness of an unqualified _good-will_. Heaven is indeed
richer for their entrance, and by so much is increasingly endeared
unto us.

They were not time-servers, but, in no mere sentimental sense,
God-servers. The feverish world, greedy and rushing, will know
little of their value, nor miss their humble crafts so quickly
trackless, and yet they really laid the world under obligation. If
its life, and aim, and effort were not purer and higher, it was in
spite of their actual godliness, at all times apparent.

My first introduction to Mrs. Knowles was on the first Sabbath in
February, 1874; also, my first acquaintance with the Allen Street
Church. Mrs. Knowles was then teaching in the Ludlow Street Mission.
As a teacher, she was _simple_, _fearless_, and _Scriptural_. Her
ruling passion, perhaps, was a desire to be useful in some way,
adjusting herself with good grace to the requirements of advancing
years. If just a little disturbed at the thought that she must
contract her labors, or "hold up" at some point, the spirit was ever
the same, perhaps too exacting of a body not excessively vigorous.

As a "Bible reader" she did some of her best work, and made her
greatest sacrifices. Faithfulness characterized her covenant
relation--seldom absent from the scenes of public worship; and the
more remarkable in view of her untiring zeal and devotion in her
specially God-given calling. Many will rise up and call her
blessed, because, so true of her, "she went about doing good." My
own indebtedness to her, as a pastor, was great. Her sympathy with
the ministry seemed innate. Full of faith, and rich in peculiar
experience, she was the one "to step in" at the minister's for a
half-hour; and here, incidentally, I may say, that her practical
views of life and knowledge of human ways turned to my advantage on
repeated occasions, whenever she reported a case as worthy or
unworthy. When an application for aid or comfort required
investigation--that is, ultimate cases requiring delicate, careful