rows of ridicule; and that taunts and sneers followed her, as she
walked alone in her simple dress to her humble place of worship. But we
marvel that one situated as she was,--young, naturally gay and
brilliant, the centre of a large circle of fashionable friends, the ewe
lamb of an influential religious society,--should have unflinchingly
maintained her position under persecutions and trials that would have
made many an older disciple succumb. That they were martyrdom to her
proud spirit there can be no doubt; but, sustained by the inner light,
the conviction that she was right, she could put every temptation
behind her, and resist even the prayers and tears of her mother.

Her withdrawal from the Presbyterian Church caused the most intense
excitement in the community, and every effort was made to reclaim her.

The Rev. Mr. McDowell, her pastor, visited her, and remonstrated with
her in the most feeling manner, assuring her of his profound pity, as
she was evidently under a delusion of the arch-adversary. Members of
the congregation made repeated calls upon her, urging every argument
they could think of to convince her she was deceived. Some expressed a
fear that her mind was a little unbalanced, and shook their heads over
the possible result; others declared that she was committing a great
impropriety to shut herself up every Sunday with two old men. This,
Angelina informed them, was a mistake, as the windows and doors were
wide open, and the gate also. Others of her friends assured her with
tears in their eyes that they would pray to the Lord to bring her back
to the path of duty she had forsaken.

The superintendent of the Sunday-school came also to plead with her, in
the name of the children she was abandoning. Some of the scholars
themselves came and implored her not to leave them.

"But," she writes, "none of these things turn me a hair's breadth, for
I have the witness in myself that I have done as the Master commanded.
Some tell me this is a judgment on me for sin committed; and some say
it is a chastisement to Mr. McDowell for going away last summer."

(During the prevalence of an epidemic the summer before, the
Presbyterian pastor had been much blamed for deserting his flock and
fleeing to the sea-shore until all danger was past.)

By all this it will be seen that Angelina was regarded as too precious
a jewel in the crown of the Church to be relinquished without a
struggle.

But satisfied as was her co