ly
imbued with a sense of eternal things. She practices self-examination,
that she may learn to watch against the first risings of bad
dispositions, and to detect every latent evil in her heart. She lives in
the regular habit of prayer, not only that she may implore pardon of
sin, but that she may obtain strength against it. She told me one day
when she was ill, that if she did not constantly examine the actual
state of her mind, she should pray at random, without any certainty what
particular sins she should pray against, or what were her particular
wants. She has read much Scripture and little controversy. There are
some doctrines that she does not pretend to define, which she yet
practically adopts. She can not perhaps give you a disquisition on the
mysteries of the Holy Spirit, but she can and does fervently implore his
guidance and instruction; she believes in his efficacy, and depends on
his support. She is sensible that those truths, which from their deep
importance are most obvious, have more of the vitality of religion, and
influence practice more, than those abstruse points which unhappily
split the religious world into so many parties.

"If I were to name what are her predominant virtues, I should say
sincerity and humility. Conscious of her own imperfections, she never
justifies her faults, and seldom extenuates them. She receives reproof
with meekness, and advice with gratitude. Her own conscience is always
so ready to condemn her, that she never wonders, nor takes offense, at
the censures of others."

"That softness of manner which you admire in her is not the varnish of
good breeding, nor is it merely the effect of good temper, though in
both she excels, but it is the result of humility. She appears humble,
not because a mild exterior is graceful, but because she has an inward
conviction of unworthiness which prevents an assuming manner. Yet her
humility has no cant; she never disburdens her conscience by a few
disparaging phrases, nor lays a trap for praise by indiscriminately
condemning herself. Her humility never impairs her cheerfulness; for the
sense of her wants directs her to seek, and her faith enables her to
find, the sure foundation of a better hope than any which can be derived
from a delusive confidence in her own goodness."

"One day," continued Dr. Barlow, "when I blamed her gently for her
backwardness in expressing her opinion on some serious point, she said,
'I always feel diffident in