“I was enabled, in secret prayer this morning, to plead, with some degree of fervour, and I, hope, in faith, for my dear children. May I be enabled to continue wrestling mightily with God for them, as one that hath power with him to prevail! May I be enabled to lay up for them a stock of acceptable prayers, to be answering when I am in the dust! O that, having been the instrument of their natural, I may be the blessed instrument of their spiritual, life! Why were they given me, but that I might train them up for God? This blessed hope sustains and comforts me. What an honour to prepare gems for the Redeemer's crown! And shall my expectations be blighted? God forbid. O that every breath might be a breath of prayer! Holy Spirit, quicken my sluggish soul!"

And again, in the same spirit:

"What a delicate office is that of a mother! How wary should be her footsteps, how spotless her example, how uniform her patience, how extensive her knowledge of the human heart-how great her skill in using that knowledge, by the most vigilant and strenuous application of it in every variety of occurring circumstances, to enlighten the understanding and reform the heart! Legislators and governors have to enact laws, and compel men to observe them; mothers have to implant the principles, and cultivate the dispositions, which alone can make good citizens and subjects. The former have to exert authority over characters already formed; the latter have to mould the character of the future man, giving it a shape which will make him either an instrument of good to the world, or a pest in the lap of society. O that a constant sense of the importance and respon

sibility of this station may rest upon me! that grace may be given me faithfully to discharge its difficult duties!"

Mrs. Huntington's constitution, which had never been robust, appears to have exhibited, shortly after her marriage, symptoms of a tendency to consumption. But, even under a consciousness of this, her zeal for the honour of her God only seemed to gather strength. She longed to be useful in advancing the divine glory.

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My lungs are very weak. I often feel great distress from very slight exertions in talking. O how do I wish that my little strength may be devoted to the glory of God-that my breath may not be wasted by idle and useless conversation! How dreadful to think that I have employed my health no better, for the best of Fathers, and in the best of causes! I long to do some good in the world. I long to be useful to my dear fellow-creatures. I long to see all engaged for God, O that these desires may be attained! I had some sweet freedom in prayer this morning. I felt that I could go to God, through Christ, as my Father. I think I felt something of the spirit of adoption, and saw something of the preciousness of Christ; remembered with satisfaction and thankfulness that he had trodden the rugged path of human life, and the rough descent to the valley of death, and smoothed them both for his children; and felt as if I could follow where he had led the way."

While in this state of weakness, it pleased the Almighty to withdraw from her a kind and tender parent, to whom she was fondly attached. Still she could bow with resignation to the stroke, saying, by her whole de

portment on that trying occasion, "It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth to him good."

"The conflict is over. My dear father, who loved me as himself, is gone, never to return! I may say with the apostle, I am troubled, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.' But the wound is deep-it can never be healed. Dear man! I dwell too much on the mere earthly circumstances of this afflicting event. I ought to look beyond the veil. His sufferings were great-it pierces my heart to think of them. But what were they to the glory now revealed? Blessed be God for the satisfactory evidence he gave of preparation for the great change, and for the spiritual comfort he enjoyed amid his bodily pains, and in prospect of death! I would bow at the solemn rebuke, and say, Thy will be done! God of mercy, support, comfort, and sanctify me!"

On Mrs. Huntington's return to Boston, from attending the death-bed of her father, the pain in her side and weakness in her chest, which had so much alarmed her friends, began to develop themselves more strongly than ever. And yet she preserved the most cheerful and happy frame of mind. "Many," she says in her journal, "who have no knowledge of the subject from experience, think that religion makes men gloomy. I know nothing of such religion. How can that which prepares us for afflictions, which teaches us to expect disappointments, which lowers our calculations and desires from this world; which resolves all things, with sweet complacency, into the will of the all-wise and allmerciful Governor of the universe; which assures us that Jehovah is pledged to make all things work together for good; which gives to the soul, in this wilderness, a

foretaste of heaven, and a hope attested by evidence which God himself has prescribed, of ultimate admission

to the joys of his immediate principle make men gloomy? I can say from experience,

presence,- -how can such a

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It is impossible. O yes,
Thou wilt keep him in

perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee.' So far as I can trust in God and love his will, so far I am happy. O for more continual, more perfect resignation and confidence! I know that what he appoints is best. May this conviction have an abiding influence upon my feelings and conduct! My soul trust thou in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.""

"In the world you shall have tribulation,” was the express declaration of our blessed Redeemer to his faithful servants, while on earth; and the truth of the statement has been uniformly admitted by Christians in every age of the world. To the subject of our present sketch, however, "tribulation" was more especially familiar. In addition to her own bodily ailments, which were frequent and severe, she was subjected to many domestic trials of a kind remarkably painful. She had recently been called to mourn the loss of her father, and in December 1817 she was deprived of her mother. The letter written to her sisters, on receiving the distressing intelligence, bears marks of a warmly pious and affectionate heart :

"My dear sisters, the long expected but melancholy and afflictive tidings of our beloved mother's dissolution, reached me on Wednesday last. The stroke has fallen, and we are without a parent. But the Psalmist says, 'When my father and my mother forsake me, then the

Lord will take me up. O to be taken up, to be adopted, taken into God's family—to have him exercise over us the endearing, the watchful, the vigilant attention and care of an omniscient and almighty Parent! But in order to this, something is necessary on our part. As God promises to be the husband only of the widow indeed,' so he promises to be the father only of the orphan indeed—of those who, disclaiming all other dependence, fly to him, through Jesus Christ, as their best, their only portion; who feel the vanity of all human helpers; who love him with a filial and holy love; and who manifest their attachment by a hatred of sin which he hates, by a pursuit of the holiness he enjoins, by a life of universal obedience to his law. For how can we love God, if we are careless of offending him? How can we for a moment think we love him, if we allow ourselves in any thing he hates? This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.' My dear sisters, can we, with these passages of Scripture before us, appeal to our Master and future Judge, as Peter did, and say, 'Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee?' If so, then are we the children of God, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; then are we preparing for heaven; then our God will lead us in a right way to the city of habitation; he will smooth the path of life, or give us strength to surmount every difficulty of the way, accompanying every cross with his blessing; and ultimately bring us to the heavenly Jerusalem, the inner temple of his glory, to the full and endless enjoyment of himself in heaven.”