Renounce all strength but strength Divine,
And peace shall be for ever thine.
Behold the path which I have trod,
My path till I go homo to God."

WILLIAM NICHOLS.

ANN JUDSON.

CHAPTER I.

EARLY YEARS.

[Illustration]

Ann, a daughter of John and Rebecca Hasseltine, was born in Bradford,
Massachusetts, on December 22, 1789. The quiet daily life of the simple
New England people from whom she sprang, and amongst whom she was
brought up, was as beneficial a training for her future career as could
have been found for her. The feverish activity and never-ceasing
struggle to be first, which have now taken possession of the American
people, were then almost unknown, and the descendants of the Puritan
fathers spent their days in peaceful toil. Most of the New Englanders
were engaged in farming or small manufactures, and there was a deeply
religious spirit throughout the whole of the Northern States.

Of the early life of Ann Hasseltine we know comparatively little. Her
family was evidently in moderately easy circumstances, and the
Hasseltine household was a happy and closely-united one. The parents,
with wise foresight, were careful to give their children as good an
education as could be obtained in the neighbourhood, and kept them at
school till well advanced in their teens. Ann was distinguished among
her sisters for her gay, joyous, and somewhat emotional temperament.
There was no half-heartedness about her, and whatever she took up she
would throw her whole soul into. As was to be expected in a community
where religious matters occupied so prominent a place, the urgent need
of a personal faith in Christ was placed before her at an early age. She
could not suppress a vague longing after something, she knew not what;
and every now and then her conscience would be aroused, and she would
quicken her efforts to be good.

When she was sixteen, affairs reached a crisis. A series of religious
conferences had been held in Bradford during the early months of 1806,
and she regularly attended them. Each meeting deepened the impression
on her mind as to the need of a higher life. Her old amusements seemed
now utterly distasteful to her, and the fear of being for ever lost
weighed heavily on her soul. She was invited to a party by an old
friend; but her heart was too sad to care for such things, so on the
morning of the party she stole off to the house of one of her aunts,
who, she thought, mig