influence to
the glory and the extension of His kingdom.

I.

EARLY YEARS.

Lady Selina Shirley was the second of the three daughters of Washington
Shirley, who in 1717 succeeded to the Earldom of Ferrars, being the
second to bear that title. She was born at Stanton Harold, a country
seat near Ashby de la Zouch, in Leicestershire. At a very early age she
gave evidence of intelligence above the average, of a retentive memory,
and of a clear and strong understanding. She manifested when but on the
threshold of womanhood that sound common sense and keen insight into
character and the true bearing of affairs which distinguished her so
pre-eminently in mature and late life. She was serious by temperament,
and when at the age of nine years she happened to meet the funeral
cortege of a child the same age as herself, she was attracted to the
burial, and used afterwards to trace her first abiding sense of the
eternal world to the profound impressions produced upon her mind by that
service. In after life she frequently visited that grave. She was
earnest in her study of the Bible, much given to meditation, and at
times almost oppressed by her convictions of the certainty and duration
of a future state. By her station and education she was compelled to go
out into society, and to take her place in circles in which religion was
as far as possible ignored. But her prayer was that she might not marry
into a frivolous, pleasure-seeking family.

On June 3, 1728, she became the wife of Theophilus, the ninth Earl of
Huntingdon, who resided at Donnington Park. This proved a happy union,
and even if, in later life, her husband was not always able fully to
share her beliefs and sympathise with her actions, he never threw any
obstacles in her way.

II.

HER CONVERSION.

At Donnington Park the Countess began the kindly and charitable deeds
for which she afterwards became so noted. Her religious feelings were
strong, and she strove earnestly to discharge fully her responsibilities
to both God and man. And yet, as she afterwards came clearly to see, she
was ignorant of the true nature of the Gospel, and she was attempting,
by strict adherence to prayer, meditation, right living, and charitable
action, to justify herself in the sight of God. But, all unknown to her,
the mighty religious awakening begun at Oxford in 1729, and publicly
preached in 1738 by Whitefield and the Wesleys, was destined to be the
cause of her spirit