and the more I cease from man, and from any child of
man, the more I shall be enabled to live simply to His glory." Another
sixteen years passed. The duchess was within a few days of her death.
She heard that a young man was in anxiety about his preparation for the
ministry. "He looks to difficulties; give him for a New Year's message
from me, Joshua 1. 9: 'Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a
good courage; neither be thou dismayed.' These words were given to me
after Duke Alexander's death, and from that day onward they have been a
help to me."

IV.

GOOD WORKS AT GORDON CASTLE.

The duchess did not write a regular diary. But for one week in the first
year of her residence at Gordon Castle such a record was kept. Extracts
from it may serve to give some insight into her thoughts and life. The
reader will be struck with the marked self-humiliation which was so
characteristic of this child of God. "I desired to have resolution to
commence and continue a journal, that I might obtain a clearer view of
my own heart, which I know, alas! to be deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked. Well may I say with Job, 'I abhor myself and repent
in dust and ashes.'" "A day lost though well begun; more peace, more
clear belief, but, alas! not less indifference, not less hardness of
heart; great idleness; after breakfast little or nothing done. O Lord,
deliver me from pride and vanity, and make me a humble and devoted
follower of the meek and lowly Jesus. He indeed is our peace." "Another
unprofitable day; but when, alas! is any day otherwise with me?" "Sins
of the week: unbelief proceeding from pride of reason, selfishness,
carelessness, hardness of heart, vanity, evil speaking." These extracts
are sufficient to show that there was a very severe introspection--a
very real shrinking from sin, and sense of unworthiness. Some of the
faults she lamented seemed to others remarkably absent in the duchess
Evil speaking, for example, was about the last thing she could be
accused of. There was no one more careful of the character of those with
whom she had to do.

This short diary also shows her busily occupied in attending to members
of her household, ministering to one maid, who was sick, instructing
another in the _Shorter Catechism_. Happy was the household that had
such a mistress at its head!

In 1830 William IV. came to the throne. The Duchess of Gordon was
selected by Queen Adelaide as Mistress of the Robes