ughts; no doubts were permitted to disturb the composure
of her mind, no temptation to trouble and overcast the serenity of her
cloudless sky. Her days moved on in tranquil succession, each renewing
and passing forward to the next, the sunshine of its predecessor. Only,
indeed, as her orb descended to the horizon, the light seemed more to
concentrate and to soften; just as the evening sun gathers back into
himself the radiance with which he had illuminated the world, and sets
amidst the chastened splendours of his own accumulated glory.
Her tabernacle, which had been often shaken, was at length taken down.
No fierce disease was commissioned to inflict the final stroke. Till the
last week she was permitted to continue in the society of her children.
Two of them reside at Camberwell; and they reflect, with grateful
pleasure, that some of her last days were spent with them. She left them
on the Monday, after having passed the whole of the preceding month in
their company. It was not then apprehended that her end was so near, but
her conversation was sweetly tinctured by a vein of ardent and elevated
devotion. Her mind was eminently spiritual; she seemed to be living in
an element of prayer and love. It was the happiness of the writer to
spend a short time with her during the last week; and in her pocket-book
she has noted the comfort she derived from the devotional exercises in
which they then engaged. The Sabbath day was a season of great delight.
She did not know that on the following her translation was to take
place; but had she foreseen it, scarcely could she have passed the day
in communications more fitted to her near approximation to eternal joy.
The next day she returned to Tottenham, not so well as she had been, yet
there seemed no cause for immediate alarm; but in her last words, as she
was taking leave of her daughters, there was something almost prophetic
of the event which was soon to take place. Clasping the hand of one of
them, as she was about to step into the carriage, she turned to her, and
said, "I shall soon mount on eagles' wings; I shall run and not be
weary, I shall walk and not faint." On Wednesday, her indisposition
considerably increased, and her strength began rapidly to decline. It
soon became impossible to hold any conversation with her beyond a few
short and detached sentences at intervals. In reply to inquiries, she
still expressed her faith in the Lamb of God, and spoke of his
preciousnes
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