anything, and shalt die to thyself. 'And where shall I do
that, Lord?' He answered her, In the desert. This made so strong an
impression on her soul that she aspired after this; but being a maid of
eighteen years only, she was afraid of unlucky chances, and was never
used to travel, and knew no way. She laid aside all these doubts and
said, 'Lord, thou wilt guide me how and where it shall please thee. It
is for thee that I do it. I will lay aside my habit of a maid, and
will take that of a hermit that I may pass unknown.' Having then
secretly made ready this habit, while her parents thought to have
married her, her father having promised her to a rich French merchant,
she prevented the time, and on Easter evening, having cut her hair, put
on the habit, and slept a little, she went out of her chamber about
four in the morning, taking nothing but one penny to buy bread for that
day. And it being said to her in going out, Where is thy faith? in a
penny? she threw it away, begging pardon of God for her fault, and
saying, 'No, Lord, my faith is not in a penny, but in thee alone.'
Thus she went away wholly delivered from the heavy burthen of the cares
and good things of this world, and found her soul so satisfied that she
no longer wished for anything upon earth, resting entirely upon God,
with this only fear lest she should be discovered and be obliged to
return home; for she felt already more content in this poverty than she
had done for all her life in all the delights of the world."[196]

[196] An Apology for M. Antonia Bourignon, London, 1699, pp. 269, 270,
abridged.

Another example from Starbuck's MS. collection:--

"At a meeting held at six the next morning, I heard a man relate his
experience. He said: The Lord asked him if he would confess Christ
among the quarrymen with whom he worked, and he said he would. Then he
asked him if he would give up to be used of the Lord the four hundred
dollars he had laid up, and he said he would and thus the Lord saved
him. The thought came to me at once that I had never made a real
consecration either of myself or of my property to the Lord, but had
always tried to serve the Lord in my way. Now the Lord asked me if I
would serve him in HIS way, and go out alone and penniless if he so
ordered. The question was pressed home, and I must decide: To forsake
all and have him, or have all and lose him! I soon decided to take
him; and the blessed assurance came, that