would not have undergone to possess and preserve it.

I endeavored to be agreeable to my husband in anything, and to please
him in everything he could require of me. God gave me such a purity of
soul at that time, that I had not so much as a bad thought. Sometimes
my husband said to me, "One sees plainly that you never lose the
presence of God."

The world, seeing I quit it, persecuted and turned me into ridicule. I
was its entertainment, and the subject of its fables. It could not bear
that a woman, scarce twenty years of age, should thus make war against
it, and overcome. My mother-in-law took part with the world, and blamed
me for not doing many things that in her heart she would have been
highly offended had I done them. I was as one lost, and alone; so
little communion had I with the creature, farther than necessity
required. I seemed to experience literally those words of Paul, "I live
yet, no more I, but Christ liveth in me." His operations were so
powerful, so sweet, and so secret, all together, that I could not
express them. We went into the country on some business. Oh! what
unutterable communications did I there experience in retirement!

I was insatiable for prayer. I arose at four o'clock in the morning to
pray. I went very far to the church, which was so situated, that the
coach could not come to it. There was a steep hill to go down and
another to ascend. All that cost me nothing; I had such a longing
desire to meet with my God, as my only good, who on His part was
graciously forward to give Himself to His poor creature, and for it to
do even visible miracles. Such as saw me lead a life so very different
from the women of the world said I was a fool. They attributed it to
stupidity. Sometimes they said, "What can all this mean? Some people
think this lady has parts, but nothing of them appears." If I went into
company, often I could not speak; so much was I engaged within, so
inward with the Lord, as not to attend to anything else. If any near me
spoke, I heard nothing. I generally took one with me, that this might
not appear. I took some work, to hide under that appearance the real
employ of my heart. When I was alone, the work dropped out of my hand.
I wanted to persuade a relation of my husband's to practice prayer. She
thought me a fool, for depriving myself of all the amusements of the
age. But the Lord opened her eyes, to make her despise them. I could
have wished to teach all the world to love