of
happy turns, and always fresh and to the point. The tones of her voice
were peculiar; I scarcely know how to describe them; they had such a
fine, subtle, _womanly_ quality, were touched--especially at this last
reading--with such tenderness and depth of feeling; I only know that as
we heard them, it was almost as if we were listening to the voice of an
angel! And they are, I am sure, echoing still in all our memories.

The first glance at her, as she entered the room, a little before three
o'clock on the 8th of August, showed that she was not well. Her eyes
were unusually bright, but the marks of recent or approaching illness
were stamped upon her countenance. It was lighted up, indeed, with even
unwonted animation and spiritual beauty; but it had also a pale and
wearied look. The reading was usually opened with a silent prayer and
closed with two or three short oral prayers. The subject this afternoon
was the last verse of the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel according to
John: _And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from
the beginning_. Witnessing for Christ, this was her theme. She began by
giving a variety of Scripture references illustrative of the nature and
different forms of Christian witness-bearing. It was her custom always
to unfold the topic of the reading, and to verify her own views of it,
by copious and carefully prepared citations from the Word of God. A
Bible-reading, as she conducted it, was not merely a study of a text,
or passage of Scripture, by itself, but study of it in its vital
relations to the whole teaching of the Bible on the subject in hand. In
the present instance her references were all written out and were so
numerous and so skilfully arranged that they must have cost her no
little labor. Feeling, apparently, too feeble to read them herself, she
turned to her daughter, who sat by her mother's side, and requested her
to do it.

After the references had been given and the passages read, she went on
to express her own thoughts on the subject. And, surely, had she been
fully conscious that this was the last opportunity she would ever have
of thus bearing witness for Christ, her words could not have been more
happily chosen. Would that they could be recalled just as they issued
from her own lips! But it is not possible so to recall them. One might
as well try to reproduce the sunset scene on the evening of her burial.
For even if the exact words could be repeated, who