not displeased at success, as I suppose no one is--but success to
her meant doing good. She did not write for popularity, and her aversion
to having her own literary work mentioned to her was so well known
by her friends, that even those who wished to express to her their
gratitude for the good they had received from her books were constrained
to be silent. "While," says her publisher, "she was very sensitive to
any criticism based on a misconception or a perversion of her purpose,
never, in all my intercourse with her, did I discover the slightest
evidence of a spirit of literary pique, or pride, or ambition."

In attempting to sum up the characteristics of her writings, time will
suffer me only to state the more prominent features without enlarging
upon details.

First, and most prominent, was their _purpose_. Her pen moved always and
only under a sense of _duty_. She held her talent as a gift from God,
and consecrated it sacredly to the enforcement and diffusion of His
truth. If I may quote once more the words of her publisher in his
tribute to her memory--"her great desire and determination to educate
in the highest and best schools was never overlooked or forgotten. She
never, like many writers of religious fiction, caught the spirit of
sensationalism that is in the air, or sought for effects in unhealthy
portraiture, corrupt style, or unnatural combinations."

Second, she was _unconventional_. Her writings were not religious in
any stereotyped, popular sense. Her characters were not stenciled. The
holiest of them were strongly and often amusingly individualized. She
did not try to make automatons to repeat religious commonplaces, but
actual men and women, through whose very peculiarities the Holy Spirit
revealed His presence and work.

Third, I have already referred to her _sprightliness_. She had naturally
a keen sense of humor which overflowed both in her conversation and in
her books. She saw nothing in the nature of the faith she professed
which bade her lay violent hands on this propensity; and she once said
that if her religion could not stand her saying a funny thing now and
then it was not worth much. But, whatever she might say or write of this
character, one never felt that it betrayed any irreverent lightness
of spirit. The undertone of her life was so deeply reverential, so
thoroughly pervaded with adoring love for Christ, that it made itself
felt through all her lighter moods, like the ground-swel