and no
children a better mother than Grizel and her two brothers. Her talents
sought no nobler sphere for their exercise and increase than her own
fireside; and her public spirit was better seen in her life at home than
anywhere out of doors. Hers was truly a public spirit, and like a spirit
it inspired and animated both her own and her husband's life with
interest in and with care for the best good, both of the Church and the
State. Her public spirit was not incompatible with great personal
modesty and humility, and great attention to her domestic duties, all
rooted in a life hid with Christ in God.

And then, all this--her birth, her station, her talents, and her public
spirit--could not fail to give her a great influence for good. In a
single line of Rutherford's on this subject, we see her whole lifetime:
'You are engaged so in God's work in Kirkcudbright that if you remove out
of that town all will be undone.' What a tribute is that to the
provost's wife! And again, far on in the Letters he writes to Grizel
Fullarton: 'Your dear mother, now blessed and perfected with glory, kept
life in that place, and my desire is that you succeed her in that way.'
What a pride to have such a mother; and what a tradition for a daughter
to take up! So have we all known in country towns and villages one man
or one woman who kept life in the place. Out of the memories of my own
boyhood there rises up, here a minister and there a farmer, here a cloth-
merchant and there a handloom weaver, here a blacksmith's wife and there
a working housekeeper, who kept life in the whole place. It is not
station that does it, nor talent, though both station and talent greatly
help; it is character, it is true and genuine godliness. True and
genuine godliness--especially when it is purged of pride, and harsh
judgment, and too much talk, and is adorned with humility and meekness,
and all the other fruits of holy love--true and pure godliness in a most
obscure man or woman will find its way to a thousand consciences, and
will impress and overawe a whole town, as Marion M'Naught's rare
godliness impressed and overawed all Kirkcudbright. Just as, on the
other hand, the ignorance, the censoriousness, the bitterness, the
intolerance, that too often accompany what would otherwise be true
godliness, work as widespread mischief as true godliness works good. 'One
little deed done for God's sake, and against our natural inclination,
though in itself