that is enough for me.'
'Well, sister,' Elizabeth would say, 'if you will not hear me, you cannot
hinder me from praying for you, which I do with all my heart.'
"And now, sir, I believe those prayers are answered. For when her sister
was taken ill, Elizabeth went to Mrs. ---'s to wait in her place, and
take care of her. She said a great deal to her about her soul, and the
poor girl began to be so deeply affected and sensible of her past sin,
and so thankful for her sister's kind behaviour, that it gave her great
hopes indeed for her sake. When my wife and I went to see her as she lay
sick, she told us how grieved and ashamed she was of her past life, but
said she had a hope, through grace, that her dear sister's Saviour would
be her Saviour too, for she saw her own sinfulness, felt her own
helplessness, and only wished to cast herself upon Christ as her hope and
salvation.
"And now, sir, she is gone, and I hope and think her sister's prayers for
her conversion to God have been answered. The Lord grant the same for
her poor father and mother's sake likewise!"
This conversation was a very pleasing commentary upon the letter which I
had received, and made me anxious both to comply with the request and to
become acquainted with the writer. I promised the good dairyman to
attend on the Friday at the appointed hour; and after some more
conversation respecting his own state of mind under the present trial, he
went away.
He was a reverend old man; his furrowed cheeks, white locks, weeping
eyes, bent shoulders, and feeble gait, were characteristic of the aged
pilgrim. As he slowly walked onward, supported by a stick, which seemed
to have been the companion of many a long year, a train of reflections
occurred, which I retrace with pleasure and emotion.
At the appointed hour I arrived at the church, and after a little while
was summoned to the churchyard gate to meet the funeral procession. The
aged parents, the elder brother, and the sister, with other relatives,
formed an affecting group. I was struck with the humble, pious, and
pleasing countenance of the young woman from whom I had received the
letter. It bore the marks of great seriousness without affectation, and
of much serenity mingled with a glow of devotion.
A circumstance occurred during the reading of the Burial Service, which I
think it right to mention as one among many testimonies of the solemn and
impressive tendency of our truly evangelical L
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