(Since from so dear a tie ’tis hard to part,
A tie, sole treasure of this lonely heart)
That many a year thou yet may’st with me stay,
Resign’d in pain, and cheerful in decay!
While the bright hopes redeeming love has taught,
Prompting each pious, purifying thought,
Live in thy soul, to tell of sins forgiven,
And plume its pinions for its flight to heaven.
Some years had now passed since Mrs. Opie first attended the religious services of the Friends; and it will have been apparent to the reader, that she had, during that time, been approaching more and more nearly, in her religious sentiments, to their principles. Another letter which she wrote to Mrs. Fry shortly after the above, speaks of the difficulties she felt on some points; and mentions that “many of her relations, on the mother’s side, had been united for generations past to the Wesleyan Methodists,” which consideration had sometimes disposed her to incline towards “a union with that sect of worshippers.”
It was not without considerable anxiety, and after long deliberation, that the decisive step was taken, and she applied for membership with the Society of Friends. On looking back to that period, she always rejoiced in that decision, and expressed, on her bed of death, her satisfaction in it.