"A few days ago, while Mary was at the harp, in a moment a feeling of tenderness seemed to return towards H.; but I could not certainly say it was so until two days after, when Mary returned from her visit and alluded to him, adding she had looked at Selby and prayed it may become an abode of righteousness, or words to this effect,—when I was at once overcome, and burst into tears. This, indeed, verified my suspicion; and what could I say to such things but this: 'Thy will, O God, be done!'"
Resolved that she would not let her mind dwell upon one who had "never known a new birth unto righteousness," she devoted herself to good works, to instructing the school-children in the village, visiting the poor and afflicted, teaching two gypsy boys, in whom she was much interested, to read and to pray, writing letters on religious topics to her friends, and adapting hymns for the harp. She was an earnest student of the Bible, and held firm faith in the doctrine that even the most trivial events in one's life are directed by an overruling Providence. She carried this belief so far that when in doubt as to what to do in any matter, she would open her Bible at random, read the first text that caught her eye, and shape her course by the direction she found there.
That her friends deprecated such fanaticism—for it really amounted to that—in so young and beautiful a girl, is apparent from passages in her Diary, where she states, with evident enjoyment, that she had undergone "persecution for righteousness' sake," and laments that certain friends should so evidently be "laboring under the power of Satan."
During the month of June, 1833, while staying with a friend, of whom she speaks as "Mary," in the village of S., intelligence was brought to Miss J. of a hardened criminal who was confined in the county jail. He had been convicted of murder, and was to be executed shortly. Both Catholic and Protestant clergymen had been with him, and had endeavored in vain to make some impression upon him by prayers and exhortation. Here was Miss J.'s opportunity. She and her friend Mary went to the prisoner, and by their ministrations produced such an effect that he made full confession of his guilt and professed repentance and conversion. In her Diary Miss J. tells how she dreaded her first expedition to the jail, the prayers she uttered for strength, and the direct answers she received. Of a later visit to "poor Cook" she writes:
"Oh, what a glorious change was there! The stony heart become a heart of flesh! Great God, thy mercies are indeed infinite, and thy ways past finding out!" A few days later she says: "Went again to S.; found poor Cook rapidly ripening for that eternal kingdom into which through his Saviour's righteousness he will soon be gloriously received."
The two girls kept up their visits, in face of a command to discontinue them from Mary's parents.
"Mary received such an angry letter, prohibiting her visiting poor Cook,—to whom, notwithstanding, we of course went, saw him, and the next day were at chapel with him (being Sunday); after which he said he would like then to fall asleep in the Lord, etc. On Monday evening we had singing and prayers with him. On Tuesday saw his chains taken off, and remained with him until he left the prison. On Wednesday were at court, and left S., feeling our work was done,—grateful, I trust, for such manifold mercies, and more anxious than ever to glorify our heavenly Lord. Today, the 10th, poor Cook suffered; and I can now fancy him a glorious spirit, hovering near, ministering to those that are to be heirs of salvation."
The result of Miss J.'s success with this unfortunate man naturally strengthened her in her devotion to a religious life; and the effect was deepened by the commendations of her pious friends. It was not so common then as now to make pets of condemned criminals; and the success of this young girl in subduing a man with whom priests and parsons had hopelessly labored, created a sensation and called forth comment from the press. It would have been almost phenomenal had the girl's head not been turned. Her devotion to the advancement of the cause of Christ as she understood it, was strong and genuine. Surrounded by judicious advisers, she might have manifested her zeal in a different fashion. As it was, she now felt she had been especially called of God to do a great work. Looking around her for an object, her attention was drawn to the Duke of Wellington. She seemed to have known more of him as the public man than as the soldier; for she expressly states at a later period that when she first wrote to him she was not aware that he was the conqueror of Bonaparte, and did not even know when the Battle of Waterloo took place,—a statement that leads to the inference that instruction in the fashionable schools of that day dealt more with playing on the harp and similar showy accomplishments than with a knowledge of English history.
Miss J. leaves in her Diary a list of the letters received from the Duke, prefacing them with the following introduction:—
"Seeing that I have adverted in the former part of this book to the feelings experienced on our return from poor Cook, which induced me to look up to the Lord, enquiring what next HE would have me to do, receiving this precious reply, 'Greater things than these, that they may marvel;' and considering such words must have had a reference to his condescending dealings a few months afterwards in influencing me to write to the Duke upon the necessity of a new birth unto righteousness,—I am solicitous to devote a portion of this book to his letters, remarking thereon as the list thereof proceeds: May the Lord be with me, inclining my heart and pen to perform all his good will and pleasure, be that whatever it may, for his holy name' sake. Amen."