Whilst they
‘The tender office now engage,
To rock the cradle of reposing age,
With lenient arts extend a mother’s breath,
Make languor smile, and smooth the bed of death;
Explore the thought, explain the asking eye,
And keep awhile one parent from the sky!
But I must suffer Elizabeth again to speak for herself.
What follows was written at the close of the year of sorrow, through which she had just past. ‘Thou, O Lord, hast seen fit to take both my parents from me, but thy word of promise is, “When father and mother forsake thee, the Lord will take thee up.” Enable me, O Lord, to follow my dear parents, as they followed Christ; that when time with me shall be no more, I may have a joyful entrance into thy kingdom, where parting shall be no more known, and every tear shall be wiped from my now weeping eyes. I would desire, blessed Lord, to submit to thy will in these most affecting bereavements. O comfort me with the consolations of thy Spirit, and bring me and my dear brothers and sisters near to thyself. Amidst our many trials may we remember our many mercies. May we be enabled to thank Thee for all. What a comfort not to sorrow as those without hope: but to be assured that through the merits of Christ our dear parents are translated from a body of sin and corruption, to a glorious immortality.’
So Elizabeth wound up the history of the past eventful year. Her patience, meekness, and resignation, her thankfulness for the mercies she received, and her joyous hope are alike an instructive lesson to us all.
I find another interesting record at the beginning of the year 1839.
‘I have now entered upon another year. Oh how different do all things now appear, to what they did at the commencement of the last. I was then blessed with my dear parents, and I looked forward for some years of comfort and of guidance from them; but thy ways, O Lord, are not my ways, neither are Thy thoughts my thoughts; Thou hast taken them from me that I may look to thee alone for help and comfort. O give me grace to seek all I want from Thee. Wean me, blessed Lord, from the world, and all its treatments, and enable me to live entirely to Thee. Thou knowest, Lord, my weakness and proneness to start aside from my best Friend, but pardon all Thou hast seen amiss in me, through the past year, and enable me now to live more devotedly to Thy service.’
The method which she chose of quietly taking a review of the past, and forecasting the circumstances of the new year, appeared to be peculiarly profitable, and may afford a direction as to the mode of spending this interesting season.
Elizabeth and her sister were now thrown on their own resources. Their father’s house was sold for the benefit of his family. After their removal, they kept a school. This flourished, and it was a great benefit, as far as it went, in the parish, being conducted with so much good order and Christian feeling. But after a time, the noise of the children became unbearable to Elizabeth, and obliged her sister to give it up, and to turn to other means of support. Elizabeth’s mind, as appears from her Journal, was all this time gradually growing in grace. The habits of their little family were very regular. The two sisters read three or four verses, and prayed together every morning, in addition to the usual family prayer with their brother, who lived with them. Elizabeth’s chief infirmity was a proneness to be hurt by unkindness or neglect; this she tried to conquer, and through Divine Grace, succeeded to a great degree. She had always been careful of her money, feeling how needful it might be to her in her weakly state of health. At the time of her death she had a small sum in the savings bank; but she was alive to the snare of covetousness. She used to say, what shall we give? She subscribed to the Missionary and the Jewish Society, and originated a little Bible Society collection: but she also felt the duty of denying herself, that she might save something more for these works of charity. She was constantly diligent, and during the last winter of her life she read the Scriptures a great deal, and grew proportionally in grace. She was regular in her attendance at the different meetings, being generally accompanied by a friend in somewhat similar circumstances of life, who was attached to our communion. But nothing more marked her character than a holy, humble, simple, unpretending walk, carrying about with her, I may truly say, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. She repeatedly wrote in her Journal during the last year of her life. Her observations were chiefly founded on sermons which she had heard, and which she applied to herself. There was not one observation in them of a carping critical character. But what she received she sought to turn to the best profit, and to obtain from it growth in grace. Speaking of the sermon of a young Minister among us, she was struck with his appeal for decision in religion, on the ground of the uncertainty of life. ‘O,’ she adds, ‘how he warned and exhorted the young to decide for God, that they might obtain pardon and peace here, and happiness in the world to come.’ She concludes her account of another sermon. ‘Help me, O Lord, to watch always, that I sin not against Thee, and help me so to pray, that the enemy may flee before me:’ and again, ‘Help me, blessed Lord, to be daily growing in holiness, humility, and love, that I may feel in every trial, and temptation, thou art my Rock and Defence.’ As the summary of one week, she says, ‘I have felt my soul decay in the last week. The enemy has been permitted to buffet and assault me very much, tempting me to unbelief. But O thou compassionate Saviour, who prayed for thy disciple of old, that his faith might not fail, look upon me, and deliver me from my strong foe. O strengthen my faith, for it is weak. Show me wherein I have sinned; lift up the light of thy countenance upon me.’ Again, after a sermon of Mr. Allen’s. ‘What encouragement to the believer to know that Jesus, his Saviour and Redeemer, has before trodden every painful path, and endured every conflict, and has promised that as he overcame, so shall we, through his merit.’
She heard a Sermon from a minister before alluded to, on growth in religion, in which that subject was illustrated by a tree in the growth of its roots, in its branches, and in its fruitfulness. The subject appears very much to have struck her. She concludes it by saying, ‘Help me, blessed Lord, to be daily growing in holiness, humility and love; and may I feel in every trial and temptation, that thou art my Rock, and my Defence.’ ‘Nov. 24. I have felt much depressed to day by fretfulness and coldness: O Lord, quicken me.’ ‘Heard Mr. R. this evening, from Luke v. 31, 32. Felt my mind much impressed by the Sermon. Blessed Lord, impress it on my heart, by thy Spirit. Strip me of all self-righteousness, make me feel more and more, my need of thee.’