and dwelling alone, servants and dependents excepted.
"I saw my father's cottage, in the day when the Lord pressed him down, and the place where my dear glorified-mother poured out many prayers for me and mine; my own retirement too, after the vanity I had seen of human life, and when tired and sick of it, I sought to end my days in solitude, saying, 'It is enough; here let thy servant depart in peace, and let my children be reared in obscurity.' Then I returned to the town where my husband had practised as a physician, where I had been respected and tasted largely of life's comfort. I saw the house we had lived in, and many tender scenes passed; to this same town I had returned a widow, helpless and poor, neglected and forgotten. I saw the house where I had taught my little school, and earned my porridge, potatoes, and salt; when I found myself totally neglected by some who once thought themselves honored by my acquaintance; while others, once shining in affluence, were now reduced to humble dwellings.
"The Lord has been saying, 'Know and consider all the way by which I have led thee, to prove thee, and try thee, to show thee what was in thy heart, that he might do thee good in thy latter end.' He is now saying, 'Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might;' 'Occupy till I come.' Oh, for a thankful heart, a loving, a zealous heart, a meek and humble heart. Oh, for diligence and steadiness in the path of duty, a due sense of our own weakness and inability, of the Lord's power and all-sufficiency, and firm faith in the same. Give my love to ——, she is
the Lord's: her heavenly Father mingles her cup; not one unnecessary bitter drop shall be put into it; bid her trust in the Lord; the time, the set time for deliverance shall come. I can witness, with many thousands on earth, and an innumerable company in heaven, that he is the best of masters. I have suffered much, yet not one word of all that he has said has failed. I expect to suffer more; but whatever bitter draughts may yet await me, I would not give one drop of my heavenly Father's mixing for oceans of what the world styles felicity.
"I. GRAHAM."
Under another date she adds:
"When we trace the tenderness of our Daysman's conduct through the whole of his tabernacling here below, and add to this the many gracious words which he spoke, and to these again what were spoken by the disciples by his authority, can we refuse to cast all our burdens on him, and to trust him with ourselves and them? You know how sweet it is, in the time of tumultuous distress, when the spirit is overwhelmed, when God's mercy seems clean gone for ever, and his promise to fail, how sweet to get even a lean upon the Saviour; but when he, as he does at times, takes the soul out of itself, and away from forebodings, reasonings, and suppositions, to his own divine attributes, and gives it a believing view of its interest in them all, in his wisdom as unerring, his power as almighty, his goodness as boundless, his faithfulness unchanging; when we add to these his humanity, and consider that our High-priest was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin, and that he has a feeling for our infirmities; when we find him listening to every
petition — a widowed mother for her son — the centurion for his servant — weeping with two sisters over a brother's grave — embracing and blessing the little children whom mothers, like you and me, pressed through the crowd, in spite of the reprehensions of disciples, to present to him — accepting the effusions of Magdalene's penitent heart with tender consolation, O how near does this bring the Divinity to us, and how sweetly may we confide in such tenderness. Oh my friend, He rests in his love. Let us rest in our confidence. All shall be well."
When Dr. Witherspoon visited Scotland in the year 1785, he had frequent conversations with Mrs. Graham on the subject of her removal to America. She gave him at this time some reason to calculate on her going thither as soon as her children should have completed the course of education she had proposed for them. She had entertained a strong partiality for America ever since her former residence there, and had indulged a secret expectation of returning. It was her opinion, and that of many pious people, that America was the country where the church of Christ would preeminently flourish. She was therefore desirous to leave her offspring there.
After some correspondence with Dr. Witherspoon, and consultation with pious friends, her plan received the approbation of the latter; and having had an invitation from many respectable characters in the city of New York, with assurances of patronage and support, she arranged her affairs for quitting Edinburgh. The Algerines being then at war with the United States, her friends insisted on her chartering a small