Again we have the following merited strictures by one taught from above, on a passage in Pope's Essay on Man.
"1798.
"'Glows in the stars and blossoms in the trees.'
"There the poet must stop: thus far the natural mind, richly endowed with human powers, can go and trace a God of power, wisdom, and beneficence: O that thou hadst had eyes to see, and discern what flesh and blood could never reach; that all these glories dwindle into tapers, when compared with Jehovah manifested in the face of Jesus Christ. Every star, every tree, all vegetating, bursting, blooming life, answer the end of their creation, manifesting his glory as thou sayest; but can they tell thee how this
God can be just, and yet justify those who have rebelled against all his attributes; torturing even his fair and beautiful creation, and bringing it into subjection to their lusts, as thou hast well sung; murmuring at, and rebelling against his dispensations in providence; hardening themselves against his government; perverting every good to their own misery, and imbibing wretchedness from means of blessedness? Can all that thou hast sung bring into congeniality perfection of wickedness and perfection of holiness, perfection of wretchedness and perfection of happiness, perfect opposition in nature and principle? Here thy song stops short. Thou seest the evils and the misery; thou hast a glimpse of an opposite good, but all means proposed by thee ever have proved, and ever will prove inadequate to the attainment of it: the very attributes of a just and holy God oppose it: heaven and earth must stand amazed at the declaration that God would justify the ungodly."
In the month of September, 1798, Mrs. Graham's daughter Isabella was married to Mr. Andrew Smith, merchant, then of New York. Her family being thus settled to her satisfaction, and her health not good, she was prevailed upon to retire from her school, and to live with her children.
During the prevalence of the yellow-fever in 1798, it was with much difficulty Mrs. Graham was dissuaded from going into the city to attend on the sick: the fear of involving her children in the same calamity, in the event of her being attacked by the fever, was the chief reason of her acquiescing in their wish to prevent so hazardous an undertaking. During
the subsequent winter she was indefatigable in her attentions to the poor, she exerted herself to procure work for her widows, and occupied much of her time in cutting it out and preparing it for them. The managers of the Widows' Society had each a separate district; and Mrs. Graham, as first Directress, had a general superintendence of the whole. She was so happy in the execution of her trust, as to acquire the respect and confidence of the ladies who acted with her, as well as the affections of the poor.
Her whole time was now at her command, and she devoted it very faithfully to promote the benevolent object of the institution over which she presided. The extent of her exertions, however, became known, not from the information given by herself, but from the observations of her fellow-laborers, and especially from the testimony of the poor themselves. When she had been absent for some weeks, on a visit to her friends in Boston, in the summer of 1800, her daughter, Mrs. B——, was surprised at the frequent inquiries made after her by persons with whom she was unacquainted: at length she asked some of those inquirers what they knew about Mrs. Graham. They replied, "We live in the suburbs of the city, where she used to visit, relieve, and comfort the poor. We had missed her so long, that we were afraid she had been sick; when she walked in our streets, it was customary with us to come to the door and receive her blessing as she passed."
We next find letters to her female friend near Boston, who was still in much spiritual darkness and despondency.