From trusting in His holy name;
Who looking for a glorious morn,
Shrink not before the lip of scorn.
The subject of this memoir was born in Tichon, near Ballymena, County Antrim, in the north of Ireland, March 22, 1811. Her ancestors fled from Scotland during the dark days of persecution, "when the minister's home was the mountain and flood." Little can be gleaned of her early history. Her mother died when she was six years old, leaving a sister older than herself, and a brother, a baby eight months old. Her father died shortly after her mother. When she was only eight years old, she went to the corner of the house, and asked the Lord to be a father and a mother to her. She was ultimately taken to her uncle's, at which place she resided until she came to America.
During her stay with him, she became acquainted with a young girl, who told her of the love of Jesus, and shortly before her death, she would frequently say how good God was to her, in bringing her in contact with her friend, who early told her of the life of the Saviour, and His never-dying love. At the same place, being filled with those desires, and having those Christian principles instilled into her heart, and not having conveniences to study and pray in the house, she would repair to the barn, to attend to her devotional duties, experiencing the truthfulness of God's Word, "They that seek me early shall find me." At this time she committed to memory the Psalms, and the Book of Proverbs, and several passages of the New Testament.
It seems that certain influences were brought to bear upon her, for the purpose of getting her settled in life, contrary to her own wishes; but the party so chosen was without Christian character, and although every inducement was offered, so far as wealth was concerned, she remembered the injunction of the Scriptures, "Be ye not unequally yoked to unbelievers," and like Moses, who refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, but chose rather to suffer affliction, penury, and loss with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, she declined to enter into the proposed matrimonial connection. And then she decided to emigrate to the United States, friendless and alone.
In 1833—the time of the great cholera epidemic in this country—she was left by herself, in a house where all its occupants had fled through fear. Trusting in the God of Israel for protection, she experienced the full force of those sublime words of King David: "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon-day." On arriving in New York, she immediately connected herself in church fellowship with the Canal Street Presbyterian Church, under the ministry of the Rev. Dr. McCarthy, and became a Sabbath-school teacher. Some of the first impressions made on her mind by her pastor were continually repeated, even up to the hour of her death.
In one address, delivered to young people, he begged them not to allow Satan to get even his little finger in, for he generally commenced with little sins, and by and by he would get his two fingers in, and then his whole hand, and twist you around as he chose, instead of allowing you to obey the commands of God.
Shortly after she landed in this country she was invited by an acquaintance to go to Brooklyn, to church. She consented, and attended the service; but, on her return, while stepping off the ferry-boat, she slipped, and fell into the river, and narrowly escaped drowning. She resolved, by God's grace, that she would never put her foot on a ferry-boat on the Sabbath again, while she lived, which vow she kept to the close of her life.
It was her usual custom on the street, if she heard any person using profane language, to reprove them, by saying, "Don't dare take the name of my Saviour in vain."