With men of vanity and lies;
The scoffer and the hypocrite
Are the abhorrence of my eyes.
God knows their impious thoughts are vain,
And they shall feel his power;
His wrath shall pierce their souls with pain,
In some surprising hour."
The first twenty months after my arrival in the city, notwithstanding my often infirmities, I labored with much success, until I hired with and from those whom I mostly sympathized with, and shared in common the disadvantages and stigma that is heaped upon us, in this our professed Christian land. But my lot was like the man that went down from Jerusalem and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounding him departed, leaving him half dead. What I did not lose when cast away, has been taken from my room where I hired. Three times I had been broken up in business, embarrassed and obliged to move, when not able to wait on myself. This has been my lot. In the midst of my afflictions, sometimes I have thought my case like that of Paul's, when cast among wild beasts. "Had not the Lord been on my side, they would have swallowed me up; but blessed be the Lord who hath not given me a prey to their teeth."
In 1848 and '49, the Lord was pleased to lay his hand upon me. Some of my friends came to my relief; but the promises of God were neither few nor small; he knows them that trust and fear him, and in his providence had reserved the good Samaritan. One of my unretired friends made my case known to the Rev. Dr. Bigelow and wife, who sought me out in my distress. I shall not soon forget the morning she came to me, with an expression of love and kindness, wishing to know my case. Mrs. Bigelow was the daughter of Captain Theodore Stanwood, of Gloucester, whom Mr. Prince sailed with as steward the first time he went to Russia. Mrs. B. is one of the kind friends I speak of, when carried to Gloucester sick, in 1814; she was then a little miss. A friend of mine lived with her mother; she used to say that Amelia would not rest, when she came from school, till she had something to bring to my mother and me. Mrs. Bigelow and family were very kind, doing all in their power to make me comfortable, and even moved me from the house of the tyrant that I then hired from, and raised me up other kind friends; and, with the blessing of God and the counsel of Dr. Grey, my health is much improved. "I am as a wonder unto many, but the Lord is my strong refuge." Underneath him is the everlasting arm of mercy; misfortune is never mournful for the soul that accepts it, for such do always see that every cloud is an angel's face; sorrow connects the soul with the invisible.