As a wife and a mother, she fulfilled her whole duty in the household. She was intelligent, hospitable, and kind; securing for her children the best company within their reach. By extensive reading and careful study, she prepared herself to entertain the young and the old, the rude, and the refined; and by her executive ability she could secure the comfort and pleasure of almost any number of guests. Towards the community she stood as an unofficious and unostentatious missionary and educator. In herself she suffered the will of God, and gave such an example of patience as is rarely met with.
I shall try to present a brief sketch of her work in all these spheres and refer the reader for illustrations, to her own writings and letters, and to the contributions of those whose names honor this book.
CHAPTER III.
WIFE, MOTHER AND WRITER.
On the 21st of March, 1869, my mother was taken with a serious illness, which confined her to her bed for two years, and to her house for five years. During the period of her convalescence, in which for most of the time she was unable to walk a step, she kept her pen employed; and always upon Christian themes. Having read the Bible with great patience and care, she could glean from its inspired pages, thoughts not unworthy a place in our best religious journals.
It was while she was thus afflicted, that the movement for the special promotion of holiness assumed noticeable proportions. With this movement she had no sympathy, and expressed unhesitatingly her disapproval of any religious or political reform, lead in large measure by women. She wrote a series of articles on "Sanctification," having direct bearing upon this movement. Her words have lost none of their weight with the lapse of time, and experience of the Church.
She commenced her articles with expressing surprise and pain, that Christians should talk about the time when they were sanctified; and should set apart times and hold special meetings for sanctification. "Now," she says, "this argues to me that they do not know Christ; or they doubt God's power to forgive sins fully, freely and clearly; or they do not believe Christ when he says believe and be saved. 'He that believeth on me though he were dead yet shall he live' John. 11. 25. Now, if Christ does not mean to save to the uttermost why does he invite all the ends of the earth to come and be saved? He does not say repent and believe now, and after awhile I will come to wash, cleanse, purify, sanctify you or set you apart; but he says repent and believe now and ye shall be saved now."
She maintained with the approval of her own conscience, the testimony of her own experience, and abundant scripture reference, that we could not be half in Christ and half-out, half-saved and half-lost, that there was no concord between Christ and Belial, no partnership between God and the devil.
Her words are "We cannot be half saved and half lost, there can be no half-way measures with Christ, we must come unto Him and be saved or stay away and be lost."