A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.
In admiring the virtues and moral excellence of one who holds a high rank in society, who fills a distinguished place in the State, or occupies a responsible seat in the halls of science or in the church, we are liable to be swayed in our judgment. His social position is a kind of magnifying lens, through which all his virtues are viewed. But when a comparatively obscure individual from the humbler walks of life claims our attention, we are better able to estimate his virtues at their true value.
Such a one we meet with in the subject of this brief sketch. Miss Hannah S. Shedd was born in Boston, February 5, 1826. The death of her father, preceded as it was by the death of her mother, left her an orphan at the age of eight years. She was the second of three surviving children by their father's second marriage, all of whom were left in charge of a half sister, who was the eldest of five children by a former marriage, and who was all to them that a mother even could be.
One of the parents was an Episcopalian in sentiment, the other a Universalist. The elder children were attendants upon Universalist worship in the School street Church, while the younger attended one of the Baptist churches of the city. Hannah, the subject of our sketch, continued under the influence of Baptist doctrines and worship until about fifteen years of age, when at her own earnest solicitation she was permitted to attend the Universalist church, and become a member of the School street Universalist Sunday school.
The influence upon her feelings of the change in regard to a place of worship, was very marked. She was naturally inclined to religious meditation and reflection, but was never satisfied with what she had been accustomed to hear. Nor can she be regarded as singular, in this respect. However true it may be that Christianity is adapted in its simplicity to the susceptibilities of the young—and I believe this is eminently true—it is equally true, that the ordinary partialist interpretations of it are not thus adapted to their susceptibilities. The young are not satisfied with these. The clearer their perceptions, and the more comprehensive their thought, the greater is their dissatisfaction. It was so with Hannah, even when but a child.
But when the hungerings of her soul found their appropriate aliment in the ministrations of the venerable Hosea Ballou, then the sole pastor of the church to which she turned for peace, the change was in the highest degree salutary. Her satisfaction was very great. She also found great pleasure in accompanying her eldest sister to the Rev. Mr. Streeter's Friday evening meetings; and so highly did she prize these religious privileges, that she could scarcely submit to be deprived of them for a single evening or Sabbath without shedding tears.
Her natural amiability and generosity of disposition—a generosity especially marked in her demeanor towards her eldest sister, who had become a mother to her—made the Universalist interpretation of Christianity to be to her indeed the "bread of life." Not only did she seek for this spiritual nutriment in the regular ministrations of the sanctuary and in the conference meeting, but she turned also to the Sabbath school with the same fond devotion to Christian truth.
During the connection of the Rev. Mr. Soule with the School street Society, he established a Bible class, of which Miss Shedd became one of the earliest members. She has often spoken to the writer of this of the great profit she was conscious of having derived therefrom. She was also one of the earliest members of the class formed by the present junior pastor of the Society, Rev. Mr. Miner, and in the discharge of her duties in that capacity she showed uncommon clearness of perception, and not a little vigor of thought.
At the age of fourteen she left school and took up the needle that she might aid her sisters in gaining for the family an honorable maintenance. She has been known to ply the needle with all diligence till ten o'clock at night, and then turn to her Sunday school book to make preparation for the Sabbath. If this is an example of too severe application to toil, it shows at the same time a devotion to spiritual culture in the highest degree commendable.