He came and found her in the greatest agonies of mind. She told him that she was the vilest sinner that ever lived, described the course of life she had led, and concluded by saying she saw hell before her eyes, and that she should be lost for ever. He pointed out the way of salvation by Christ, told her it was free for the vilest, spoke of the encouragement there was for the chief of sinners who came to Him, prayed with her, and left her a little more composed. She made him promise to come the next day, which he did twice. In a short time after, her sorrow was turned into gladness, and she was enabled to rejoice in Christ as her Saviour, whilst the young man who visited her was reading the verse—
"Look as when Thy grace beheld
The harlot in distress;
Dried her tears, her pardon sealed,
And bade her go in peace.
Foul like her, and self-abhorred,
I at Thy feet for mercy groan;
Turn and look upon me, Lord,
And break my heart of stone."
Soon after this, God removed the violence of her complaint, and thereby gave her an opportunity of proving the reality of her conversion. As soon as possible she went to the meeting, but oh, the persecution she now met with from her former companions! She was obliged to remove from place to place to escape their violence. They pelted her with stones, broke her windows, &c., because, as they said, she was a hypocrite. But she was enabled to endure it with patience, and after a time procured a lodging with a serious female. Now she seemed almost in heaven. She could now go in and out, none daring to make her afraid, and could meditate in peace on the gracious dealings of God with her soul. She became a member of the Church in which she continued as long as she lived. She seemed to grow daily in an affecting discovery of the evil of sin and of her own vileness, and was often quite overwhelmed with a sense of the goodness of God, both with respect to her temporal and spiritual concerns. She was frequently enabled to rejoice in the Lord with exceeding joy, though labouring under the most dreadful pain, being literally full of wounds, the sad fruit of her former life. She occasionally experienced great conflicts with Satan, but the Lord graciously interposed, and brought her off more than conqueror. Several months before her death she was grievously afflicted, but in general very comfortable. On the Saturday preceding her dissolution, a friend called to see her, and inquired after the state of her mind. She said she was happy in God, longed to depart, and could scarcely contain herself. She was so filled with love to her blessed Lord, for His unbounded goodness to her. On the Monday, the person with whom she lodged said she was very comfortable in her mind. Her spirit soared beyond the fear of death; but through extreme weakness she could not speak much, and on Tuesday she departed, we trust, to sing the praises of that miraculous grace which snatched her as a brand from the burning.
Conduct is the great profession. What a man does tells us what he is.
ADMIRAL PYE AND THE INQUISITORS.
Admiral Pye having been on a visit to Southampton, and the gentleman under whose roof he resided observing an unusual intimacy between him and his secretary, inquired into the degree of their relationship. The admiral informed him that they were not related, but their intimacy arose from a singular circumstance, which, by his permission, he would relate.
The admiral said, when he was a captain he was cruising in the Mediterranean. While on that station he received a letter from shore, stating that the unhappy author of the letter was by birth an Englishman; that, having been on a voyage to Spain, he was enticed while there to become a Papist, and, in process of time, was made a member of the Inquisition; that there he beheld the abominable wickedness and barbarities of the inquisitors.