for piety is independent of circumstance.
BIOGRAPHY.
Mary Jane Graham, was born in London, on the 11th of April, 1803, where her father was engaged in a respectable business. She was the subject of early religious convictions. At the age of seven, her habits of secret prayer evidenced the influence of Divine grace upon her soul. During the greater part of her childhood, and the commencement of her riper years, she was enabled to walk with God in sincerity, and without any considerable declension.
Her school career began before she was eight years old. She was, however, shortly removed, because of ill health, and when about the age of ten was sent to a different kind of school. As far as it was lawful she always screened the faults of her companions, and was ever ready and willing to plead for them when in disgrace; and so powerful was her advocacy, that her preceptress was constrained to remove out of her way when her judgment compelled her to persevere in her discipline.
At the age of twelve her delicate health again occasioned her removal from school. Her illness lasted about two months, and during that time, when confined upon a sofa, she committed to memory the whole Book of Psalms. She was delighted with Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” and for many successive mornings repeated three hundred lines. After her recovery she spent several months by the seaside. About the age of sixteen she was brought to the ordinance of confirmation, and publicly joined herself to the Lord in a perpetual covenant never to be broken.
About the age of seventeen, Miss Graham fell, for a few months, from the heavenly atmosphere of communion with God, into the dark and dismal shades of infidelity. The metaphysical structure of her mind, combined with a defective apprehension of her sad state by nature, induced a spirit of self-dependence; which led to backsliding from God. In the frivolities of the world she sought in vain for that priceless boon, a quiet conscience. Wearied at length, she turned to religion for comfort, but found that she had no religion; she had refused to give glory to God, and now her feet were stumbling upon the dark mountains. The Divinity of Christ had often been to her an occasion of perplexity. Repeated examination had fully convinced her that it was a scriptural doctrine; yet so repulsive was it to her proud heart, that she was led from thence to doubt the truth of the Bible itself. After a few months’ conflict, she was brought, to the light and liberty of truth, and the once abhorred doctrine became exceedingly precious. “From that time,” to use her own words, “I have continued to sit at the feet of Jesus, and to hear His word, taking Him for my teacher and guide, in things temporal as well as spiritual.”
Miss Graham continued to reside in London, and to devote herself more unreservedly to various studies and active labours in the service of God her Saviour. During her residence in the metropolis, the ministry of the Rev. Watts Wilkinson, and a deep study of the sacred volume, were the means of advancing her knowledge and experience of scriptural truth. Adorned by God with high intellect, which she cultivated with care, and sanctified for her Master’s service, she thirsted for knowledge, and relished its acquisition with peculiar delight. She wrote a treatise on the intellectual, moral, and religious uses of mathematical science, which abounds with wise and judicious observations on the objects and motives of the worldly and Christian student.
But her studies were not confined to the severer branches of knowledge. In some of her more lively exercises of mind she took up the subject of chemistry. She wrote a short but accurate development of the principles of music. Botany also attracted her attention. She had prosecuted, as one of her chiefest studies, the noble literature and tongue of Britain. The best writers on the philosophy of mind were familiar to her. With the principles of Locke she was thoroughly acquainted. She had profited much by Stewart. “Butler’s Analogy” was also upon her first shelf. She had cultivated an acquaintance with the classics of ancient Greece and Rome, and was perfectly familiar with the French, Italian, and Spanish languages. In order to improve herself in the knowledge of the languages, she made considerable use of them in mutual correspondence with her young friends.
Her peculiar singleness of aim stimulated her to apply her literary acquisitions to valuable practical purposes. The discovery of a strong tincture of infidelity among the Spanish refugees, combined with the recollection of her own fall, excited a compassionate, earnest, and sympathetic concern on their behalf. The following extract from a letter written in September, 1825, gives a touching view of her feelings towards these unhappy men. “I have read one part of ‘Las Ruinas,’ and in reading it I was struck with the reflection that the best answer would be a continual reference to the word of God. I thought therefore of placing my observations on the blank pages, and of filling the margin of the printed paper with references. I beseech you to pray, that if I be not a fit instrument for the conversion of the souls of these poor Spanish exiles, the Holy Spirit would be pleased to raise up some other.”
Upon her removal from London to Stoke Fleming, near Dartmouth, Devon, which took place in consequence of protracted indisposition; her energies were still employed in the service of her Redeemer, and of His Church. During the first summer of her country residence, she regularly attended the parish workhouse at seven o’clock, to explain the Scriptures to the poor previous to the commencement of their daily labour. The children of the parish were the objects of her constant solicitude. She drew out questions upon the parables and miracles as helps for Sunday-school teachers; and, when prevented by illness from attending the school, she assembled the children at her own house for instruction. The young women also in the parish occupied a large share of her anxious thoughts, and she appropriated a separate evening for their instruction. She was a constant cottage visitor. The following passage from her mathematical manuscript is beautiful, and shows clearly the high and consecrated spirit with which she connected this humble ministration with her intellectual pleasures. “Do you ever experience this proud internal consciousness of superior genius or learning? God has placed a ready antidote within your reach. The abode of learned leisure is seldom far from the humble dwelling of some unlettered Christian. Thither let your steps be directed. ‘Take sweet counsel’ with your poor uneducated brother. There you will find the man, whom our ‘King delighteth to honour.’ His mean chamber, graced with one well-worn book, is as ‘the house of God, and the very gate of heaven.’ Observe how far the very simplicity of his faith, and the fervour of his love, exceed anything you can find in your own experience, cankered as it is with intellectual pride. God has taught him many lessons, of which all your learning has left you ignorant. Make him your instructor in spiritual things. He is a stranger to the names of your favourite poets and orators; but he is very familiar with the sweet psalmist of Israel. He can give you rich portions of the eloquence of one who ‘spake as never man spake.’ He can neither ‘tell you the number of the stars, nor call them by their names;’ but he will discourse excellently concerning the Star of Bethlehem. He is unable to attempt the solution of a difficult problem; but he can enter into some of those deep things of God’s law, which to an unhumbled heart are dark and mysterious. He will not talk to you ‘in words which man’s wisdom teacheth;’ but oh! what sweet and simple expressions of Divine love are those ‘which the Holy Ghost has taught him’! He ‘knows nothing but Christ crucified;’ but this is the excellent knowledge, to which all other knowledge is foolishness. He has ‘the fear of the Lord; that is wisdom. He departs from evil; that is understanding.’ When your soul is refreshed by this simple and lovely communion with one of the meanest of God’s saints, return to your learned retirement. Look over your intellectual possessions. Choose out the brightest jewel in your literary cabinet. Place it by the side of ‘the meek and quiet spirit’ of this obscure Christian. Determine which is the ornament of greater price. Compare the boasted treasures of your mind with the spiritual riches of your illiterate brother. Run over the whole catalogue. Let not one be omitted; the depth of your understanding and the strength of your reasonings, the brilliancy of your fancy, the fire of your eloquence. Be proud of them. Glory in them. You cannot. They dwindle into insignificance.”