Martha Savory devoted to this work of mercy much time and personal exertion; but a more important service was also designed for her.  She felt constrained to give evidence of her love to Christ by a public testimony to the grace which had been vouchsafed to her through Him who is “the way, the truth, and the life.”  Deep were the conflicts of spirit which she endured ere she could yield to this solemn requirement, but “sweet peace” was, she says, as she records the sacrifice, the result of thus acknowledging her gracious Lord.  “This step,” she continues, “appears to me to involve the greatest of all possible mental reduction, but I reverently believe it was necessary for me, and mote, perhaps on my own account than on account of others; for, without this bond, and the necessary baptisms attending this vocation, I should have been in danger of turning back, and perhaps altogether losing the little spiritual life which has been mercifully raised.”  She adds a fervent petition for preservation and guidance, and that, by whatever means, however suffering to nature, the vessel might be purified, and fitted for the Master’s use.  She first spoke as a minister in the year 1814.  The humiliation and brokenness of spirit which marked these weighty engagements, were felt by many, especially among her youthful friends, to be peculiarly impressive, as tokens of the soul-cleansing operations of omnipotent love, and as an awakening call to yield to the same regenerating influence.

She was acknowledged as a minister by Southwark Monthly Meeting, in the year 1818, when she had reached the age of 36; and in 1821, with the cordial approval of the meetings of which she was a member, she commenced that course of missionary labor in the gospel, to which she was subsequently so much devoted.  Her mission, on this occasion, was to Congenics, where, and in the surrounding villages, she remained twelve months.

A letter to one of her sisters, written a few years after her marriage, so fully represents her religious sentiments, and the doctrine she was concerned to preach and maintain, that it may not improperly conclude this outline of her mental and religious character.

Burton, 13th of Twelfth Month, 1830.

I read thy remarks, my endeared sister, on the present state of things amongst us, with much interest, from having had corresponding feelings frequently raised in my own mind in this day of general excitement on religious subjects.

It remains to be a solemn truth that nothing can draw to God but what proceeds from him; and whatever may be the eloquence or oratory of man, if it be not the gift of God, and under his holy anointing, which always has a tendency to humble the creature and exalt the Creator, it will in the end only scatter and deceive.  It has long appeared to me that true vital religion is a very simple thing, although from our fallen state, requiring continual warfare with evil to keep it alive.