27th.—­This has been one of the most oppressive days I ever knew.  I went to church, however, and enjoyed all the services unusually.  As we rode along and I saw the grain ripe for the harvest, I said to myself, “God gathers in His harvest as soon as it is ripe, and if I devote myself to Him and pray much and turn entirely from the world I shall ripen, and so the sooner get where I am all the time yearning and longing to go!” I fear this was a merely selfish thought, but I do not know.  This world seems less and less homelike every day I live.  The more I pray and meditate on heaven and my Saviour and saints who have crossed the flood, the stronger grows my desire to be bidden to depart hence and go up to that sinless, blessed abode.  Not that I forget my comforts, my mercies here; they are manifold; I know they are.  But Christ appears so precious; sin so dreadful! so dreadful!  To-day I gave way to pride and irritation, and my agony on account of it outweighs weeks of merely earthly felicity.  The idea of a Christian as he should be, and the reality of most Christians—­particularly myself—­why, it almost makes me shudder; my only comfort is, in heaven, I can not sin!  In heaven I shall see Christ, and see Him as He is, and praise and honor Him as I never do and never shall do here.  And yet I know my dear little ones need me, poor and imperfect a mother as I am; and I pray every hour to be made willing to wait for their sakes.  For at the longest it will not be long.  Oh, I do believe it is the sin I dread and not the suffering of life—­but I know not; I may be deluded.  My love to my Master seems to me very shallow and contemptible.  I am astonished that I love anything else.  Oh, that He would this moment come down into this room and tell me I never, never, shall grieve Him again!

Some verses entitled “Alone with God,” belong here: 

  Into my closet fleeing, as the dove
    Doth homeward flee,
  I haste away to ponder o’er Thy love
     Alone with Thee!

  In the dim wood, by human ear unheard,
    Joyous and free,
  Lord!  I adore Thee, feasting on Thy word,
    Alone with Thee!

  Amid the busy city, thronged and gay,
    But One I see,
  Tasting sweet peace, as unobserved I pray
    Alone with Thee!

  Oh, sweetest life!  Life hid with Christ in God! 
    So making me
  At home, and by the wayside, and abroad,
    Alone with Thee!

    WESTPORT, August 22, 1856.

* * * * *

V.

Ready for new Trials.  Dangerous Illness.  Extracts from her Journal.  Visit to Greenwood.  Sabbath Meditations.  Birth of another Son.  Her Husband resigns his pastoral Charge.  Voyage to Europe.

The summer at Westport was so beneficial to the baby and so full both of bodily and spiritual refreshment to herself, that on returning to town, she resumed her home tasks with unwonted ease and comfort.  The next entry in her journal alludes to this: