[4] It may be proper to say here, that while but few of her letters are given entire, it has not been deemed needful specially to indicate all the omissions.  In some instances, also, where two letters, or passages of letters, relate to the same subject, they have been combined.

[5] An excellent little work by Rev. William Nevins, D.D.  Dr. Nevins was pastor of the first Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, where he died in 1835, at the age of thirty-seven.  He was one of the best preachers and most popular religious writers of his day.

[6] Miss Ann Louisa P. Lord.

[7] Miss Susan Lord.

[8] Referring to a serious accident, by which her mother was for some time deprived of the use of her right hand.

[9] But, singularly enough, it was.  President Harrison died April 4, 1841, just a month after his inauguration, and Mr. Tyler succeeded him.

[10] From Philadelphia, where she had undergone a surgical operation.

CHAPTER III.

PASSING FROM GIRLHOOD INTO WOMANHOOD.

1841-1845.

I.

At Home again.  Marriage of her Sister.  Ill-Health.  Letters.  Spiritual Aspiration and Conflict.  Perfectionism.  “Very, very Happy.”  Work for Christ what makes Life attractive.  Passages from Her Journal.  A Point of Difficulty.

Not long after Elizabeth’s return from Richmond, her sister was married to the Rev. Albert Hopkins, Professor in Williams College.  The wedding had been delayed for her coming.  “I would rather wait six years than not have you present,” her sister wrote.  This event brought her into intimate relations with a remarkable man; a man much beloved in his day, and whose name will often reappear in these pages.

The next two or three months showed that her Richmond life, although so full of happy experiences, had yet drawn heavily upon her strength.  They were marked by severe nervous excitement and fits of depression.  This, however, passed away and she settled down again into a busy home life.  But it was no longer the home life of the past.  The year of absence had left a profound impression upon her character.  Her mind and heart had undergone a rapid development.  She was only twenty-two on her return, and had still all the fresh, artless simplicity of a young girl, but there was joined to it now the maturity of womanhood.  Of the rest of the year a record is preserved in letters to her cousin.  These letters give many little details respecting her daily tasks and the life she led in the family and in the world; but they are chiefly interesting for the light they shed upon her progress heavenward.  Her whole soul was still absorbed in divine things.  At times her delight in them was sweet and undisturbed; then again, she found herself tossed to and fro upon the waves of spiritual conflict.  Perfectionism was just then much discussed, and the question troubled her not a little, as it did again thirty years later.  But whether agitated or at rest, her thoughts all centered in Christ, and her constant prayer was for more love to Him.