“What a blessing to know that my Jesus is mine.”

Her soul was immediately filled with a calm sweet joy, which she was unable to describe.  She arose from her bed, and went to the house of God, her heart still glowing with these newly awakened emotions; and while on her way thought within herself, “O that I had a voice that would reach to all the world, I would tell them how happy I am.”  This occurred on the 12th of February, 1795.  But the transport of her feelings, after enduring for a season, at length subsided; yet not without leaving a permanent though perhaps not easily defined impression.  It may be asked was this conversion? was it genuine? and in a child so young?  We answer it would be very difficult to prove that it was not.  One thing is certain, that from this time there was a settled purpose to serve the Lord, which spite of fluctuating feeling and periods of wintry coldness was steadily kept in view; ever and anon gathering strength until it ripened into maturity.  The sapling, because it bends to the breeze is not therefore destitute of life; unless it be torn up by the roots, or scorched and withered by the noon-day sun, or absolutely frozen by the winter’s cold, it will gradually wax and grow until its massive trunk is able to bid defiance to the storm.  Conversing on this subject with one of her children at a late period in life, when her judgment was matured, and her views of divine truth rendered more clear by her approximation to a better world, she said, “I lost my peace because I grieved the Lord by a trifling disposition, but the Lord did not leave me;” then, employing the language of the lamented David Stoner, she added, “I have been converted a hundred times.”  To another of her children, after using similar language she said with peculiar, emphasis, “I have been aiming to please God all my life, I can say that.”  Her conviction was that the work was real, but that at the time, she did not understand the nature of it; and hence from causes clearly ascertainable, it was as in many similar cases, soon overshadowed by circumstances of doubt.  The truth is, children are just as capable of experiencing the grace of God as persons of riper years; but they are not capable of defining their feelings, or of understanding the great doctrines of salvation,—­and for this very reason, they are more liable to be subjected to fluctuations both of feeling and purpose.  It would be well if some older people, who do not take the pains to obtain a clear and intelligent view of the religion they profess, were not equally unstable and from the same cause; if there was no occasion for the apostolic admonition, “Be not children in understanding; howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.”  The feelings of children, when employed about the great subjects of religion and eternity, are not lightly to be discouraged, even when mixed up with much that a maturer judgment