duties should not suffer, and habits of self-reliance should be formed.  From earliest childhood the great principles of Christianity were instilled into the opening minds of the children; and when the reflective powers had come into operation, their reasonings were watched and guided into safe paths.  In this object, as in all the pursuits of her children, was the loving influence of a watchful mother gently felt.  Thus by the united love and example of the parents were the affections of the children directed to a risen Saviour; and it is the aim of this volume to show, principally from records penned by her own hand, how one beloved daughter grew in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord, until it pleased Him to take her to Himself.

Eliza Southall possessed a mind of no common order; and hers was a character in which simplicity and strength, originality and refinement, were beautifully blended:  diffident and retiring, she was best appreciated where she was known most intimately.

In very early life she manifested an unusual degree of mental power.  When quite a little child, her earnest pursuit of knowledge was remarkable:  she delighted in her lessons, and chose for her own reading a class of books far beyond the common taste of children.

Her ardent, impulsive nature was, to a beautiful degree, tempered and softened by a depth of tenderness and intensity of feeling, together with a warmth of affection, which bound her very closely in sympathy, even as a child, with those around her.

These sweet traits of natural character were so early blended with the unmistakable evidences of the fruit of divine grace in her heart, that it would be difficult to point to any time in her earliest childhood when there was not an earnest strife against evil, some sweet proof of the power of overcoming grace, and some manifestation of love to her Saviour.

Her own words sweetly describe her feelings in recalling this period:—­“When I look back to the years of my early childhood, I cannot remember the time when the Lord did not strive with me; neither can I remember any precise time of my first covenant.  It was the gentle drawing of the cords of his love; it was the sweet impress of his hand; it was the breathing in silence of a wind that bloweth where it listeth.”

The following instances of the serious thoughtfulness of her early childhood are fresh in her mother’s recollection.  On one of her sisters first going to meeting, Eliza, who was younger, much wished to accompany her; saying, “I know, mamma, that R——­ and I can have meetings at home; but I do want to go.”  Being told that her going must depend upon her sister’s behavior, Eliza ran to her, and putting her arms round her neck, said, most earnestly, “Do, dear R——­, be a good girl and behave well.”  The dear child’s desire to attend meeting was soon gratified; and that morning she selected, to commit to memory, Jane Taylor’s appropriate hymn on attending public worship, especially noticing the stanza—­