Nice visit at the Union on First-day.  Congregation enlarged, notwithstanding substitution of Bible for Tract, and very quiet.  Cornelius, a helpless sick man, seeming near death, melted my heart with his talk.  I felt quite unfit to be called a “sister” by such a saint.

4th Mo. 10th.  “To have had much forgiven” is, I can joyfully yet reverently record this evening, my blessed portion; and in the sense, which as a cloud of warmth and light now dwells in my heart, of the loving-kindness and tender mercy of God in Christ Jesus, I have been ready to say, in effect, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name,” “who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies.”  How is all given me gratis, without money and without price!  Nothing is mine but confusion of face for my oft-repeated rebellions.

Oh, it is not that we can get salvation for ourselves; it is that we hinder not, refuse not, turn not from, but accept, wait for, pant for the free gift of our Saviour’s grace.  “To Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly,” the work belongs.  He can cause that even as sin hath reigned, so shall grace reign; and that as death hath triumphed, so shall spiritual and eternal life triumph also.  Amen and amen.

4th Mo. 17th.  How short-lived were the feelings I recorded at the close of last week!  I believe an earnest talk with a chatty caller on minor matters, recalled my heart that same evening from its happy abiding-place.  I have thought of the words, “Jesus Christ the end of your conversation,” and fear he is but a by-end of mine.  It is hard to analyze our feelings:  perhaps when discomfort from excitement and discontent is greatest, my sin is no greater than when in listless apathy and earthly-mindedness my thoughts are bounded by the seen and the temporal.

5th Mo. 24th.  A solemn warning from Uncle R. on Fifth-day did me good.  I was blessed with some degree of ability to use the words, “Into Thy hands I commit my spirit,” and though I feared to add, “Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord of truth,” in its full sense, yet I have felt how precious were the words, “as unto a faithful Creator.”  Oh, does He not say in these days, “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it”?  Is His hand shortened at all?  Can we not have faith in our principles?

The following lines were written about this, time, in allusion to the marriage of her eldest, sister, and the funeral of John Wadge, an old and valued friend of the family.  It was hoped that the cactus which had belonged to J.W. would have blossomed in time for the wedding; but the first flower only opened a fortnight afterwards, on the morning of his own funeral:  and when, in a few years, the marriage of the beloved writer of the lines was so speedily followed by her own decease, the striking appropriateness of these touching verses could not fail to be remembered.