she is a great sinner, but then as good as says she never did any thing wrong.  It was a sweet change to E.S., with her thankful and trustful spirit, and poor S., with his deep experience in the things of God.  “It is a long time to suffer,” he said, “but the end must come, the time must wear away.  I hope I shall have patience to the end, and I have great need to ask that the Lord will have patience with me.  I hope I shall be fully purified before He calls me away.”  He spoke solemnly on the tares and the wheat, as showing the mixture of good and evil growing together; that our being outwardly among the righteous will not secure our not being tares.

9th Mo. 2d.  Went to see a poor woman at the Workhouse; she is full of joy in the hope of heaven, and possession of the present mind of Jesus.  I said, “Many wish for it who have it not;” she said, “Perhaps they are not enough in earnest:  it costs a few groans, and struggles, and tears, but it is sweet to enjoy it now.”  Could the stony heart in me help melting, seeing her exceeding great joy?

Pleased with the sweet spirit that was in poor Alice, her trust, I think, in Christ alone, amid all her (as I think) mistaken thoughts of the church, sacrament, certain perseverance, &c. &c.  I did not argue, but wished for us both the one foundation.

Of a peculiarly sensitive disposition herself, Eliza’s heart abounded with sympathy for the trials and sufferings of the poor.  She was a welcome visitor at their cottages, where her kind and gentle though timid manner generally found access to their hearts; and whilst herself receiving lessons of instruction at the bedside of the sick and the dying, she was often the means of imparting sweet consolation to them.

In her desire to promote the spiritual welfare of others, she wrote two tracts, which were printed by the York Friends’ Tract Association.  The first is entitled Richard Nancarrow, or the Cornish Miner, and traces the Christian course of a poor man whom she had frequently visited, and who had claimed her anxious solicitude as she watched his slow decline in consumption.  In the second, entitled “Plain Words,” she endeavored to convey the simplest gospel truths in words adapted to the comprehension of even the least educated.  She was warmly interested in the Bible Society, in connection with which, for some years, she regularly visited a neighboring village, besides attending to other objects of a similar character nearer home.

  9th Mo. 10th.  Letter to M.B.

* * * Setting our affection above is indeed the first thing of importance; and yet how utterly beyond our own power!  We are so enslaved to sense and sight till He, who alone is able, sets us “free indeed,” that things around us can take that disproportionate hold on our hearts which makes work for the light of heaven to reduce things to their proper proportion in our view.