love, joy, and peace reigned in her heart, beamed from her countenance, and spoke in her words.  Her faith was immovably fixed on Him who is able to save to the uttermost.  It was a common expression of confidence with her that ’Jesus would go with her all the way through the journey of life—­even to the end.  He would not leave her.  Her feet were on the Rock.’”

To this testimony to his mother’s worth The General added:—­

“To those whose eyes may fall on these lines, may I not be excused saying, ’See to it that you honour your father and your mother, not only that your days may be long in the land, but that you may not, in after years, be disturbed by useless longings to have back again the precious ones who so ceaselessly and unselfishly toiled with heart and brain for your profoundest well-being.’

“My mother and father were both Derbyshire people.  They were born within a few miles of each other, the former at Somercotes, a small village within a mile or two of Alfreton and the latter at Belper.  My mother’s father was a well-to-do farmer.  Her mother died when she was three years of age; and, her father marrying again, she was taken to the heart and home of a kind uncle and aunt, who reared and educated her, giving her at the same time a sound religious training.

“Years passed of which we have but imperfect knowledge during which, by some means, she drifted to the small town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch.  Here she met my father, who was availing himself of the waters as a remedy for his chronic enemy, rheumatism.  He offered her marriage.  She refused.  He left the town indignant, but returned to renew his proposal, which she ultimately accepted.  Their marriage followed.  Up to this date her path through life had been comparatively a smooth one; but from this hour onward through many long and painful years, it was crowded with difficulties and anxieties.

“My father’s fortunes appear to have begun to wane soon after his marriage.  At that time he would have passed, I suppose, for a rich man, according to the estimate of riches in those days.  But bad times came, and very bad times they were, such as we know little about, despite all the grumbling of this modern era.  Nottingham, where the family was then located, suffered heavily, a large proportion of its poorer classes being reduced to the verge of starvation.  My father, who had invested the entire savings of his lifetime in small house property, was seriously affected by these calamitous circumstances; in fact, he was ruined.

“The brave way in which my mother stood by his side during that dark and sorrowful season is indelibly written on my memory.  She shared his every anxiety, advised him in all his business perplexities, and upheld his spirit as crash followed crash, and one piece of property after another went overboard.  Years of heavy affliction followed, during which she was his