On examining into the state of her husband’s affairs, she discovered that there remained not quite two hundred pounds sterling in his agent’s hands.

These circumstances afforded an opportunity for the display of the purity of Mrs. Graham’s principles, and her rigid adherence to the commandments of her God in every situation.

It was proposed to her, and urged with much argument, to sell the two Indian girls, her late husband’s property; but no considerations of interest or necessity could prevail upon her thus to dispose of immortal beings, the work of her heavenly Father’s hand.  One of these girls accompanied her to Scotland, where she was married; and the other died in Antigua, leaving an affectionate testimony to the kindness of her dear master and mistress.

The surgeon’s mate of the regiment was a young man whom Dr. Graham had early taken under his patronage.  The kindness of his patron had so far favored him with a medical education, that he was enabled to succeed him as surgeon to the regiment.

Notwithstanding the slender finances of Mrs. Graham, feeling for the situation of Dr. H——­, she presented to him her husband’s medical library and his sword:  a rare instance of disinterested regard for the welfare of another.

This was an effort towards observing the second table of the law, in doing which she was actuated likewise by that principle which flows from keeping the first table also.  Nor was the friendship of Dr. and Mrs. Graham misplaced.  The seeds of gratitude were sown in an upright heart.  Dr. H——­, from year to year, manifested his sense of obligation, by remitting to the widow such sums of money as he could afford.  This was a reciprocity of kind offices, equally honorable to the benefactors and to them who received the benefit:  an instance, alas, too rarely met with in a selfish world.

It may here be remarked, in order to show how much temporal supplies are under the direction of a special providence, that Dr. H——­’s remittances and friendly letters were occasionally received by Mrs. Graham until the year 1795; after this period her circumstances were so favorably altered as to render such aid unnecessary; and from that time she heard no more from Dr. H——­, neither could she learn what was his subsequent history.

It may be profitable here to look at Mrs. Graham, contrasted with those around her whose condition in the world was prosperous.  Many persons then in Antigua were busy and successful in the accumulation of wealth, to the exclusion of every thought tending to holiness, to God, and to heaven.  The portion which they desired they possessed.  What then?  They are since gone to another world.  The magic of the words, “my property,” “an independent fortune,” has been dispelled; and that for which they toiled, and in which they gloried, has since passed into a hundred hands; the illusion is vanished, and unless they made their peace with God through the blood of the cross, they left this world, and alas, found no heaven before them.  But amidst apparent affliction and outward distress, God was preparing the heart of this widow, by the discipline of his covenant, for future usefulness—­to be a blessing, probably to thousands of her race, and to enter finally on that “rest which remaineth for the people of God.”