In the year 1791 her son, who had been left in Scotland to complete his education, paid his mother a visit.  Mrs. Graham, considering herself as inadequate to the proper management of a son, had at an early period of his life sent him to the care of a friend, who had promised to pay due attention to his morals and education.  The boy had a warm affectionate heart, but possessed, at the same time, a bold and fearless spirit.  Such a disposition, under proper management, might have been formed into a noble character; but he was neglected, and left in a great measure to himself by his first preceptor.

For two years of his life he was under the care of Mr. Murray, teacher of an academy at Abercorn.  He was a man truly qualified for his station.  He instructed his pupils with zeal; led even their amusements; and to an exemplary piety added the faithful counsel of a friend.  He loved, and was therefore beloved.  Under his superintendence John Graham improved rapidly, and gained the affections of his teacher and companions.  Happy for him had he continued in such a suitable situation.  He was removed to Edinburgh to receive a more classical education.  Being left there by his mother and sisters, the impetuosity of his temper and a propensity for a sea-faring life induced his friends to place him as an apprentice in the merchant-service.  He was shipwrecked on the coast of Holland, and Mr. Gibson of Rotterdam, a friend of Mrs. Graham, took him to his house, and enabled him to come to the United States.  He remained at New York for some months.  His mother deemed it his duty to return to Scotland to complete his time of service.  He evidently inclined to the profession of a sailor; she therefore fitted him out handsomely, and he embarked for Greenock in the same ship with Mr. John M. Mason, the only son of Dr. John Mason, who went to attend the theological lectures at the Divinity Hall in Edinburgh.

The following extract shows the anguish of Mrs. Graham’s mind in parting with her son, and how she cast him upon the covenant mercy of her God, placing a blank, as to temporal things, in her Lord’s hand, but holding on with a fervent faith and hope to the promise of spiritual life.

“NEW YORK, May 20, 1791.

“This day my only son left me in bitter wringings of heart:  he is again launched on the ocean, God’s ocean.  The Lord saved him from shipwreck, brought him to my home, and allowed me once more to indulge the yearning of my heart over him.  Short has been the time he has been with me, and ill have I improved it:  he is gone from my sight, and my heart bursts with tumultuous grief.  Lord, have mercy on the widow’s son—­’the only son of his mother, and she a widow,’

“I ask nothing in all this world for him:  I repeat my petition—­save his soul alive; give him salvation from sin.  It is not the danger of the seas that distresses me; it is not the hardships he must undergo; it is not the dread of never seeing him more in this world:  it is because I cannot discern the fulfilment of the promise in him.  I discern not the new birth nor its fruits, but every symptom of captivity to Satan, the world, and self-will.  This, O this is what distresses me:  and in connection with this, his being shut out from ordinances, at a distance from Christians; and shut up with those who forget God, profane his name, and break his Sabbaths.