“Thou Husband of the widow, thou Father of the fatherless, O how fully, how manifestly hast thou fulfilled these relations to thy worthless servant.  Thou, in my early widowhood, didst call me to leave my fatherless children on thee, annexing the promise that thou wouldst preserve them alive.

“Thou didst put it into my heart to plead the promise in a spiritual sense; to ask, to hope, to wait for the new birth, the life which Christ died to purchase, and lives to bestow.

“In three of these fatherless I have seen thy work.  Long did the grain of mustard-seed lie buried among the weeds of worldly-mindedness; long were my hopes and fears alternate; but now the blessed discipline of the covenant has been exercised; I have witnessed it, I have felt it—­suffered the rod with them and for them, but waited for the fruits in hope; and glory to thee, dear Husband and Father, I have not waited in vain.  Thou hast written vanity, and opened our eyes to read vanity written on every earthly enjoyment, except so far as thou art enjoyed in them.  Thou hast enabled not only thine aged servant, but her children, to put a blank into thy hand, and to say, ‘Choose thou for us.’  We take hold of thy covenant, and choose it for our portion.  Is not this, O Lord, the full amount of my desires?  Thou wilt finish the work in thy own time, and by means of thy appointing.  Amen.  Lord, do as thou hast said.”

CHAPTER V.

DEATH OF HER DAUGHTER—­FIRST MISSIONARY SOCIETY IN NEW YORK.

In July, 1795, Mrs. Graham’s second daughter, Joanna, was married to Mr. Divie Bethune, merchant in New York.  In the following month her eldest daughter, Mrs. Stevenson, was seized with a fatal illness.  Possessing a most amiable disposition and genuine piety, she viewed the approach of death with the composure of a Christian and the intrepidity of faith.

She had been in delicate health for some years, and now a complication of disorders denied all hope of recovery.  She sung a hymn of triumph until the struggles of death interrupted her.  Mrs. Graham displayed great firmness of mind during the last trying scene, and when the spirit of her daughter fled, the mother raised her hands, and looking towards heaven, exclaimed, ‘I wish you joy, my darling.’  She then washed her face, took some refreshment, and retired to rest.

Such was her joy of faith at the full salvation of her child; but when the loss of her company was felt, the tenderness of a mother’s heart afterwards gave vent to feelings of affectionate sorrow:  nature will feel, even when faith triumphs.  In her devout meditations before God, Mrs. Graham improves this event as follows: 

“OCTOBER 4, 1795.

“Why, O why is my spirit still depressed?  Why these sobs?  Father, forgive.  ‘Jesus wept.’  I weep, but acquiesce.  This day two months the Lord delivered my Jessie, his Jessie, from a body of sin and death, finished the good work he had begun, perfected what concerned her, trimmed her lamp, and carried her triumphing through ’the valley of the shadow of death.’  She overcame through the blood of the Lamb.