“A day to be remembered.  Rose at four, not to mourn—­no, but to repeat my grateful thanks to my covenant God for the work he finished this day last year, in delivering my weak, feeble, tossed, and tried Jessie from a body of sin and death, and giving her ’the victory through Jesus Christ, who loved her and gave himself for her.’  To thee she was dedicated ere she saw the light; to thee a thousand times I repeated the dedication, begging that thou mightest bring her within the bond of thy covenant; this was the sum and substance of all my askings for her.  I witnessed the time of her second birth, saw the tears of conviction and remorse.  I witnessed thy loosing her bonds, and tuning her heart and tongue to praise redeeming love.  I witnessed the teaching of thy Spirit, and the enlightening of her eyes, and the taste thou gavest her of thy salvation; I thought her mountain stood strong, and she would not be easily moved; but who can tell the deceitfulness of the human heart?  Too soon did we all turn aside like a deceitful bow, forsook the fountain of living waters, and hewed out broken cisterns that could hold no water.  Glory to God for the discipline of the covenant, that he did not cast us off, but chastened and corrected.  He repeated the discipline stripe upon stripe:  I stood by and saw it, and though my heart melted at times, I said, ’She is in her Father’s hand, let him do his pleasure.’

“I too was unfaithful to her, thou knowest, and often entered into the same vanity of mind, which stifled the love of God in our hearts, instead of guarding her and warning her; still, still the Shepherd of Israel followed after both, and with the precious rod restored both, time after time, till it pleased thee to finish her warfare, and deliver her from both body and sin.  Lord, I thank thee for all the circumstances, for the privilege of attending her in her warfare, for the cheerfulness of her spirits, for the rich support we all experienced, for the view we all had of thy faithfulness and fatherly dealing, and for her last words, ‘All is well.’  O yes, every thing thou doest is well, and this was peculiarly well.  I resigned her to thee with joy and thankfulness, and I still acquiesce.  Her thou hast taken, me thou hast left, to be yet exercised with further discipline.  It is well; thy will be done.  O help me to profit by every pang.  Let sin be mortified and my soul be purified; enlarge my heart to run the ways of thy commandments.  Now may I lay aside every weight, and that vanity of mind which doth so easily beset me, and hath been the secret spring of much backsliding both to myself and to my children.  Lord, destroy it..  O let me now live to God, closely and consistently; down with my will, with self in every form.  O purify my motives, and let my whole heart, soul, body, substance, and influence in the world be devoted to thee.  Empty me of every thing that is my own, and let ‘Christ live in me the hope of glory,’ and let the glory of thy workmanship in my soul redound to thee, and thee alone.  Amen.”