In taking this new departure she must not be confounded with some female orators of the present age, who often succeed in turning preaching into a hideous caricature.  She was evidently ripening for her remarkable work, and while doing so was occasionally irresistibly impelled to give utterance to “thoughts that breathe and words that burn.”  Still, after reaching the quiet of Plashet, and reviewing calmly her new form of service, she thus wrote, what seemed to be both a sincere and common-sense judgment upon herself:—­

I was enabled coming along to crave help; in the first place, to be made willing either to do or to suffer whatever was the Divine will concerning me.  I also desired that I might not be so occupied with the present state of my mind as to its religious duties, as in any degree to omit close attention to all daily duties, my beloved husband, children, servants, poor, etc.  But, if I should be permitted the humiliating path that has appeared to be opening before me, to look well at home, and not discredit the cause I desire to advocate.

Wise counsels these, to herself!  No woman whose judgment is well-balanced, and whose womanly-nature is finely strung, but will regard the path to the rostrum with shrinking and dismay.  Either the desire to save and help her fellow-creatures, “plucking them out of the fire,” if need be, is so strong upon her as to overmaster all fear of man; or else the necessities and claims of near and dear ones lay compulsion upon her to win support for them.  Therefore, while every woman can be a law unto herself, no woman can be a law unto her sisters in this matter.  As proof of her singleness of heart, another passage may be quoted from Mrs. Fry’s journal.  It runs thus, and will be by no means out of place here, seeing that it bears particularly upon the new form of ministry then being taken up by her:—­

May my being led out of my own family by what appears to me duties, never be permitted to hinder my doing my duty fully towards it, or so occupy my attention as to make me in any degree forget or neglect home duties.  I believe it matters not where we are, or what we are about, so long as we keep our eye fixed on doing the Great Master’s work....  I fear for myself, lest even this great mercy should prove a temptation, and lead me to come before I am called, or enter service I am not prepared for....  This matter has been for many years struggling in my mind, long before I married, and once or twice when in London I hardly knew how to refrain.  However, since a way has thus been made for me it appears as if I dared not stop the work; if it be a right one may it go on and prosper, if not, the sooner stopped the better.

Very soon after penning these words, the Meeting of which she was a member acknowledged Mrs. Fry as a minister, and thus gave its sanction to her speaking in their religious assemblies.