Shortly after the decease of her grandmother, Mrs. Sarah Lanman, she thus writes: "Grandmamma's sickness and death made demands upon my time, which were cheerfully met, as I esteem it an honor to have contributed any portion of labor to the comfort and memory of one so highly honored of God. It was a privilege to be with her the last day of her life, and to behold her peaceful exit. She used often in health to express much solicitude respecting the externals of her death; and in this respect, as well as in more important things, God was very gracious. She died while lying in a natural posture upon her side, and closed her own eyes; softly breathing her last, like an infant. Her remains, too, were lovely; and the sweet smile upon her features seemed an earnest of her angelic rest in heaven. She was a shining light. May we be enabled to honor her memory by a regard to those principles which were the ornament of her life."

The subjoined extracts relate to the decease and character of the Rev. Alfred Mitchell, her much esteemed pastor :

"Your friend and brother, and our beloved minister, has gone to the world of spirits, to join the Master whom he has served so faithfully. While I write it, I can hardly believe what my pen records. And yet it is really so. About 5 P. M., yesterday, the conflict ceased; and I trust he has found a joyful welcome in the regions of blessedness.

"I have felt very tenderly at the departure of my spiritual father. I have grown up under his ministry, and have often fed upon the truth which he has delivered. I shall rejoice to meet him in heaven. My last interview with him was very endearing and gratifying."

She partook deeply in the sensation felt throughout the churches of New England, at the death of the Rev. Mr. Cornelius.

"NORWICH, FEB. 14. "Before this arrives, you will probably hear of the sudden death of our dear Mr. Cornelius; an event which occasions us many tender recollections casts a shade over many pleasant associations - and more than all, makes a wide breach in the church of Christ. Dear Mrs. Cornelius, how does she support it!

'One there is, above all others,

Well deserves the name of Friend,'

and he can, and will, I trust, sustain her. Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted of?" It is sweet to realize, that God is an infinitely wise and benevolent Sovereign; and although he gives no account of his designs to us, faith assures us of the perfection of his government. Why do we ever distrust that love which has clothed divinity in humanity, and furnished us a perpetual High Priest in heaven? There stands our Representative, the Surety for our everlasting welfare; and as long as He there remains, we know, for a certainty, that all things will work together for good, to his adopted ones."

66

She subsequently visited Mrs. Cornelius in New York, and thus describes her feelings : 'My visit was one of tender interest, and it has left a pensive impression upon my mind. There is something sublime and heavenly in the sorrow of an enlightened but chastened Christian. In conversing with such a one you seem to have stepped out of the usual ferment of human scenes, to hold communion with elevated and invisible realities." "As we passed through the hall to the street door, I said, 'Your house is a pleasant one.' She replied, 'It is a sacred spot to me. Here I have witnessed precious scenes,

my husband ripened fast for heaven during the few months we were here together.' I went to see her three times. She told me much that was interesting of her dear husband, and

92

MEMOIR OF MRS. SMITH.

permitted me to peruse some letters respecting him from Boston and Hartford. I went around the house with her, and saw his study, desk, books, &c., just as he left them. It was like communing with the invisible world.”

In a note to a mother, recently deprived of a beloved child by death, she thus writes:

"NEW YORK, APRIL 18. "Dear Mrs. Williams: Since hearing of the deep affliction with which you have been visited, my sympathy has been frequently excited towards you, and I feel constrained to express the same with my pen. I know, from sad, yet sweet experience, that it is some alleviation of our grief to find that our sorrows are shared by others, although the only true and permanent consolation can be derived from Christ Jesus. I trust we both can testify how precious his friendship is at such an hour of anguish. Never, till the departure of my dear brother, did I know how to feel for the afflicted. Now I can enter into the sanctuary of their grief, and my heart seems to vibrate in unison with every chord of theirs. I know that the tie which binds a mother to her child is peculiar, and can be realized only by those who sustain this relation; yet the kind of maternal watchfulness which I had been called to exercise towards that brother, greatly increased the strength of my regard, and added to the poignancy of my sorrow."

Thus did Miss Huntington improve the departures of those whom she knew or loved, for the quickening of her own spirit, and in sending forward her thoughts, aided her own preparation to enter upon the scenes of eternity.

MISS HUNTINGTON, after her conversion, was solicitous for the prosperity of religion in her native place, and with the enlargement of heart which marks the devoted Christian, she rejoiced in revivals of religion wherever they occurred. Her anxiety respecting its prosperity in Norwich was frequent, when there was not a revival in actual progress. When such seasons did occur, they were to her times of intense interest - of lively anxiety but also of solemn and elevated joy. To her sister, who visited Norwich after an extraordinary descent of the Holy Spirit, she said, "How trifling these ornamented parlors and drawing-rooms have appeared to me of late! It should not be represented that after Miss Huntington's entrance upon a religious life, she was entirely free from the temptations of the world. In common with others she experienced seasons of declension. she felt, in an uncommon degree, the effect of the extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit enjoyed by the church in 1831; and ever after that period she seemed to have received a new and powerful impulse in the divine life. She prayed much for the blessings of the Spirit on those around her; encouraged others to do the same; watched for answers to prayer, and for the first evidences of divine influence on the hearts of Christians and the unconverted; interested herself in the cases of the thoughtless and careless, as well as of awakened and converted persons; and entered into the "joy of the angels of God in heaven, over

But

one sinner that repenteth," with a liveliness of gratitude rarely surpassed. Her letters to her friends abounded in details of the interesting scenes and events passing; and indicated that she was a rich sharer in the spiritual benefit of such seasons.

The same devoted piety which inclined her to pray for the influences of the Holy Spirit in revivals of religion, also led her to take a steady and fervent interest in the advancement of the kingdom of Christ every where. The seasons of concert in prayer among Christians, for missions, Sabbath schools, revivals in colleges, and other specific objects, on which in late years Christians have been "agreed together," always received her careful observance. In promoting all the great systems of Christian benevolence in operation for spreading the gospel in our dark and ruined world, she bore an active, and often a leading part with her Christian friends. No one entered with more liveliness into the spirit of the anniversaries of the various benevolent associations, or felt higher satisfaction at the evidences of their increasing prosperity. She also engaged with others in efforts for the spiritual good of places in the region of Norwich, destitute of religious privileges, and was active among her Christian associates in raising the means for furnishing the destitute. She was for some time engaged with several of her friends in a "Charity Warehouse," where were sold various articles, and to which she devoted some of the products of her skill in painting and drawing. The profits of this were devoted to some of the benevolent objects of the day. Respecting this enterprise, she had afterwards, however, some scruples. She said to a friend that she had given up the Warehouse, in which were sold sweetmeats, &c., for she could not consistently teach her Sabbath scholars self-denial, while she was instrumental in furnishing temptations to self-indulgence. She also was concerned, with ladies of the church to which she belonged, in fitting up a "Missionary Room," where they used to meet for prayer and labors of benevolence. There was a