never did tell them. To the few who would speak to her upon religion, she listened with silent amenity, or studied philosophical indifference: they had a right to their opinions-she would not have disturbed them on any account, since they liked to think so, there was no harm in doing it. So well did she understand their feelings and opinions, and so indulgently consider them, that one time sleeping in the same room with a sick sister, whose mind was morbidly, but most spiritually and truly affected with religious melancholy, that sweet sister would sometimes, in her sleepless nights, ask Caroline if she might repeat some hymns to her, and Caroline would kindly answer, "Do, my dear;" and when in return, Amelia asked Caroline to repeat hymns to her, she answered that she did not know any, but she would make some against another night, and she actually did make some, that not only satisfied her sister, but continue to this time as acceptable to believers as her more recent verses. It is a curious fact, that one of these hymns--beginning "For what shall I praise Thee,"* of which, when she *For what shall I praise Thee, my God and my king; For what blessings the tribute of gratitude bring? Shall I praise Thee for plenty, for health and for ease, For the spring of delight, and the sunshine of peace?

Shall I praise Thee for flowers that bloom'd on my breast; For joys in perspective, or pleasures possess'd?

wrote it, she did not believe a word, and had no intention but to suit the feelings of her sister, was ten or twelve years afterwards shown her in manuscript as a great treasure, by a pious young lady who did not know whence it came, and hesitated to believe her assertion that she had written it herself. This was an awful state, but it resulted, in the wondrous power of Him who makes even of evil the ministers of his good, that when faith was given, knowledge had not to be waited for; difference of doctrine and modifications of belief, and all scriptural or unscriptural arguments in support of each were perfectly familiar to her-like one acquainted with the localities of a country, its languages and habits-when it was given her to enter

For the spirits that heightened my days of delight,
And the slumber that sat on my pillow at night?

For all this should I praise Thee, and only for this,
I should leave half unsung, thy donation of bliss:
I praise Thee for sorrow, for sickness, for care;
For the thorns I have gather'd, the anguish I bear;

For my nights of anxiety, watching and tears;
A present of pain; a perspective of fears;

I praise Thee, I bless thee, my King and my God,
For the good and the evil, Thy hand has bestow'd.

The flowers were sweet, but their fragrance is flown,
They left me no fruit, they are withered and gone;
The thorn it is poignant, but precious to me,
As the message of mercy, that led me to Thee.

by the gate, the way was plain before her. Indeed she had even so far considered the various views of Christianity, as to have concluded that, if there was anything in it at all, the Calvinists had the better of the controversy; a conclusion to which she was most decidedly brought by the reading of Dr. Tomline's famous work, "The Refutation of Calvinism," one of the latest theological works she read before her conversion.* How was a mind to be reached thus trenched and fortified? Opinion had no weight with her; authorities had no influence. She had no dislike to hear the truth preached, or to the conversation of those who believed it, or to their persons. She would as soon have thought of disliking the Copernican system or its advocates, or any other scientific controversy. Her eldest brother was at this time a distinguished minister and writer in the Church of Christ--a man of acknowledged talent and learning. Caroline had heard him preach, and read his works, and held him in very high esteem and much affection; but his religious opinions had not the smallest influence. He considered Caroline as the most hopeless of his family,

*Calvinism would have been little proud of its proselyte -for whatever she had studied beside, she had not studied the Scriptures to discover who was right; but as an impartial and disinterested judge, exercised her own intellect and reason upon human statements.

it

several of whom were beginning to be spiritually af fected. He is said to have remarked about this time: "There is the pride of intellect, that will never come down!"-humanly speaking, what was to reach it? It was always the judge, and not the pupil, of whatever authorities might be brought before it. It has been said she did not dislike to hear the truth, but there was that which she did dislike, which she hated, the Word that taught it. Neither the poetical beauties, nor the historic interest of the Bible could give any charm. She could not endure it, she would not read it, and when read before her, she deliberately determined not to listen. O, blessed and immutable Word! now the joy of her heart, the comfort of her life, the exhaustless feast of her intellect and feelings! Why was it that she could amuse herself with the same truths from the lips of man, and take no offence, and feel no hatred; but could not bear it there? Surely because it has a potency which is not anywhere beside "a savor of life unto life, or death unto death," which with all her philosophy and skepticism, she dared not meet.

It is always worthy of remark, that the Omniscient God works with, and not against, the natural disposition of the mind. This independent intellect was to be left unassailed, in the strongholds of its pride, and

Caroline was to be reached, where only she was vulnerable, through her affections. At this momentous period Caroline was residing in the family of the Rev. T. M—, where everything was against the probability of her receiving religious impressions, except the restless, unsatisfied, unhappy state of her own mind, displeased with everything around her and within her; weary and disgusted with the present, and gloomy and hopeless of the future, without a single sorrow but the absence of all joy, kindly entreated, humored, flattered, and indulged by every one; her dependent situation notwithstanding, she was humorsome, rude, discontented, and ungrateful. What wonder that she was so to those kind, friendly creatures, who, to the latest years of her intercourse or knowledge of them, continued to admire and love her, this conduct notwithstanding,-what wonder, when her heart was locked and seared against the love of Him, who at this very moment stood at the door and knocked, and was not asked to enter!

It has been said she never read-she never prayed --she never listened-wishing to be very exact in this particular, she will not omit, however, to mention what might be the first stirring of the Holy Spirit within her. She recollects a few nights when having lain down as usual without any attempt at prayer, in