Is not the act of the new-born soul, when it passes from death unto life, that of desire for assimilation to and oneness with Him who is its all in all?  How can love and faith be one act and then cease?  I dare not believe—­I would not for a universe believe—­that my very sense of safety in the love of Christ is not to be just the sense that shall bind me in grateful self-renunciation wholly to His service.  Let me be sure of final rest in heaven—­sure that at this moment I am really God’s own adopted child; and I believe my prayers, my repentings, my weariness of sin, would be just what they now are; nay, more deep, more abundant.  Oh, it is because I believe—­fully believe that I shall be saved through Christ—­that I want to be like Him here upon earth It is because I do not fear final misery that I shrink from sin and defilement here.  Oh, that I could put into that poor bewildered heart of hers just the sweet repose upon the ever present Saviour which He has given unto me!  The quietness with which my whole soul rests upon Him is such blessed quietness!  I shall not soon forget this strange evening.

[1] She refers to this, doubtless, in a note to Mr. Hamlin, dated March 28, 1839.  Mr. H. was then in Constantinople.  “It seems as if a letter to go so far ought to be a good one, so I am afraid to write to you.  But we ‘think to you’ every day, and hope you think of us sometimes.  I have been so happy all winter that I have some happiness to spare, and if you need any you shall have as much as you want.”

[2] The sermon was preached by her pastor, the Rev. Dr. Condit, April 19th.

[3] There is one thing I recall as showing the very early religious tendency of Lizzy’s mind.  It was a little prayer meeting which she held with a few little friends, as long ago as her sister kept school in the large parlor of the house on Middle street, before the death of her father.  It assembled at odd hours and in odd places.  I also remember her interest in the spiritual welfare of her young companions, after the return of the family from their sojourn in New York.  She showed this by accompanying some of us, in the way of encouragement, to Dr. Tyler’s inquiry-meeting.  Then during the special religious interest of 1838, she felt still more deeply and entered heartily into the rejoicing of those of us who at that time found “peace in believing.”  The next year I accompanied my elder sister Susan to Richmond, and during my absence she gave up her Christian hope and passed through a season of great darkness and despondency, emerging, however, into the light upon a higher plane of religious experience and enjoyment.  She sometimes thought this the very beginning of the life of faith in her soul.  But as I used to say to her when the next year we were together at Richmond, it seemed to me quite impossible that any one who had not already received the grace of God, could have felt what she had felt and expressed.  I do not doubt in the least that for years she had been a true follower of Christ.—­Letter from Miss Ann Louisa P. Lord, dated Portland, December 30, 1878.