of her; but so appalling did the act appear to her that she trembled, hesitated, resisted, and was silent.  Sorrow and remorse at once filled her soul; and, feeling that she had sinned against the Holy Ghost, she thought that God never could forgive her, and that no sacrifice she could ever offer could atone for this first act of disobedience.  Through long and dreary years it was the spectre that never would down, but stood ready to point its accusing finger whenever she was tempted to seek the cause of her disappointments and sorrows.

Thus, in the very outset of her new departure, arose apprehensions which followed her continually, robbing her religious exercises of all peace, and bringing her such a depth of misery that, she says, it almost destroyed her soul.  The frequent letters of her Quaker friend, though calculated to soothe and encourage her, were all firm on the point of implicit obedience to the movements of the Spirit; and she found herself in a straight and narrow path, from which she was not allowed to deviate.

To this friend, Israel Morris, Sarah seems to have confessed all her shortcomings, all her fears, until, encouraged by his sympathy, and led by her longing for a wider field of action, she began to contemplate a removal to the North.  There were other causes which urged her to seek another home.  The inharmonious life in her family, joined to the reproaches and ridicule constantly aimed at her, and which stung her to the quick, naturally inspired the desire to go where she would be rid of it all, and live in peace.  In her religious exaltation, it was easy for her to persuade herself that she was moved to make this important change by the Lord’s command.  She sincerely believed it was so, and speaks of it as an unmistakable call, not to be disregarded, to go forth from that land, and her work would be shown her.  Naturally, Philadelphia was the spot to which she was directed.  When informed of her desires, Israel Morris not only gave his approval, but invited her to a home in his family.  A door of shelter and safety being thus thrown open to her, she no longer hesitated, but at once made known her intention to her relatives.  There seems to have been little or no opposition offered to a step so serious; in fact, her brothers and sisters, though much attached to her,—­for her loving nature was irresistible,—­evidently felt it a relief when she was gone, her strict and pious life being a constant rebuke to their worldly views and practices.

Her sister Anna, at her urgent request, accompanied her on the voyage.  This sister, the widow of an Episcopal clergyman, though a defender of slavery as an institution, recognized its evil influences on the society where it existed, and gladly accepted the opportunity offered to take her young daughter away from them.  It was necessary, too, that she should do something to increase her slender income, and Sarah advised opening a small school in Philadelphia,—­a thing which she could not have done in Charleston without a sacrifice of her own social position and of the family pride.