The Annals of the Poor | Page 3

he lives
five miles off, and has particular business on that day; so when I told
my daughter, she asked me to come to you, sir, and bring that letter,
which would explain the matter."
I desired him to come into the house, and then said,--
"What is your occupation?"
"Sir, I have lived most of my days in a little cottage at ---, six miles
from here. I have rented a few acres of ground, and kept some cows,
which, in addition to my day-labour, has been the means of supporting
and bringing up my family."
"What family have you?"
"A wife, now getting very aged and helpless; two sons, and one
daughter; for my other poor dear child is just departed out of this
wicked world."
"I hope for a better."
"I hope so too. Poor thing, she did not use to take to such good ways as
her sister; but I do believe that her sister's manner of talking with her
before she died was the means of saving her soul. What a mercy it is to
have such a child as mine is! I never thought about my own soul
seriously till she, poor girl, begged me to flee from the wrath to come."
"How old are you?"
"Near seventy, and my wife is older. We are getting old, and almost
past our labour, but our daughter has left a good place, where she lived

in service, on purpose to come home and take care of us and our little
dairy. And a dear, dutiful, affectionate girl she is."
"Was she always so?"
"No, sir; when she was very young she was all for the world, and
pleasure, and dress, and company. Indeed we were all very ignorant,
and thought if we took care for this life, and wronged nobody, we
should be sure to go to heaven at last. My daughters were both wilful,
and, like ourselves, strangers to the ways of God and the word of his
grace. But the eldest of them went out to service, and some years ago
she heard a sermon, preached at --- church by a gentleman that was
going to --- as chaplain to the colony, and from that time she seemed
quite another creature. She began to read the Bible, and became sober
and steady. The first time she returned home afterwards to see us she
brought us a guinea, which she had saved from her wages, and said, as
we were getting old, she was sure we should want help, adding, that she
did not wish to spend it in fine clothes as she used to do, only to feed
pride and vanity. She said she would rather show gratitude to her dear
father and mother, because Christ had shown such mercy to her.
"We wondered to hear her talk, and took great delight in her company;
for her temper and behaviour were so humble and kind, she seemed so
desirous to do us good both in soul and body, and was so different from
what we had ever seen her before, that careless and ignorant as we had
been, we began to think there must be something real in religion, or it
never could alter a person so much in a little time.
"Her youngest sister, poor soul! used to laugh and ridicule her at that
time, and said her head was turned with her new ways. 'No, sister,' she
would say, 'not my head but I hope my heart is turned from the love of
sin to the love of God. I wish you may one day see, as I do, the danger
and vanity of your present condition.'
"Her poor sister would reply, 'I do not want to hear any of your
preaching; I am no worse than other people, and that is enough for me.'
'Well, sister,' Elizabeth would say, 'if you will not hear me, you cannot
hinder me from praying for you, which I do with all my heart.'

"And now, sir, I believe those prayers are answered. For when her
sister was taken ill, Elizabeth went to Mrs. ---'s to wait in her place, and
take care of her. She said a great deal to her about her soul, and the
poor girl began to be so deeply affected and sensible of her past sin,
and so thankful for her sister's kind behaviour, that it gave her great
hopes indeed for her sake. When my wife and I went to see her as she
lay sick, she told us how grieved and ashamed she was of her past life,
but said she had a hope, through grace, that her dear sister's Saviour
would be her Saviour too, for she saw her own sinfulness, felt her own
helplessness, and only wished to