tion and hindrance. Loftiness of social position is frequently a stern limitation to freedom of action.
Yet, as in all things the Christian can come off conqueror through Him that helpeth him, many examples are found in modern biography of women whose social status has exhibited the greatest possible contrast, yet whose personal experience and life-work have plainly shown the oneness of their hope, and the true spiritual kinship of all believers.
I propose giving my young readers a brief sketch of two lives, taken from entirely different classes of society, each of which teaches them a most valuable lesson for time and eternity. I select that noble Christian lady, the last Duchess of Gordon, and the humble seamstress and pious philanthropist, Sarah Martin, of Great Yarmouth.
I take the last first. In the early years of the present century, a young girl might be seen at Yarmouth going to and from her work as a dress-maker's apprentice. There was nothing remarkable in her appearance, except perhaps a look of keen observation and intelligent thoughtfulness. She was an orphan, and had been reared by an aged, pious widow, her grandmother. Some schooling had been given her, and she was fond of reading in a desultory way.
It is rather a curious fact in the mental history of the orphan Sarah Martin, that she had a positive dislike to religion and the books that inculcated it,