Page:Women worth emulating (1877) Internet Archive.djvu/111

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
SARAH MARTIN.
95

its commencement only, bat from first to last to be entirely of grace, I was made free; and looking upon a once crucified, but now glorified Saviour, with no more power of my own than the praying thief had upon the cross, I also found peace"

This change of heart was followed, as, when real, it ever is, by a change of life. She began not only to search, but to love and rejoice in the Scriptures. The Bible was the companion of her leisure hours, and its precepts the guide of her actions. She was conscious that her former hardness of heart and dislike of religion had been a trial to the beloved aged parent who had protected her orphan childhood; and we can imagine the joy there was between the widow and the orphan when they were one in the faith and the hope of the gospel.

"Did you ever despair of my conversion?" she asked of her aged guardian. "No; I always prayed for you, my child," was the reply. Ah, dear readers, what constant, hallowed incense of prayer is rising from loving hearts for many of you! Long ere you could pray for yourselves, long after you have wilfully neglected prayer, the supplications have been and are continued. Think of it, and give your pious kindred the greatest joy that you can afford them, the sweet assurance that their prayers are answered.

It was quite in accordance with the true spirit of Christianity, that as soon as Sarah Martin's heart