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Here is another missionary experience whose bitterness only the heart that feels it, knows:

"While every important want has been supplied, and innumerable comforts and refinements added, which I never anticipated as a missionary; I have scarcely passed one quiet American day since I parted from you. From the hour that I lost sight of my native shore, I have been fully aware that I had thrown myself into the wide and wicked world, and forever deprived myself of the moral repose and security which my once favored home had furnished. But I have never for a moment regretted the step which I took. There remaineth a rest,' which, if permitted to partake of it, I shall enjoy more highly, for the labors and disquietudes, and the new and deeper views of spiritual truths which this expatriation has occasioned." p. 295.

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We should omit an interesting feature in Mrs. Smith's life and character, if we did not refer to her peculiar affection for her father. Perhaps the early loss of her mother concentrated her filial affections upon the surviving parent, though we should judge that the feeling now referred to was, in a great measure, original. The affection of daughters for their fathers, and of sons for their mothers, of which we frequently see striking cases, are beautiful instances of a sort of cross-play in nature. The susceptibility of a daugh ter to deep impression by the contrast, in her father, to her feminine nature, and a son's impression in the same way, by his mother, the daughter yielding herself, thereby, to reverential affection, and the son to love, shows, in the individual, a fine moral structure, which, however it may, in many instances, be covered up by predominating inclinations to evil, is always a redeeming principle in the character, and, under genial influences, bears precious fruit. A son in whose heart his mother holds a natural sway, is like the sea, which is oftentimes swollen and troubled, but around which the moon keeps her gentle bands, and its waves are stayed. A daughter's love for her father has more of worship in it. Amongst the harmonies of her social nature, it is a deep, rich base. Her affections, naturally inclined to something beyond her own sex, are like that honey-suckle whose small tenacious nodes upon the stem attach it firmly to the support on which it grows, and while it looks abroad, keep it, by its voluntary attachment, fast to the door post on which it ran in youth. We have seen instances of a

daughter's love for her father which was equal in strength to any human affection. One of the most interesting images in our recollections of the memoir before us, is, this missionary female, on the highest summit of that goodly mountain,' Lebanon, saying, "It is my father's birth day Were there a Daguerreoscope for moral sketches, we would fix that little incident in a picture of silver.

Let us once more look at her as a sister, in a foreign land.

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"Since returning to our room, I have read a chapter in Martha,' to Mr. Smith-the one containing a description of natural scenery, in which she became much absorbed on a certain evening; and as the writer sat beside her, watching the emotions of her soul depicted in her countenance, she turned to him and exclaimed, Brother! That one word awakened in my breast such powerful and tender associations as to choke my utterance, and I was obliged to stop, and wipe the falling tears before I could proceed. I had so much enjoyment with my own dear brothers, and received from them so much affection and kindness, that my recollections of the fraternal relation are exceedingly touching and unalloyed." p. 285.

"December 24.--In dating a note to Mrs. Dodge, inviting her to meet our other friends here on Christmas day, I am reminded that this is the anniversary of our dear P.'s death. Dear brother! I weep to think of thee as the sweet little child whom I led to school; as the buoyant boy, the college youth, and the gentle and dignified man. In the new heavens and the new earth, I trust we shall unite our hearts and our hands, in the service and in the presence of our divine Redeemer." p. 297.

She who had, in the degree which we have now seen, the most refined feelings of our nature, was doomed to sorrow. In the fall of 1835, the new school-house where she taught was injured by the periodical rain, the walls and floor being literally soaked, and the consequence was, that she took a violent cold which immediately fastened upon her lungs. She continued through the winter of that year, with but little abatement, to discharge her usual duties; but when spring came, she gave symptoms of being seriously diseased. She was advised to give up her labor, and as her husband was about to visit Smyrna on business connected with the press, she concluded to embark with him.

Five days after leaving Beyroot, they met with bad weather, and between 9 and 10 o'clock, the vessel struck upon a reef. This is her description of a part of the scene:

"In the mean time, crash after crash succeeded the first, some of

them exceedingly terrific, threatening the entire and speedy destruction of the vessel. But amid the confusion on deck, I remained calmly upon my seat. From the first moment of danger my mind reverted to the long boat, and some desolate shore; while hope predominated that we should escape with our lives. Presently Mr. Smith again appeared at the cabin door, and called me above. The tossing of the poor broken vessel upon the rocks interfered with the lowering of the boat, while a wave broke over the deck just as I reached it. I spoke not a word; but as I turned towards the place where they were lowering the boat, supported by my anxious husband, the mild rays of the evening star caught my eye, as it was just about to descend below the horizon; and it seemed like the star of hope." p. 337.

The scene of escape from the vessel, the perils and hardships which succeeded, must be read in her own simple and touching language to be fully understood. We cannot withhold the following passage.

"The gentlemen went in search of a resting place for the day, and soon returned, saying that they had found a habitation, to which they invited me to resort. It was a ruined stone building, which appeared to have been used for a stable, by the nomadic Turkmans, during the winter. We had the floor, which was earth, swept and covered with the fresh branches of trees. My bed was spread in the most comfortable part; and as I entered, I can assure you it seemed as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. This was my birth-day; and although in every respect the most sorrowful of any that I had passed, perhaps none ever found me with so many causes for gratitude." p. 342.

Her feelings of kindness to a poor, dissipated, sick, young Englishman, who subjected her, in the boat, and in their rude shelter, to much inconvenience, her attempts to sooth his irritated and despairing mind, her enjoyment of the religious service on the Sabbath in their poor hut, with her black shawl spread on some stones for their common seat, are interesting illustrations of her character under suffering,

Thirty-three days after her embarkation at Beyroot, and twenty-eight from the time of her shipwreck, she arrived at Smyrna. The morning after her arrival she found herself very weak, and retired to her bed. Her husband describes this as a sad hour; the hope of recovery and of further usefulness seemed ready to leave her. The scene between them as they wept together at the thought of her decline, and her feelings towards home, will be read with the deepest sympathy and interest.

Many things in her last sickness, and in her dying scene,

afford unusually fruitful themes of meditation and instruction. A practical English writer and divine, says, “Tell me not how a man dies; show me how he lived." We doubt the truth of this feeling ;-the life and the death of the good are to be considered together, according to that Scrip ture, "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace." It is extremely interesting to know how this truly pious and devoted woman felt when she came to die. Her husband says, in a letter to her parents:

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"Her feelings, when she came now to look at her course as inevitably tending downward to the grave, were far from being such as she wished. The same trait of character, that made the thought of leaving you so painful, made also the anticipation of being taken from her other numerous friends, a source of the most sorrowful feelings. You know how ardent, and how many were the friendships she cherished. When she came to think of their all being rent asunder, she said, much as had been the pleasure she had derived from them, it were almost better to have no friends. But having given you up, the severest pang was over, and as she drew near eternity, other feelings threw a shade over these. She did not love the world in a bad sense; and yet it was evident that death was to a degree taking her unawares; and was occasioning her a most trying disappointment." p. 348.

Two things were forcibly impressed upon our mind in reading this part of Mr. Smith's letter, viz. The perfect naturalness of this grief, and the Christian simplicity and ingenuousness in the narration of it. We are not sure that some would not have chosen to hide this part of our friend's history, perferring to give us only the account of those feelings and remarks which indicate the triumphs of faith. It was a strange satisfaction, we must confess, to know that an individual of the undoubted piety and exalted worth of this beloved woman, had sorrow of heart, when, in spirit, she began to say, "Mine age hast thou removed like a shepherd's tent; thou wilt cut me off with pining sickness." It comes to us like the gentleness of Christ, to know, that as all the children are partakers of flesh and blood,' eminent Christians likewise take part in the same, and that we are permitted, by their experience, to feel, that moderated sorrow, (not murmuring or complaining,) at disappointed hope and the prospect of premature death, may consist with evident tokens of acceptance with God. Is not one book of

the Bible a book of Lamentations? We are always happy to hear that the first intimation of dying is received, by the Christian patient, with composure, much more with pleasure; but we cannot properly regard reluctance at the sacrifice and suffering, incident to early death, as unfavorable to Christian character. It should be remarked here, that all which is said of Mrs. Smith's first feelings in view of her probable decline and death, make the impression of truth and faithfulness in the whole narration of her life and character.

When she had given up the hope of final recovery, a further trial awaited her. Notwithstanding her past eminent devotedness to the cause of Christ, and her sincere religious principles and feelings, and her frequent seasons of high religious enjoyment, the beginning of her last sickness and her expectation of its fatal issue were cheered with no religious comfort. Such facts as these, and they are not unfrequent, show how entirely religious frames are beyond the control of the will, and that, when we may seem to have ensured religious consolation in sickness, by a good life, God is as much a sovereign in bestowing it, as in any of his gifts. We know of nothing which abases man and exalts God more than this, that spiritual comfort is often withheld from the best of Christians in times of need, without an apparent reason. We may say, indeed, as in the case before us, that the violent shock upon the nervous sensibilities occasioned by the sudden discovery that death is inevitable, prevents that calm and quiet state of mind which is necessary to faith and hope. Some proximate cause, no doubt, there always is, in every such case; but the permission of it, and the prevalance of doubt and fear for a season, compels the acknowledgment that God's ways are not as our ways. The individual, as in the present case, may be able to answer every question relating to evidences of piety, in a satisfactory manner, and yet have no ray of hope. One incident is worthy of notice in this connection. Mrs. Smith was interested, at this time, to know how far she might be justified in depending upon past experience for evidence of being a Christian. A remark which fell from her upon this point deserves consideration. She said that ministers were in the habit of warning Christians not to trust to past experience for evidence of personal religion,

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