CITY-ROAD MAGAZINE.

DECEMBER, 1876.

MEMORIAL SKETCH OF MRS. DAY, OF YORK.

RESPONSIBILITY attaches to memoir writing. His work, who attempts it, is to present a mirrored image of the subject of his sketch, with its appertaining blemishes and excellencies. For it is assumed that no human being is "without blemish," even when "without spot." The distinction intended is the difference between what may be constitutional, or, in any way, involuntary, and what is moral or self-determined. The highest order of saints may have blemishes, more or less conspicuous, which lessen the satisfaction with which we look at the character, even when there is no spot to soil its moral purity.

It is for want of making this just discrimination that those who “walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us," are often misjudged. Force of character serves but to make the supposed blemish the more apparent, especially when that force is due rather to the sensibility than to the intelligence. Mr. Wesley, in illustrating the infirmity which is consistent with Christian perfection, instances the false estimate which one may form of the character of other Christians, either above or below the line of truth; the wrong judgment leading to a corresponding wrong conduct towards the misconceived persons, a view reconcilable with Christian perfection, on the understanding that the latter contains elements exclusively and strictly moral as the offspring of voluntary agency. But as the verdicts above supposed are involuntary aberrations of the intelligence having, as such, no moral character, they leave the moral worth of the person unaffected.

Spotlessness as thus defined may be claimed for the venerable subject of this Memoir; while the existence of the blemish may also be admitted. Wrong constructions of the intellect she was liable to. Those who best knew her are, however, best convinced that her heart knew no deviation from the sternest rectitude. Indeed the very blemish thus hinted at arose from her intense hatred to evil. And so long as ceaseless intercourse with God, self-sacrificing and untiring service done to mankind for Christ's sake, and burning zeal for the glory of God, may be regarded as evidences of holiness, nothing is risked in claiming for the memory of Mrs. Day a place of no mean order among "the saints of the Most High."

VOL. VI. FIRST SERIES.

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She was reared amidst the advantages of a godly home. Her father, the Rev. Lawrence Kane, was an Irish Wesleyan-Methodist minister, who began his itinerant labours in the sister kingdom while the renowned Founder of Methodism yet lived. Mr. Kane was, however, according to the custom of that period, removed to England and laboured in many English Circuits.

Both in her physique and general character Mrs. Day betrayed her Celtic origin. It was apparent in her strong facial outline, high cheekbones, swarthy complexion, and dark eyes, with their gleams of fire, as well as in her quick, fervid, eager utterance. The strength and inflammability of her feelings, which, as the medium of Divine grace, gave to her religion a marked ardour, as well as a capacity for high spiritual enjoyment, she also drew from the same source. In national types and temperaments, as in other things, we have variety in unity: an arrangement of that One Creative Spirit Who "worketh all in all," full of beauty and mutual helpfulness.

MRS. DAY was not, however, a native of Ireland. She was born at Redruth, on the 28th of November, 1794, and reared and trained on English ground. Before little Mary made her appearance many such bestowments from the hand of Providence had come to her parents. She was the youngest child but one, of a numerous family. Her strength of character, it seems, revealed itself in early life-giving her parents, according to her own account, no little trouble. As self-portrayed, the child was volatile, proud and independent; dispositions which would awaken no small anxiety in a Methodist preacher's home. We are not surprised, nevertheless, to learn that co-existent with these were strong religious convictions and tendencies. These, when Mary Kane was about six years of age, received a sudden, and alas! temporary, accession from a powerful sermon delivered by the celebrated Rev. William Edward Miller, then her father's colleague at Nottingham. Falling into the error of concealing her feelings, she soon sank back to her former level. About three years later the child became possessed of a passionate attachment to Holy Scripture, listening to its lessons, both in family devotion and in public worship, with rapt attention and delight. Retiring into secret, Bible in hand, she would endeavour by a re-perusal of the Sacred Word to experience over again the happiness already felt. Thus though but a child she could express herself in the language of David concerning the "testimonies "of the Lord: "More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb." And yet while she thus "tasted the good Word of God," and relished it, she was not "a new creature" in Christ Jesus. Nevertheless there must have been in her "some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel." She had an awakened conscience, and the torpor of indifference did not belong to her nature. For about this period, during an illness, lying awake in the

night, she heard the clock strike two, and instantly the thought rushed upon her with alarming effect-" And a sinner still! Rising, she threw herself upon her knees and cried to God for mercy, and failing to obtain comfort, went to her father, begging him to intercede for her with God. Her father's prayer brought her some mental relief, which, however, was not of long continuance: mingling with unsuitable companions, she soon lost it.

nate.

The selection of a school in her case appears to have been unfortuMiss Mary Kane, according to her own account, was at the end of her school career much changed in spirit, and alas! for the worse: she brought home with her an impatience of religious restraint, an aversion from the religious observances of a minister's home, and a passion for novel reading—a poor substitute for that thirst for the Word of God which marked her a few years before. Her fondness for novels had, apart from the directly pernicious effect of irreligious books, another morally hurtful result, arising from the deception involved in a clandestine perusal of books placed in the Index Expurgatorius of the family.

We may be sure that Mary Kane's life at this time was anything but happy. There was a bitter strife within: "the spirit" and "the flesh" in active conflict; the enlightened intelligence, in the mandates of conscience, enjoining submission and consecration to God, the depraved sensibility, in its love of selfish gratification, resisting. And so long as the Will sided with the latter against God there was self-accusation, selfreproach and misery. We are, therefore, not surprised to learn from her that, amid her worldly pleasures, (which, however, under such a pious surveillance as hers, could not, we may suppose, be of a very gross kind,) she was miserable; and pursued by the thought that she was unfit for heaven, she was often constrained to cry to God for mercy.

One morning towards the close of 1813, Mary Kane being now in her nineteenth year, her father, in conducting family worship, was led to pray with unusual fervour and tenderness for the salvation of his unconverted children. The distress of his daughter Mary's mind under this prayer was agonizing. As soon as prayer was over she hastened out of the room, vainly endeavouring to conceal her tears. Her father observing her emotion followed her, and affectionately taking her apart, talked and prayed with her, not without good effect. Happy parent, whose ministrations at the family altar thus become the means of awakening and conviction to his child! That was an eventful day to our late friend; not the day of her espousals to the Lord, yet "the beginning of the end" of a worldly and unhappy life. On that day she was brought to a deliberate sacrifice of what had hitherto stood in the way of her acceptance of Christ. Her redemption was drawing nigh.

On Christmas Day, 1813, she was in the house of God, and while the congregation were singing the last hymn in the service the awakened