After this time, Mrs. H. wrote an account of Esther Curphy to Miss T. Her answer was as follows:

"Liverpool, March 11, 1811.

<< My dear friend, I was this morning favoured with your very kind letter, for which accept my kindest thanks; as every thing that relates to my dear Esther is highly interesting to me. I thank our good God, that you are (as you say) where you are, and that you are so graciously disposed to serve my dear Esther and me. I believe, from the first time we saw each other, we affectionately loved each other in the Lord; and love is a bond of union which will not be dissolved by the lapse of time, or by death itself. I am striving to join her happy soul in the praises of our God. I feel a wish to be in her state, or in the happy situation of those who wait upon her. You could not do me a greater kindness than to take down a few of her dying words. I do her only justice, when I say that she always opened her mouth in wisdom, and that the law of kindness was on her lips. I never heard her speak a trifling word; and she always saw the best side of every body and every thing. In a word, ever since I knew her, she was uniformly wise and pious; and I bless my God that I ever knew her. Give my christian love to her, and tell her my soul blesses and praises the Lord for her, and that I wish to have an interest in her prayers; and that I hope soon to join her in the paradise above. The church militant and the church triumphant are but one: they have one source of life and comfort. I would be glad to see her, but I must give up the thought, and strive to live near to God, that I may see her where parting is not known.

M. T."

"I am, my dear Friend, your's, Esther Curphy spent many months in an afflicted state, through pain, coughing, and shortness of breath. In one of her wearisome nights, she cried out, "How long, O Lord! how long!" and bursting into a flood of tears, she said, "I am waiting my Lord's call. It is a sweet time to me; yes, I am my Lord's, and he is mine.

"Tho' nature's strength decay,

And earth and hell withstand;

To Canaan's bounds I urge my way,
At his command.”

At another time, when suffering much, she said, "Rest without toil, ease without pain, and life without death, are in glory. 'A few more rolling suns at most,

Will land me on fair Canaan's coast.'

There I shall sing a song of praise. I thought a while ago, the messenger was come for me. Glory be to my God, he will

come!"

March 25, I visited her. She said, "I am lying here as clay." I said, "You will soon be taken home." She replied, "When the discipline hath answered its end." Last night, (she added) I had a sweet view of the excellence of my Lord's dealings with me, in my lying here, from these words, Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." And with a lively voice, she said, "I am going to glory.

There I shall see his face,

And never, never sin;

There from the rivers of his grace,

Drink endless pleasures in.'"

At another time she said, "Glory be to the Lord for his goodness to me; what should I do now without him? But I long to be with him." After a sore fit of coughing and pain, she felt a little easier, and said, referring to her body, "Surely the bark will not come back again. But thy will be done, blessed Jesus, thy will be done! I have given up my anxious desire to be withi Christ: I leave the time to him.

6

"My Lord gives me to drink a little of the cup he drank of, in my bodily afilictions; but he comforts my mind. Himself drank the bitter cup, and trod the wine-press alone, to bring me to holiness, to bring me to glory. O when will this spirit be freed? My every limb and joint stretches for immortality; but thy will be done. But how welcome would the call be, Come, weary pilgrim home." One time, when I sat by her, she said, Glory, glory be to the name of the Lord, I can say, in the midst of my sufferings, Thy will be done.' Not one hard thought of God passes my mind in my sleepless nights, and afflictive days. I should never have known the power of grace, had I not been in this state of suffering. How doth the Lord support my mind, and keep me in perfect peace!" Once, when I visited her, after speaking a little about her affliction, she said, Why do I name this poor body? I do not want to think or speak a word about it; my all is in heaven." I said, "you must feel it while here." "Yes," she said, "but how am I surrounded with mercies! how hath my God provided for me a nurse, and every outward comfort! how kind is my dear aunt ; we feel an increasing union with each other in Jesus."

66

The last time I saw her, I said, "You have done with the fear of coming back again into the world." "O yes" she said, "I am getting nearer my heavenly home:" and, with her eyes lifted upwards, she added, "I long to be with my Lord. Yes,

I shall

Shout by turns the bursting joy,

And all eternity employ,

In songs around his throne."

While a friend was praying, that the Lord might be with her in the dark valley, she said, "Not dark, there is no darkness in it." And before we rose from our knees, she lifted up her voice, and said, "Praise the Lord! O praise him! praise him!" This was about seven o'clock in the evening, and I expected to have seen her in the morning; but that night, April the 12th, 1811, her happy spirit took its flight to the paradise of God.

Mr. H. preached her funeral sermon to an attentive congregation, from Rev. xiv. 13, "And I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them."

MARY HOLDer.

A SHORT ACCOUNT OF MRS. ELIZABETH TURNER, OF KIRTON.

MRS. TURNER, whose maiden name was Smith, was born at Messingham, in the month of May, 1734. Her father, who was a stone-mason, lost his life by the falling in of a large quantity of earth and stone, in a well. He was drawn out alive, but died soon after, leaving six small children behind him, of whom Mrs. Turner was the eldest but one, being then about ten or eleven years of age. She often made mention of that kind Providence, which cared for her under the loss she had sustained, by the removal of her indulgent father. From her youth, she was graciously preserved from running with the giddy multitude to do evil, and she carefully shunned both evil company, and the vain amusements of the age. When about nineteen years of age, she removed to Kirton; and in 1760, was married to Mr. Joseph Turner, of that place, by whom she had one son, and two daughters.

More than forty years since, Mrs. Turner began to hear the gospel, preached by the Baptists, and under the word she often shed torrents of tears. To persons who never saw the spiritu ality of the divine law, nor felt the plague of their own hearts, her tears of contrition may appear to have been unnecessary, since she had been considered a blameless character by others, and had studied to live a harmless, and, as she thought, a strictly religious life. But, under the ministry of the word, she discovered manifold defects in herself, and learned that she had

"Rested in the outward law,

"Nor" known "its deep design;

"The length and breadth" she "never saw,
"And height of love divine."

VOL. XXXVI. JULY, 1813.

In short, she was stripped of that self-righteous spirit, in which she had long been wrapt up, and became fully sensible, on the one hand, that "by the deeds of the law, there shall be no flesh justified," in the sight of God; and on the other, that "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, to every one that believeth." The following lines are exactly descriptive of her experience at that period:

"Faded my virtuous shew,

"My form without the power;
"The sin-convincing Spirit blew,
"And blasted every flower.

"My mouth was stopp'd, and shame
"Cover'd my guilty face;

"I fell on the atoning Lamb,

"And I was sav'd by grace.'

From the time of her obtaining a divine conviction of her acceptance in the Beloved, she constantly retained it, even to the end of her pilgrimage.

During the time that Messrs. Samuel Woodcock and Jeremiah Brettell, laboured in this part of Lincolnshire, Mrs. Turner, and five or six more, who feared God, invited the Methodist Preachers to visit Kirton; which invitation they accepted, and very soon regular preaching was established there, which has been continued to the present time.

As the preachers preached at first in the open air, they were ill-treated, and the word was received in much affliction; but it prevailed, to the conversion of several souls, in which Mrs. Turner greatly rejoiced; notwithstanding the determined opposition she experienced from her well-intending, but mis-informed husband; who considered it as one of the greatest crosses of his life, that Mrs. Turner was united with the Society of Methodists.

He was accustomed to attend the Established Church, and the Baptist Chapel with her; nor would he have raised any objection to her attending the preaching of the Methodists, had she not joined the Society. Like many others, he did not consider the great advantages resulting from such a religious union, the substance of which is well expressed by St. Paul, in the following words: "Grow up unto him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase in the body, unto the edifying of itself in love," Eph. iv. 15, 16.

It is clear, that wherever the apostles were successful in their labours, they united the believers together, and such sacred associations were called Churches; and I am well satisfied, that it is the duty of all who sincerely desire to live for a better world, to unite themselves closely with that society, or body of Chris

tians which they prefer, as having the purest doctrine and best discipline amongst them. For want of this, thousands, it is probable, make no progress in religion; and others have not the opportunity of having their good desires and intentions fostered, because they stand alone, and have none to help them.

Christian fellowship was peculiarly prized by Mrs. Turner, who steadily attended the means herself, and conformed to the excellent rules of the Methodist Society; and she often expressed her astonishment at the conduct of such, as hastily separated themselves from Christian communion, on the slightest grounds of offence. As the opposition of her husband continued, with little or no abatement, he endeavoured to obtain her promise that she would withdraw herself from the Society. In this he could not succeed, although he so far prevailed, upon one occasion, that she gave her word that she would not stop at the Society-meeting, after the congregation had broken up. Of this she repented, and being convinced that, in matters of conscience, it is better to obey God than man, she formed a resolution never to cringe again; which resolution she never broke. For many years she was an ornament to her Christian profession, adorning the doctrine of God our Saviour, and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost.

Her last affliction was long and painful, during which she often said, "What is this to what my dear Saviour suffered for me!" And then she would repeat the following petition: "By thine agony and bloody sweat; by thy cross and passion; by thy precious death and burial; by thy glorious resurrection and ascension; and by the coming of the Holy Ghost, Good Lord, deliver me." When her pain was very great, she was wont to say, "How long will my Lord delay his coming?" Nor was this the language of impatience; for she would immediately add, "I hope I do not grieve my Lord, by longing to be gone." The truth is, she longed to be dissolved, that she might be with Christ. She was not confined to her bed till near the closing scene; and during the whole time, she displayed the courage of an old Christian veteran.

When the last conflict drew nigh, her daughter-in-law addressed her in some such way as this: "Mother, you have often spoken about the agonies of death, how do you find it with you now?" Mustering up her remaining strength, she exclaimed, in heroic language, "Oh, I stand it bravely; for my Captain is gone before to lead me to certain victory ! Glory be to God !"* These, I believe, were the last words she could articulate, before she entered into the joy of her Lord.

She was a woman of good sense, of sound and deep Christian

* Whatever farce the boastful hero plays,

Virtue alone has majesty in death.

* 3 X 2*