with me and mine have not been common; add this wonder to the rest:
call, convert, regenerate, and establish a sailor in the faith. Lord,
all things are possible with thee: glorify thy Son, and extend his
kingdom by sea and land; take the prey from the strong. I roll him
over upon thee. Many friends try to comfort me; miserable comforters
are they all. Thou art the God of consolation; only confirm to me thy
gracious word, on which thou causedst me to hope in the day when thou
saidst to me, 'Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them
alive.' Only let this life be a spiritual life, and I put a blank in
thy hand as to all temporal things. 'I wait for thy salvation.' Amen."


Three months afterwards she learned that a press-gang had boarded
the ship in which her son was, and although he was saved from their
grasp by a stratagem of the passengers, yet all his effects were taken
away from him. In the following reflections on this event, the anxious
mother shows that she would not withdraw the blank she had put into
her Redeemer's hands.


"NEW YORK, August 18, 1791.

"Thus far the Lord hath tried me, and kept me to my choice.
This night I have tidings, through a letter to Dr. Mason, that my
son has been seized by the press-gang. Through God's help, he
escaped; but all his assortment of necessaries that his sisters and
I made up with so much care, labor, and expense, they have carried
off, and he is once more left naked. Satan and a corrupt heart unite
in tempting me to complain. Dare I utter a word or harbor a
murmuring thought? Would I withdraw the blank I have put into the