in her heart. She had settled the question of submission to her Maker, and
began to seek Him with purpose of heart, resolved to confess and forsake
her sins and seek pardon and peace in Jesus Christ. Still, as to several of
the counsels of her new religious instructors she was undecided, because
not yet convinced. They advised her to seek the Lord "by prayer and
supplication." To "ask," to "knock," to "call upon Him," and especially to
"cry unto the Lord with her voice." But she had been taught from infancy
that "none but the elect should pray; nor even they until regenerated by
sovereign grace;" and that "no woman should pray or speak in a public
assembly." But a heart overwhelmed with a crushing sense of sin at length
broke out, almost against her decision, and cried, "God be merciful to me
a sinner!" and such hope of relief sprang up while she prayed as to settle
the question of prayer; and thence on for weeks all the relief she found
was in prayer and confession; a few crumbs of comfort to encourage her to
persevere in seeking; for she began to wonder why she had not found peace,
when she had sought so long and tried to give up all for Christ.

One day, in the retirement of her room, her mirror revealed a gayety of
apparel that struck her as unsuitable for a poor, guilty sinner. The
fashions of that day were very profuse in ornamentation; and as she saw
herself in the glass, her eyes red and heavy with weeping, and yet her
attire as gay and vain as if prepared for a ball, she felt sure that her
mode of dress had all this time been a hindrance to her; and she then and
there concluded to reduce all to plainness, much like the people who had
led her to penitence. The pride of dress and equipage seemed now to be
about the last idol to give up, and, all of her own counsel, she did the
work very thoroughly; and as to her abundant jewelry, the result of her
spontaneous zeal was rather ludicrous. "Determined that it should never
prove a snare to any other poor soul as it had to her," she passed it all
under the hammer until there was nothing left but unseemly lumps of gold