Women -- Biography; Women -- Social and moral questions
Yet weeping is a mighty thing. Our Saviour
never fell into sentimentalism or affectation, but His great soul ran
over His eyes when on earth; and it would do the same if He dwelt with
us now. Christianity excites the deepest emotion, and wakes up all the
tumultuous feelings of the soul. Christianity is in harmony with your
social nature. It takes your state under its auspices; and its tendency
is, by its laws and influences, directly or indirectly, to etherealize
the affections of the family, to ennoble the love of country, and to
inflame all the enthusiasms which point to the good and glory of the
race. Christianity is adapted to you as a suffering being. Trials are
ill to bear. They are not “joyous, but grievous.” Yet he who believes
that all things work together for good, will thank God for medicine as
well as for food; and for the winter that kills the weeds, as well as
for the summer that ripens the fields. Christianity is in harmony with
your immortal nature. You are full of “thoughts that wander through
eternity;” and Christianity establishes the truth of a future
state—secures its glory—prepares for its enjoyment. It makes the hope
of heaven a guiding principle in life, adapting its disclosures and
descriptions of the future inheritance to the varied circumstances of
the present. What a religion this!—it is the power of God, and the
wisdom of God. “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?”
_BIOGRAPHY._
Fidelia Fiske was born on the 1st May, 1816, at Shelburne; a decayed
town in Nova Scotia. Her father, a man of noble form, benignant face,
and saintly character, who lived to the patriarchal age of ninety-two;
was descended of ancestors who had emigrated from England to America.
Her mother was a woman of great activity and equability; a native of
Taunton, Massachusetts. This colony took its name from the circumstance
that it was founded by a number of Christian men and women, who went
forth from St. Mary Magdalene church, Taunton, Somerset, in the days of
Archbishop Laud. The home of her childhood was a plain one-storey
farmhouse, the large family room of which served as kitchen, nursery,
dining and sitting room. In that mountain-home life was quiet and
simple, yet by no means dull and monotonous. Around the blazing fire
the little circle gathered every evening, while sewing, knitting,
reading, and story-telling filled up the swift hours; till at length
the great Bible was brought forth, a chapter read, and a fervent prayer
offered. At early dawn they renewed their peaceful pursuits, amid the
ceaseless and ever-varying voices of nature. As a child, Fidelia was
unusually thoughtful and observing. She always weighed consequences,
and nothing could escape her notice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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