Elizabeth and her sister were now thrown on their own resources. Their father’s house was sold for the benefit of his family. After their removal, they kept a school. This flourished, and it was a great benefit, as far as it went, in the parish, being conducted with so much good order and Christian feeling. But after a time, the noise of the children became unbearable to Elizabeth, and obliged her sister to give it up, and to turn to other means of support. Elizabeth’s mind, as appears from her Journal, was all this time gradually growing in grace. The habits of their little family were very regular. The two sisters read three or four verses, and prayed together every morning, in addition to the usual family prayer with their brother, who lived with them. Elizabeth’s chief infirmity was a proneness to be hurt by unkindness or neglect; this she tried to conquer, and through Divine Grace, succeeded to a great degree. She had always been careful of her money, feeling how needful it might be to her in her weakly state of health. At the time of her death she had a small sum in the savings bank; but she was alive to the snare of covetousness. She used to say, what shall we give? She subscribed to the Missionary and the Jewish Society, and originated a little Bible Society collection: but she also felt the duty of denying herself, that she might save something more for these works of charity. She was constantly diligent, and during the last winter of her life she read the Scriptures a great deal, and grew proportionally in grace. She was regular in her attendance at the different meetings, being generally accompanied by a friend in somewhat similar circumstances of life, who was attached to our communion. But nothing more marked her character than a holy, humble, simple, unpretending walk, carrying about with her, I may truly say, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. She repeatedly wrote in her Journal during the last year of her life. Her observations were chiefly founded on sermons which she had heard, and which she applied to herself. There was not one observation in them of a carping critical character. But what she received she sought to turn to the best profit, and to obtain from it growth in grace. Speaking of the sermon of a young Minister among us, she was struck with his appeal for decision in religion, on the ground of the uncertainty of life. ‘O,’ she adds, ‘how he warned and exhorted the young to decide for God, that they might obtain pardon and peace here, and happiness in the world to come.’ She concludes her account of another sermon. ‘Help me, O Lord, to watch always, that I sin not against Thee, and help me so to pray, that the enemy may flee before me:’ and again, ‘Help me, blessed Lord, to be daily growing in holiness, humility, and love, that I may feel in every trial, and temptation, thou art my Rock and Defence.’ As the summary of one week, she says, ‘I have felt my soul decay in the last week.