The Power of Faith: Exemplified In The Life And Writings Of The Late Mrs. Isabella Graham.Graham, Isabella
Religion
The Power of Faith: Exemplified In The Life And Writings Of The Late Mrs. Isabella Graham.
Graham, Isabella
Christian biography; Graham, Isabella, 1742-1814
"There the poet must stop: thus far the natural mind, richly
endowed with human powers, can go and trace a God of power, wisdom,
and beneficence: O that thou hadst had eyes to see, and discern what
flesh and blood could never reach; that all these glories dwindle into
tapers, when compared with Jehovah manifested in the face of Jesus
Christ. Every star, every tree, all vegetating, bursting, blooming
life, answer the end of their creation, manifesting his glory as thou
sayest; but can they tell thee how this God can be just, and yet
justify those who have rebelled against all his attributes; torturing
even his fair and beautiful creation, and bringing it into subjection
to their lusts, as thou hast well sung; murmuring at, and rebelling
against his dispensations in providence; hardening themselves against
his government; perverting every good to their own misery, and
imbibing wretchedness from means of blessedness? Can all that thou
hast sung bring into congeniality perfection of wickedness and
perfection of holiness, perfection of wretchedness and perfection of
happiness, perfect opposition in nature and principle? Here thy song
stops short. Thou seest the evils and the misery; thou hast a glimpse
of an opposite good, but all means proposed by thee ever have proved,
and ever will prove inadequate to the attainment of it: the very
attributes of a just and holy God oppose it: heaven and earth must
stand amazed at the declaration that God would justify the ungodly."
In the month of September, 1798, Mrs. Graham's daughter Isabella
was married to Mr. Andrew Smith, merchant, then of New York. Her
family being thus settled to her satisfaction, and her health not
good, she was prevailed upon to retire from her school, and to live
with her children.
During the prevalence of the yellow-fever in 1798, it was with
much difficulty Mrs. Graham was dissuaded from going into the city to
attend on the sick: the fear of involving her children in the same
calamity, in the event of her being attacked by the fever, was the
chief reason of her acquiescing in their wish to prevent so hazardous
an undertaking. During the subsequent winter she was indefatigable in
her attentions to the poor, she exerted herself to procure work for
her widows, and occupied much of her time in cutting it out and
preparing it for them. The managers of the Widows' Society had each a
separate district; and Mrs. Graham, as first Directress, had a general
superintendence of the whole. She was so happy in the execution of her
trust, as to acquire the respect and confidence of the ladies who
acted with her, as well as the affections of the poor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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