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A Christian Mother; Memoirs of Mrs. [c.] Thornley Smith
A Christian Mother Memoirs of Mrs Thornley Smith - c. Author:Thornley Smith General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1885 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: II. A NEW BEGINNING. " Sail forth into the sea oflife, O gentle, loving, trusting wife, And safe from all adversity Upon the bosom of that sea Thy comings and thy goings be ! " Longfellow. " I RUTH is strange -- stranger than fiction, said -- the poet Byron. Fiction is strange enough, for the writers of it try to make it so ; but truth is also strange, and there are facts in the lives of very many which are so strange that one may see in them a providence, wise and good, by which they are ordered, above all human plans. I might say much that would seem romantic, but I am not given to romance, and will state only the sober facts. I saw and loved Miss Stephens, when a student at Hoxton in the year 1838; and I hoped that she would then have become my wife. But I was designated for South Africa, and as she had but recently recovered from a serious illness her friends feared that she would not stand the hardships of missionary life. Imarried another, who proved to me a true helpmeet, but whose health failed during the Kafir War of 1846, who died at sea, and was buried in the deep waters, leaving me with three little children, too young to know anything of their loss. On my arrival in England, I found Miss Stephens unmarried ; our attachment was renewed ; and on the 4th of April, 1848, we were united, in Spitalfields Chapel, by the late Rev. P. Duncan. We took no trip to the Continent, but went direct to Dartford, in the Gravesend circuit, where I was then residing; and as we steamed down the Thames to Erith the sun shone brightly on our heads, and our hearts were rilled with gratitude and pra...« less