Page viii of the Preface to the [1853] Clarke, Beeton, & Co. Reprint, Version 1

viii
PREFACE.
trials and afflictions, and by kindness and lore. Her utter desolation of heart when she is almost torn from her mother, and tent away up the country to the charge of her aunt. Miss Fortune Emerson, is painfully affecting. We pity the reader whose heart is not touched by the piteous troubles of the poor little desolate child, thrust suddenly out upon the wide wide world, despised, repulsed, and hardly dealt with ; and we wonder not, that with her strength of mind, untamed and unconverted to God ns she is, her proud little heart rebels, and that her impetuous spirit rouses itself not only in self-defence, but in aggression.

How lovely is then the sweet and soothing influence of the youthful and Christian lady, who folds the poor child in her arms and gently wins her over to a better state of mind, and who, with her brother John, points out to her tho Lamb of God which taketh away the tin of the world, ns her compassionate Redeemer and as her faultless Example I And thus, by alow degrees, the power of Christian instruction and tho balm of divine consolation are brought home to the very heart of the wretched and desolate child; and the “still small voice" sweetly whispers within—

•• There is a balsam, or, indeed, a bldod Dropping from Heaven, which doth both cleanse and close All sorts of wounds; of such strange forsee it is.

Seek out this all-heal, and seek no repose.

Until thou find, and use it to thy good."

HERBERT.
The aim and the end of the book is excellent; the teaching by the examples given, truly wise and edifying. It is animated throughout with the spirit of real, healthy, cheerful religion; and the vital influence of that genuine religion is finely set forth, working like a leaven of light, and life, and love, in the hard, cold, ungodly heart of the natural and unconverted character, till the whole is leavened. How lovely is the contrast of Ellen as described with her eyes fixed, and her cheek paled with anger, livid and trembling, her very tears burnt up with rage and passion, feeling as if she could not breathe the air of the house, and