In this state was brought to my remem. brance that text, "The kingdom of heaven "suffereth violence, and the violent take it

by force." My mind was led deeply to consider on an awful eternity, and on the purity that is necessary for the inhabitants of the new Jerusalem. These considerations, with indisposition of body, greatly humbled my mind, with this attendant thought, Perhaps kind Providence is opening the eye of my soul more clear into things of this nature, that I may be prepared for my final change.'

'Second month, 1772. My cousin Jefferys' daughter Katharine was taken ill, and remained so several days. She was a child uncommonly ripe for her age. [Probably not more than four years old.] The sweetness of her disposition was extraordinary, and her patience in sickness, very instructive. I waited much upon her, esteeming it a favour, because of the sweet covering that attended, and particularly so when her innocent spirit departed. I think I never experienced any thing to equal it, on a similar occasion. She died on my lap at which

time divine love, in an uncommon manner, covered my spirit, and boundless Goodness gave me to feel beyond what I can or dare express: being then permitted to behold her rest, and taste her joy, in unutterable bliss; which reverently bowed all within me in awful prostration and thanksgiving before Him who is glorious in holiness, and fearful in praises, and doeth wonders.'*

It

may seem from the manner of her narration to visit the men-friends at the Monthly Meeting of Lavington in the Twelfth Month, 1771, that she then belonged to that meeting. She had probably then become a resident in the family of Edward Jefferys at or near Melksham, which Meeting was a part of Lavington Monthly Meeting; but she was not recommended to it by certificate, as appears by the records of Chippen

* The reader may find something similar to this, in Mary Penington's testimony to her husband, prefixed to I. P's works.

ham Monthly Meeting, until the Third Month, 1772. There were then three Monthly Meetings in Wiltshire; but a different arrangement has since taken place; and all the meetings in the northern part of the county are united in one Monthly Meeting called Wiltshire Monthly Meeting. The Friends in the southern parts of it have been connected with those of Hampshire.

D. 2

Visit to Wales, Cheshire, Lancashire, &c.-to Dorset, Hants, London, &c.-Dorset and Somerset-Circular Meeting-London-family visit in Wilts-Devonshire and Cornwallindisposition, and exercise-family visits in London-in Bristol-extract from a versified address.

IN the Fifth Month, 1772, Sarah Stephenson obtained the certificate of her Monthly Meeting, for the purpose of paying a religious visit to Friends in Wales, Cheshire, Lancashire, and some adjacent counties. In this journey she had a companion, but she has omitted to mention her name. In the course of it, she was again employed in the weighty service of visiting families, namely those of Lancaster, and her relation William Dillworth of that town, a friend in the ministry already mentioned, bore her company in that engagement. She

returned her certificate in the Eleventh Month, the same year, and acknowledged that she had been favoured with divine regard in the visit, and that she had peace and satisfaction in giving herself up to the service.

The next year there are not any traces of her having been exercised in travelling, until the Eighth Month; when she laid before her Monthly Meeting her concern to visit Friends in Dorset, Hants, London, Essex, and adjacent places. Having obtained the concurrence of the Meeting, she set forward on her journey, and was soon engaged in a family visit among the friends at Shaftsbury, Dorset. Her engagements of this kind did not finish here; she was alike employed at Witham and Colchester, in Essex, and at Norwich; and she visited meetings in Dorset, part of Hants, Essex, Norfolk, and part of Suffolk. She returned by London, and through a part of Oxfordshire; and on giving up her certificate in the Third Month, 1774, expressed her great satisfaction.

In 1774 also, she accompanied Jane Ship