Memoirs of Mr. James Mallabone and Miss Mary Ann Mallabone, with Extracts from Her Diary and Letters (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1823 Excerpt: ... f the employment of her retired moments. She was often thus engaged; and of all the privileges which she enjoyed on earth, it appears to have been that which most deeply interested her. When she could get near to God, and freely converse with him, she was happy; but when it was otherwise she lamented his absence, and expressed the most fervent desires after him. In these circumstances, we find her saying, " I could gladly suffer any affliction, were it the means of bringing me near to God. Why is my heart so far from thee, My God, my chief delight? Why are my thoughts no more by day With thee, no more by night 1" It may reasonably be supposed, that Miss Mallabone would feel no great attachment to the world. Habituated to retirement, and to converse with divine things, she could find no charms in the pursuits, the pleasures, or the society of worldly persons. She lived indeed above the world, and drew her choicest consolations, and her sweetest enjoyments from sources, to which the generality of persons are strangers. The world was by no means essential to her happiness. Viewing it through the medium of the sacred scriptures, and with a mind illuminated by the Holy Spirit, she saw its emptiness, and the extreme folly of those who seek it as their happiness. "Every thing in the world," she says, " appears to me as vanity, and far beneath the concerns of my never dying soul. Perhaps, a few more years may witness the dissolving of nature, and the vengeance of God executed upon the children of disobedience. O that men would consider their latter end If they did but know what will be the inevitable doom of all impenitent sinners--or especially, if they knew a Saviour's love--bad tasted of his preciousness, and knew what satisfaction is brought to the mind from rec...