Elizabeth Payson was born "about three o'clock"--so her father records
it--on Tuesday afternoon, October 26, 1818. She was the fifth of eight
children, two of whom died in infancy. All good influences seem to have
encircled her natal hour. In a letter to his mother, dated October 27,
Dr Payson enumerates six special mercies, by which the happy event had
been crowned. One of them was the gratification of the mother's "wish
for a daughter rather than a son." Another was God's goodness to him
in sparing both the mother and the child in spite of his fear that he
should lose them. This fear, strangely enough, was occasioned by the
unusual religious peace and comfort which he had been enjoying. He had
a presentiment that in this way God was forearming him for some
extraordinary trial; and the loss of his wife seemed to him most likely
to be that trial. "God has been so gracious to me in spiritual things,
that I thought He was preparing me for Louisa's death. Indeed it may be
so still, and if so His will be done. Let Him take all--and if He leaves
us Himself we still have all and abound." The next day he writes:

Still God is kind to us. Louisa and the babe continue as well as we
could desire. Truly, my cup runs over with blessings. I can still
scarcely help thinking that God is preparing me for some severe trial;
but if He will grant me His presence as He does now, no trial can seem
severe. Oh, could I now drop the body, I would stand and cry to all
eternity without being weary: God is holy, God is just, God is good;
God is wise and faithful and true. Either of His perfections alone is
sufficient to furnish matter for an eternal, unwearied song. Could I
sing upon paper I should break forth into singing, for day and night I
can do nothing but sing "Let the saints be joyful," etc., etc. But I
must close. I can not send so much love and thankfulness to my parents
as they deserve. My present happiness, all my happiness I ascribe under