"His disorder gained ground very fast that day, and I began to be
much alarmed; yet still I thought it would not end in death, but
though severe and dangerous, was sent in answer to my repeated,
earnest prayers to awaken in him a real concern about his eternal
interest, to set the world and its vanities in their true light, and
bring about that entire change of heart which our blessed Lord styles
the new birth, and without which, he says, we cannot enter the kingdom
of heaven.

"It was now become very difficult for him to speak; but by the
motion of his hands and eyes, which were continually lifted up when he
had the smallest respite, I could easily see his thoughts were fixed
on the importance of his situation; besides, many sentences and half
sentences broke from his lips at different times, which left me
without a doubt. 'Farewell,' said he, 'vain world; an idle world it
is, nothing but shadows, and we keep chasing them as children do
bubbles of water, till they break, and we find them nothing but air.'

"Observing this inward recollection, I seldom disturbed him. He
was perfectly acquainted with the truth, and believed it. The
doctrines of religion were often the subject of our conversation, and
in every point of faith we entirely agreed: they only wanted to be
felt and applied to the heart. I remained in silence to my dear
husband, but not to my God: I was incessant in prayer, begging and
beseeching that the Lord himself would carry on what he had so
graciously begun--that he would every way suit himself to his
necessities, and give conviction or consolation, as he saw needful;
but when he spoke I endeavored to answer him from God's own word, as I
was able or assisted. Once he exclaimed, 'Draw me, and I will run
after thee;' at another time, 'Surely thou wilt not allow thy blessed