How evidently to us, though unconsciously to herself, was her Heavenly
Father thus fitting her for the work he was preparing for her. Had she
known that she was to spend her days in instructing bigoted and captious
idolaters in religious knowledge, she could not have trained herself for
the task more wisely than she was thus led to do.

While, under the guidance of the Spirit of truth, she was thus
cultivating her intellect, that same Spirit was also sanctifying and
purifying her heart. She loathed sin both in herself and others, and
strove to avoid it, not from the fear of hell, but from fear of
displeasing her Father in heaven.

In one place she writes: "Were it left to myself whether to follow the
vanities of the world, and go to heaven at last, or to live a religious
life, have trials with sin and temptation, and sometimes enjoy the light
of God's reconciled countenance, I should not hesitate a moment in
choosing the latter, for there is no real satisfaction in the enjoyments
of time and sense."

On the fourteenth of August, 1806, she made a public profession of
religion, and united with the Congregational church at Bradford, being
in her seventeenth year.

Very early in her religious life she became sensible that if unusual
advantages for acquiring knowledge had fallen to her lot, she was the
more bound to use her talents and acquirements for the benefit of others
less favored than herself. Actuated by such motives, she opened a small
school in her native place, and subsequently taught in several
neighboring villages. Her example in this respect is surely worthy of
imitation. Perhaps no person is more admirable than a young lady fitted