Isolated as was the life she lived at Hoxton, Mary Bosanquet was not
wholly severed from her parents. At intervals her father would drive
up in his carriage, bringing her some present and renewing his
persuasions to her to live at home upon the terms of spiritual silence
on which he had previously insisted. But though, to all appearance
peculiarly alone, the two years spent in her solitary lodging was a
time of the richest blessing, during which she entered into such
communion with God as influenced the whole of her after-life.

An almost curious sensitiveness to the sorrows and needs of men so
possessed her that all consideration of self or repining at her
condition was entirely shut out, and with this insight into the woe of
the world came a wonderful baptism of Divine love. God became all in
all to her soul, and she lived in the spirit of Gerhardt's inspired
hymn:--

Oh, grant that nothing in my soul
May dwell but Thy pure love alone;
Oh, may Thy love possess me whole,
My joy, my treasure, and my crown!
Strange flames far from my heart remove,
My every act, word, thought, be LOVE!

It was inevitable that her Methodist friends should suggest to her a
less lonely life; some of them, indeed, went so far as to speak of her
in connection with Mr. Fletcher.