overruling, superintending Providence; but after commencing the practice
of dancing, and beginning to attend schools where this vain practice was
learned, she neglected the Bible, and thought but little of the place of
prayer. She found, after retiring at evening from the gay and fascinating
scenes of the dancing room, that prayer and meditation were dull and
tedious exercises, and concluded to give them up. Closing the Bible, she
laid it aside, and let it gather dust upon the shelf, while vain and
trifling volumes engaged her attention. The door of her closet was closed,
and she entered it not; and all thoughts of God were banished from her
mind, while the world employed all her time. But God, who orders all
things, was about to perform on her heart a work of mercy and grace. She
was a chosen vessel to bear the name of Jesus to a land of darkness and
despair.

When about thirteen years of age, she was sent by her parents to the
Academy at Bradford, to receive a systematic course of instruction. Shortly
after this a revival of religion commenced, and spread through the school,
and many were converted. The attention of Miss Atwood was arrested and
turned from vanity. "Must I be born again?" was the searching question
which she put to her own heart. The answer came to her, and she began to
seek the Savior. She seems not to have had deep conviction; her mind,
though agitated, was not overwhelmed, and the subject was contemplated
calmly. At length, with the melancholy fact that she was a sinner, and
endless condemnation before her, she was pointed to the cross of Christ.
The view was effectual. Jesus appeared the Savior of sinners, of whom she
was one, and faith gladly laid hold on him as the way of escape from an
awful death. A wonderful change took place: she lost her love of folly and
sin; prayer was sweet again; the Bible was drawn from its resting-place and
perused with new pleasure; from both Bible and closet she derived pleasure
such as she had never before experienced; and she passed from a state of