Mary Tooth

“ Several times after that evening, she said to me, “I am going down the rough walk; this illness has been a long and painful one, but I lean upon the wall of salvation, and the comet will come.” She seemed to be assured, from the time this dream was so impressed p. 32upon her mind, that in an instant of time she should be removed from a state of suffering to an inconceivable blaze of glory, that would as much outweigh every spiritual enjoyment upon earth, as the comet in her sleep outshone the twinkling star. ”

“ Thus did she, whether sick or well, labour for the increase of spirituality in the hearts of the people: her eyes were always heaven-ward, and whether at home or abroad, she was ever endeavouring to draw souls to a closer walk with God. ”

“ O that you would therefore do as Jacob did, be earnest with the Lord, that his love may fill your heart, as the scripture expresses it, the love of God shed abroad in your hearts by the Holy Ghost, given unto you. If you get your hearts full of the love of God, you will find that is the oil by which the lamp of faith will be ever kept burning; love makes all our duty easy ”

“ Some circumstances occurring last summer, which brought to her recollection afresh the solemn season of the opening of her room, 27 years before, she took the paper I have now been copying, and read it to the people; and there is good reason to believe, that our heavenly Father was pleased to make this also, such a season of refreshing to some then present, that they will ever remember it with gratitude: indeed, all her labours of love were, in a peculiar manner, blest of God. ”

“ She would often be crying to God for a blessing upon such and such particular souls; and all her relations, though so far from her in body, were to the last interested in her prayers: she would frequently plead with the Lord, that one day she might meet them all in glory. Ever after December begun, she was much inclined to doze, when the cough and the oppression upon her breath would allow her a degree of ease: this she would complain of, saying, “I lose my time; I want every moment to be spent in prayer or praise.” ”

“ My dearest and best earthly friend,
I have only strength to say, I ask a thousand blessings on you, both soul and body. God will stand by you: He will help you through all. I solemnly commit you into his hands, and He is faithful to keep that we commit unto Him. We shall soon meet above, to part no more. You have been to me p. 54the best of friends, and God will reward you.
I ever remain,
One with you in the Lord,
M. FLETCHER.
The last week of her life she wished to have manifested her love again in this way, but writing had long been very fatiguing to her. ”

“ Many of these times have become seasons of peculiar advantage: my soul has cause to praise the Lord both for her private, social, and public exercises. A paper containing p. 20some short hints for prayer, which I found in a testament that lay by her the last week of her life, I will here insert. She begins, first in the morning, by asking permission to throw herself again at the feet of her most gracious loving Saviour, and to praise him for preserving her from every evil through the night, and for having brought her to another day. ”

“ She has for a long time lived in the spirit of praise, frequently saying, “What blessings has the Lord bestowed upon me! how comfortable has he made me in my old age; p. 30though I am left here, and my dearly beloved husband, and my Sally, my child, in glory, yet I know no lack; for how has the Lord fulfilled that word, given me so many years ago, God will make you a comfortable habitation. [30] And what a comfortable habitation has he made me! all is so suitable, every thing that I want ”

“ I will thoroughly purge away thy dross, and take away thy tin; everlasting life is won, glory is on earth begun.” [34]
One night she spake of finding a powerful application of these words, “I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.” ”

“ She was ever desirous that souls would be looking for great things from the hands of the Lord; frequently saying, “what pity it is that any rest in low attainments, when so much might be gained; has not the Lord said, Ask what you will, and I will do it for you.” This last sentence was one of those sayings of our Divine Master, in which she delighted to the end of her course. I believe there are numbers who cannot forget with what energy she would recommend the wrestling Jacob; and whatever duty she enforced upon the minds of others, she was exemplary in practising herself. ”

“ I answered “Yes:” she then said, “That’s right, now if I can rest I will; but let our hearts be united in prayer, and the Lord bless both thee and me.”
These were the last words her beloved lips uttered; for an hour after this, about one o’clock in the morning of December 9th, the noise her breath had so long made, ceased. I thought, is she dropped asleep? it immediately p. 44came to my mind, “Asleep in Jesus: see a soul escape to bliss.” I went directly to her bed side, where I found the beloved body without the immortal spirit, which had entered the realms of endless day. ”

“ Melville Horne preached from I Kings, chap. ix, ver. 3. “And the Lord said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication that thou hast made before me; I have hallowed this house which thou hast built, to put my name there, and mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually.” He observed how great was our privilege in being so favored with places and opportunities of quietly waiting upon the Lord, and the advantage of sitting under a pure gospel ”

“ Upon such occasions no doubt the worthless have sometimes partaken of her bounty, but never to any considerable amount. She was one of a thousand for economy; always sparing of expense upon herself, that she might have the more to give to the household of faith. ”

“ I wish to give you comfort, when I am taken from you; and to assure you how great a favor I consider your being given to me, in the place of my dear Sally, now in glory. It is often said, God takes nothing from us, but he gives something better in the place; and so p. 50it has been, for though she was the most disinterested and tender friend, yet, in many things you are a still further help than she was able to be. ”

“ All the afternoon she was extremely ill, either hot to a great degree, shivering with cold, or very drowsy.
p. 41But through all, her mouth was full of the loving kindness of the Lord. She said she would not go to bed till after ten o’clock. We always prayed together before we went into the chamber, her breath being so greatly oppressed: she prayed very sweetly, but short, and then said, “Now you call upon the Lord; I can enjoy your prayer, though not able to speak:” I did so, and found an uncommon degree of liberty while pleading the gracious promises made to the people of God. ”

“ Of her I may say, every talent given was duly improved; for she did not spare herself, but her strength, her time, and substance, she cheerfully devoted to the benefit of the souls and bodies of others ”

“ The Lord bless and keep you, and return all your kindness a hundred fold, prays your most faithful
everlasting friend,
M. FLETCHER.
Another of these kind tokens of her love was dated February 11th, 1810, at which time it was thought she would very soon be removed from us, but the gracious Lord had compassion upon his people, and spared her to us for above five years longer: and, O! p. 52how was every year fraught with the fruits of righteousness. Well, she laboured, and while she did so, kept her eye upon the Saviour, whose example
“She tracked, the world she disdain’d. ”

“ I entreated her to let me sit up, repeatedly saying, “Do let me watch with you this one night:” but with all the tenderness imaginable, yet with that degree of firmness which made me unwilling to urge the request further, she said, “Go to bed; you have done all for me you can do, and you know you can be with me in a moment if I want you; but if you sit up, it will p. 43make me uncomfortable: I cannot rest without you go to bed.” I told her I had a few things to do, before I could get into bed ”

“ She had also a troublesome cough, that disturbed her rest at night; and when this was the case, her strength quickly declined. She had had a wound for two years and 3 quarters in one side of her left breast, which was at first supposed to be a cancer; but her sufferings from this were not to be compared with what she suffered from her breath.
Yet, with all that she went through, how did she labour for the good of souls! Many times she has gone to speak to the people, when she has said, “It is like as if every meeting would take away my life, but I’ll speak to them as long as I can ”

“ I shall not exceed the; truth, if I say that none more fully possessed the happy art of leading souls into a close internal walk with God, than she did; being herself so experimentally acquainted with the path of righteousness, she was well qualified to conduct others therein: and as to her own soul, p. ”

“ I long for the salvation of all around us.”
The gardener’s wife has since told me, that when her husband returned home at night, he told her, “he never heard any thing like that morning’s prayer.”
But it was not an uncommon thing for her prayers to be unusually blessed to souls: many have come from far to see her, that she might plead with God in their behalf; some of these, when they have come to her, have been laden with guilt, a heavy load, but our good p. ”

“ I then made up the poor’s account, and found the amount to be 181l 16s. 1d thus liberally had she dispensed abroad. But her desire of communicating comfort to the afflicted, was very extensive: I do not think she ever heard of a person in distress, but, if in her power to do it, she, by some means contrived to send relief. To comfort the distressed, was always a real comfort to her. With regard to this world’s wealth, it was no more to her, than dust in the balance. She has often said, and I am sure with great truth, “Gold is no more to me than dust ”