OF MISS MARY JANE GRAHAM, LATE OF STOKE FLEMING, DEVON. BY THE REV. CHARLES BRIDGES, M. A. VICAR OF OLD NEWTON, SUFFOLK. PUBLISHED BY R. B. SEELEY AND W. BURNSIDE: MDCCCXXXII. PREFACE. THE Writer did not enjoy the privilege of personal acquaintance with the subject of this Memoir. But when the materials, both of incident and manuscripts, were placed in his hands, he could not but feel that many subjects of valuable interest and importance might be brought out with advantage to the church. He has been constrained to compensate for the paucity of incident by the introduction of large extracts from her writings and correspondence, which, however, will be often found to afford instructive developements of the character of her mind, and the principles of her Christian profession. If he should be thought, by the extension of his own remarks, to have occasionally transgressed the bounds of a biographer, he can only cast himself upon the indulgence of his Readers, in the exercise of his Christian responsibility, in availing himself of this opportunity to offer a few suggestions of Christian love upon subjects of present and most anxious interest in the church of God. Such as his work is, the Writer desires to commend it to the blessing of the Great Head of the church, trusting that the example of highly-gifted and consecrated character here set forth, may reflect the glory of His adorable name, and quicken the energies of those who bear that name upon their profession, to aspire to a more elevated standard of Christian devotedness and privilege. Old Newton Vicarage, |