Memoirs of Mrs. Hawkes, late of Islington. By Catharine Cecil [pp. 239-271]

AlOemoirs of 1la's. Hawkes.
an insight and understanding of the Scriptures such as no commentator upon
earth can give. Then you will not only understand it, but lay hold of it.
" Daily observe regular, stated times, for retirement. Let reading, prayer,
and meditation, have each their place: each is of importance. Take a verse of
Scripture at a time, ponder over it; examine it in its connexion-referencebearing; try what you can get out of it. Where a preacher might draw many
inferences, you may perhaps be able to draw but one or two; but if you persevere, you will every day get more and more from your Bible. If you should
find these stated periods sometimes formal and heavy-yet go on-do not be
discouraged-you will, upon the whole, obtain much benefit: for whoever
makes a serious inquiry after religion, will always meet with an answer from
the gospel.
"Ques. Respecting withdrawment from the world.
".//ns. Christian courage does not consist in a disposition to retire from the
world in absolute solitude; but in mixing with it, and yet living above it; in
being in the world, but not of it; in making a bold stand for Christ; being as
the salt of the earth. Yet retirement, at certain seasons, should be secured. We
should endeavour to preserve such a spirit in society as to make us relish retirement; and so improve retirement, as to make us useful to society. Our troubles
arise not from our living in the world, but from the world living in us. One
part of the world is that of inordinately coveting the praise of our fellowcreatures.
"Endeavour to go into the world, as far as you are called so to do, putting
honour upon your Christian profession; and if any ask you a reason of the
hope that is in you, tell them meekly,' It is the blood of sprinkling.'"
Although the subject of Mrs. Hawkes' domestic difficulties
is frequently alluded to; yet nothing more than brief hints are
given, as to the nature of these trials. It seems sufficiently
evident, however, that she was united to a man who was not
only irreligious, but unkind: and from her censures of herself for not possessing more self-command and exercising more uncomplaining meekness, we may infer, that his
conversation was, at times, not only harsh, but reproachful
and irritating. This is undoubtedly a delicate subject to be
brought before the public; and many will think had better
been covered with the veil of oblivion; but it is evident, that
without some reference to these domestic trials, many of her
religious exercises cannot be well understood. The condition
of a pious, sensible, and refined female, who is subjected to
the dominion and unkindness of a proud and unfeeling man,
whose ingenuity is exerted to render the anguish of her
whom he is bound to love and cherish, more poignant, is to
a mind of exquisite delicacy, one of the bitterest cups of
affliction, to which human nature is subject, in this vale of
tears. It is a distress, the more intolerable, because it admits
of none of the usual alleviations, from giving vent to sorrows, and experiencing the tender sympathy of friends; for
this is a grief which commonly must remain locked up in
the breast of the innocent sufferer. It must be a rare case,
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