THE

MORNING OF LIFE:

A Memoir of Miss A-n,

WHO WAS EDUCATED FOR A NUN.

WITH

MANY INTERESTING PARTICULARS CONCERNING

DR. DOYLE.

NEW EDITION.

A. S. ROUSE,

15 & 16, PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON, E. C.

1895.

270x49 D

3047

PREFACE.

THE writer of this little memorial was deeply attached, by the bonds of close friendship, to her of whom it speaks. Yet is she fully persuaded that the true object of a memoir, though of one so beloved, is not to pour forth the expression of an individual affection, in which the public is not interested; nor yet is it to raise a monumental panegyric of one whose name is assuredly written in heaven, and who desired no vain record upon earth. Such a memorial should simply consist of those passages which may prove useful to others. And, in that view, how would the treasury of the living temple, the Church, be enriched, were each one but with a willing heart to cast in his mite of spiritual

experience his own individual mite of that coin of the sanctuary which bears the stamp and superscription of the great King.

That, then, which the writer considers as constituting the value of this little memorial is, emphatically, its truth.

Truth of fact, or a true relation of the providential dealings of God, both in its record of outward events, and in the inward teaching of His Spirit.

Truth in principle, inasmuch as it unfolds those gospel doctrines which that inward and outward training were the means of developing, and in which they both centred, as their genuine and ultimate result.

And, lastly, truth in practice, inasmuch as it is intended, in portraying her life, to set forth some of those fruits of righteousness which must germinate from those blessed gospel principles, when received and kept in the good ground of a heart prepared of God-even a heart looking unto Jesus, keeping the seed of His written and living Word, and which, con

tinually watered by the dews from above, cannot but produce a rich and abundant increase.

Allusion has been made to her attending the Presbyterian Kirk, but she never formally joined it, or any other body of Christians. After leaving the Church of Rome she was sadly grieved and puzzled by the distracted state of Protestantism. Her mind wavered for a long time between the Episcopalian and Presbyterian forms of church government, not knowing to which to give the preference. But when the writer knew her, she possessed a truly Catholic spirit, feeling herself a member of the whole Church of God; rejoicing to hold spiritual intercourse with any of God's children; losing sight of their minor differences of opinion in the one grand reality that they were all members of the body of Christ, and that, however they may be divided on earth, they will be one in heaven, and will all compose His bride.

M. M. C. M.