THEIR AUTHORS AND ORIGIN. LZ\)
her death, in order to assist her in her widely extended work, the " Connexion" was founded which continues to bear her name. It had not been the intention of the countess to leave the Established Church, but the ecclesiastical proceedings taken against her ministers rendered it necessary. The countess died as she had lived. Almost her last words were: " My work is done : I have nothing to do but to go to my Father." She died on the 17th of June, 1791, in her eighty-fourth year, at her house in Spa-fields, next to the chapel, The number of eminent ministers she associated with and assisted during her long life was remarkable. Several of them were hymn-writers In the list we find Watts, Wesley, Whitefield, Haweis, Rowland Hill and Hervey, Doddridge, Toplady and Eomaine, Berridge, Ingham, Shirley, Perronet, De Courcy, and Fletcher of Madeley. At the time of her death there were more than sixty chapels in her " Connexion." Its legal form is a trust-deed bequeathing the chapels. The first four trustees were Dr. and Mrs. Haweis, Lady Ann Erskine, and Mr. Lloyd.
In 17G4, the countess published her first collection of hymns. It is taken from the works of others, and consists of one hundred and seventy-nine hymns We give a part of the preface as illustrative of her earnestness and force of character. She says :
"And now, reader, it is neither your approbation of these hymns nor the objections you can make to them that is the material point ; you are a creature of a day, and your heart, with trembling, often tells you this truth. Look well, then, for a refuge from the sins of your life past, and from the just fears of death and judgment fast approaching. This is the grand point which lieth altogether between God and thy own soul. And be assured that nothing can bring comfort in life or death to thee a sinner (and such thou now standest before God), but a Saviour so full and complete as Jesus is found to be.
" Bring Him, then, thy b.3art, miserable and evil as it is. He will make it happy ; He will keep it so ; and, by a loving con-
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