Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/327

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302 EFFECTS OF THE ADDRESS.

was among angels, when one sinner repenteth ; till those who, despairing, had said, " no man careth for my soul," laid aside the defiance of guilt, and seemed ready to become as little children.

More than usual feeling was pressed into this inter view. It was a parting scene. The class of convicts, whom she now addressed, were the next week to be transported to Botany Bay. "With increasing earnest ness she recapitulated the instructions given during their previous intercourse, which must now never more be renewed. She exhorted them to an exem plary deportment during the long voyage that was before them ; to convince all with whom they should in future associate, that their teaching had not been in vain ; to bear with patience the evils, and discharge with fidelity their duties, in a foreign land ; fortify ing their good resolutions by every hope drawn from this life and the next. Surely the spirit of that Master was with her, who wrote with his finger upon the ground, effacing the accuser s threat, and sparing to condemn the sinful soul, abashed at its own guilt. Nor were her appeals in vain. Sobs and moans, on every side, attested that hardened natures were becom ing as wax before the flame. The stony-hearted and the fiery-eyed, seemed ready to change, like Niobe, into a fountain of tears. A stronger contrast could scarcely be imagined, than the appearance of the audi ence at her entrance and her departure. May the hallowed counsels of their benefactress go with them over the far waters, and be to them, in the land of

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