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Merely felt by her surviving partner ; but the pain it hath left in the heart ought to be , and is alleviated by a conviction that the ways of Providence , however mysterious , are wise and benignant , by the consideration that her sufferings are
f for ever terminated , that the , gracious ¦ and glorious rewards , promised to the righteous in the records of everlasting truth , will be her portion ; and by the hope of meeting her again , in God ' s appointed season , in another and a better world .
Her mental powers were of the su > peridr cast . Her understanding was naturally vigorous , and as much cultivated and improved by reading and reflection , as was compatible with a due
attention to household affairs , and as the frequent returns of a violent head-ache would permit . "With this depressing complaint she was almost daily harassed through a series of years , but was relieved from it for a considerable time
" before her death . , For this relief she expressed great thankfulness to the supreme disposer , and spoke of it as more than a balance to the progress of her pulmonary disorder 3 and to increasing general debility , as it enabled her , even after speaking became extremely difficult and painful , to employ her mind in a . train © f useful thoughts , and in the
silent exercises of devotion . She possessed an intellect capable of taking a ^ vide range in the fields of knowledge , ^ had health and leisure seconded her wishes ; but had she enjoyed the largest share of both , her mind would probably have been most occupied by the very subjects , which , in fact , she chiefly studied , those of theology , and of metaphysics , as connected with it . The notions she had
formed concerning the Christian doctrine , the constitution of the human mind , and the divine methods of influencing it , she could state and support with remarkable clearness , precision , and energy of thought and language , and often did it too with an earnestness and ardour , which manifested the strength of her internal persuasion , and the lively
interest which her heart took in those principles , which she considered as true and important . But great as was her value and her zeal for what she apprehended to be truth , she held genuine Christian virtue in still higher estimation , and honoured those most , who most excelled i » it * whatever their Speculative opinions ** ught be . The frankacss of her dispo-
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sition could leave none who engaged with her in conversation , on the subject of religion , in ignorance , or in the least uncertainty , what her principled were * They were those of the Unitarian Chris tians , in the most discriminating sense of the appellation . These she adopted soon after her settlement in life , first in
part , and at length in their whole extent , thinking they accorded withrthat word of God contained in the scriptures * ( so she used to express herself } which she regarded as the authoritative stand- * ard of religious truths . The popular creed in the gross she probably had never embraced ; but some
parts of it , which the Unitarians reject , she had been taught to venerate . It may well be supposed , that the dissatisfaction she began to feel for these would not be lessened by her attendance on the ministry of the excellent Dr . Price , at the Gravel Pit Meeting , Hackney ; nor her farther receding from them till she
arrived at the point , where she rested with apparently full conviction , be impeded . by her attendance on the labours of his successors , the celebrated Dr . Priestley ( whose theological and metaphysical writings , too , she read with close attention and equal approbation ) and Mr . Be / sham , and Mr . Kentish , With the last
two gentle naeri she had formerly frequent conversations on important subjects , and greatly valued their friendship . They both entertained a just esteem for her . Each of them hath expressed , in a consolatory letter to her bereaved consort , an unfeigned regret for her removal , and a high sense of her woriih . She also heard with the like satisfaction , as she ^ lid mV
eminent predecessors , the present worthy pastor of the Gravel Pit Society , when she was not prevented by the ill state of her health . But whatever were the steps which led , and the occasions which contributed to the adoption and retention of religious sentiments , different from those in which she had been early instructed ,
they were the immediate effects of what appeared to herrealjudgment * after diligent enquiry and examination , to be the * decisive evidences of reason and scri p * ture ; and her undisguised avowal of them proceeded from the probity and fortitude
of her mind . Here it may not beimper * tinent to observe , that sincere Christians ^ amidst all their differences in opinion ,, agree in certain indubitable principles ; and that these remain with them through all the vicissitudes of their creed in other
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Obituary , —Mrs . M . Johnston . \ 413
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1810, page 413, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2407/page/37/
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