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Dec , 3 , at Bridport , aged 51 , Char"lottr Gundry , eldest daughter of the late Joseph Gundry , Esq ., Banker , in that place . It would afford a pensive pleasure to review in detail the life of one so estimable , to trace minutely that
course , which like the dawning light , shone more and more unto the perfect day . But a brief and very imperfect sketch must suffice . Miss Gundry enjoyed in early life the advantage of judicious maternal instruction and care , and was in early life deprived of this
advantage - Educated among Unitarian Dissenters , she happily imbibed along with the opinions which characterize our body , a deep sense of religious obligation , a spirit of fervent , well-regulated piety , and a fixed habit of religious self-controul . The circumstances in which she was
placed on attaining to maturity , led her to a free investigation of the most interesting and important topics connected with the Christian faith , and in this way her understanding gained strength by exercise , whilst the system which she
had been taught by others , obtained the sanction of her deliberate judgment . Nor did her subsequent life afford any countenance to the notion that speculative inquiries are necessarily injurious to the best and loftiest affections of the
heart . Let the friend who had the privilege of claiming that title during the last and best half of her days be heard in testimony of what she was under the domestic roof : " I have been intimate with Miss Gundry , " says that friend in a letter written since her death , " for more than a quarter of a century , and about one-fifth of that time she has
passed under my roof , either in attending the sick bed of her earliest friend during many periods of great anxiety , or in administering to the comforts of the family by a mild but uniform flow of spirits , and the most rational and useful
conversation . Though she disliked levity , she was always cheerful , and occasionally playful . Her temper was of uncommon sweetness , and I do not recollect for one moment to have seen it ruffled .
In all her actions she was guided by a principle of duty , and she has frequently said to me , she hoped she should never live a single day longer than she could be useful /* As to her religious profession and social virtues there is little need
to appeal to individual testimony . The members of a numerous Christian society who witnessed week after week
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her deportment In the house of prayer and her zeal in promoting its best interests in every possible way , and especially in the instruction of the youngthe inhabitants of this town who could not but notice and admire her perseveringactivity in every appropriate work of benevolence , the poor , the sick , the
aged , those whom she sought out in their abodes of want and suffering , and to whom she delighted in administering instruction , sympathy and relief , —all these are ready to rise up and call her blessed . The pure satisfaction arising :
from the performance of these labours of piety and love , * was for years the principal enjoyment which supported our friend under a deeply-rooted malady productive of frequent and intense suffering . It was the will of Heaven that this course
of agonizing trial and extraordinary usefulness should at length terminate . The strength of the frame was gradually worn down by the ravages of disease , and it was appointed that the principles which
had impelled to duty , should exhibit their power to support and to cheer on the couch of debility and in the chamber of death . To the very last there was extreme bodily suffering , but there were " blessed consolations in distress . " Be
sides € C the memory sweet of mercies done /* the affectionate attentions of near relatives , and the invaluable society of that earliest friend whom a merciful Providence permitted to assume her own station in the solemn hour which severs
earthly ties , there was the realized presence of a heavenly Parent and the humble hope of eternal life , founded on a sure trust in his unpurchased mercy as manifested to the penitent and faithful by his well-beloved Son . Seldom is it the privilege of surviving friends to contemplate a character of so much
excellence . Seldom do we behold , as in this instance , in united operation , vigorous understanding with deep sensibility and feminine grace , ardent private affection with comprehensive active benevolence , zeal for a peculiar religious system with complete liberality towards the supporters of opposing systems , a generous readinefes to enter into the schemes of the
benevolent with a judicious appreciation of their merits and their means , the habit of exercising reason with the culture of devout affection in all its modifications of gratitude , humility , resignation and hope . Those who know what
it is to have possessed and to have lost such a friend will not require in this place a minute scrutiny as to the shades which the censorious may detect in the brightest excellence . Human virtue is progressive , and those who arc progres *
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Obitu ^ p . —Miss-Gtontlry * : jst
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[ Biographical particulars of this excellent man will be given in the next Num ^ be * . ]
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1825, page 751, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2543/page/47/
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