MEMOIRS.

MRS. SUSAN HUNTINGTON was a daughter of the Rev. ACHILLES MANSFIELD, of Killingworth, in the State of Connecticut. In this place her father was ordained to the ministry of the Gospel in the year 1779, and continued the Pastor of the First Church until death closed his labors in 1814. This gentleman was a native of New-Haven, a graduate of Yale College, and a respectable, useful, and much esteemed minister of Christ; and, for many years previous to his death, was a member of the Corporation of the College at which he had received his education. On the maternal side, Mrs. Huntington was descended from that pious man, so illustrious in the annals of the New England churches, the Rev. JOHN ELIOT of Roxbury, Mass., who will bear, to future ages, the honorable title of "the Indian Apostle." Mrs. MANSFIELD was a daughter of JOSEPH ELIOT of Killingworth, whose father JARED ELIOT, D. D., minister of Killingworth, was a son of the Rev. JOSEPH ELIOT of Guilford, Conn. and grandson of the venerable JOHN ELIOT of Roxbury.

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SUSAN MANSFIELD was the youngest of three children. She was born January 27, 1791.

Her

childhood was marked by sensibility, sobriety, and tenderness of conscience, and a taste for reading. Her education was chiefly, under the paternal roof, and at the common schools in her native town. The only instruction she received from any other source, was at a classical school kept in Killingworth, during two seasons. Her parents, however, devoted much of their time and attention to her instruction. And, as her constitution was delicate from infancy, she was suffered to gratify her inclination, in devoting most of her time to the cultivation of her mind, by reading and efforts at composition.

In reference to the formation of her religious character, a friend of her youth remarks in a letter to the compiler, "Blessed as she was with a tenderness of conscience, very unusual, from her earliest years, which was exhibited in all her intercourse, at home and abroad, and with the faithful instructions of her parents, who were living examples of what Christians ought to be, and were constantly endeavoring to instil into the minds of their children sentiments of piety, of the deepest reverence towards God, of love to the Saviour, and of universal benevolence and good-will towards men--it is difficult to fix on any precise time when her serious impressions commenced. She appeared to have been, in a measure, sanctified from her birth, and, from the first dawn of reason, to need only to be informed what her duty was, to perform .it." There is evidence, however, that, for a time at least after she was capable of understanding her duty and her obligations to God, her heart was not devoted to him. In a letter to her son dated Jan. 13, 1823., she speaks of having a distinct remembrance of a solemn consultation in her mind, when she was about three years old, whether it was best to be a Christian then, or not, and of having come to the decision that it was not. But the God to

whom she had been dedicated, and whose blessing her parents had so often and fervently supplicated in her behalf, did not suffer her long to rest in this sinful determination. When about five years of age, she was brought by the Holy Spirit to consider the duty and consequences of becoming a Christian indeed more seriously, and, in the opinion of her parents and of other pious acquaintances, to choose God for her portion. Of the correctness of this conclusion of her parents and friends she always entertained doubts, and regarded a season of deeper, and, in her view, more scriptural, religious impression, when about ten years of age, as the commencement of holiness in her heart. She made a public profession of her faith in Christ, and joined the Church of which her father was pastor, on the 19th of April, 1807; having just entered her seventeenth year.

Of

About this time she commenced a private Journal, which was continued till her marriage, but which she destroyed a short time before her death. her other writings during the period just mentioned, which were numerous, there remain only some letters, and a few pieces of poetry.* The following are extracts from the letters of this early date which the compiler has been able to obtain.

TO A FRIEND AT N. H

Killingworth, March 3d, 1808. We are all insensible to the innumerable blessings which continually surround us; and unconscious, or regardless, of the benevolence of the Almighty Donor. Yet, notwithstanding the hardness of my heart, I think I can join with you, sincerely, in

* Some of these, with others written at a later period, will be in serted at the end of the volume.

blessing the God of mercies for his goodness to his dependant child. You have tasted of the cup of affliction. Yet, remember, my dear E, it is the Lord who gives it; and should it excite a murmur?

We re

ceive good, and shall we not receive evil also, at his hand? Chastisement is disagreeable to our frail and fallen nature; but it is always intended, and is often made to work, for our good. And let me ask you, -and permit me to be serious,-does not this restoration to health loudly speak the benevolence of God? Does it not lay you under increased obligation to devote your life to his service? Believe me, you cannot resolve upon a happier life than the life of a Christian. This is the end for which we were created; consequently, this alone can make us happy. Are not all the pursuits which engage our attention, except religion and those which are consistent with it, vanity? Do we not follow a phantom, which shines but to deceive, which blazes but to insnare, us? We are all in pursuit of happiness; "who will show us any good?" is the universal question. And how can it be better answered, than by pointing to that religion which heals every wound? than by directing the inquirer to the balm in Gilead and the great Physician there? Real happiness cannot exist in an unrenewed heart. We have lost our felicity, by renouncing the God who is the glorious fountain of everlasting consolation. Yet he has said, "Return unto me, and I will return unto you." Self-deceived mortals! how can we slight the words of love which flow from the Judge of all the earth towards his offending, guilty creatures? Christianity alone can make us happy. The cold apathy and insensibility, or suppression of feeling, which was inculcated by some of the ancient philosophers, might dignify a heathen. But their erroneous system of theology was not capable of affording to its disciples that holy peace and heavenly pleasure, which are the blessed effect of real con