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W. CARDALE, ESQ.

MY DEAREST SIR,

I HAVE transcribed, at your particular request, the account I attempted to give of the Character and Death of your excellent deceased Partner, in the discourse which I delivered on the Sunday morning following her funeral, from Phil. i. 21: To die is gain. I cannot be sure that I have retained all I then uttered, or that I have not inserted some additional reflections. My design has been to follow the notices you were kind enough to furnish me with, interweaving such short remarks as I thought might be useful. If you should still wish to print the account, imperfect as it is, for private circulation, I trust it will please our gracious Saviour to accompany the reading of it with the influ

ences of his Holy Spirit; so that your family, and any others to whom you may wish to present it, may indeed become followers of her who through faith and patience is inheriting the promises.

I remain,

My dearest Sir,

Your very faithful and affectionate

D. WILSON.

MONDAY, FEB. 26,

1816.

EXTRACTS,

&c.

I AM here led to mention some circumstances of the character and death of an eminently pious Christian, who died in the faith of our Lord and Saviour, on Thursday, February 8, at the advanced age of seventy-seven, after having attended this chapel nearly thirty-six years.

Mrs. Elizabeth Cardale (then Elizabeth Delafield) was first led to feel seriously the importance of religion at the early age of twelve years, when her mind was deeply affected at the death of her father. The reading of the 23d Psalm was then particularly useful to her and it deserves to be remarked, that she retained a peculiar delight for that psalm during all the rest of her life. So that at a distance of sixty-five years from the time of which I now speak, and within a day or two of her death, she derived great consolation from her son reading to her

this well-remembered portion of the word of God.

How delightful is the thought that she began her religious life and ended it with the same great promise-Jehovah the gracious Shepherd of his church. Oh, that young persons would imitate her early piety, and thus know for themselves the faithfulness and mercy of Jesus Christ!

At this period of childhood, Miss Delafield solemnly dedicated herself to God; and appears to have done it with all the information and sincerity which might be expected from her tender years. This serious act of religion was never afterwards forgotten, though it was many years before she fully and entirely knew and obeyed the Gospel.

We may here observe, that early vows have a divine blessing resting on them. The heart thus surrendered to Jesus Christ may, possibly, for a time, be deluded and betrayed into sin, but will not be permitted to depart finally from its Saviour and Lord.

As Miss Delafield advanced in life, the spirit and example of the world around her appear to have greatly abated her religious simplicity. She still continued an amiable and religious young person, and was well disposed towards the chief doctrines and duties of Christianity. The impressions of her early piety were not

entirely lost; but she wanted much of that fervent and decided spirituality of mind which leads the Christian "to follow the Lord fully." She wanted that entire renewal of the whole heart, which distinguishes the "new creature in Christ Jesus." Accordingly, though she had the opportunity of hearing excellent religious instruction, was fond of reading pious books, and made voluminous extracts from the sermons she heard and the books she read: she was too much" conformed," as the Apostle speaks, "to this world;" she imbibed its spirit, joined in its more decent amusements, and mingled in its society. Jesus Christ was not the supreme Lord of her affections: the Holy Spirit was not the habitual teacher and sanctifier of her heart and life.

But, about the year 1766, she began to be most deeply interested in religion, and to see the folly and danger of many parts of her conduct. This effect was produced by the blessing of God on the ministry of the late Rev. W. Romaine, whom she first heard accidentally at St. Dunstan's in the West. The sermons of that eminent minister (on whose name multitudes dwell with fond and grateful remembrance) were the means, first, of exciting an earnest desire in her mind to understand more completely the ways of God, and then, of producing a fixed and consistent religious character.