over, and tried to render happy, enable me, Lord! to be the humble means of leading him to Thee. Oh, let us thirst, and come together to the waters; and 'buy wine and milk without money and without price;' and grant, Lord! that before we go hence and are no more seen of men, our united voices may ascend to Thee in praises and blessings! Grant that we may together call upon the name of Him who has redeemed us by His most precious blood, that in that blood our manifold sins may be washed away"[1]
Mrs. Opie was ever charitable to the very utmost of her means, but deepening religious convictions gave a wider sphere and a wiser purpose to her benevolence. Her loving heart seemed ever like a temple of peace and hope, where all gentle and generous thoughts prompted to deeds of benevolence and mercy.
She made, in her later years, many excursions to the Continent and to different portions of the United Kingdom, kept up her literary intercourse and the exercise of her pen, but thought it suitable to give up writing fiction,—a decision which tells more for her honest fidelity to her convictions, than to the clearness of her reasoning power. Such fiction as she wrote was Truth exemplified—principles embodied and wrought out—and thus brought home to many minds not otherwise accessible. Multitudes of writers of the most enlightened Christian convic-
- ↑ Life of Amelia Opie, by Lucy Brightwell.
