Page:Women worth emulating (1877) Internet Archive.djvu/115

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SARAH MARTIN.
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they could not but notice it. Her simple history and humble means became known and honoured. She was compelled—reluctantly on her part—to receive some acknowledgment, and the sum of twelve pounds a year was forced on her acceptance, which, with the interest of some three hundred pounds that she inherited on her grandmother's death, comprised her means of livelihood.

Very touching and sweet were the little addresses which she composed for the prisoners, and also for the workhouse children. Always warm from the heart, and vital with her own experience, were her teachings, and that made her so successful in winning souls from Satan's dominion.

Never of robust health, her constitution became seriously impaired; and from April, 1843, to the October of that year, she became the tenant of a sick room, prostrated by a painful illness, from which, after much suffering, she was released by death. Her pen, during intervals of her pain, was used when she could no longer speak to those for whom she had laboured; she wrote affectionately to them, and one address she prepared to be read to them the Sunday after her death.

Her own summary is the best close to this sketch:

"In the absence of all human sufficiency on my part, whether of money or influence or experience, it is plain that God alone inclined my heart, instructed me by His Word, and carried me forward in hope and peace. Hence arises the boundless