OF MRS. DEBORAH H. PORTER, WIFE OF REV. C. G. PORTER, OF BANGOR. BY ANNE T. DRINKWATER. "THOU wert unfit to dwell with clay; PORTLAND: SANBORN & CARTER. PREFACE. Ir the late Dr. Nevins could say, I have prayed for years that I might write one tract to speak for me when I am gone; if those little messengers which he was enabled to write, are speaking for him in other languages and countries as well as our own; if it can with truth be said, that in this way he is now probably doing more good, than at any period of his life; have we not reason to believe, that God has answered his prayers? and may not other individuals, in the same spirit, though in a humbler sphere, have written that, which, with the blessing of God in answer to their prayers, will be useful to the living when they sleep in death? It is with this belief, and the hope that the following pages may be thus blessed, that they are now presented to the public. In doing this, the compiler has felt all that diffidence which a conviction of her own inadequacy, combined with feeble health, is calculated to produce. More than once had she decided that it could not be her duty to make the attempt. But when told that if she still declined to enter upon the work, it would probably not be accomplished by any other hand, the fear arose that she might be found declining a task which God had assigned her. While, therefore, she was induced to yield a trembling assent, she would gratefully acknowledge the goodness of her heavenly Father, in giving her strength to complete the undertaking. The Memoir is principally an autobiography. From the six manuscript volumes which have been put into our hands, we have made selections; and it may be proper to add, that these selections have themselves been condensed; and in those instances where the sense might not have been obvious to |