



Produced by Carlos Colon, Princeton Theological Seminary
Library and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
generously made available by The Internet Archive)










Transcriber's Notes:

  Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by
  =equal signs=.

  Small uppercase have been replaced with regular uppercase.

  Characters after a carat are superscripts.

  Blank pages have been eliminated.

  Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the
  original.

  A few typographical errors have been corrected.



  [Illustration:
  _Painted by Robinson._      _Eng^{d.} by J. Sartain_]




  A

  MEMORIAL

  OF

  MRS. MARGARET BRECKINRIDGE.


  IN TWO PARTS.


  PART I. MEMOIR, AND FUNERAL SERMON.
  PART II. LETTERS TO HER SURVIVING CHILDREN.


  PHILADELPHIA:
  WILLIAM S. MARTIEN.
  1839.




Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1839, by

WILLIAM S. MARTIEN,

in the office of the Clerk of the District Court, for the Eastern
District of Pennsylvania.




CONTENTS


  PART I.

                                                            _Page._

  INTRODUCTION,                                                  13


  CHAPTER I.

  Life of Mrs. Breckinridge,                                     17


  CHAPTER II.

  Additional Illustrations of the Life and Character of Mrs.
  Breckinridge,                                                  35

  Her Religious Character,                                       42

  Her dedication to the work of Foreign Missions,                46

  Her Sacrifices for the Church of God,                          47

  Her Last Sickness and Death,                                   54


  CHAPTER III.

  Closing Reflections,                                           61


  SUBMISSION:

  A SERMON--by the Rev. A. Alexander, D.D.                       69


  PART II.

  LETTERS OF A GRANDFATHER.


  LETTER I.

  Introductory,                                                   5


  LETTER II.

  Human Nature,                                                  10


  LETTER III.

  The Way of Salvation,                                          17


  LETTER IV.

  The Bible,                                                     29


  LETTER V.

  Prayer,                                                        37


  LETTER VI.

  Cultivation of the Mind,                                       45


  LETTER VII.

  Cultivation of the Heart and the Moral Habits,                 67


  LETTER VIII.

  Manners,                                                       87




  A

  MEMOIR

  OF

  MRS. MARGARET BRECKINRIDGE.


  "Jesus wept."


  PART I.




INTRODUCTION.


MORE than a year has now passed since Mrs. MARGARET BRECKINRIDGE, the
beloved subject of the following brief notices, was taken from us into
the saints' everlasting rest. By that event, the little family of which
she was the joy and crown, was dissolved. The surviving parent felt that
God had committed to him the interesting but mournful duty of preserving
the memory of so inestimable a friend. But it is long after such an
event, before the mind is sufficiently tranquil to utter our thoughts
and feelings without excess. The peaceable fruits of so dreadful a
chastisement succeed, alas! but slowly in our intractable hearts, to the
distraction of grief, and the desolation of the grave.

It was in the midst of the deepest of his sorrow, also, that the writer
was hastened (by a very kind Providence, as he now sees it to have been)
into the active duties of an office which left no rest for body or mind
during almost an entire year. So that if his feelings had allowed the
attempt at preparing a Memoir, his duty to the Church of God forbade it.

In these trying and peculiar circumstances, he was permitted to call in
the aid of those honoured and venerable Friends, from whose hands, in a
happier day, he had received the lovely wife of his youth. They of all
others knew her best, especially from her birth to her marriage. They
had done most, under God, to fit her for life's duties, and its close;
and to make her "worthy to be had in everlasting remembrance." And none
were judged to be so well qualified to do justice to her memory. To the
one we are indebted for the following interesting Sketch, making the
first chapter. To the other for the valuable Letters to her surviving
children, forming the second part of this memorial.

While all must admire the delicacy and candour with which this sketch is
drawn, it is evident to those who knew the deceased, that much remains
to be said which ought not to be omitted--especially in regard to that
portion of her life, embracing more than fifteen years, which passed
between the time of leaving the parental roof, and her lamented death.
In attempting to supply this omission, the writer felt the
inconvenience--even awkwardness of returning upon a narrative which
seemed to have been brought to an appropriate close. But this was
thought preferable to leaving the memoir incomplete; or to breaking the
thread of the narrative given in the first chapter.

And moreover it was felt that the design of the work which called for
the additional chapters, dispensed with form in the manner of
furnishing them. It is intended to preserve the memory of the beloved
dead for her bereaved children, and her numerous kindred and friends,
rather than to unveil her retiring character to the public eye. The work
being designed, not so much for general circulation as for family use,
is rather _printed_, than _published_; and all its imperfections will
readily be overlooked by those who will come to these pages, as Mary
went to the tomb of Lazarus--"to weep there."




MEMOIR.


CHAPTER I.

A NARRATIVE of the life of our departed friends, bears some resemblance
to the representation, on canvass, of their persons and features; it
serves to restore and collect our scattered thoughts, and revive our
affections; and prevents the hand of time from obliterating entirely,
their peculiar mental and moral lineaments.

It was in consequence of the necessity of this help to our natural
infirmities, that our Lord gave to his people the bread and wine, as a
symbol of his body and blood, and said, "Do this in remembrance of me."
He knew too well our careless, wandering hearts, to trust the
recollections, even of _his_ great and lovely character, to our
unfaithful keeping, and established, as a help to his word, the
ordinance which was to continue unto the end of the world,