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74   CLARINDA.

76. O! what a great step toward heaven, to act with a pure intention! So I think I may here salute thee as the angel did the Virgin Mary, and say, "Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee." And I pray that he may abide with thee for ever, and that he may guide thee by his counsel, and afterward receive thee to glory.

And here I subscribe myself thy lasting friend, and well-wisher every way.

SOLOMON BAYLEY.
On St. Paul's river, near Monrovia.

CLARINDA,
A PIOUS COLORED WOMAN OF SOUTH CAROLINA, WHO DIED AT THE AGE OF 102 YEARS.

THE subject of this memoir was brought up in a state of ignorance unworthy of a Christian country; and following the propensities of a corrupt heart, she was, by her own confession, "sold under sin," and involved in almost every species of iniquity. And for the furtherance of her wicked designs, she learned to play on the violin, and usually, on the first day of the week, sallied forth with her instrument, in order to draw persons of both sexes together, who, not having the fear of God before their eyes, delighted, like herself, in sinful and

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pernicious amusements, which keep the soul from God, and the heart from repentance.

2. But even on these occasions she found it difficult to struggle against the Spirit of the Most High. Often was it sounded in her conscience, "Clarinda, God ought not to be slighted--God ought not to be forgotten:" but these monitions were treated with derision, and in the hardness of her heart she would exclaim, "Go, you fool, I do not know God--go, I do not wish to know him."

3. On one occasion, while on her way to a dance, these blasphemous thoughts, in answer to the monitions of conscience, were passing through her mind, and in this frame she reached the place of appointment, and mingled in the gay throng. While participating in the dance, she was seized with fits, and convulsively fell to the ground. From that moment, she lost her love of dancing, and no more engaged in this vain amusement.

4. She did not, however, forsake the evil of her ways, but continued her course of wickedness. Thus she went on for about twenty years, when she lost her only child, and was confined for several months by severe illness. During the period of bodily suffering, her mind was brought under awful convictions for sin: she perceived that the great Jehovah is a sin-hating and sin-avenging God, and that he will by no means clear the guilty.

5. She remained in a distressed state of mind for about three months, and when a little bodily

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