The great Dr. Mason was at this time in the fulness of his power; the vehement dresser of the Lord's vineyard in Cedar Street. It was with his watering-pot that my brother and I, from the time of our arrival in New York, were watered; and it was his pruning-hook that pruned in us the tendrils of worldly affection.

By our persuasion, Rebecca went with us to hear him; and having once tasted the delicious clusters of his preaching, her heart, on every new visit, longed for them more and more, until it was accomplished that she was ordained to be taken within the hedge; and a day and an hour was set—the Friday before the appointed occasion of the Lord's Supper—for her baptism: for as yet, like many in those days, she was unsanctified by that ordinance.

As I considered myself to have been an instrument in bringing about this sacred event, I was greatly lifted out of myself on the occasion, and I resolved to be present at the solemnity.

The evening service being the time appointed, I shut up my store at an early hour, and went to the church, that I might choose a seat where I could obtain a full view of the holy ceremony. Often my eye turned towards the door, and my heart fluttered because she yet tarried. At last she entered, and my spirit was filled with awfulness and joy.

When I beheld her tall, slender, and erect form, with slow and measured steps, move up the middle aisle, dressed in a white robe, in maidenly simplicity; when I saw her stand serene in the midst of a vast congregation, and give the regular tokens of assent to the vows which Dr. Mason, in a solemn and affecting voice, laid upon her, while all the congregation seemed hushed in the stillness of death; when I saw her untie the black riband under her chin that held on her hat, whilst the minister was descending from the pulpit to administer the ordinance; when I saw her hands hanging straight by her sides, one holding her hat, and the other a white handkerchief;