"Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year. 1839, by John S. Taylor, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York." The life of MRS. ISABELLA GRAHAM is too well known to the religious world to need aught of studied eulogy; exhibiting as it does the opinions and exemplary conduct of an eminently pious female, it has had an extensive circulation among the Christian community, with whom it is deservedly popular. In Mrs. Graham it may be truly said, that all the Christian graces united; humble yet zealous, without pride or ostentation, she laid the foundation or assisted in the superstructure of many of the noblest charities of our city. To provide an asylum for the wanderer, the outcast, and the orphan, to train them for usefulness in this life, and for happiness in the world to come,-to do good to the souls and bodies of the poor, the afflicted, the widow and the fatherless, were the objects she pursued with unabated zeal to the very close of life; and her memorial may be seen in the success of many of our most flourishing institutions which are destined to be "Known in a future day, the pride of ours !" The well grounded hope that the record of such a life may be beneficial to the young and rising generation, has induced a near relative of Mrs. Graham's to abridge the original memoir, and it is now offered to the Christian public in this form, as a volume well adapted for Sabbath School Libraries. PREFACE. In writing the volumes of biography, so frequently presented to the world, the motives of their authors have been various, and the subjects diversified. Mankind take an interest in the history of those, who, like themselves, have encountered the trials, and discharged the duties, of life. Too often however, publicity is given to the lives of men, splendid in acts of mighty mischief, in whom the secret exercises of the heart would not bear a scrutiny. The memoirs are comparatively few of those engaged in the humble and useful walks of active benevolence, where the breathings of the soul would display a character, much to be admired, and more to be imitated. As the celebrated Dr. Buchanan has observed, that if you were to ask certain persons, in Christian countries, if they had any acquaintance with the religious world, they would say, "they bad never heard there was such a world." So, whilst |