RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES AND ENJOYMENTS.
The religious ecstasies experienced by Elizabeth in Pittsfield during her
young convert days had impressed her very deeply, and left a pleasant
notion of a paradise upon earth. It was a sort of dreamy vision of the
glory of Zion at her best. It had come to her many times in the intervening
years with marked force. It was not the picture of wealth, or ease, or
luxury, or any worldly good; but the notion of a settlement near the place
where she first found pardon and peace to her soul, and where she could
enter again most heartily into those rich fellowships and rapturous
enjoyments which she then found, heightened and intensified by a deeper and
broader experience, maturing now for near a decade.
But Providence seems to have had other and higher designs, and evidently
guided her course to the indulgence of these blissful fancies. In a short
time they had purchased and settled upon a rich farm, of moderate size,
upon the Housatonic River, in Lenox, near Pittsfield, Mass.
Precious, indeed, were now her privileges. The word was ably preached
and was a feast to her soul. Her church associates were all that she had
desired, and much more numerous than she had expected, and they were living
all around her. She was also near her beloved relatives, and that sacred
place where she first found the Saviour, precious to her soul.
"There is a spot to me more dear than native vale or mountain;
A spot for which affection's tear flows freely from its fountain.
'Tis not where kindred souls abound, though that on earth is heaven,
But where I first my Saviour found, and knew my sins forgiven."
She was greatly blessed in all these privileges. It seemed, indeed, "a
heaven to go to heaven in." But still she found emotions of loneliness, at
times, which she could not explain--an indefinite fear lest she become so
filled and satisfied with these religious luxuries as to lose sight of
stern diligence in the Master's work.