Page:Maria, or, The wanderer reclaim'd.pdf/3

Rh I am that perſon, of whom Sally M— the grateful Magdalen ſpeaks in her firſt letter, as a comfortable inſtance of the bleſſings of the Magdalen charity; my reception into which, has, under God, ſaved a poor mother’s life, who before was haſtening to the grave, beneath a load of anguiſh and miſery.— Bleſſed, for ever bleſſed be the day, on which I firſt heard of that humane proviſion for ſuch wretched outcaſts as myſelf: bleſſed for ever bleſſed be the hour, on which I entered thoſe doors of mercy, of comfort, and peace! Oh, believe me, when I ſay that had it not been for this houſe of refuge, moſt probably my miſerable exiſtence on earth had en long ſince ended, and my fate ſealed in the regions of puniſhment: the grey hairs of my widowed mother had  brought down with ſorrow to the grave;  of us ſtrangers to that divine mercy, which now fills our hearts with the moſt caring hope.

I am one of thoſe who can verify the et’s remark, with reſpect to our ſex,— that one falſe ſtep entirely damns our one.” Since to one falſe ſtep I owe the chain of calamities, which were linked  from that unhappy error. But at ſame time that I avow my own fault; I  but ſay that the ſeverity of my favour occaſioned my worſt diſtreſs, and  my ruin irretrievable. Surely there is