Page:Women worth emulating (1877) Internet Archive.djvu/119

Rh In 1827, the old Duke of Gordon died, and Lord and Lady Huntly came from Geneva to take possession of Gordon Castle. Lady Huntly was thirty-three years of age when she became Duchess of Gordon. Her distinguished rank only deepened her sense of responsibility. She had felt the burden of sin, and the sweet sense of release from that burden by being enabled to cast it off at the feet of Jesus; and nothing was stronger, as a distinct purpose with her, than to live by faith and prayer a life of usefulness. With this purpose kept steadily in view, her coronet did not so much ennoble her, as she added a lustre to it.

Of course she had her difficulties and seasons of depression, for her piety was likely to be misunderstood and misrepresented. Once, when somewhat low-spirited, it is recorded in her life, she was visiting a ruined old castle on the Gordon estates, and saw some stone letters over a fire-place that none of the company could read. She pensively lingered after the rest, when on a sudden a sunbeam streamed through the hall, and she read in its light the words taken from an old version of the Bible: "To thaes that love God all things virkkis to tee best." She recorded, "It was a message from the Lord to my soul, and came to me with such power that I went on my way rejoicing.^

She resolved, as far as lay within her own