● ● ●  same deep wellspring—the perpetually renewed conviction of God’s goodness—to which she appealed against the evidence of God’s wrath. Like a more youthful Job, she may be said to have wrestled with God for the glory of God.

In a poem written in 1846 she had expressed an unquestioning faith that was to be shaken harshly in the years to come but never really dislodged. Entitled “The Bible,” it ran:

          Word of God! What condescension, 
                  Infinite with finite mind,
          To commune, sublime conception. 
                  Canst thou fathom love divine?
          Oracle of God-like wonder, 
                  Frame-work of His mighty plan,
          Chart and compass for the wanderer, 
                  Safe obeying thy command.

          By Omniscience veiled in glory, 
                  ’Neath the Omnipresent eye—
          Kingdoms, empires, bow before thee, 
                  Sceptic, truth immortal see!
          Spare O then the querist’s cavil, 
                  Search in faith—obey, adore!
          Ponder, pause, believe and “marvel 
                  Not, I say,” forevermore.¹¹⁰

In the later poem addressed to her son at the time he was taken from her she urged the small “voyager” to look to the Bible for “anchor and helm” in his problematical voyagings.¹¹¹ It was unthinkable to her that one should face life’s challenges without it. She was seriously distressed because young Sarah Clement, whose Unitarian family took religion rather casually, had not read the New Testament, and she urged her to read a chapter a day until she had finished the four gospels, promising her a present as a reward.