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"Must I be smitten, Lord? Are gentler measures vain? Must I be smitten, Lord? Can nothing save but pain? "Then the fierce tempest broke: I knew from whom it came; I read in that sharp stroke A Father's hand and name."

During these years of preparation through which Justus Vinton was passing, we find the young girl who was to be his future wife undergoing a peculiar experience, and one which has rarely been equalled.

She had been unusually active and energetic as a child, but in her sixteenth year she was prostrated by a severe and protracted illness.

For more than two years she was completely helpless, and unable to rise from her bed. Her mind was filled with rebellious thoughts against God, who, she sometimes felt, had created her only to suffer.

However, the Holy Spirit was pleased to make her affliction a means of grace. She began to have juster views of her heavenly Father, and at last submitted entirely to his will, acknowledging that it was better to suffer the will of God than to be left to follow her own way. The duty of baptism presented itself to her; though it seemed to be an impossible thing for her, convinced as she was that it was only rightfully administered by immersion. Her heart, however, was so determined, that her friends consented to her having an interview with Elder Grow, who was then preaching at West Woodstock, four miles from her home.

He has given, in his journal, the following account of the interview and her subsequent baptism:--

"Calista Holman had been very sick, and to human appearance would never recover. I was invited to visit her. She was brought in a chair into the room where I was, as she was unable to walk, to relate her Christian experience. Such an experience I never heard before nor since. Her mother asked me if it would not injure her to be baptized. I answered, 'Just according to her faith.' She herself believed it to be her duty, and requested me to baptize her. A meeting was appointed at a house near the water; and after the sermon she was wrapped in a buffalo-robe, and carried in a sleigh to the water-side (it was in the month of March).

"I first baptized three of her sisters. I then asked her, 'Do you think you could walk?' She answered, 'I think I can, a little.' Supported by Deacon Seagrave on one side, and myself on the other, she entered the water, and was baptized.

"She was then carried back to the house. One of the deacons said it was best to give her the hand of fellowship at that time, for she would never be able to meet with the church. When I stood by her bedside to give her the hand of fellowship, I never enjoyed a season like it. It appeared to me that the whole house was filled with the Holy Ghost."

The ordinance of the Lord's Supper was then administered at her earnest request. She said she wished to remember her Lord's death once before she died. During the administration Elder Grow said, "This is our sister's first communion, and it will probably be her last. We now receive her into the church militant: she will soon be with the church triumphant."

To her friends it seemed like a funeral service. To her it was the beginning of a new life. She began to recover from that day; and the next morning she arose from her bed without assistance, for the first time in more than two years.

Her family physician, himself not a Baptist, cheerfully adds his testimony to the fact of her recovery dating from her baptism. So far from being "about to enter the church triumphant," she had thirty years of Christian warfare before her. The frail girl of eighteen, whose baptism was looked upon as the last important act of her life, was destined to cross the ocean, and for thirty years to endure hardships and perform an amount of labor which would have broken down an ordinary constitution.

The venerable widow of Deacon Seagrave, above mentioned, still survives, and is living in Providence, R.I. She was present at the baptism; and, from her vivid recollection of all the circumstances of that wonderful scene, we have reproduced some of the details above given.

Calista Holman was no sooner restored to health, than she began to think that her life was given her for a noble purpose. After much prayer and self-examination, she resolved to devote herself to the work of foreign missions. She was thrown upon her own resources for the completion of her education, and that special training necessary to fit her for the work of her life. By teaching and studying alternately, she obtained, however, an education far in advance of that attained by most women of that day. She was particularly proficient in the languages, obtaining such a knowledge of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, that, when married to Mr. Vinton, he found her far in advance of himself in acquaintance with these tongues.

We do not know what his opinion was in regard to a wife knowing more than her husband: but we find that he did not think it well for a man to know less than his wife; for he at once commenced an extended course of private study, to which he rigidly adhered for years in the midst of the most arduous missionary labors.

On April 9, 1834, Mr. Vinton and Miss Holman were married. Miss Holman had previously spent a year at Hamilton studying Karen in company with Mr. Vinton, preparatory to their departure for Burmah.

Ko-chet-thaing (afterward Mr. Vinton's right-hand man in jungle-work and preaching) had come to this country a short time previous with Rev. Mr. Wade. He was their teacher in this new language. Mr. Vinton, in a letter to his parents, gives an amusing account of the difficulties in their way.

"You will wish to know something of our studies. Well, then, we are studying a language without a grammar or a dictionary. The Karens have never had a written language until very recently, and even now all we can boast of is an alphabet and a little tract of six pages. The courses we are obliged to pursue in obtaining the Karen equivalents of English words are various.

"Sometimes we point to an object, and say in Karen 'n' koh de lé?' 'What do you call that?' and our teacher will give us the Karen word, which we will insert in our dictionary. Often he brings us objects, and gives us their names in Karen. To-day he brought us a grasshopper, and gave us its Karen name. He then made it both hop and fly, so I was furnished with two more words. Then, calling me out to see a hen and chickens, he gave me their names; and by imitating the clucking of the hen, the crowing of the cock, and the peeping of the chicks, he furnished us with Karen words signifying these several acts.

"When these methods fail we have recourse to brother Wade. We tell him the words or phrases for which we wish the Karen, and he converses with Ko-chet-thaing in Burmese; and through the medium of that language we obtain what we want in Karen. So you see, we have a most difficult task before us.

"Our teacher, however, is most patient, and does all he can to help us to a knowledge of the language. He tells us that we 'go much straighter' than we did."

What a pity that this poor unlearned Karen teacher did not then, in 1833, steal a march on Heness and Dr. Sauveur, and publish a treatise upon the "natural method" of learning a language!

The result of this training was that Mr. Vinton acquired the Karen so idiomatically, that in after-years he was an authority among the natives themselves, for the use of Karen phrases; and they were accustomed to say, as the highest praise, to later Karen missionaries, "You speak the language almost as well as teacher Vinton."

In July, 1834, Mr. and Mrs. Vinton set sail in the good ship "Cashmere," for Burmah, in company with the Wades, the Howards, the Deans, the Osgoods, and others. They had a long voyage of one hundred and sixty days, and (a common experience in those days) suffered much from shortness of provisions and lack of water. To judge from most missionary journals of those days, American ships were floating famine hulks. Most of the party suffered greatly from sea-sickness; but Mr. Vinton was so prostrated that for six weeks he scarcely left his berth, and his friends feared he would never live to reach Burmah.

Yet during this time of weakness and suffering, his mind dwelt continually upon the impenitent condition of the officers and crew of the ship; and, although unable to lift his head from the pillow, he spent hours in wrestling with God in prayer for their salvation.

In a letter written during the voyage he says,--

"When we first came on board 'The Cashmere,' I was unable to escape the conviction that we had something to do for the salvation of souls before we should reach Burmah. We had proceeded, however, but a little way, when I was attacked by sea-sickness, and for nine weeks I was unable to preach. As I began to get better, I felt such a burning solicitude for souls as I hardly ever before experienced,--a solicitude which could find expression only in groans and tears.

"After preaching one day, when I was helped to pour forth the fulness of my soul in fervent pleadings with the impenitent to come without delay to Christ, I was much exhausted, as it was the first time I had attempted to stand so long. I retired to rest, but could not. I had a load on my spirit which was insupportable...When I could restrain the bursting emotions of my heart no longer, I threw myself upon my face before God, and giving vent to a flood of tears poured forth an agonizing cry for mercy upon their precious souls."

In one of the entries in his journal we find these words:--

"The burden on my soul seems all but unbearable. I take it to Jesus, and yet it weighs upon me till I feel crushed. This morning I looked at the second officer with inexpressible longings that he should be a Christian. I thought of his being a servant of the Devil, and of his having given to the prince of hell that which belonged to God; and my cry was that God, for the sake of his dear Son, would come and save his soul. In the afternoon I was so oppressed, I knew not what to do. I went to my stateroom, and there besought the Lord for Jesus' sake to send his Holy Spirit on board 'The Cashmere.'"

Nor was he alone in his longings. In Mrs. Vinton's journal we find the same anxiety repeatedly expressed. She speaks of a remarkable scene, when Mr. Vinton was preaching from the text, "Come, for all things are now ready;" during which the sailors sat spell-bound, while he spoke of salvation, and of the sending of the Holy Spirit to strive with sinners. A second sermon made those hardened men tremble, and say that it seemed like the day of judgment.

That night the first officer came to Mrs. Vinton, and told her he had given his heart to God. The captain came out upon the Lord's side shortly after, and from that time the Holy Spirit was present with continually increasing power. The steward, the supercargo, and a number of the sailors were converted.

The hearts of this faithful band of missionaries were made glad, not only by seeing souls converted as the fruit of their labors and prayers, but also by the earnestness with which the captain and officers joined in the meetings, and plead with the unconverted to yield themselves to God.

Of one occasion Mrs. Vinton makes the following record in her journal:--

"This evening the first officer rose, and in the fulness of his heart addressed his shipmates. One of the sailors, unconscious of time or place, or of any thing save the awful fact that he was a sinner hasting to the judgment, arose at the same time, and replied to every exhortation of the officer, saying, 'I will be for God; I will serve him; I will watch and pray,' etc. Never before did I see a sinner so closely arraigned before his own conscience and the bar of God, as he."

In another entry, she says,--

"At the meeting to-night the captain arose, and attempted to speak, making a confession of his sins; but his heart was too full. After a few words, he sat down, and gave vent to his tears. One of the sailors, to whom Mr. Vinton had given a Bible, fell on his knees, and told the Lord that he had read in the precious book which one of his servants had given him, the promise, 'Ask and ye shall receive;' and, although he was conscious that he deserved nothing but hell, yet he was encouraged by this promise to plead for forgiveness of his sins. Such a strain of penitence and contrition for sin was then poured forth as I never before heard."

Truly "those who sow in tears shall reap in joy;" and the power of agonizing and united prayer was never more plainly manifested than during that long and uncomfortable voyage. Toward the latter portion of the voyage, both provisions and water ran short; and so many of the crew were prostrated by scurvy, that the ladies were obliged to do the stewards' work in the cabin, and the missionaries had to assist in working the ship.

The parting between the missionaries and their spiritual children must have been affecting beyond description. Yet, now that so many of that company are gathered on the heavenly shore, how blessed must it be for them to recall those hours spent in earnest prayer, and the precious ingathering of souls which followed!

We doubt not also that Mr. Vinton rejoices as much as he expected to do, that there is a land "where there is no more sea." His old enemy, sea-sickness, never failed to meet him as soon as they lost sight of land, and they rarely parted company until the anchor was down again.