" In the sixth year of
his marriage Baxter was brought before the magistrates at
Brentford, for holding a conventicle at Acton, and was sentenced
by them to be imprisoned in Clerkenwell Gaol. There he was joined
by his wife, who affectionately nursed him during his confinement.
"She was never so cheerful a companion to me," he says, "as in
prison, and was very much against me seeking to be released." At
length he was set at liberty by the judges of the Court of Common
Pleas, to whom he had appealed against the sentence of the
magistrates. At the death of Mrs. Baxter, after a very troubled
yet happy and cheerful life, her husband left a touching portrait
of the graces, virtues, and Christian character of this excellent
woman--one of the most charming things to be found in his works.
The noble Count Zinzendorf was united to an equally noble woman,
who bore him up through life by her great spirit, and sustained
him in all his labours by her unfailing courage. "Twenty-four
years' experience has shown me," he said, "that just the helpmate
whom I have is the only one that could suit my vocation. Who else
could have so carried through my family affairs?--who lived so
spotlessly before the world? Who so wisely aided me in my
rejection of a dry morality?.... Who would, like she, without a
murmur, have seen her husband encounter such dangers by land and
sea?--who undertaken with him, and sustained, such astonishing
pilgrimages? Who, amid such difficulties, could have held up her
head and supported me?.
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