The allirmation, sometimes ehxpiently argued, that the sacraments, adniiuititercu through a regular priestly succession, are the divinely apjiointed channels through wliicdi saving grace Hows forth from the fountain of life into the human soul, took the strongest possible hold upon the spirit nature of the elder cou.-iin, calling forth, even then, painful doubts over a suggested <iuestion, namely this : ' As the Anglican church recognizes the perfect validity of the Roman Catholic sacraments, while on the other hand, the older Roman church has never recognized the validity of the ,\ngli<an administration, am I not required, by a proper regard for my own soul's peace and safely, to place myself upon the ground that re mains to both sides undisputed '! ' Strange as it may seem to many that her early faith should have faltered before such a question, from that starting-point of thought she advanced in due time, after her return from Italy, through 'an agony of suspense' to the positions taken in her printed correspondence with Bishop Ilobart and the Primate of Baltimore. At the same time her younger cousin, then residing at the paternal home in Pelham, equally interested in the new inquiry, as to them it seemed, having been attracted as a listener to the teachings of the eminent jireacher of the Presbytjerian Church in Murray Street, Rev. Dr. .Iidiu Jlilchcdl Mason, who occasionally delivered a discourse in New Rochello, she embraced, with a responsive spirit, the formulated statement of pure protestantism, 'justification by faith alone,' so eloquently put forth by him as ' the true spirit union with Christ, embracing within it character and condition.' Thenceforward her favorite characterization of Chrisliauity was ' the religion of the New Testament,' emphiisizing thus, as she thought, by this short phrase, the two distinguishing qualities of the primitive church teachings, simplicity and catholicity. i