ABSTRACT
The spirituality of the nineteenth century is only just becoming a subject of thorough investigation. It has often been taken for granted, but souls as well as minds and bodies have a history. The most traditional Calvinists retained the anxious piety of the seventeenth century that saw doubt of salvation as a virtue that threw the soul into repeated self-examination. All Calvinists were suspicious of claims that there was some second decisive experience to be sought beyond conversion. Methodists, however, followed John Wesley in hoping for entire sanctification in this life. Death was a time to testify to the authenticity of faith. Confidence and calm in the face of pain and imminent departure from this life were faithfully recorded. Sometimes deaths could accurately be described as triumphant. Spiritual struggle, however, could also be part of the experience of dying. After death there were relatives to be comforted and, in a few cases of the distinguished, memorials to be erected.
