It is a common theme in Christian history, that well known historical figures lost their mothers when very young, and it is often the case, that their mothers were deeply devout, and pious women, who in the few short years into their own lives lived, exerted a strong influence over their sons.  John Calvin, John Bunyan, and John Newton to name just three that come to Mind. Calvin lost his mother when he was six, Newton when he was seven, and Bunyan, when  a little older. The one name of course recognized throughout the Reformed world is Monica, mother of Augustine.

The little bit I read of Joseph Hall's mother, resonated with me. As it is often the case, that the suffering are thought to be of no use, of no account, and quite set aside from those more prosperous and are left to languish. Yet, it is often the case, that those who  have been in the school of Christ, the school of very severe suffering,  have insights into spiritual things, that prosperity clouds from view.  Joseph Hall's memory of his mother, seemed to confirm this also.

As Robert Browning wrote in his well known "Walked a Mile"

I walked a mile with Pleasure,
She chattered all the way;
But left me none the wiser
for all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow
and ne'er a word said she
But oh the thing I learned from her
When Sorrow walked with me.

I want to quote a little excerpt from the Life of Joseph Hall by the Rev. James Hamilton. Hall  was born on July 1, 1574.

His mother, Winifred Bambridge, was the Monica of Bishop Hall. A body always feeble and often anguish-stricken, was the appropriate tenet of a spirit sorrowful and sorely exercised. But happily the clouds which at one time shaded the piety of this excellent woman, did not render it forbidding to the more genial temper of her son. He rejoiced in the light when others would have complained of the halo, nor refused to be conducted to the Kingdom by a guide whose countenance was sometimes sad, And he at last had the satisfaction of seeing her set free from these vexing thoughts, and deriving the joy of a religion of hope. "What with these trials, so had she profited in the school of Christ, that it was hard for any friend to come from her discourse no whit holier. How often have I blessed the memory of those divine passages of experimental divinity which I have  heard from her mouth! What day did she pass without a large task of private devotion, whence she would still come forth with a countenance of  undissembled mortification. Never any lips have read to me such feeling lectures of piety; neither have I known any soul that more accurately practiced them than her own. Temptations, desertions, and spiritual comforts, were her usual theme; her life and death were saint-like"