Part 26 (2/2)
Wherever she was, and in whatever circ.u.mstances, she remembered the guide of her youth, who, according to His promise, never left her, nor forsook her; but continued His gracious presence with her when she was old and gray-headed.
”You may perhaps imagine, that with such direction and support it was impossible she should see trouble. Nay, but waters of a full cup were wrung out to her. She often ate the bread of sorrow steeped in wormwood and gall. Her heavenly Father showed her great and sore adversities; that he might try her as silver is tried, and bring her forth from the furnace purified seven times. It was during these refining processes that she found the worth of being a Christian.
Though her way was planted with thorns and watered with her tears, yet the candle of the Lord shone upon her head; and from step to step she had reason to cry, Hitherto hath Jehovah helped.
”In a word, like Enoch, she walked with G.o.d; like Abraham, she staggered not at his promise through unbelief; like Jacob, she wrestled with the angel and prevailed; like Moses, endured as seeing Him who is invisible; like Paul, finished her course with joy. Blessed were the eyes of the preacher, for they saw the victory of her faith; and his ears, for they heard her song of salvation. 'You can say with the apostle, I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him?' 'O yes, but I cannot say the other, I have fought a good fight; I must say, I have fought a poor fight, I have run a poor race; but Christ fought for me.
Christ ran with me, and through Christ I hope to win,' 'But you have no fear, no doubts, about your going to be with Christ?' 'O no, not a doubt; I am as sure of that as if I were already in my Saviour's arms.' It was her final conversation with children of the dust. The next day, when her flesh and her heart had so far failed that she was incapable of uttering a sentence, she still proved her G.o.d to be the strength of her heart, and knew him to be her portion for ever. I said to her, 'It is peace,' She opened her eyes, smiled, closed them again, bowed her dying head, and breathed out, 'Peace,' It was her last word on this side heaven. The attending spirits caught it from her lips, and brought to her the next day permission to sleep in Jesus.
”From this review allow me to urge the value of private exertions in promoting general good.
”In pursuing his gratifications, man is apt to look upon himself as a being of great importance; in fulfilling his duties, to account himself as nothing. Both are extravagances which it will be his wisdom and happiness to correct. He is neither supreme in worth nor useless in action. Let him not say, 'I am but one; my voice will be drowned in the universal din; my weight is lighter than a feather in the public scale. It is better for me to mind my own affairs, and leave these higher attempts to more competent hands.' This is the language, not of reason and modesty, but of sloth, of selfishness, and of pride. The amount of it is, 'I cannot do every thing, therefore I will do nothing,' But you can do much. Act well your part according to your faculties, your station, and your means. The result will be honorable to yourself, delightful to your friends, and beneficial to the world.
I advise not to gigantic aims, to enormous enterprise. The world has seen but one Newton, and one Howard. Nothing is required of you but to make the most of the opportunities within your reach.
”Recall the example of Mrs. Graham. Here was a woman, a widow, a stranger in a strange land, without fortune, with no friends but such as her letters of introduction and her worth should acquire, and with a family of daughters dependent upon her for their subsistence. Surely if any one has a clear t.i.tle of immunity from the obligation to carry her cares beyond the domestic circle, it is this widow, it is this stranger. Yet within a few years this stranger, this widow, with no means but her excellent sense, her benevolent heart, and her persevering will to do good, awakens the charities of a populous city, and gives to them an impulse, a direction, and an efficacy unknown before.
”What might not be done by men--by men of talent, of standing, of wealth, of leisure? How speedily, under their well-directed beneficence, might a whole country change its physical, intellectual, and moral aspect; and a.s.sume, comparatively speaking, the face of another Eden, a second garden of G.o.d. Why then do they not diffuse thus extensively the seeds of knowledge, of virtue, and of bliss? I ask not for their pretences; they are as old as the l.u.s.t of lucre, and are refuted by the example which we have been contemplating: I ask for the true reason, for the inspiring principle of their conduct. It is this--let them look to it when G.o.d shall call them to account for the abuse of their time, their talents, their station, their 'unrighteous mammon'--it is this: they believe not 'the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.' They labor under no want but one, they want _the heart_. The bountiful G.o.d add this to the other gifts which he has bestowed upon them. I turn to the other s.e.x.
”That venerable mother in Israel who has exchanged the service of G.o.d on earth for his service in heaven, has left a legacy to her sisters: she has left the example of her faith and patience; she has left her prayers; she has left the monument of her Christian deeds; and by these she being dead, yet speaketh. Matrons, has she left her mantle also? Are there none among you to hear her voice from the tomb, Go and do thou likewise? None whom affluence permits, endowments qualify, and piety prompts, to aim at her distinction by treading in her steps? Maidens, are there none among you who would wish to array yourselves hereafter in the honors of this virtuous woman? Your hearts have dismissed their wonted warmth and generosity, if they do not throb as the revered vision rises before you. Then prepare yourselves now, by seeking and serving the G.o.d of her youth. You cannot be too early adorned with the robes of righteousness and the garments of salvation in which she was wedded, in her morning of life, to Jesus the King of glory. That same grace which threw its radiance around her, shall make you also to s.h.i.+ne in the beauty of holiness; and the fragrance of those virtues which it shall create, develope, and enn.o.ble, will be 'as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed.'
”Yea, let me press upon all the transcendent excellence of Christian character, and the victorious power of Christian hope. The former bears the image of G.o.d; the latter is as imperishable as his throne. We fasten our eyes with more real respect and more heart-felt approbation upon the moral majesty displayed in walking as Christ also walked, than upon all the pomps of the monarch or decorations of the military hero. More touching to the sense and more grateful to high heaven is the soft melancholy with which we look after our departed friend, and the tear which embalms her memory, than the thundering plaudits which rend the air with the name of a conqueror. She has obtained a triumph over that foe who shall break the arm of valor, and strike off the crown of kings. 'The fas.h.i.+on of this world pa.s.seth away.' Old Time approaches towards his last hour. The proudest memorials of human grandeur shall be food for the conflagration to be kindled when 'the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire. Then shall he be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe.'
”There are those perhaps, in the present a.s.sembly, who repute G.o.dliness fanaticism, and the sobriety of Christian peace the gloom of a joyless spirit; but who cannot forbear sighing out, with the prophet of mammon, 'Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.' If they proceed no further, their wish will not be granted. None shall die the death of the righteous, unless by a rare dispensation of mercy, who do not live his life. They only are fit to be with G.o.d who love G.o.d and keep his commandments. In that day of transport and of terror which we shall all witness, how many of the thoughtless fair who now 'sport themselves with their own deceivings,'
would give all the treasures of the east and thrones of the west to sit with Isabella Graham on the right hand of Jesus Christ. If ye be wise betimes, ye may. Now is the accepted time; to-day is the day of salvation. The gospel of the Son of G.o.d offers you at this very moment, the forgiveness of your sins, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified. The blessing comes to you as a free gift: accept it, and live; accept it, and be safe; accept it, and put away the shudderings of guilt and the fear of death. Then shall you too, like our friend, go in due season to be with Christ. Your happy spirit shall rejoin hers in the mansions of the saved. G.o.d shall bring you in soul and body with her when he makes up his jewels. Then shall he gather his elect from the four winds of heaven, shall perfect that which concerneth them, and make them fully and for ever blessed. Be our place among them in that day.'
EXTRACT FROM MRS. GRAHAM'S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT.
”My children and my grandchildren I leave to my covenant G.o.d--the G.o.d who hath fed me all my life with the bread that perisheth, and the bread that never perisheth; who has been a Father to my fatherless children, and a Husband to their widowed mother thus far. And now, receiving my Redeemer's testimony, John 3:33, I set to my seal that G.o.d is true; and believing the record in John's epistle, that G.o.d hath given to me eternal life, and this life is in his Son, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot unto G.o.d, and being consecrated a priest for ever, hath with his own blood, entered into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for me. I also believe that he will perfect what concerns me, support and carry me safely through death, and present me to his Father, complete in his own righteousness, without spot or wrinkle. Into the hands of this redeeming G.o.d, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I commit my redeemed spirit.”
Mrs. Graham's epitaph on a tablet in the Pearl-street church, is a.s.sociated with that of her son-in-law Mr. Bethune, to whom before his connection with the family she was a spiritual mother; who prepared her memoir, wrote and printed tracts for her widows, imported Bibles for her to distribute, replenished her charity purse when exhausted; with whom she took sweet counsel and walked to the house of G.o.d in company; and for whom she was pleased to leave the written and honorable testimony: ”He stands in my mind, in temper, conduct, and conversation, the nearest to the gospel standard of any man or woman I ever knew as intimately. Devoted to his G.o.d, to his church, to his family, to all to whom he may have opportunity of doing good, duty is his governing principle; cast upon his care, under G.o.d he nourishes me with kindness,” etc. They have entered into rest. One sepulchre contains their sleeping dust, and one monument bears the following tribute to their memory:
SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF DIVIE BETHUNE, MERCHANT OF THIS CITY, WHO DIED SEPTEMBER 18, 1824, AGED 53 YEARS;
AND OF
ISABELLA GRAHAM, HIS MOTHER-IN-LAW, WHO DIED JULY 27, 1814, AGED 72 YEARS.
THEY WERE BOTH NATIVES OF SCOTLAND.
THIS MONUMENT IS REARED BY HIS BEREAVED WIDOW AND HER ORPHAN DAUGHTER, AS A TESTIMONIAL OF TWO SERVANTS OF JESUS CHRIST: THE ONE A RULING ELDER IN HIS CHURCH, THE OTHER A MOTHER IN ISRAEL; WHO, LIKE ENOCH, WALKED WITH G.o.d, LIKE ABRAHAM, OBTAINED THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF FAITH, AND, LIKE PAUL, FINISHED THEIR COURSE WITH JOY.
THEY WERE LOVELY AND PLEASANT IN THEIR LIVES, AND THEY REST HERE TOGETHER IN THEIR GRAVES.
”THE BLESSING OF HIM THAT WAS READY TO PERISH CAME UPON THEM; AND THEY CAUSED THE WIDOW'S HEART TO SING FOR JOY.” JOB 29:13.
”OH HOW GREAT IS THY GOODNESS, WHICH THOU HAST LAID UP FOR THEM THAT FEAR THEE; WHICH THOU HAST WROUGHT FOR THEM THAT TRUST IN THEE BEFORE THE SONS OF MEN!” PSA. 31:19.
PROVISION
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