Part 14 (1/2)
There are too many instances in our daily experience where the children are sadly neglected, and where they are looked upon as little heathens, and discouraged in their endeavors to follow Jesus in early life. It should be the constant care of parents and Sunday-school teachers to take the children to Him who will in no wise cast them out. Who can look into the clear, bright, blue eyes of a little boy or girl, and not see in their countenance a holy radiance expressive of trustfulness, innocence, and affection? It is no wonder, then, that Jesus said: ”Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye can in nowise enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
”Are you looking unto Jesus?” she said. Where can we look for a more important searching question to shadow forth the indispensable necessity of not only this consumptive man, but all men, whether in health or sickness, to renounce all other methods of trying to get to heaven, but by ”looking unto Jesus.” No change of character can take place in any other way. ”Look unto me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth, for I am G.o.d, and beside me there is none else.” They looked unto Him and were lightened. ”O! it is easy to look to the hills from whence cometh our help,” when the Holy Spirit is working upon the heart. But ah, it is a tremendously difficult task to perform when the poor sinner is bereft of this divine power.
CHAPTER XII.
DESt.i.tUTION AND REFORMATION.
Oh, use me Lord, use even me, Just _as_ Thou wilt, and _when_ and _where_, Until Thy blessed face I see, Thy rest, Thy joy, Thy glory share.
Her willingness to toil in any direction attests the grand purpose of her life and the ingenious methods employed in a.s.sisting and saving souls.
”I visited one family,” she writes, ”a few days since who had not eaten anything for twenty-four hours. The father was out of employment, and in desperation was just about to take the children to some charitable home, when I came in time to supply their wants and procure aid and work for him. Many others, rather than make known their wants, have p.a.w.ned everything they possessed. I have had to give and lend them articles of clothing to cover them, and have procured coal and groceries for nine families during the past month.”
The remarkable and unprecedented success of this one woman in reaching others of her own s.e.x is nearly unparalleled. This fact has encouraged us to persevere in our attempt to make these truths known to the Christian world; for how emphatically true are the words of Gray:
”Full many a gem of purest ray serene, The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear, And full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air.”
This thought stimulates us to renewed efforts to present her experience in her own language, as she conscientiously discharged her duty with an eye single to the glory of G.o.d.
She mentions a case of reformation of an intemperate woman who had deserted her home, and after p.a.w.ning and ridding herself of all she possessed, was at length brought to herself and sent for the Bible woman, and, through the omnipotence of loving-kindness, has been won to reformation, which she trusts may be permanent.
This case presents a sad and dark picture in the history of womanhood.
An intemperate woman, through the blasting and blighting influence of liquor, leaving her home, and like the prodigal, spending her substance in riotous living, and at length being compelled to feed on the husks.
A fallen woman seeking pleasure away from home with all its endearments. Alas! alas! ”There is no peace saith my G.o.d unto the wicked. Whither, oh, whither can they fly as wretched wanderers from their homes?”
”Home, sweet home!
There is no place like home!”
It is a divine inst.i.tution. A place of rest and peace and joy. To forsake home is to despise bliss and accept woe. It is to reject felicity and receive sorrow. When G.o.d has been so kind as to furnish a peaceable, well-governed home, nothing should tempt the young to leave it. All that is necessary for pure pleasure can be found in the family circle. The unwary are sometimes induced to leave home through false representations, and a desire to gratify every earthly propensity. Idle curiosity may be greatly augmented, and the new acquaintances formed may, for the time being, partially please the senses; but the calm recollection of former unalloyed joys in the cottage home naturally extorts the old cry from pale quivering lips, and a broken heart, ”I will arise and go to my father, and will say: father I have sinned against heaven and before thee.”
Such a course of turning to G.o.d, and such a cry, is always richly rewarded. Personal reformation is not only gratifying to relatives and friends, but well-pleasing to G.o.d. ”Won to reformation” by the Bible woman through the omnipotence of _loving kindness_! We are reminded by this incident of a story we heard told by the late John B. Gough. It was part of his experience a few days after he became a total abstainer. He had returned to work. But his burning thirst for liquor was intense. In his agony of mind and body, he said to his employer, ”I have signed the pledge.” The reply was, ”You will keep it about a week.” ”If so, then I will go and get a drink now, for I cannot endure this awful agony any longer,” he retorted. He rushed out of the room and down the stairs leading to the street, when he was accosted by the kind, gentle voice of a strange gentleman who met him.
”How do you do, Mr. Gough? I am so glad to see you; I was delighted to see you at the meeting last night, and I am so thankful that you had courage given you to go forward and sign the pledge. I simply called over to shake you by the hand and wish you G.o.d speed in your n.o.ble endeavor. Here is my card; I want you to call at my office, as I desire to get acquainted with you.” Those kind words entered into his heart, and from that auspicious hour he resolved to be steadfast and immovable in his renunciation of his drinking habits.
G.o.d loves and prospers those who, like Jesus, speak kind words of encouragement to those who have gone astray from the paths of rect.i.tude. The brevity and uncertainty of life ought to teach us the practical lesson that if we would save men and women from their sins we must be watchful and willing at all times to rescue the wanderers from their critical condition, constantly remembering that He has said, ”Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our G.o.d for he will abundantly pardon.”
”When I was hungry ye gave me meat; when I was thirsty ye gave me drink; naked, and ye clothed me.” Little did this n.o.ble-minded woman think that when she was entering her daily experience in her diary that her deeds of charity were to be brought to light after death. A story is told of Xenophon, the disciple of Socrates, that while offering a solemn sacrifice he heard that his eldest son was slain at Mantinea. He did not, however, desist, but only laid down his crown and asked how he had fallen. When he understood that his son had fallen in battle fighting bravely for his country, he calmly replaced the crown upon his head, calling the G.o.ds to witness that he received greater pleasure from the bravery of his son, than pain from his death. We do not, naturally speaking, like to lose our loved ones, but when we think of their bravery and fidelity, we feel disposed to praise G.o.d for them. O, what transcendent dignity and honor are conferred on the faithful at the hour of death. It seems there is a reciprocal response on earth to the acclamations of heaven perpetually ringing in the ears of the ransomed, ”Well done, good and faithful servant.”
The Church's loss is her gain. Still the deeds of mercy call forth praise. Let us ever remember that a holy and just and good G.o.d is treasuring up all our words of faith and labors of love against the great day of account--the day of recognition and remuneration. Pollock beautifully describes the man or woman like her of whom we write, a person of enlarged benevolence and liberality, as practically ill.u.s.trated in the foregoing authentic record of Christian experience.
He says:
”Breathe all thy minstrelsy, immortal harp!
Breathe numbers warm with love while I rehea.r.s.e, Delightful theme! remembering the songs Which day and night are sung before the Lamb!
Thy praise, O Charity! thy labors most Divine! thy sympathy with sighs, and tears, And groans; thy great, thy G.o.d-like wish to heal All misery, all fortune's wounds; and make The soul of every living thing rejoice-- A finis.h.i.+ng and polish without which No man e'er entered heaven. Let me record His praise; the man of great benevolence, Who pressed thee softly to his glowing heart, And to thy gentle bidding made his feet Swift minister of all mankind, his soul Was most in sympathy with heaven; Nor did he wait till to his door, The voice of supplication came, but went abroad With foot as silent as the starry dews, In search of misery that pined unseen, And would not ask. And who can tell what sights She saw, what groans she heard in that cold world Below, where sin in league with gloomy death, March daily through the length and breadth of all The land, wasting at will and making earth, Fair earth! a lazer-house, a dungeon dark!