Part 14 (2/2)
Oh, who can tell what sights she saw, what shapes Of wretchedness! or who describe what smile Of grat.i.tude illumed the face of woe?”
Similarity of character is the firmest bond for forming permanent friends.h.i.+p, hence Christ says to all his followers, Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command thee. A glance at the picture presented to us in St. John's gospel, eleventh chapter, at the Feast of the Pa.s.sover of the Jews, remind us of the character and spirit of Jesus when he took the loaves, and when he had given thanks he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to the mult.i.tude who were set down upon the gra.s.s. For services of this kind G.o.d selects his servants. By filling them with the spirit of Jesus, they are thus thoroughly qualified to minister to the necessitous.
CHAPTER XIII.
HER FAITHFULNESS IN LITTLE THINGS.
There are small things in daily life In which I may obey, And thus may show my love to Thee; And always--every day-- There are some little loving words Which I for Thee may say.
”He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful in much.”
She continues to write with her usual forcible descriptiveness: ”I found a mother and daughter in a damp room, on the ground floor of a tenement building, in a wretched condition. The room was furnished with a broken stove, one chair, two trunks, and some bedding spread on the floor, as they had no bedstead. _Both_ were very lame, and the girl quite feeble for want of care and nourishment. After relieving their immediate wants, I tried to lead them to Christ. The girl was so sick and discouraged it was difficult to convince her that any one cared for her, but at length she cried, and said, 'How nice it is to have some one talk kindly to me.' From that time she began to read the Bible for herself, and would often speak to me of different pa.s.sages of the Scriptures. But after a while the landlord ordered them to move, because they could not pay their rent, and with some effort I succeeded in sending the mother into the country, and placing the girl in a hospital.
”Two other persons, who through a blessing on my labors have become deeply interested, and even led to study the Bible, have now openly professed Christ.”
Take another glance at the above touching scene and behold the lively exercise of her wonderful sagacity and powers of observation. This graphic representation of squalor and consummate misery gives pre-eminence to her adaptedness as a successful missionary of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. The eyes of the blessed Jesus, the model worker, were not closed to the wants and woes of humanity, hence his formidable power in preparing an entrance into the hearts of the people.
Her Christ-like visits, carrying the rich treasure of the glad tidings, found an echo in the soul of those she visited. Although her elementary education had been sadly neglected, yet nevertheless, by her close study of G.o.d's Word and her varied experience for over fifty years in the lower part of a city like New York, she knew full well how to adapt herself to circ.u.mstances. Let us calmly follow her footsteps into this lofty tenement building and watch her movements. See how minutely she describes the sad scene. If a murder had been committed in the house and a reporter from the _New York Herald_, or any other paper, had called to take notes, he could not have been more minute in his description of the surroundings than she. All the collateral or subordinate information essentially necessary to convey an accurate idea of a true picture peculiarly calculated to throw a flood of light on the whole panorama are carefully furnished us by her notes. And here we are forcibly reminded of the pithy and succinct saying of Scotia's beloved bard, Burns:
”A chiel's amang ye taking notes.”
Notice how she enumerates the persons and things in the apartment. The mother and daughter. The damp room. The ground floor. The wretchedness.
The broken stove. The one chair. The two trunks. The bedding spread on the floor. The absence of a bedstead. The lameness. The feebleness. How consummate the skill displayed in her graphic and touching description of pitiable facts emanating from her pen with such brilliancy of rhetorical power; and all spontaneously springing not from the schools of moral and intellectual philosophy, but from the school of Christ Jesus her Lord who said to his sorrowful disciples: ”These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you, but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, _he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you_.” The _Paraclete_, who is infinitely competent to perform the instruction necessary amid all the exigencies of life, and by whose divine influence every difficulty and trial is easily adjusted, was evidently her great instructor.
”The girl,” she says, ”was quite feeble for want of care and nourishment.” In a public address recently delivered in this city by the good and kind Dr. John Hall, of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, at the opening of a Newsboys' Lodging House, on the corner of Eighth Street and Avenue B, an inst.i.tution built through the liberality of Mrs. Robert L. Stuart, at a cost of $50,000, the doctor said, ”A man left to himself will choose the bad rather than the good, because the majority do, and it is easier besides. As crime breeds misery, so misery too often breeds crime. _We should take note of this fact and try to mend it._”
Mr. Bruce, another speaker, said ”thousands of children, a.s.sisted, have gone West, and now own farms and are prosperous.” He concluded his address by asking the boys to cheer Mrs. Stuart, which they did gratefully for their new home provided by this inestimable and generous lady.--_New York Daily Tribune_, Tuesday, March 29, 1887.
It is the philanthropist's great aim to defend the moral honor of the homeless as well as to minister to their temporal necessities. This important service was rendered to thousands by our model missionary woman, and eternity alone will disclose the gigantic results.
But let us more specifically a.n.a.lyze her course of conduct under the foregoing circ.u.mstance. In the first place _she immediately relieved their wants_. I have read somewhere the story of Dr. Guthrie when he was first called to the metropolis of Edinburgh. Of their filling his pockets with tracts, and with all the ardor of his n.o.ble heart, commenced his great work. He ascended the creaking stairs of a high building in the old town, and knocking at the door, an elderly woman made her appearance, whereupon he proffered her a tract. Looking earnestly upon him, and in a loud shrill voice she exclaimed, pathetically: ”'Deed, Sir, I dinna want yeer tracts, I weed thank ye for a loaf o' breed.” Ah! he thought to himself, here is a case of dest.i.tution, and excusing himself he hurried down-stairs, and going to the baker he ordered bread, and to the butcher he ordered beef, and to the grocer he ordered some English breakfast tea and sugar, a few dainties, and a cart of coal, and requested them to be sent at once to the woman in want. Calling a few days afterward he found her comfortably seated with a neighbor around a cheerful hearthstone drinking their newly made tea. When she opened the door she enthusiastically exclaimed, ”Come awa, noo, Doctor, I am ready to hear you on the subject o'
religion.” Our departed sister also recognized the necessity of attending to the temporal as well as the spiritual wants of her paris.h.i.+oners simultaneously. ”_After relieving their wants I tried to lead them to Christ._”
We shall now proceed to show that this incident, in conformity to the teaching of G.o.d's Word, a.s.sures us that suffering and want are the means used by the kind providence of G.o.d to lead the careless sinner to seek a saving interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. David says, ”Before I was afflicted I went astray, and thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.” He delivereth the poor in his affliction. ”The Lord will not cast us off forever. But though he cause grief, yet will he have compa.s.sion according to the mult.i.tude of his mercies.” And here is the reason given: ”_For He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men_.”--Lam. iii. 31-33.
In this instructive part of the diary we find described a truly pathetic and animated scene. A humble missionary woman leading souls to Christ. This employment excites the deep interest and profound admiration of heaven. The general a.s.sembly and church of the first born above are intently gazing on, not as idle spectators, but the angels may be observed pressing through the crowd of crowned ones with glory-lit face, and sanctified step, communicating the cheering intelligence of accessions to the ranks of the church militant which must swell the highest strains of celestial music and deeply increase and augment the joy of the church triumphant.
In the hour of deep distress this woman was sent by G.o.d to relieve the wants of this stricken household, and at the same time lead them ”to the Lamb of G.o.d who taketh away the sin of the world.” There are many, alas, who see no beauty in the despised Nazarene until, by deep suffering, they are absolutely compelled to completely renounce self and to fall down, wounded and bleeding and bruised and heart-broken at the feet of Him who shed the last drop of his crimson blood on the Cross of Calvary for our salvation.
”Two others,” she adds, ”at this date, have been led to _study the Bible_ and have openly professed Christ.” What extraordinary events cl.u.s.ter around this _special agency_ employed by the Holy Spirit to bring about such a glorious result. It is the enemy's intention to lead persons in distress and misery to commit crime. This is the testimony of all history, but G.o.d saves His own in the hour of peril, and not unfrequently by weak instrumentalities. Near Loch Katrine, encircled by lofty mountains and where the scenery which fringes it is of the wildest character; where, as Scott says in his ”Lady of the Lake,” the briar rose and fell in streamers green,
And creeping shrubs of thousand dyes, Waved in the west wind's summer sighs, Boon nature scattered free and wild Each plant or flower, the mountain's child, Here eglantine embalmed the air, Hawthorn and hazel mingled there.
The primrose pale and violet flower, Found in each cliff's narrow bower; Foxglove and nightshade side by side, Emblems of punishment and pride; Gray birch and aspen wept beneath; Aloft the ash and warrior oak, Cast anchor in the rifted rock; And higher yet the pine-tree hung, His shattered trunk, and frequent flung Where seemed the cliff to meet on high, His boughs athwart the narrow sky, So wondrous wild, the whole might seem The scenery of a fairy dream.
Here, in a roughly wooded island, the country people secreted their wives and children, and their most valuable effects from the rapacity of Cromwell's soldiers during their inroad into Scotland. The soldiers resolved to plunder this island; an expert swimmer swam toward it to fetch the boat to his comrades, which had carried the women to their place of refuge. It lay moored in one of the creeks; his companions stood watching on the sh.o.r.e; but just as the soldier reached the nearest point of the island, and was laying hold of a black rock to get on sh.o.r.e, a heroine who stood on the very point where he meant to land, hastily s.n.a.t.c.hing a dagger from below her tartan ap.r.o.n, with one quick, sharp stroke severed his jugular vein, killing him instantly.
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