Part 18 (2/2)
”If l.u.s.ty love should go in quest of beauty, Where should he find it fairer than in Blanch?
If zealous love should go in search of virtue, Where should he find it purer than in Blanch?
If love ambitious sought a match of birth, Whose veins bound richer blood than Lady Blanch?”
What a magnificent portrait is here drawn of truly rounded, symmetrically developed Christian womanhood, and true ladys.h.i.+p is here pencilled in the diary of the departed. There are some women who win men toward them by their wonderful conversational powers. They can talk by the hour; but when you approach them on the question of finance, for the cause of Home or Foreign Missions, they are like the colored man who was a great talker and a l.u.s.ty singer, but a very poor giver, and when the collection box was being pa.s.sed around, he closed his eyes and kept on singing, ”Roll, Gospel, roll;” when the deacon put the box under his nose, and said, ”I say, Brother Sam, what are you gwine to give to make the Gospel roll around the world?” The distinction is very positively affirmed by Christ between those who will be at the last on his right hand, and those on his left, by the ”inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it not unto me.”
I remember once during the same year in which the circ.u.mstances we are now commenting on transpired, of calling upon a friend, a broker in Wall Street of this city, and after some general conversation about Christian work, he called me into his rear office and said:
”How are you getting along financially?”
”Well,” I said, ”I am able to keep my head above water.”
”Ah!” he replied, ”I have been watching you in your work, and want to make you a present of fifty dollars for your immediate wants.”
I looked upon him with astonishment and exclaimed:
”How is it, my friend, you can be so kind to me, as I am a comparative stranger to you?”
”Well,” he said, ”I believe you are doing the Lord's work, and I feel that all the money belongs unto Him, and I am only his steward.”
What is the ultimate design of Christ knocking at the door of the heart?
Is it not that we may be like Him? He gave himself for us. Can we then withhold our alms to the poor? He may take His departure, and we may receive in our hearts the spirit of avariciousness and selfishness. I am sure if any of the ladies connected with the New York Bible Society will read the simple story of G.o.d's dealings with this missionary woman, their hearts will swell with great grat.i.tude and gladness, to think that G.o.d enabled them to contribute of their substance to the poor and needy, through this humble worker in the master's vineyard. Let us ever remember that we are under peculiar obligations to G.o.d for _all_ we have and all we so richly enjoy. Our true condition is one of absolute subserviency and absolute dependence. We are not our own, we are bought with a price, even the peace-speaking blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our hand must clothe the humble poor, Our store the hungry feed.
Our homes the stranger must receive And shelter in his need; Each others burdens we must bear, Each others faults forgive, And thus in perfect peace with all, And perfect union, live.
What an astonis.h.i.+ng amount of pathos is manifested in the joyous outbursts of grat.i.tude and thankfulness in the heart of this boy when their wants were supplied, indicated by his child-like words: ”Mamma, mustn't you get down and pray, and thank G.o.d for all these things?”
Absorbed in serious reflection, he instantly and spontaneously recognized G.o.d as ”the giver of every good and perfect gift, the father of lights with whom there is no variableness, nor the least shadow of turning.” Surely out of the mouths of babes and sucklings He hath perfected praise. It is remarkable how quickly children recognize heavenly things. Train up a child in the way it should go, and when it is old it will not depart from it. The early desire to pray deeply, implanted in the tender breast by the mother, can never be obliterated.
CHAPTER XVII.
LEADING SOULS TO CHRIST.
Hark! through Nature's vast cathedral, Blended echoes ever rise, Swelling in a mighty anthem To its overarching skies.
Every great and n.o.ble action Is re-echoed o'er and o'er; Life itself is but an echo Of the lives that were before.
Our daily life ought to be an echo of the life of Christ. Just as G.o.d is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing unto man his trespa.s.ses, so the great aim of the Christian ought to be to lead souls to Jesus. The Rev. Dr. W. M. Taylor, of the Broadway Tabernacle, tells the story of how, when Hector was going to his last battle, and his wife Andromache accompanied him as far as the gates of the city, they were followed by a nurse carrying in her arms their infant child.
When he was about to depart, Hector held out his hands to receive the little one, but, terrified by the burnished helmet, and the waving plume, the child turned away and clung, crying, to his nurse's neck. In a moment, divining the cause of the infant's alarm, the warrior took off his helmet and laid it on the ground, and then, smiling through his tears, the little fellow leaped into his father's arms. Now, similarly, Jehovah of hosts, Jehovah with his helmet on, would frighten us weak guilty ones away; but in the person of the Lord Jesus He has laid that helmet off, and now the guiltiest and the neediest are encouraged to go to His fatherly embrace and avail themselves of His support.
Under date of February, 1875, Mrs. Knowles writes that she has been successful, during the past two months, in bringing many persons to attend church, and a number of children to the Sabbath-schools; and she adds:
”I am much encouraged by the attention paid to the reading of the Scriptures. I have also made many hearts glad by supplying their families with food and clothing, and at some places where I have not given anything, and have referred to it, I have been answered with:
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