Part 21 (2/2)
”My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies. Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.”
It will not be long before we will be done with the cares and vicissitudes of life, and enter into that ”Rest that remains for the people of G.o.d.” I am sure that in the midst of her toil, she ever found joy in the hope that one day she would be forever with the Lord. She had indeed laid up treasures in heaven, and her earnest desire evidently was, not to go to heaven alone, but to take some others with her. This was the joy of her life. Like the Master who, for the joy that was set before Him, endures the cross. Hence she enjoyed a uniform experience of peace, although she witnessed many a sorrowful sight. A late writer, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, has well observed:
”Joy will reach farthest out to sea where troubled mariners are seeking the sh.o.r.e. Even in your deepest griefs you can rejoice in G.o.d. As waves phosph.o.r.esce, let joys flash from the swing of the sorrow of your souls. Low measures of feeling are better than ecstacies for ordinary life. G.o.d sends His rains in gentle drops, else flowers would be beaten to pieces.”
Ah, it was the peace of G.o.d that pa.s.seth all understanding that enabled her to bear up during the hot summer months in which she penned the following, wherein she says:
”The past three months have been the most trying of any I have experienced since I began my work. There has been much sickness and many deaths. But I have been kept and sustained amid many difficulties.
I have been kindly received in many Roman Catholic and Jewish families.
A poor woman whose husband was killed a year since, who had lost one child, and has another very sick, is glad to have me read and pray with her, and when I point her to the Saviour she says He is, indeed, her best friend. Another Catholic woman said, she did not see why her priest forbade her reading the Bible, 'for what you have read to me is so beautiful.' When asked if she would like to have a Bible, she said she would, and when I took one to her she gave me twenty-five cents, and said she wished she could give me more. One day I was addressed in the street by a little girl, who asked me to go and see her mother.
When I enquired who she was, I found she was a woman whom I had visited some time before. She was very glad to see me, showed me the Testament I had given her, and asked me many questions which would have led to argument; but I told her I only taught the religion of the Lord Jesus, and I wished them to come to Him and seek for light and salvation. She urged me to come again, and gladly listened when I read to them from the Scriptures.
”A young woman on being asked to attend church said, 'The only church I go to is the theatre.' I gave her a Testament which she promised to read; she has now begun to go to church regularly, and says she hopes never again to live the life she has lived. I have been able to take a number of mothers and their children to the sea side, which has been a great blessing. I have given the Bible to two women who have paid for it, and wished for one for a neighbor.”
It is a true and striking fact, that there are very few women who ever labored so a.s.siduously for the good of others as this Missionary, especially in trying to save souls and make others happy.
We may say we believe in Jesus and, therefore, we will be saved; but we must remember also that faith without works is dead, and on the great day of judgment all will be made known, for St. John says in the Apocalypse: ”I saw the dead, small and great, stand before G.o.d; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and h.e.l.l delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.”
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE NINETY AND NINE.
When he lived on earth so lowly, Friend of sinners was his name; Now enthroned among the holy, He rejoices in the name.
When Jesus was here upon earth the question was asked, 'Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? But it is said that the thirty years of Christ's obscurity was the foundation of his three years'
manifestations. He was there, however, not alone, for he was under the fostering love and anxious solicitude of His heavenly Father. Nazareth is beautifully described thus:
It was ”a handful of pearls in a goblet of emerald. No great road led up to this sunny nook. Trade, war, adventure, pleasure, pomp, pa.s.sed by it, flowing from west to east, from east to west, along the Roman road.
But the meadows were aglow with wheat and barley. Near the low ground ran a belt of gardens, fenced with loose stones, in which myriads of green figs, red pomegranates, and golden citrons ripened in the summer sun. High up the slopes hung vintages of purple grapes. In the plain among the corn, and beneath the mulberry-trees and figs, shone daisies, poppies, tulips, lilies, anemones, endless in their profusion, brilliant in their dyes. Low down on the hillside sprang a well of water, bubbling, plentiful and sweet; and above this fountain of life, in a long street straggling from the fountain to the synagogue, rose the homesteads of many shepherds, craftsmen, and vine-dressers. It was a lovely and humble place, of which no poet, no ruler, no historian of Israel had ever taken note.”
Even so, it was a very humble sphere that our missionary filled, but she was precious in G.o.d's sight. Her work was among the poor and the lowly.
Lost sight of perhaps by men on this account, but the more like her divine master in her work and ways. O, how true are Christ's own words: ”Whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. Salt therefore is good: but if even the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is fit neither for the land nor for the dunghill: _men_ cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
”Now all the publicans and sinners were drawing near unto him for to hear him. And both the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, this man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.”
Yes! sinners--unworthy, h.e.l.l-deserving sinners--it is to such, that He cries _if any man thirst_, let him come unto me and drink. How refres.h.i.+ng are the well-known words:
Aid the dawning, tongue and pen; Aid it, hopes of honest men; Aid it, paper--aid it, type-- Aid it, for the hour is ripe, And our earnest must not slacken Into play.
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