Part 32 (1/2)
From him, who loves me now so well, What power my love can sever?
Shall life, or death, or earth, or h.e.l.l?
No, I am his forever.
The following resolutions and letters furnish, in a pre-eminent degree, conclusive evidence of the high estimation in which His servant and handmaiden were held by ministers, elders, and Sabbath-school workers generally:
NEW YORK, January 12, 1869.
MRS. JAMES KNOWLES:
MY DEAR FRIEND--At the Annual Meeting of the Teachers' a.s.sociation of the Sabbath-school of the Ebenezer Presbyterian Church, held last evening, the following action was taken:
”On motion, the cordial thanks of this a.s.sociation are voted to Mrs. James Knowles for her faithful labors in behalf of our School during the past year.”
The following extract from the Annual Report was also ordered to be forwarded with the foregoing:
”Mention must be made of one of our own church members, Mrs.
Knowles, who has labored most devotedly for our School. In behalf of the School, the Superintendent would take this way of expressing our grat.i.tude for her cheerful, earnest, and persevering labor. She has taken a deep interest in our School, and has shown it by hard work in its behalf.”
I am very glad that the pleasant duty of making you acquainted with this action has been imposed upon me. Without your help I would oftentimes during the past year have been very much discouraged.
Your readiness for Christian work, and your thoroughness in it, have both cheered and satisfied me. May you fully realize the promise given to those who are always abounding in the work of the Lord. (1 Cor. xv. 58.) And may the present year show us a continuance of your willing labors and be marked by a stronger faith in expectation and more new-born souls, as your joy and crown in realization. (Psalm cxxvi. 5-6.)
Respectfully yours in the Master,
SAMUEL B. W. MCKEE, _Superintendent_.
When we take into consideration the time that elapsed between the penning of the foregoing resolutions as no vain and unmeaning compliment, and the departure of her concerning whom they were voted upon, we are led to see the importance of those words in the Apocalypse: ”He that is faithful unto death shall receive a crown of eternal life.”
How significant are the words employed to denote their hearty appreciation of her worth. ”We express our grat.i.tude for her _cheerful_, _earnest_, and _persevering labor_. She has taken a _deep interest_ in our School and has shown it by _hard work_,” etc.
We trust that our Sunday-school workers may be greatly encouraged to go and do likewise through a careful and prayerful examination of the above communication.
The following additional affectionate and deeply instructive tribute to her worth to the church and Sabbath-school is from one who was her beloved pastor for seven years--years of pure and uninterrupted Christian fellows.h.i.+p and disinterested devotedness to the cause of Christ.
UTICA, N.Y., November 8, 1886.
REV. DUNCAN M. YOUNG:
DEAR BROTHER--In the removal of Mr. and Mrs. James Knowles _we_ sustain a personal loss. The fact was unknown to us previous to your letter. To enjoy such friends.h.i.+p as they admitted us into from our first acquaintance, was not unlike a continuous salutation with the impressiveness of an unqualified _good-will_. Heaven is indeed richer for their entrance, and by so much is increasingly endeared unto us.
They were not time-servers, but, in no mere sentimental sense, G.o.d-servers. The feverish world, greedy and rus.h.i.+ng, will know little of their value, nor miss their humble crafts so quickly trackless, and yet they really laid the world under obligation. If its life, and aim, and effort were not purer and higher, it was in spite of their actual G.o.dliness, at all times apparent.
My first introduction to Mrs. Knowles was on the first Sabbath in February, 1874; also, my first acquaintance with the Allen Street Church. Mrs. Knowles was then teaching in the Ludlow Street Mission.
As a teacher, she was _simple_, _fearless_, and _Scriptural_. Her ruling pa.s.sion, perhaps, was a desire to be useful in some way, adjusting herself with good grace to the requirements of advancing years. If just a little disturbed at the thought that she must contract her labors, or ”hold up” at some point, the spirit was ever the same, perhaps too exacting of a body not excessively vigorous.
As a ”Bible reader” she did some of her best work, and made her greatest sacrifices. Faithfulness characterized her covenant relation--seldom absent from the scenes of public wors.h.i.+p; and the more remarkable in view of her untiring zeal and devotion in her specially G.o.d-given calling. Many will rise up and call her blessed, because, so true of her, ”she went about doing good.” My own indebtedness to her, as a pastor, was great. Her sympathy with the ministry seemed innate. Full of faith, and rich in peculiar experience, she was the one ”to step in” at the minister's for a half-hour; and here, incidentally, I may say, that her practical views of life and knowledge of human ways turned to my advantage on repeated occasions, whenever she reported a case as worthy or unworthy. When an application for aid or comfort required investigation--that is, ultimate cases requiring delicate, careful treatment, often impossible for the pastor to do--her feminine instinct and sagacity of experience took it in hand with a readiness that was surprising, in view of her always full hands. A gentle, trustful soul, a frank, unwavering friend, a pious, useful woman, and a faithful wife and mother, her rest will be sweet.