Now turn to the picture painted by her who is now with the redeemed on high; she says:
"_After receiving the Bible they were greatly changed, and attended our place of worship on the Sabbath._ They gave evidence of being now deeply impressed." What impressed them? Two things worthy of notice: 1. The Word. 2. The Worship. Now, there are some people who imagine that they can go to heaven if they stay at home and read the Bible. This is all very well in its place, but we must not forget the a.s.sembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. Some try to live a Christian life outside of the Church. This is a sad mistake.
CHAPTER XVI.
STRUGGLES AND TRIUMPHS.
Oh! land of the blessed, thy shadowless skies Sometimes in my dreaming I see: I hear the glad songs that the glorified sing Steal over eternity"s sea.
Though dark are the shadows that gather between, I know that thy morning is fair; I catch but a glimpse of thy glory and light, And whisper. Would G.o.d I were there!
O Saviour, prepare my spirit to share Forever with thee those mansions fair.
There is never a day so dreary but G.o.d by his Holy spirit can illumine the darkness by revealing to the Christian the home beyond the flood.
"He giveth to his beloved songs in the night." There is no pathway in life so intricate but what if we ask divine guidance He will give it.
There are crosses in this brief life, that must be carried patiently and joyfully until the end of the journey. Oh! how comforting is the thought that in all our afflictions Christ was afflicted, and the angel of His presence strengthened Him. Those hands that were nailed to the Cross on Calvary, are constantly stretched out to a.s.sist the way-worn traveller up the rugged road of life. There never was a human heart so crushed and broken by the sorrows of earth but what Christ can heal, for that heart that was broken on Golgotha pants and heaves toward earth"s sufferers. How beautifully expressive is the paraphrase:
"Though now ascended up on high, He bends on earth a brother"s eye."
The tender watch care of the G.o.d of Israel is the same to-day as it was when Ruth, the Moabitess, said unto Naomi: "Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace." And she said unto her: Go, my daughter. And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz.... And, behold! Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers: "The Lord be with you." (Ruth ii.
2-4.) In this whole narrative we behold the law of loving kindness of Jehovah strikingly exemplified through His own covenanted people. He reveals, in a marvellous manner, His grace and goodness to thousands of them that love Him and keep His commandments. Hence, the virtue of every benevolent transaction lies in the motive by which we are actuated. As Paul says: "The love of Christ constrains us." Whatever we give, whatever G.o.d"s children do for the alleviation of the sorrows and sufferings of earth, they do it with an eye single to His glory, they continually hear Christ"s voice saying unto them: "This do in remembrance of me."
We see these principles practically ill.u.s.trated in the wonderful experience of her whose struggles and triumphs for the blessed Christ we are now prayerfully considering. For example, in February, 1874, she writes:
"Through the kindness of those interested in the poor, I have been enabled to supply the wants of many. One kind lady, belonging to the Bible Society, gave me ten dollars, part to a.s.sist one family with fuel and groceries, and the rest for another, where the husband had been ill for a long time, and finding it difficult to obtain employment, had been suffering for the common necessaries of life. I also received orders from this lady for coal and groceries, for other poor families, to be obtained through the visitors of the poor.
"In one home where I placed some provisions on the table, a little boy said to his mother, "Mamma, mustn"t you get down and pray, and thank G.o.d for these things?" When I enter some of these homes they are full of sadness and gloom, but I am often thankful to feel I leave hope and cheerfulness behind me, when I go away. In the greater number of these families it is want of employment that causes the trouble--they are willing and anxious to work, but it cannot be procured.
"One family, consisting of a husband, wife, and three children, the youngest ten days old, was found very dest.i.tute. They had parted with even every article of clothing, except what they had on, and had neither fuel nor food. The poor woman wept as she said, "She had never before known such dest.i.tution." I gave them some relief, and then engaged in prayer with them. They were both much affected, and said it was the first time a prayer had ever been offered in that house by any one. I sent them some coal, and procured other relief for them, and now they are comfortable, the man having obtained some work.
"Another family, in which there are two children (the father dying of consumption--the mother very delicate), are wholly dependent on charity. The woman is very industrious, and always ready to do what she can, but it is hard to procure employment. I have read and talked with the man, after supplying their temporal wants, and especially impressed upon him the promise, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name it shall be given to you." He listened--had been thinking of his past life--but he said all seemed dark to him. I have prayed with him, and he thought light broke in upon him. He said, "He saw more clearly," and after some days professed to be happy. And now, while the tears rolled down his cheeks, he says, "I am willing to go and (looking around on the little circle) resign all these into the arms of Jesus." I prayed with him before I left.
"A friend asked me to go and see a poor sick woman in the same dest.i.tute circ.u.mstances, the husband being out of work. A sad sight met my eyes; the poor woman lay coughing on the bed, as if she could not last much longer, the children standing by the bed, dirty and uncared for; the floor black, window curtain hanging in rags, while the mother could do nothing. They receive one dollar a week from the Poor a.s.sociation. I a.s.sisted her, and promised to look to the children; talked with her and then read and prayed. She clasped my hand as I arose from my knees and said, "You are the first person who ever prayed with me; oh! it makes me happy, and I hope G.o.d will hear your prayers."
Trial seems to open the hearts of these poor ones to religious impressions.
"A few days since, visiting a little girl (belonging to a Catholic family) who is in our Sewing-school, the mother put her hand in her pocket and took out some change, saying, "This is all the money I have at present, take it and use it for the poor; I wish it was a great deal more, and," she added, "when you find any one hungry and wanting a loaf of bread, come to me, and I will give you some money; my little girl often tells me what you say to her in the Sewing-school, or when you meet her in the street." Thus I receive encouragement on every side, and am never in want of some aid for those who need it so much. My dear friend, who was removed from me by death last summer, often used to say, "Never fear, Mrs. Knowles, when the Lord takes away one support, he raises another." And so I have found it. My Superintendent is always ready to a.s.sist, and our Sewing-school, aided by her and other ladies, is very prosperous. Perhaps _want_ may drive many to us, but we trust they will be also benefited by the instruction there received, and carry the lessons home.
"One poor woman gave me a dollar for a Bible I left with her some months since. "For," she says, "the Lord has blessed her since she has begun to read it." Another poor woman paid 25 cents for one, for "she wanted it in the house for the good of the children." And two others were also sold.
"A number of children have been brought to Sabbath-school, and several induced to attend church. In beginning a New Year, I trust increased devotion to the work will bring on added blessing."
How tenderly and lovingly she notes the kind lady who gave her the ten dollars for the sick family whose prop and stay was out of employment.
Those who are familiar with the sad sights of want and woe in all our large cities, will be able to appreciate the naturalness of the foregoing description of missionary work among the poor and lowly.
Shakespeare"s account of a complete lady lacks one essential qualification, _benevolence_. He says:
"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 ladyship 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 astonishing 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: