"THE LAMB IS THE LIGHT THEREOF."
"Nannie, Nannie,--where's Nannie?" Jack called one pleasant summer
morning.
Just then Nannie's voice was heard singing, and she came into the
kitchen, where Jack was.
"Nannie, father has just gone down to Grannie Burt's, and he wants you
to go there too. Mother is going now, and she says you may go with her
if you'll make haste."
Nannie was off in a minute for her sun-bonnet, and very soon was walking
with her mother and Jack through the tree-bordered lane; very quietly now
though, for she knows that grannie is dying, and she thinks to herself,
"Grannie will be in heaven to-night," and the little face brightens as
she thinks of the beauties of the heavenly city; "and grannie will see
too--why, how happy she must be! I should think good people would love
to die. It's like going to some beautiful world we've heard of." But as
Nannie looked up at the trees, and the heavy white clouds above them,
and then down at the green carpet of grass at her feet, she thought it
would be _leaving_ a beautiful world too.
Now they reach the little brown house, and Nannie begins to feel a
little frightened. She creeps in timidly behind her mother, and sits
down at the foot of the bed, while Jack sits down on the door-step. Soon
grannie says feebly,--
"Has Nannie come?"
"Yes," said her mother; "Nannie's here."
"Nannie, come where I can touch you."
As Nannie comes nearer, grannie stretches out her hand, and laying it on
her head, says in a low voice,--
"God bless thee--God bless thee, my child! I have never seen you here,
Nannie, but I shall know you in heaven. I shan't need to ask you to read
to me there, for I shall see. But read to me here once more,
Nannie--once more."
Nannie lifts up for the last time grannie's worn Bible, and begins to
read, as she has so often read before,--
_"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth."_
Very still it was in the chamber of death, while the little head bowed
over the sacred book, and the tearful voice read of the glories of that
land whither the wearied one was going. Fainter and fainter grew the
breath; and as the child read the words, _"And the city hath no need of
the sun or moon to lighten it, for the Lamb is the light thereof,"_ the
lids closed over the sightless eyes here--but opened there, where the
Lamb is the light. Grannie Burt was in heaven.
Long she listened for His footsteps,
Echoing from those streets of gold--
Now just within the pearly gates,
She is no longer old.
The pilgrim-staff is broken--
The worn-out garment fold
And lay away for ever,--
She is no longer old.
Farewell, farewell, our mother!
Our greatest joy is told,
As we fold the aged hands and say,
She is no longer old.
Twice have the trees blossomed, and twice the autumn leaves fallen,
since first we met our little friend Nannie. We have given but a few
pages in the life of those few years; there have been many others--some,
perhaps, in which the little girl forgot to ask for help in her trying,
and therefore failed.
It may seem hard to be trying on and on, never yielding to
discouragement; but if you should see Nannie's bright eyes and happy
face, you would not think so; and if you should ask Nannie if she was
tired of trying, I think she would answer, _"Her ways are ways of
pleasantness, and all her paths are peace."_
We may perhaps hear of Nannie again, and of the success which always
follows faithful effort. But whether we do or not, I can let you into
the secret of her future life. Here it is in these words:--
_"Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but the woman that feareth
the Lord, she shall be praised."_