"The night cometh when no man can work."--JOHN, ix.
Oh! my sister! my sister! What a lesson may we learn from the death of
our dear Amelia! She was but sixteen years old like myself, and only
two years older than you are, but how much had she done for the Lord. I
saw and heard her, when Jesus came to call her to himself; I was in the
churchyard when they placed her body in the grave! Oh! what a solemn
warning! and now I feel humbled before God, and I pray Him to pour into
my heart the same Spirit which He bestowed so abundantly upon our
friend, as well as that lively faith, which although Amelia 'is dead,
yet speaketh,' as it is said of Abel, and which shall speak through her
for many years to come!
I wrote to you less than a fortnight ago, that Amelia was unwell; but
how little I then thought it was her last illness! Oh! how uncertain
our life is, dear Esther, and how much wiser we should be if we would
only believe so!
On the seventh day of her illness, her mother said to me, "Anna, your
friend is going to leave us; the danger of her disorder increases every
hour, and we must give her up to God!"
I wept much and bitterly, and could not at first believe it; but when I
was alone with Amelia, the next day, she said to me, with that calm
peacefulness which never left her, "I am going away from this world,
Anna; yes, dear Anna, I am going to depart; I feel it, and ... I am
preparing myself for it!"
I tried to turn away her thoughts from this subject; I told her that
she was mistaken, and that God would certainly restore her; but she
stopped me with firmness of manner, and said, "Do you envy my
happiness, Anna? Do you wish to prevent me from going to my Heavenly
home, to my Saviour, unto his light and glory?" The entrance of her
father and the Doctor prevented my reply, and I left the room in tears.
"You must not cry," said her mother to me. "We must pray, and above
all, seek profit from the occasion. The time is short! Her end is at
hand! But," added this servant of Christ, "_that_ end is the beginning
of a life which shall have no end!"
Three more days passed away. On the fourth, we had some faint hope, but
the following day, all had vanished, and towards evening, Amelia
declared, that the Lord was about to take her.
"Yes, my dear parents, my excellent father and mother," she said, with
a beam of heavenly joy on her countenance, "I am about to leave you;
but I do not leave my God, for I am going to see Him, 'face to face.'"
"My dear parents," she continued, affectionately, "rejoice at my
departure; I am going to Heaven a little before you, it is true, but it
is _only before you_, and you know it; and the Apostle says, that, 'to
be with Christ is far better.'"