HER FAITHFULNESS IN LITTLE THINGS.
There are small things in daily life
In which I may obey,
And thus may show my love to Thee;
And always--every day--
There are some little loving words
Which I for Thee may say.
"He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful in much."
She continues to write with her usual forcible descriptiveness: "I found
a mother and daughter in a damp room, on the ground floor of a tenement
building, in a wretched condition. The room was furnished with a broken
stove, one chair, two trunks, and some bedding spread on the floor, as
they had no bedstead. _Both_ were very lame, and the girl quite feeble
for want of care and nourishment. After relieving their immediate wants,
I tried to lead them to Christ. The girl was so sick and discouraged it
was difficult to convince her that any one cared for her, but at length
she cried, and said, 'How nice it is to have some one talk kindly to
me.' From that time she began to read the Bible for herself, and would
often speak to me of different passages of the Scriptures. But after a
while the landlord ordered them to move, because they could not pay
their rent, and with some effort I succeeded in sending the mother into
the country, and placing the girl in a hospital.
"Two other persons, who through a blessing on my labors have become
deeply interested, and even led to study the Bible, have now openly
professed Christ."
Take another glance at the above touching scene and behold the lively
exercise of her wonderful sagacity and powers of observation. This
graphic representation of squalor and consummate misery gives
pre-eminence to her adaptedness as a successful missionary of the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The eyes of the blessed Jesus, the model
worker, were not closed to the wants and woes of humanity, hence his
formidable power in preparing an entrance into the hearts of the people.
Her Christ-like visits, carrying the rich treasure of the glad tidings,
found an echo in the soul of those she visited. Although her elementary
education had been sadly neglected, yet nevertheless, by her close study
of God's Word and her varied experience for over fifty years in the
lower part of a city like New York, she knew full well how to adapt
herself to circumstances. Let us calmly follow her footsteps into this
lofty tenement building and watch her movements. See how minutely she
describes the sad scene. If a murder had been committed in the house and
a reporter from the _New York Herald_, or any other paper, had called to
take notes, he could not have been more minute in his description of the
surroundings than she. All the collateral or subordinate information
essentially necessary to convey an accurate idea of a true picture
peculiarly calculated to throw a flood of light on the whole panorama
are carefully furnished us by her notes. And here we are forcibly
reminded of the pithy and succinct saying of Scotia's beloved bard,
Burns:
"A chiel's amang ye taking notes."
Notice how she enumerates the persons and things in the apartment. The
mother and daughter. The damp room. The ground floor. The wretchedness.
The broken stove. The one chair. The two trunks. The bedding spread on
the floor. The absence of a bedstead. The lameness. The feebleness. How
consummate the skill displayed in her graphic and touching description
of pitiable facts emanating from her pen with such brilliancy of
rhetorical power; and all spontaneously springing not from the schools
of moral and intellectual philosophy, but from the school of Christ
Jesus her Lord who said to his sorrowful disciples: "These things have I
spoken unto you, being yet present with you, but the Comforter, which is
the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, _he shall teach
you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I
have said unto you_." The _Paraclete_, who is infinitely competent to
perform the instruction necessary amid all the exigencies of life, and
by whose divine influence every difficulty and trial is easily adjusted,
was evidently her great instructor.
"The girl," she says, "was quite feeble for want of care and
nourishment." In a public address recently delivered in this city by the
good and kind Dr. John Hall, of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, at
the opening of a Newsboys' Lodging House, on the corner of Eighth Street
and Avenue B, an institution built through the liberality of Mrs. Robert
L. Stuart, at a cost of $50,000, the doctor said, "A man left to himself
will choose the bad rather than the good, because the majority do, and
it is easier besides. As crime breeds misery, so misery too often breeds
crime. _We should take note of this fact and try to mend it._"
Mr. Bruce, another speaker, said "thousands of children, assisted, have
gone West, and now own farms and are prosperous." He concluded his
address by asking the boys to cheer Mrs. Stuart, which they did
gratefully for their new home provided by this inestimable and generous
lady.--_New York Daily Tribune_, Tuesday, March 29, 1887.
It is the philanthropist's great aim to defend the moral honor of the
homeless as well as to minister to their temporal necessities. This
important service was rendered to thousands by our model missionary
woman, and eternity alone will disclose the gigantic results.
But let us more specifically analyze her course of conduct under the
foregoing circumstance. In the first place _she immediately relieved
their wants_. I have read somewhere the story of Dr. Guthrie when he was
first called to the metropolis of Edinburgh. Of their filling his
pockets with tracts, and with all the ardor of his noble heart,
commenced his great work. He ascended the creaking stairs of a high
building in the old town, and knocking at the door, an elderly woman
made her appearance, whereupon he proffered her a tract. Looking
earnestly upon him, and in a loud shrill voice she exclaimed,
pathetically: "'Deed, Sir, I dinna want yeer tracts, I weed thank ye for
a loaf o' breed." Ah! he thought to himself, here is a case of
destitution, and excusing himself he hurried down-stairs, and going to
the baker he ordered bread, and to the butcher he ordered beef, and to
the grocer he ordered some English breakfast tea and sugar, a few
dainties, and a cart of coal, and requested them to be sent at once to
the woman in want. Calling a few days afterward he found her comfortably
seated with a neighbor around a cheerful hearthstone drinking their
newly made tea. When she opened the door she enthusiastically exclaimed,
"Come awa, noo, Doctor, I am ready to hear you on the subject o'
religion." Our departed sister also recognized the necessity of
attending to the temporal as well as the spiritual wants of her
parishioners simultaneously. "_After relieving their wants I tried to
lead them to Christ._"
We shall now proceed to show that this incident, in conformity to the
teaching of God's Word, assures us that suffering and want are the
means used by the kind providence of God to lead the careless sinner to
seek a saving interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. David says, "Before I
was afflicted I went astray, and thou in faithfulness hast afflicted
me." He delivereth the poor in his affliction. "The Lord will not cast
us off forever. But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion
according to the multitude of his mercies." And here is the reason
given: "_For He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of
men_."--Lam. iii. 31-33.
In this instructive part of the diary we find described a truly
pathetic and animated scene. A humble missionary woman leading souls to
Christ. This employment excites the deep interest and profound
admiration of heaven. The general assembly and church of the first born
above are intently gazing on, not as idle spectators, but the angels
may be observed pressing through the crowd of crowned ones with
glory-lit face, and sanctified step, communicating the cheering
intelligence of accessions to the ranks of the church militant which
must swell the highest strains of celestial music and deeply increase
and augment the joy of the church triumphant.
In the hour of deep distress this woman was sent by God to relieve the
wants of this stricken household, and at the same time lead them "to
the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world." There are many,
alas, who see no beauty in the despised Nazarene until, by deep
suffering, they are absolutely compelled to completely renounce self
and to fall down, wounded and bleeding and bruised and heart-broken at
the feet of Him who shed the last drop of his crimson blood on the
Cross of Calvary for our salvation.
"Two others," she adds, "at this date, have been led to _study the
Bible_ and have openly professed Christ." What extraordinary events
cluster around this _special agency_ employed by the Holy Spirit to
bring about such a glorious result. It is the enemy's intention to lead
persons in distress and misery to commit crime. This is the testimony of
all history, but God saves His own in the hour of peril, and not
unfrequently by weak instrumentalities. Near Loch Katrine, encircled by
lofty mountains and where the scenery which fringes it is of the wildest
character; where, as Scott says in his "Lady of the Lake," the briar
rose and fell in streamers green,
And creeping shrubs of thousand dyes,
Waved in the west wind's summer sighs,
Boon nature scattered free and wild
Each plant or flower, the mountain's child,
Here eglantine embalmed the air,
Hawthorn and hazel mingled there.
The primrose pale and violet flower,
Found in each cliff's narrow bower;
Foxglove and nightshade side by side,
Emblems of punishment and pride;
Gray birch and aspen wept beneath;
Aloft the ash and warrior oak,
Cast anchor in the rifted rock;
And higher yet the pine-tree hung,
His shattered trunk, and frequent flung
Where seemed the cliff to meet on high,
His boughs athwart the narrow sky,
So wondrous wild, the whole might seem
The scenery of a fairy dream.
Here, in a roughly wooded island, the country people secreted their
wives and children, and their most valuable effects from the rapacity
of Cromwell's soldiers during their inroad into Scotland. The soldiers
resolved to plunder this island; an expert swimmer swam toward it to
fetch the boat to his comrades, which had carried the women to their
place of refuge. It lay moored in one of the creeks; his companions
stood watching on the shore; but just as the soldier reached the
nearest point of the island, and was laying hold of a black rock to get
on shore, a heroine who stood on the very point where he meant to land,
hastily snatching a dagger from below her tartan apron, with one quick,
sharp stroke severed his jugular vein, killing him instantly.
The soldiers on the other shore seeing the disaster, relinquished all
future hope of revenge or conquest, and made the best of their way out
of a perilous position. Thus the women and children and valuables were
saved by the bravery of this noble heroine, Ellen Stuart. Such is the
way God saves the family to-day, by guiding the feet of our missionary
to many a distressed household, instantly relieving their wants, and
putting in their hands the Word of the Spirit which is the Word of God.
Let this record be an incentive to others to go and do likewise, by
pleading for the poor and the fatherless. God grant that her words may
be as goads to arouse sleepy professors to a realizing sense of their
great obligation to Him who is the God of Israel, our father's God, and
we will trust Him.