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 God I were there!
O Saviour, prepare my spirit to share
Forever with thee those mansions fair.
There is never a day so dreary but God 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 assist 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 God 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 God'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 illustrated 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 assist 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
God 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 destitute. 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 destitution.' 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
destitute circumstances, 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
Association. I assisted 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 God 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 assist, 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 lusty 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 lusty singer, but a very poor giver, and
when the collection box was being passed 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 circumstances 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 God's dealings with this missionary woman,
their hearts will swell with great gratitude and gladness, to think that
God 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 God 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 gratitude 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 God for all these things?"
Absorbed in serious reflection, he instantly and spontaneously
recognized God 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.