“Frances M. Buss.”
Those who knew her best know best the force of the description given of her by her friend Miss Beale in her deeply appreciative sketch[[16]]—
[16]. Guardian, January 9, 1895.
“How full of prayer was her life only a few intimate friends know; one felt that for her the words were true, ‘They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength;’ and one is glad to think that these words are in a higher sense true for her now—
‘I count that heaven itself is only work
To a surer issue,’
and that those who have entered into rest, yet rest not, but in their glorified life give utterance to that fuller vision of holiness which was once hidden by the clouds of earth.”
The prayerful attitude of spirit characteristic of all who live “as seeing things invisible” must tend to the graces of simplicity and humility. Nothing was more touching than to note these special graces in one so strong and so capable, so eager and impetuous, and dowered with a will that swept everything before it. Her own personal wants were of the simplest, and no one ever gave less trouble to those around her. From Mr. Latham, who, as secretary to the Endowed Schools’ Commission, saw most of her in her public life, comes a very striking testimony to this point in her character when, after acknowledging with full appreciation how she “has done the state good service,” he adds—
“The simplicity of her life and the tranquillity of her demeanour always seemed to me to mark her out in rather a special way among her comrades in the cause of the education of women and girls, of which she was a most distinguished pioneer.”
Amid the apparently endless multiplicity of her objects in life ran the one simple purpose of faithful service, and thus in all complexity there was still a complete order. Confusion is the result only of the clash of selfish aims with social duties. To the “heart at leisure from itself” life must always remain simple and harmonious.