Now, such was truly the case with our departed friend. Her eye was not dim, nor her hand heavy even to the last. Even after the fatal illness had set in upon her, she assembled the teachers and school-children of the place where she was sojourning; and as disease advanced, she said with characteristic energy to her faithful attendant, “If I go home I must do more for God, and you must keep me up to it.” But there was no return in prospect; her work was finished, and she has entered on her rest.
III. The work.
Now, the text teaches us at the outset, that the work to which our Lord referred was an appointed work. “I must work the works of him that sent me.” He was sent to carry out God’s purpose, and intrusted with an apostleship from the Father, to which apostleship he here refers. In the same sense, every individual has his apostleship or mission. The trust may vary, and no two men have the same mission. One has money committed to him, one time, one stores of knowledge; another family ties, and another widely-extended influence; but all have their work from God. The master, the servant, the rich, the poor, the preacher, the hearer, the clergyman, the layman, the father, the child—all have their mission; and it is the part of the wise Christian to endeavour to see clearly what that mission is, and then to lay himself out for the work to which God has called and fitted him.
Now, I think that all who knew our dear departed friend must acknowledge that this was pre-eminently the case with her. She was one who had her mission, and endeavoured most faithfully to fulfil it. She was intrusted with property, and you all know what use she made of it. She did not keep it as if it were her own, but employed it, as knowing that it was her Lord’s.
She was intrusted with time and fine talents, and we all know how she used them.
Remember her interest in foreign objects. How great was her zeal for missionary work! Even in her dying hours, she left her charge that 50l. be given to the Mandingo Mission, a Mission scarcely known in the Church, but which had been brought to her notice by a friend. How steady and stimulating was her attachment to the Bible Society! and how did her heart yearn to the very last over the wrongs and woes of Africa! Never yet was there a more zealous and intelligent supporter of the great foreign enterprises of the Church of Christ.
But some persons are disposed to say, Why always think of Africa, and foreign lands? Why not turn your attention more to home? In answer to which inquiry, I would simply say, that I believe it to be capable of the most indisputable proof that, as a general rule, the best friends of Africa are the best philanthropists at home. The fact is, that Christian love is expansive in its character, and cannot be chained down to one locality. And of this we have just parted with a noble proof. She was zealous for Africa, but there was no neglect of her own neighbourhood. Let the fishermen all along the coast bear their testimony, and it must be to her zeal and energy for their good. Let the lads who used to meet on Sunday afternoons for instruction bear their witness to the reality of her Christian perseverance. Let the young women of the village, and the school children that were privileged to meet for instruction every morning at the cottage, let them give their evidence, and it must be to the most steady and affectionate perseverance for their welfare. Oh! that these lessons may be now remembered! Oh! that the voice may be listened to from the grave, and that the seed so carefully sown may be found to spring up to present holiness and future blessedness in Christ Jesus! Nor was this limited to purely religious effort. Look back upon her deep interest in all that befell the shipping. Remember her energy with reference to her gun. Recall her energetic figure seated on the cliff in the midst of the storm, to stimulate the efforts of those who were endeavouring to save the shipwrecked sailors. Recall all this, and remember that it was done in the midst of physical infirmity and pain, that might well have justified an indulgent consideration of self. If any one might have claimed exemption from active effort it was she. If any one might have pleaded disability it was she; and her conduct is a noble evidence of the power of the heart to overcome the body, and a splendid proof that faith and zeal never recognize impediments, except as fresh incentives to energetic activity for God.
And now, brethren, all this activity is over. She rests from her labours, and her works do follow her. But there is a great void left in this neighbourhood. A gap is made and the responsibility of filling it is thrown on the survivors. It is well, therefore, for us all to remember that our own night-time is rapidly advancing. On how many well known to those here present has it already closed! How many workmen for God are already in their rest! Let your mind look back to one of the Meetings of the Bible or Church Missionary Society some fifteen or twenty years ago. On how large a proportion of those who were then the active labourers has the night already closed! There you might have heard that manly and energetic labourer for God, Sir Fowell Buxton, in full vigour pleading for God and men, but his night is come: and my own dear father by his side, full of sterling, high principled, Christian zeal; but his night too is come: and the faithful pastor of the little flock at Gresham, always ready to take a part on such occasions, but his night is come: and our zealous friend from Sherringham, who rejoiced to co-operate in every such enterprise, but her night is come: and the two Cottage Ladies united in the strong bond of sisterly affection, and acting together with a sacred unanimity for God, but now their suns have both set, they now rest as they once lived, together, and the night has closed in on almost the whole of that noble company. But there were present likewise young men, just rising into life, and just beginning to put forth their powers; and time has now done its work with them. Some, indeed, it has cut down, so that their sun has set even at noon; but for the most part it has had the effect of placing them where their fathers then stood. Their own brows are becoming furrowed, and their own hairs grey. They have already reached the afternoon of life. The shades even of evening are beginning to appear among those who were then lads and listeners. And now that they have been this day called to follow to the grave almost the last of a whole generation of faithful labourers passed away, the lesson spoken to them from the tomb is surely that conveyed in the text, “I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.”
But in speaking of this sacred work we must not lose sight of the paramount importance of a personal work in our own soul. It would be, indeed, an awful thing to be compelled to acknowledge, “They made me the keeper of the vineyards, and mine own vineyard have I not kept;” to preach to others, and yet oneself to be a cast away; to work as a philanthropist, and perish as an unconverted man. We should take, therefore, a most imperfect view of the subject, if we were to neglect the consideration of the personal work within.
And this we ought to carry through all departments, for God has given to each man certain powers, and these should be improved. We are not at liberty to leave neglected the high gifts which God has given us. The intellect which God has bestowed should not lie dormant. And I cannot but think that we have parted with a noble example in this respect. How vigorous was her spirit of self-improvement! How stimulating was her influence on all who came within her reach! How urgent she was with young men that they should aim high, and not sit at ease satisfied with inferiority! and what a fine example did she herself set them! What a contrast did she present to the listless, fanciful, and indolent novel reader upon the sofa! How manfully did she grapple with one language one after another! I cannot enumerate those that she had acquired, but this we all know that she qualified herself to become the valued correspondent of the first linguists of the day; and now, if, beside her grave, we could have breathed a wish of such a kind, it would have been that she could have left us, as a legacy, some small fraction of the rich stores of her accumulated knowledge!