"I lean on my Saviour's breast
In this hour of mortal pain;
Oh, strong are His arms! and sweet my rest!
Farewell! till we meet again."
The expected hour though long of coming arrived at last. As long as she seemed to realize what was transpiring around her, and when too weak to converse, she would signify by a word or motion that she had peace and all was well. About a quarter past 11 o'clock Friday night, March 13, 1863, "the silver cord was loosed," and she sweetly fell asleep in Jesus, aged twenty-eight years, four months, and sixteen days. On the Tuesday following we buried her from the village church, where ten years before she had decided to come out openly on the Lord's side. It was crowded. Three ministers, from as many different denominations, assisted me in the services. Her mother and sister (the wife of Dr. G. O. Somers) were too feeble to attend. But we hope soon to greet her where—to use her own words,
"Earthly love is like the starlight lost
In glorious sunshine, and the things of time
Shrink into nothing: even death itself
Fades like a shadow in the noontide blaze,
And life—new, glorious, everlasting life—
Expands the soul, and all it ever dreamed
Of heavenly bliss becomes reality."
Above the stillness of death we hear the words of inspiration: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints"; "Thy dead shall live again"; and in hope we wait. The weary pilgrim has reached her resting-place. She lies in the chamber of Peace, whose windows open toward the sunrising.
SELECTIONS
Thou King of kings, Almighty One!
bend unto me the ear
That listens to the music
of every rolling sphere,
And guide, oh guide my feeble hand
to strike my slumbering lyre
To strains harmonious and divine,
and every thought inspire.
—Poems, p. 9.
RURAL SCENES.
THE WALK IN JUNE.
A walk in June, in early June,
Our sweet Canadian June—
When every tree is all in leaf,
And every bird in tune;
When laughing rills leap down the hills
And through the meadows play,
Inviting to their verdant banks
The old, the young, the gay.