And whisper: Would God I were there.
Amid the toil and sufferings of earth, how comforting is the assurance in our hearts that Jesus is preparing a place for his people. O, how cheering, when we can adopt the language in the song of Solomon, and say:
"My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies. Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether."
It will not be long before we will be done with the cares and vicissitudes of life, and enter into that "Rest that remains for the people of God." I am sure that in the midst of her toil, she ever found joy in the hope that one day she would be forever with the Lord. She had indeed laid up treasures in heaven, and her earnest desire evidently was, not to go to heaven alone, but to take some others with her. This was the joy of her life. Like the Master who, for the joy that was set before Him, endures the cross. Hence she enjoyed a uniform experience of peace, although she witnessed many a sorrowful sight. A late writer, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, has well observed:
"Joy will reach farthest out to sea where troubled mariners are seeking the shore. Even in your deepest griefs you can rejoice in God. As waves phosphoresce, let joys flash from the swing of the sorrow of your souls. Low measures of feeling are better than ecstacies for ordinary life. God sends His rains in gentle drops, else flowers would be beaten to pieces."
Ah, it was the peace of God that passeth all understanding that enabled her to bear up during the hot summer months in which she penned the following, wherein she says:
"The past three months have been the most trying of any I have experienced since I began my work. There has been much sickness and many deaths. But I have been kept and sustained amid many difficulties. I have been kindly received in many Roman Catholic and Jewish families. A poor woman whose husband was killed a year since, who had lost one child, and has another very sick, is glad to have me read and pray with her, and when I point her to the Saviour she says He is, indeed, her best friend. Another Catholic woman said, she did not see why her priest forbade her reading the Bible, 'for what you have read to me is so beautiful.' When asked if she would like to have a Bible, she said she would, and when I took one to her she gave me twenty-five cents, and said she wished she could give me more. One day I was addressed in the street by a little girl, who asked me to go and see her mother. When I enquired who she was, I found she was a woman whom I had visited some time before. She was very glad to see me, showed me the Testament I had given her, and asked me many questions which would have led to argument; but I told her I only taught the religion of the Lord Jesus, and I wished them to come to Him and seek for light and salvation. She urged me to come again, and gladly listened when I read to them from the Scriptures.
"A young woman on being asked to attend church said, 'The only church I go to is the theatre.' I gave her a Testament which she promised to read; she has now begun to go to church regularly, and says she hopes never again to live the life she has lived. I have been able to take a number of mothers and their children to the sea side, which has been a great blessing. I have given the Bible to two women who have paid for it, and wished for one for a neighbor."
It is a true and striking fact, that there are very few women who ever labored so assiduously for the good of others as this Missionary, especially in trying to save souls and make others happy.