“Oh! what a glorious, happy prospect, dear grandmamma! Would that I could feel sure of being one even of these feeblest stars!”
|How Heaven is Obtained.| “There is but one way, my child,” replied the other, “of joining that bright company of which we have been speaking. It is the blood of Jesus alone that can open these glorious gates. But that blood has opened them, and keeps them open still, to the chief of sinners. That blessed Redeemer seems still to stand at the gate of heaven, and say, ‘I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.’
“But I feel, my dear Emma, that my strength is failing, and I am unable to speak more to you this evening. Give me your Bible, and I shall double down the leaf at my favourite description of the joys of heaven.” She accordingly took her little grandchild’s Bible, and putting a mark with her aged finger at the seventh chapter of Revelation, thirteenth verse, returned it to her again, saying, “Should you, my child, be with me at my dying hour, when my tongue is too feeble to speak, remember to read to me that sweet passage. I have often wished that I might have some one to read to me these words when I pass through the Dark Valley.”
|Conclusion.| Little did Emma suppose that the words which now fell upon her ear would so soon come true. A few weeks only passed by, when her grandmother was laid upon a bed of sickness and pain, which soon proved a bed of death. The aged saint bore up under her sufferings with calmness and fortitude. She was kept in perfect peace, for her mind was stayed on God. Her dear little grandchild was her faithful companion during her last hours. The night before her death, when she was fast sinking, and her lips getting paler and paler, Emma remembered faithfully the request made to her. The tear started to her eye as she opened her Bible, and saw the leaf still folded down. She read it with a trembling voice. The poor old sufferer was able to do no more than clasp her withered hands as the happy sentences fell on her ears. When she had fallen asleep in Jesus, and was laid in the churchyard which she had so often looked to from her window, Emma delighted to go with her Bible in her hand, and, sitting on the green turf which covered her grave, to read the well‐known passage: “And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple: and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”
Transcriber’s Notes
A Table of Contents has been added for convenience.
In the caption for the [frontispiece], “Grandmama” has been changed to “Grandmamma” to make it consistent with the rest of the project.