“I have lost a young disciple, endeared to me by a truly parental tie. Yet how can I complain of that as lost which God has found? Her willing and welcome voice no longer seeks or imparts instruction here. But it is far better employed. The angels, who rejoiced over her when her soul first turned to God, who watched the progress of her short pilgrimage, and who have now carried her triumphantly to the heavenly hills, have already taught her to join
‘In holy song, their own immortal strains.’
Why then should I mourn? The whole prospect, as it concerns her, is filled with joy and immortality: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’”
As I looked upon the dewdrops which rested on the grass and hung from the branches of the trees, I observed that the sun’s rays first filled them with beautiful and varied colours; then dried them up, and they were seen no longer.
Thus it was with myself. The tears which I neither would nor could restrain, when I first began thus to reflect on the image of the dying chamber of little Jane, were speedily brightened by the vivid sunshine of hope and confidence. They then gradually yielded to the influence of
that divine principle which shall finally wipe the tear from every eye, and banish all sorrow and sighing for evermore.
On the fourth day from thence, Jane was buried. I had never before committed a parishioner to the ground with similar affections. The attendants were not many, but I was glad to perceive among them some of the children who had been accustomed to receive my weekly private instruction along with her.
I wished that the scene might usefully impress their young hearts, and that God would bless it to their edification.
As I stood at the head of the grave, during the service, I connected past events, which had occurred in the churchyard, with the present. In this spot Jane first learned the value of that gospel which saved her soul. Not many yards from her own burial-place, was the epitaph which has already been described as the first means of affecting her mind with serious and solemn conviction. It seemed to stand at this moment as a peculiar witness for those truths which its lines proclaimed to every passing reader. Such an association of objects produced a powerful effect on my thoughts.
The evening was serene—nothing occurred to interrupt the quiet solemnity of the occasion.