“I am so glad you came this afternoon, Bessie dear,” said Nellie, when the flowers were arranged. “I have something so happy to tell you.” Bessie looked at her with surprise, wondering what happiness poor suffering Nellie could have left to her.
“I have been thinking for a long time,” said Nellie, “how little I have done for the Lord Jesus. I have been shut out from people so long, that I’m afraid no one knows I love him; and I can’t bear to go away from earth without a word out loud for him. So Bessie, I am going to be confirmed. That will be standing up for Jesus, and it’s all I can do.”
“But, Nellie dear, how can you be confirmed? You hav’n’t been out of your room for months, and church is more than two miles away.”
“I can do it for Jesus,” she said firmly. “Mr. Gray has promised to take me in his carriage, and to carry me up in the church.”
Bessie could say no more. Her heart was full, and she threw her arms round Nellie’s neck and wept.
“I want you to come with me, Bessie dear,” said Nellie. But Bessie could not speak. So Nellie went on, and said: “You have your whole life to live for him, so you ought to begin right off. But mine is so nearly ended, that I must come now, or I never can come. It’s all I can do. But Bessie I want you to come with me.”
And they did both come. Bessie held back at first, afraid of herself, but Nellie talked so sweetly to her that she had to yield. “When Jesus called the little child to him, Bessie,” said her friend, “don’t you think he would have felt hurt if he had held back, and refused to come to him? Suppose he had said he wasn’t good enough, or old enough! Jesus wanted him, just as he was. He had plenty of grown up people. He wanted a little child then, and he wants us now.”
It was a touching sight when the sick child was carried up the aisle, to join her young companions at the chancel; and when the bishop laid his hands on her head, and his voice trembled there was not a dry eye in the church.
Not long after, Nellie was carried again into the church. Yet this time it was not Nellie herself, but only the poor worn body that had suffered so long, and was now at rest. Her sufferings were now over, and her work was done. Her spirit was with her Saviour she had loved, to be forever happy in his presence.