In hope that sends a shining ray
Far down the future’s broadening way;
In peace that only Thou canst give,
With Thee, O Master, let me live.”
The assurance of reunion was well advertised by
Songs at a Missionary’s Grave
The great missionary, James Gilmour, of Mongolia, lost his beloved wife at Peking. In a letter to his children’s uncle in Scotland, to whom Mr. Gilmour had decided to entrust the two boys after their mother’s death, he wrote: “Oh, it is hard to think of them going off over the world in that motherless fashion! We were at mamma’s grave yesterday for the first time since September 21. We sang ‘There’s a Land That Is Fairer Than Day,’ in Chinese, and also a Chinese hymn we have here with a chorus, which says, ‘We’ll soon go and see them in our heavenly home,’ and in English, ‘There is a happy land.’ The children and I have no reluctance in speaking of mamma, and we don’t think of her as here or buried, but as in a fine place, happy and well.”
As the Rev. Mark Guy Pearse approached the end of his great career as minister and author he said to a brother minister concerning his funeral service: “There must be no mourning, no tears, no misery, no gloom. I go not into the gloom but into the dawn. Start the service with ‘Praise God.’ Take all the stops out of the organ and let everybody thunder it out.” Thus it was that there were sung the
Hallelujah Chorus and Doxology at the Funeral Service
His wishes were met, and the memorial service at Kingsway Hall, the headquarters of the West London Mission, was unusual. The organist played “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth” as the people assembled. Then came, “Praise God, From Whom All Blessings Flow.” The triumphant “Hallelujah Chorus” pealed forth at the close.