A BRIEF MEMOIR OF THE ILLNESS AND DEATH OF E. A. MY DEAR SIR,-Some months since, I received a message from one of our Sunday-school teachers (I believe) requesting me to visit one of the scholars in her class. I was soon able to comply with the request, and found myself knocking at the door of a pretty little cottage in a busy thoroughfare in this large town. I was soon admitted by the mother of the little patient, who had desired to see me. It was a home where much affliction had been already witnessed, but where large blessings had been vouchsafed; all looked so comfortable and peaceful within. Upon a couch lay a girl asleep; she looked weak and ill; her cheeks were flushed, and her whole appearance indicated the traces of that disease-consumption-which steals in its fatal march so insidiously, and yet so fatally, upon so many in this country, that foreigners have styled it the "English Plague." The poor mother was one of the Lord's servants, and had herself been taught to know the only sure refuge which can avail in the hour of sorrow; and it was a real comfort and pleasure to me to witness the peaceful calm and support a heavenly Father vouchsafed to her during the trial through which she was called to pass. The dear child loved its parent fondly and deeply, and the mother no less loved the child, and gladly would she have retained her, but the only wise God willed it otherwise; the Lord had need of her, and so called her home to inhabit a better country above, of which one says, "Dreams cannot picture a world so fair, E. A. soon awoke after I entered the room. I learnt a few particulars from the mother first, and ascertained that it was the dear child's own wish I should be sent for. To a few questions I put to her, after enquiring a little as to her health, &c., she replied she felt herself a great sinner now, although she did not all the time she was at school. She shed many tears; she did not feel her state as a sinner (she said) all at once, but gradually; she had no hope whatever she should be saved; and, she added, she was afraid when she went to sleep at night she should wake up and be lost. I tried to say a few words to direct E. A. to the only Saviour, and endeavoured to speak for her comfort, well knowing, nevertheless, that the Lord alone could give the blessing. E. A. was one of the most reserved children I have ever met, and I soon felt sure that all she said was genuine and real; and so it proved. 66 E. A.'s conduct at our Sunday-school, where she was for a period of 9 years, was most exemplary. She was of a quiet disposition, and made no companions; and before the Lord was pleased to teach her, she was rather self-righteous, and once said, she was as good a girl as there was in the school;" but “she was of a different opinion after she had seen herself in God's looking-glass." It will be a mercy if some, and perhaps a good many of the readers of the LITTLE GLEANER, could understand this, what does God think of them, and what would He say of them if they died in their present state? How sad if He should say, as once He did, in the mysterious hand-writing upon the wall to an ungodly king, Tekel," "Thou art weighed in the balances, and found wanting ;” and to die thus wanting what will take one to heaven, is to be with those who must hear the awful word, "Depart!" May the Great Teacher open their eyes as He did E. A.'s, that they 66 may not deceive themselves in a matter of such vast moment ! I think it was when E. A. came to school the last time before she was laid by, that she began to feel she was a sinner, and not a child of God; and a sense of this, her state, gradually increased. She used to say, in the middle of the night, "Mother, do you think God will say to me, 'Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire?" She would often say, "I am such an unworthy sinner, even for God to look upon; I am afraid to die, and God alone can help me." When asked if she ever found herself with desires and longings, going forth to God in prayer to teach and to lead her, she replied, "Oh, a hundred times I may say. She was very fond of the hymn : "Oft as the bell, with solemn toll, Upon calling a second time, I found E. A. somewhat brighter. She seemed to have a slight hope; a little book and a tract appeared to have given her comfort. The superintendent of our 1 Sunday-school had also visited the child, and in reading the word, it appeared to have been blessed in working in her a persuasion she should not perish. She requested the 5th chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel to be read to her, and she was particularly struck with and cheered by the 6th verse: "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled,” exclaiming, "I have no righteousness of my own." She afterwards wanted to know where a text was from which she had heard a sermon preached one Good Friday, "I love them that love Me: and those that seek Me early shall find Me." Her mother writes, "E. A. (now) had more comfort, she said, and could see the promise was to her as an unworthy sinner." I like this expression much-it is the very essence of a living faith. "The substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen," as God describes it, who knows; and hence, as an illustration, the word adds: "For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him" (Heb. xi. 1-6). A week after this, she was asked if she felt any hope or rest from the word of God; she at once referred to John v. 24: 66 He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." Nevertheless, after this, her mind was harassed with doubts and fears, and she would often ask her mother, in the middle of the night, "Do you think, mother, that God will say 'Depart'?" The great enemy was not willing to lose this lamb, and thus he sought to terrify when he could not devour; but, though Satan is mighty, the Great and Good Shepherd is Almighty, and will suffer none to be tempted above that they are able to bear, and especially those lambs He carries in His arms, and folds to His bosom ; and such little ones may even sing,— "Though trials and danger my progress oppose, They only make heaven more sweet at the close; Come joy or come sorrow, whate'er may befal, A home with my God will make up for it all." No wonder, then, that E. A. should find Psalm xxiii. so sweet, and desire it to be read. "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." The Great Teacher was pleased to lead on and to instruct this little one more and more in His own paths. The promise was very precious to her, once read by our superintendent, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” And once when she had been much cast down, she asked her mother to read two verses found in two separate hymns: one, "No strength of our own, nor goodness we claim, Yet since we have known the Saviour's great name; The other is, "Determined to save, He watched o'er my path, About this time I called to see E. A. again, and found her brighter and happier. Her disorder |