Images de page
PDF
ePub

Shortly after this time Joseph's health began to fail; he had all along evidenced great weakness of the chest and the voice. Providentially, he was placed where he was much sheltered during the winter months, and his employer was very kind to him during this period-and indeed as long as he lived; but it was evident to his friends, notwithstanding all means resorted to, that he gradually became weaker. I had many opportunities of conversing with him, and found him always at home upon the one theme made dear to the one family; and, after he was obliged to leave work, and gradually was compelled to keep his bed, he was visited by many Christian friends, and, although from physical causes he was able to say but little, that little was always to the point. In the early part of his illness, in reply to the question of a friend if the fear of death troubled him, he said, "It had, but the Lord had taken away the sting of death." One day after John xvii. had been read to him, he spoke of the blessedness of the Lord's union with His people, and the marvellous condescension that we should be one with Him, and the sweet thought that the Father loved His people even as He loved Christ Jesus. Speaking at another time of Romans viii. 33, he said that hymn was precious to him :

"No condemnation! O my soul!
'Tis God that speaks that word;
Perfect in comeliness art Thou,
In Christ thy glorious Lord.

In Heaven His blood for ever speaks
In God the Father's ear;

His Church the jewels on His heart,
Jesus will ever bear," &c.

And another of Hart's,

"Jesus is our God and Saviour," &c.

After this a friend saw him, to whom he said, "When I was a Roman Catholic I used to think I should like to live for ever, but I do not feel so now. I long to be gone; I feel that underneath are the everlasting arms.'

وو

66

About this time I had several interviews with him. He told me he had not been favoured with so much enjoyment of late, but with a smile he said, "But it's just the same, I know it is all well.” He told me, too, how he had writhed at one time under the preaching, The just shall live by faith," and not by sensible enjoyment. He also narrated the long and bitter trial he underwent when so assaulted by Satan with what Scripture terms "oppositions of science falsely so called." He also told me how much he had enjoyed the hymn of Medley's :

"Oh, could I speak the matchless worth,
Oh, could I sound the glories forth
Which in my Saviour shine!

I'd soar, and touch the heavenly strings
And vie with Gabriel while he sings,
In notes almost divine.

I'd sing the precious blood He spilt,
My ransom from the dreadful guilt
Of sin and wrath divine.

I'd sing His glorious righteousness
In which all-perfect, heavenly dress
My soul shall ever shine.

I'd sing the characters He bears
And all the forms of love He wears,
Exalted on His throne;

In loftiest songs of sweetest praise
I would to everlasting days

Make all His glories known.

[ocr errors]

Well, the delightful day will come
When my dear Lord will bring me home
And I shall see His face.

Then with my Saviour, Brother, Friend,
A blest eternity I'll spend

Triumphant in His grace.'

[ocr errors]

He also said how pleasantly a hymn of Toplady's had been upon his mind,

"When languor and disease invade
This trembling house of clay,
'Tis sweet to look beyond our cage,
And long to fly away.

Sweet to look inward, and attend
The whispers of His love;

Sweet to look upward to the place
Where Jesus pleads above."

The lines particularly mentioned were—

"Sweet to lie passive in His Hand,

And know no will but His."

I said,“ Not an easy lesson to be brought there;" his reply was," He can give us to know it," or " He can bring us there."

He said to another who visited him, "I have been kept in a very calm and quiet rest for a long time." On the morning on which he died, he was about as usual until an hour or two before the Lord took him home, when he said to his mother, “I think I am dying." The mother's reply was to the effect that she thought so too, the sister adding, "You are not afraid to die, are you ?” “Oh, no," was the reply, and, looking earnestly upward, he said once or twice, "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly," and breathed his spirit into a heavenly Father's hand, without the interposition of an earthly priest, and without any fear of purgatorial fires.

What a wondrous change, since the time when he was in a great rage because his mother told him of the Protestant truth she had received. But what cannot the grace of God accomplish? “Is there any thing too hard for the Lord ?”

66

A short time before Joseph died he received a message from his brother at a distance, that he hoped he was resigned to his fate." One of poor Joseph's almost last efforts was to write a reply, of which I give a copy :

"DEAR WILLIAM,-It is with great pleasure I am trying to write a few lines to you, hoping to find you quite well. With regard to myself, I seem to gradually get weaker. I was very much pleased with the kind message you sent me, but rather surprised at its coming from you. And I thought I should like to write a few lines in answer to what you wished for me. With regard to being resigned to my fate, I am thankful to say, through God's grace and mercy, I am quite resigned to His will. He has drawn my mind off from all earthly things and objects, so that I can leave all in His hands-all those things which nature cleaves to. This is a blessed state of mind, known only to those who are called by divine grace, and made partakers of the heavenly calling. Without this supporting grace and strength, what a miserable thing would a sick-bed be; but oh, to have the God of Jacob for our help, makes it a happy thing! And now, dear brother, with regard to being prepared. Let us see what it is to be prepared. It is to be ready to meet the Lord without any fear of Him; but to look forward to it with pleasure; and before we can do this, we must be born again, and made new creatures in Christ Jesus. We must pass from death unto life; old

things must pass away, and all things become new. It is not our going to Church, or saying prayers, or Sunday-school teaching, or Bible-reading, that will prepare us to meet the Lord. I am glad to say the Lord did not leave me till the hour of sickness to seek Him, but was pleased to call me in early youth by divine grace, and to enable me to walk in His ways. And I have found wisdom's ways ways of pleasantness; and her paths paths of peace, so that I have been a long time ready for this hour. And now, I would ask one question out of love to you: Are you prepared for such an hour as this? You cannot tell how soon it may come. If you are living in neglect of the things of God, and living according to the course of this world, whether it is in open sin, or in the pleasures of this world, it shows very plainly you are not prepared. May the Lord give you His Holy Spirit to teach you and lead you to seek Him, is my earnest prayer; and I am sure the rest of the family have put up many prayers for you, and I believe they will be answered."

The letter was never quite finished, but it speaks much. May the desires and prayers expressed receive a blessed fulfilment !

I feel, my dear sir, I have almost taken up too much of your space; but I should like to mention one fact in connexion with this family. The mother gave me one day a scapula.' Your readers will wonder what this is. It is a piece of stuff stamped with a print of a woman holding a child. It was given to the family by some missionaries of the Church of Rome, called "Redemptorist Fathers." This piece of stuff was to be worn round the neck, fastened with two strings, and the parties were informed of the wonderful preservation they could ensure by wearing it, from

« PrécédentContinuer »