Thou who givest of Thy gladness,
Till the cup runs o'er—
Cup whereof the pilgrim weary
Drinks, to thirst no more—
Not a-nigh me, but within me
Is Thy joy Divine ;
Thou, O Lord, hast made Thy dwelling
In this heart of mine.
Need I that a law should bind me
Captive unto Thee?
Captive is my heart, rejoicing
Never to be free.
Ever with me, glorious, awful,
Tender, passing sweet,
One upon whose Heart I rest me,
Worship at His Feet.
With me, wheresoe'er I wander,
That great Presence goes,
That unutterable gladness,
Undisturbed repose.
Everywhere the blessed stillness
Of His Holy place;
Stillness of the love that worships
Dumb before His Face.
To Thy house,
O God my Father,
Thy lost child is come;
Led by wandering lights no longer,
I have found my home
Over moor and fen I tracked them
Through the midnight blast,
But to find the Light eternal
In my heart at last.
—-G. TERSTEEGEN.
AND what became of the Princess Elizabeth ? She returned to Herford, sad at heart. She had found true comfort and gladness and refreshment in the communion she had had with her friend Anna, and with the simple devoted people who had filled her house with songs of praise. She said that she could only long for the coming of the Lord, to put an end to the sad days when His people are hated and cast out for His name's sake.
But she believed that the Lord had removed the Labadists because of her sin and unworthiness, and wrote humbly and sorrowfully to Anna, accusing herself as the cause of their departure. After this she sought out and found others here and there who loved the Lord, and who were glad of a refuge in those evil days where they could serve Him in peace.
Amongst these was a Dutch lady, the Countess Anna Maria van Hoorn, described to us as "one who truly loved all true and single-hearted children of God." Another was a young French lady, Mademoiselle de Reneval. A third, a young German pastor, who had been suspended from his office on account of his warm, we might say hot-headed, defence of Yvon and other Labadist preachers.
Elizabeth appointed him as her preacher at Herford, where after a while he was betrothed to the young French girl, whom he married some years later. In 1677 he was received as preacher at Mülheim, on the Ruhr, at which place we shall hear of him again. He was much loved and respected at Mulheim, for "many godly persons had inhabited that place for a long while back," and many were added to their number during the time that he and his young French wife laboured there for the Lord.
" Thus," writes Goebel, returning to the history of Elizabeth, " Herford remained a bright and blessed center of Christian life." And these last happy years of Elizabeth's pilgrimage were as a haven of rest after the troubles, sorrows, and wanderings of her earlier days.
She had still some bitter trials, especially those relating to the miserable household of her brother Charles Louis. The pity which Sophia lavished upon her for being in bondage to gloomy bigots, who deprived her of all pleasure and amusement, must also have been hard to bear. But still for her had the eternal joy begun, and the peace of God was hers. It was in the year 1676 that the young Quaker, Robert Barclay, whilst travelling in Germany, paid a visit to the Princess Elizabeth, and her friend the Countess de Hoorns. On returning to England, he related to his friend William Penn that he had found these ladies to be " persons seeking after the best things, also that they are actually lovers and favourers of those that separate themselves from the world for the sake of righteousness."
The princess proved the truth of Robert Barclay's account soon afterwards. In the month of November of that year he was imprisoned with other Quakers in the Tolbooth at Aberdeen. When the news reached the princess, she wrote immediately to her brother, Prince Rupert, then in England, the following letter :
" HERFORD, December, 19th, 1676.
" DEAR BROTHER,—I wrote to you some months ago by Robert Barclay, who passed this way, and hearing I was your sister, desired to speak with me. I knew him to be a Quaker by his hat, and took occasion to inform myself of all their opinions ; and finding they were accustomed to submit to magistrates in real things, omitting the ceremonial, I wished in my heart the king might have many such subjects. And since I have heard, that notwithstanding his majesty's most gracious letters in his behalf to the Council of Scotland, he has been clapped up in prison with the rest of his friends ; and they threaten to hang them, at least those they call preachers amongst them, unless they subscribe their own banishment, and this upon a law made against other sects, that appeared armed for the maintenance of their heresy, which goes directly against the principles of those which are ready to suffer all that can be inflicted, and still love and pray for their enemies.
"Therefore, dear brother, if you can do anything to prevent their destruction, I doubt not but you will do an action acceptable to God Almighty, and conducive to the service of your royal master, for the Presbyterians are their violent enemies, to whom they are an eyesore, as being witnesses against all their violent ways. I care not though his majesty see my letter. It is written out of no less an humble affection for him than most sensible compassion of the innocent sufferers. You will act herein according to your own discretion, and I beseech you still consider me as,
"Yours, ELIZABETH."
It was not till the month of April following that the interference of the king prevailed with the Scotch Council to release their prisoners. Robert Barclay then travelled south, and rejoined his Quaker friends in London. Amongst other matters which he related to William Penn concerning Princess Elizabeth was the history of John de Labadie, and of his reception at Herford.
William Penn was no friend of the Labadists, for he had been moved to visit this man and his company six years before. And," he says, " I in that day saw the airiness and unstableness of the man's spirit, and that a sect-master was his name ; and it was upon me to let them know that the enemy would prevail against them to draw them to inconvenient things, if they came not to be stayed in the light of Jesus Christ." This prediction, as we have seen, proved to be a true prophecy as regards some " inconvenient things" into which the Labadists were beguiled.
William Penn also told them, that "though they were something angelical, and like to the celestial bodies, yet if they kept not their station would prove fallen stars. In consequence," he says " they were shy of us ; yet I believed well of some of the people, for a good thing was stirring in them. And in this also was the Countess of Hoorn commendable, in that she left all to have joined with a people that had a pretense, at least, to more spirituality and self-denial than was found in the national religion she was bred in."
We must remember, however, that William Penn had not only failed to make Friends of the Labadists, but that Labadie, having been constantly reviled for being a Quaker, took the occasion of William Penn's visit to prove that he had no leaning to Quakerism. He therefore rather opposed than welcomed Penn and Fox ; and the "airiness of his spirit" is probably Penn's manner of describing a certain coldness and reserve which the Labadists thought needful on the occasion.
Early in 1677 Penn was moved to write to the princess two letters, the first consisting of eight closely-printed folio pages, still to be read by the enterprising reader.
In reply he received, in the month of May, 1677, a less voluminous letter from Princess Elizabeth, assuring him, " Both your letters, friend, were very acceptable, together with your wishes for my obtaining those virtues which may make me a worthy follower of our great King and Saviour Jesus Christ."
She adds :
"What I have done for His true disciples is not so much as a cup of cold water, though it should expose me to the derision of the world. But this a meer (sic) moral man can reach at. The true inward graces are yet wanting in
" Your affectionate friend,
" ELIZABETH."