In October last there went to heaven one of the sweetest saints ever known to my wife and myself. She was more than ninety years of age, but “walked with God” for many, many years. Poor in this world’s goods, but rich in all the possessions her unfailing faith in Christ could give her, dear Miss Ellis had written on her face the beauty that comes to those who by faith have dwelt in the presence of Christ. I am simply speaking a few words about her last days.
During the summer of this year, she had a stroke; she recovered, but later on in the year she had another. She seemed to recover more than was expected. She could not speak until about a week before she passed away, when suddenly, as a friend sat by her side, she began to pray in quite a distinct and intelligible voice. This was the prayer as far as could be remembered: “O Lord, I thank Thee for the long life Thou hast given me, and for the way Thou hast led me, through all these years, and for the troubles Thou hast sent me. I thank Thee, that for Jesu’s sake I am not blotted out of the Book of Life. I pray thee to bless all the people who have been so kind to me—bless every one of them, Lord, make them happy, oh, make them happy. And now Lord, lead me on to the very end., Amen.”
This was the beautiful prayer, at the gates of heaven, that brings tears to eyes of many who knew her and loved her, and whose simple pathos shows the beauty of the Christ life that was always hers.
The next day she said to the Matron of the Grendon Infirmary, Exeter, where she passed away, whose unvarying kindness had helped to make her last days so full of earthly comfort, “Oh! I am sorry you were not here in the night because I had a Visitor.” The Matron asked who it was. She replied, “It was the Lord Jesus Christ, and He was so beautifully dressed, such shining clothes.” The. Matron asked again, “Did He speak to you?” Miss Ellis said “Yes, He talked to me, and I talked to Him. He told me He would take care of me and be with me right to the end.”
Then she passed peacefully to her rest, “absent from the body, at home with the Lord.” She was loved by all who knew her; as she lived, so she died. Her Saviour never left her, and now amid the “many mansions.” she has her home for all eternity. Oh! that the Modernist could stand by a death-bed such as this! He would see that His fallible Christ was able to save and keep His own. With his awful creed the Modernist could never die like this dear saint. He would have no Presence to fill eternity with supreme delight―there would be no Voice to give a welcome to eternal shores―there would be no Light to make the valley of the shadow of death as bright as the courts of heaven.
Reader, believe in the Christ of the Bible. He is the Son of God and God the Son, and the Holy Scriptures are inspired by God to testify of Him. Believe in Him, and believe now. H.W.