A CHRISTIAN lady during her last illness became so weak that when she spoke the nurse was obliged to bend down over her to catch the feeble utterance.
When the end was very near the nurse noticed that the lady was endeavoring to speak. Bending to listen, she heard the word “Bring, bring.”
The nurse thought she wished for water, and at once offered some, but the lady shook her head.
Someone suggested that it was grapes she desired, but when they were placed before her she again shook her head and still whispered the word “Bring.”
Then it was supposed that she wished her friends brought into the room that she might bid them a last farewell. So all the friends in the house were called, and stood around the bed. But it was evident that her meaning had not been grasped.
At last the dying lady, summoning all her strength for the effort, said―
“Bring forth the royal diadem,
And crown Him Lord of all.”
At this triumphant death-bed we recognize the same precious faith that filled the apostle Paul, who, in view of death and the grave, said, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?... Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:55-5755O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 56The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:55‑57)).
C. H.