“Name of Jesus! highest name!
Name that earth and heaven adore!
From the heart of God it came,
Leads me to God's heart once more.”
From the German.
IF even a very little girl or boy were asked what is the meaning of the name of Jesus, I know of some who would be able to say—"We love to call Him Lord, but the name of Jesus means Savior." Yes, dear ones, you are right, and it was because the One who so many years before had made Himself known to Lizzie as her own precious Savior wanted her to know Himself better, to know, too, how His grace can cheer and sustain His own, even when the homeward way seems a long and trying one, that fresh pages of the lesson book, of which we have so often talked in these chapters, were being turned for her.
It was a real trial to her to find that, though after a time she was able to go for short walks, and so enjoy the fresh air and sunshine, the entire loss of voice, a trouble which lasted for several years, would not allow her to visit as she had been used to do. Once or twice she went in a Bath chair to see some in whom she was greatly interested; but, though we may be sure the busy mothers in their homes or the aged sick in the workhouse were glad to get even a look at their old friend—perhaps the Lord may have used these visits to remind some of Bible words they had heard from her lips in bygone days—all she could do was to give a text-card and say a few whispered words to each, and even the effort needed to do that little made her so very tired that for more than a week she was unable to leave her bed.
But "the Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him." (Nah. 1:77The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him. (Nahum 1:7).) And His lovingkindness gave Lizzie in the closing years of her life many bright and pleasant things. You will remember she was no longer alone; a friend, who for more than twenty years was her constant companion, shared her home.
A slight addition to her income enabled her to do what the doctor had long wished, try frequent change of air and scene, in the hope that her health might be improved by spending some hours every day in the pure fresh air; and so for some years their little home in one of the suburbs was often empty for weeks together, while Lizzie and her friend sought change and rest, sometimes among the hop gardens and green lanes of Kent, sometimes in a very quiet lodging in one of our south or east coast watering places.
Perhaps many who will read these pages may have paid a holiday visit to Margate, but may not have seen the Grotto. It certainly is a most interesting place—at least, so think many of its visitors. I n the year 1859, just fifty years ago, some workmen were busily employed near Margate digging foundations, for a new school-room, when one of them came upon a large flat stone. He removed it, and found it covered the entrance to a flight of steps. Calling his mates, they got lights and went down, taking care not to breathe more of the air than they could help, as, from having been shut up so long, it had become so bad as to be quite poisonous.
On they went, and at last found themselves in a cave or grotto that looked something like narrow passages, the walls and roofs of which were covered with small shells. Great care had been taken in forming the shells into patterns, many of which were really very pretty and looking a little like the kindergarten work several of my little friends do so nicely. Up went the workmen again, eager to tell their friends what they had found.
Numbers of people went to see the shell cave, and a party of learned men went down by special train from London to learn all they could about it.
It was a strange old place, every one was sure of that; the hands that had arranged the shells into quaint pictures of birds and sunflowers must have returned to dust hundreds and hundreds of years ago; but for a very long time no one seemed able to find out by whom or for what purpose the work had been done.
At last some one found in a very old manuscript, written long before books began to be printed, an account of how the old Norse kings buried their dead. These Norsemen were, we know, the ancestors of the Danes, or people of Denmark. They had no Bibles; no light from heaven had, so far as we know, ever come into their souls. They did not know the true God, but worshipped idols. Some of their funeral customs were very strange. When one of their kings or chiefs died, his body was placed, with many curious ceremonies, in a boat; the boat also contained a great quantity of sweet-scented wood, gums and other things that burn readily.
These were lighted and the boat allowed to drift away to sea; but if the death were that of a queen or princess, the funeral took place in a cave near the shore, all the passages leading to it were covered with shell work, and the opening carefully closed up. So it is quite possible that the shell grotto in which Lizzie and her friend were so greatly interested may have been an old Norse burying-place. The grotto is, I believe, still shown to visitors, so perhaps some day any of our readers who visit Margate may have an opportunity of seeing it for themselves.
How glad and thankful we ought to be for our Bibles, the blessed book that has made known to us what these old sea-kings never knew, the only true God, who so loved the world, a world of sinners, that He gave His own beloved Son to be a Savior for all those who own to God their ruin and their need, and take salvation as His free gift. We receive a gift and thank the Giver, do we not? And then, ah! then we find that the Holy Spirit has put new affections, new desires, into our hearts, and we want to walk, at home or at school, in a way that will please and honor Christ.
But even these new affections and desires would not be of any real help to us if a new power, the Holy Spirit, had not been given. He alone can enable us to walk as those ought, who have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ.
We often get humbled and cast down when we see how naughty and self-willed we have been; we would not be kept, we would not be led, and we are, as it is quite right we should be, sorry. But there is no need for being discouraged. We need not stay away from the Lord. He waits to be gracious, He loves to bless.