EDWARD went on first, to prepare the house for Elizabeth. It was situated on the side of a mountain, about sixty miles from the town in which they were now living.
Edward arranged to return part of the way to meet his wife and child.
The morning he arrived at his mountain home was very cold, with rain and sleet falling, and thus hiding magnificent scenery. The house was a wooden shanty, and one built many years ago; it was so different from the modern ones. The garden, in front, was overgrown with weeds. Edward, nothing daunted, soon made a pathway up to the front door. He made a table out of one of the packing cases, a bookshelf too, and arranged all the books he loved so well.
All Elizabeth's knickknacks, gifts from friends that she thought she would never see on earth again, were put in their several places. So that when Elizabeth arrived she found all in order. When she came to the place of meeting, her husband was waiting for her with a hired conveyance to take her on her way. Such scenery she had never before beheld; so grand and bold. Lofty mountains covered with perpetual snow towering up in splendor beneath the blue heavens, and the luxuriant bush at the side covering many square acres of ground. As she neared the lofty piles, their beauty seemed to increase, and at last the travelers descended a steep incline, and could hear in the distance the roar of a mighty river sweeping down magnificent gorges.
On they went, till they were in the bed of a river of immense width, only passable in the summer at all times. In winter, often impassable for many weeks. When the travelers were in the bed of this river, they were surrounded by lofty embankments, cut so evenly, that they looked as if done by the hand of man, if it had not been for their immense height. But this was not so; it had been formed by a glacier of past ages. This river of ice, with its mighty millions of tons, had slowly, but surely done its work.
The travelers seemed locked in on all sides, and Elizabeth wondered where the outlet was. The sides of some of the embankments were covered with overhanging shrubs of every description. It has been said that in this spot is some of the grandest scenery of the world. At last they ascended a steep incline, and then they were at the top of a rugged precipice, and at last on a plain.
On they went this lovely morning till the everlasting hills again appear in sight, and the luxuriant bush, with birds of every hue, warbling sweet songs. Such a spot seemed like an earthly Eden; one could fancy that sorrow could never enter here.
On these mountains, there were a few settlers; they were far away from all good influence. Although beholding all this grandeur of nature, many of them avowed that there was no God. On Sundays the weekly avocations would still be pursued, such as building, reaping and sowing.
There was no companionship for Edward and his wife. They did not want the companionship of the ungodly; they only wanted to do them good. Edward had once sought to do good to those in the busy scenes of one of England's northern cities by preaching forth the words of life, and now God had brought him across the ocean to speak to those people in their mountain strongholds. He felt it to be a noble work to sow the seeds among the young, and while he was enabling them to fill their places on the platform of life, he was training them for something beyond it.
On the Sunday after their arrival (Elizabeth never forgot that scene) Edward called the children together to speak to them of Jesus and His love. Many voices were raised in singing that well-known school hymn: —
“There is a better world, they say,
Oh! so bright,
Where sin and woe are done away,
Oh! so bright.
No clouds e'er pass along its sky,
No tear-drops glisten in the eye,
Happy land.”
If the Christian could not look beyond this scene, to his mansions in the skies, how could he bear the sorrows and the partings. But for the glad re-unions when earth's storms are overpast, his heart would fail him. The God of Israel is a God of love; nay, not only a God of love, but is love itself, and when earth's weary travelers arrive in their eternal home, they will have a Father's greeting, a Father's welcome, and they will bid farewell to every fear; faith will give place to sight in those mansions above, and if earth apart from sin is ofttimes so beautiful, what must it be in the fair Eden above.
Edward labored among the people here, and as the word of the Lord can never return to Him void, let us hope that Edward will have had souls for his hire. The husband and wife felt alone with God; far away from kindred and friends. They took walks together, and each day fresh beauties would open to their view. The lofty mountains, the luxuriant bush, the mountain gorges, with their overhanging foliage of every hue, and the mighty waters rushing down their incline, would all speak to them, telling them that the mighty Creator was here, and, in the midst of all, this mighty Creator was caring for His children.
The pleasant evenings were whiled away in the midst of these mountain passes, shielded only by wooden partitions these two passed their days.
The winds so prevalent, and no Englishman could imagine what they were like, swept down the gorges, often rocking the house. Indeed, before they were the inmates one day, the chimney fell and smashed the roof, still they feared not. They would sit in the evenings around the blazing hearth, great trunks of trees three feet long blazing up the chimney, all so different to what they had been accustomed to; still Elizabeth often looked back on those days of native grandeur, as far surpassing those of other years.
They were many miles from any meeting of Christians, and being so often prevented from going to any, as they had no vehicle of their own, and once or twice were much disappointed in a neighbor taking them, they thought they would remember the Lord's death there in those mountain strongholds:—
“Do this, he cried, till time shall end,
In memory of your dying Friend;
Meet at my table, and record
The love of your departed Lord.”
As the emblems of the Savior's death were laid in that lowly cottage that glorious Sunday morning, Elizabeth little thought that it was not only the first time but would be the last also, that she and Edward would partake of those emblems together.
She has never forgotten, nor will she do so, that memorable Sunday morning. As she took the bread, the Savior at the moment seemed to speak to her, as He had never done before, in all His living power, "This is my body, which is broken for you." The husband and wife sang together: —
“We'll sing of the Shepherd that died,
That died for the sake of the flock,
His love to the utmost was tried,
But firmly endured as a rock.”
Elizabeth seemed to be prepared in some measure for a coming trial; such an one that the writer cannot fully depict it. Enough to know that Jehovah was with her all the way. She received a letter from a friend, and in it a leaflet with the words: —
“While she leans on me
The burden shall be mine, not hers.”
He did, indeed, bear all the weight, or it would have crushed her.
The following week, Edward became much worse, and thought it right to get medical aid, at the nearest town, which was sixty miles distant. This meant a far different journey than an Englishman might suppose. Several hours were spent in traveling. Edward started one autumn evening for the nearest railway station, and as she watched his receding form, she little dreamed that this loved husband had seen those hills for the last time-that he was so soon to bid farewell to earth, to ascend the heights of glory.