ONE sunny afternoon in the spring of 1874 I spent some hours in a little country town, visiting some dear children of God, and was returning along the public road to a place some two miles distant, when I met with Louisa M―. She was a stranger in the neighborhood, and had come to live there through marrying a sailor from the village in the outskirts of which I lived. I offered her a tract, for which she warmly thanked me, and we soon entered into conversation about her soul; she answering my question, “Are you at peace with God? “with” I am trying to do my best.” I explained to her that all our efforts ate vain; that God has “found a ransom” in His Son, and that our safety depends on taking God at His word, and that “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” She had to proceed on her way, and I to return home ere the evening closed in, so our conversation was interrupted, and we parted on my promising to send her something to read. As I was leaving home for some weeks, a child of God, named Mrs. J― who had herself not long known what it was to rest in Christ, undertook to visit her, both of us in the meanwhile laying the case before our Heavenly Father for His blessing on our efforts. I sent Louisa to read what I deemed calculated to help forward any work the Lord might have begun in her soul, and she was left for a week or two unvisited. One afternoon Mrs. J—went to see her, and found her in tears. On inquiring the cause, she said “Oh! my sins are more than I can bear; they are like mountains upon me, and I have been praying to God, but it seems of no use, for my sins are so many.” Her sorrow was very deep, and had evidently reached a crisis. Mrs. J― opened her Bible and read some passages speaking of the love of God in giving His Son to die in our stead, and that it is neither our prayers, nor our tears, nor our trying, that renders us fit for His presence, but that we must cast ourselves on Him as Lost Sinners, believing in the efficacy of The Blood shed upon Calvary as enough to cleanse us from all sin. For awhile Louisa listened with rapt attention, and then exclaimed “Can that be true”? “Is it all done for me”? The light broke in upon her, and she in ecstasies of joy praised the Lord.
She had been ill for some time, and it now became evident to all that she was not long for this scene. I was occupied in nursing a sick relative, after returning home, and did not see her for some weeks, but continued sending her some little delicacies suitable to her weak state; and after the death of my relative, paid her a visit. She was firm and joyous, but from extreme weakness could say but little. A few days after this ‘I went again, and found her rather more able to converse. She clasped my hands firmly, and continued holding them the whole time I stayed, speaking in a quiet cheerful tone of the love of God, the wisdom displayed in the way she had been led, the value of the death of Christ; and, finally, as if lost in wonder, she exclaimed, “But people will not believe it; they are all fighting against God, only so blinded that they suppose its against you; you are, nevertheless, the happiest I ever knew; and oh, the marvelous way in which I was brought away from my own people, which I often repined at, and here, through dear Mrs. J― and yourself, to be brought to God. She first taught me to read as I was totally ignorant when I married; and that has helped me now to know more of what God has said in His Word.” I asked her if she wished to recover. “Yes,” she replied, “for two reasons; the first, to speak of God, and the great things He has done for me.” And the other? I asked. “My husband has been very good to me, and since he will be very lonely when I am gone, I should like to live to make him comfortable.”
Finding she was a good deal spent by saying so much, I left her; but little did I imagine that that was the last time I should hear her voice in intelligent conversation. She became so much worse that she had no strength left at all; and though she lived for some days, and knew me when I went to see her, trying to make herself understood, she was too far gone for language, but her bright smile showed me that the heart was at rest, and a few days after this she breathed her last.