MRS. F. was a little old Irish woman, aged seventy-nine. She lived alone in a miserable tenement in a low quarter of the city of Peterborough, and depended for sustenance on parish relief; the greater part of which was swallowed up in rent, and also in attendance, for, as she was a great sufferer from asthma, she could not do what was necessary in even so small a dwelling. Her husband had been dead some years, and her only son had forsaken her.
She was by profession a strict adherent to the Roman Church, and had never in her life set her foot inside any church but her own. But the light of the glorious gospel of Christ had shone into her dark mind, and brought her to the knowledge of Him as her Savior, and to rest solely in His finished work for acceptance. When I first visited her I was surprised to find her so bright and happy. For several years she had known the Lord, and was able to converse very intelligently on His ways of grace and mercy in saving us from wrath, and keeping us from day to day while passing on to the glory.
She had a Bible presented to her by some Christian lady, and from thence she received the comfort and help so much needed by one so forsaken and desolate; and most fully did our gracious Father prove Himself to be "the God of the widow "—" the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort," to this lonely one.
One day, when conversing together on the unchangeable love of the Lord Jesus, Mrs. F. made a remark which showed how she appreciated the compassion He had shown her.
“Ah, mister," said she, "them's mighty fine words of the blessed Savior in the Book where He says, ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' We may go to people for them to help us, but they get tired of us if we go too often. But He niver be tired of us. Doesn't He say He'll not cast us out? That's a mighty fine speech of His, is that!"
Oh, the blessedness of simple faith in the Lord Jesus! How vast a change would it bring about in the lives of many, had they the faith of this poor woman!
She is now absent from the body, present with the Lord! After a few days' illness, her spirit departed to God who gave it. And now the body for awhile reposes in the cemetery, awaiting the grand moment when the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, to raise the dead and change the living who are His, thus making good to all His own that promise of His: "I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."
I was with her a short time before she died. She was peaceful and happy, greatly desiring to be gone.
The priest, who had not been near for a long time, came constantly after he heard of her illness. With much ado he fulfilled what he looked upon as his priestly office, and considered so essential to the well-being of the soul of her who was soon to pass from this world into that which, to him, appeared to be a dreadful place, but to her enlightened mind was a country to be desired—a Fatherland more dear by far than even Erin's Isle.
And then the funeral! Candles and crucifix; vestments and incense; prayers to the Virgin; prayers for the dead. Well-nigh enough to make one cry out, “Why make ye this ado? She is not dead, but sleepeth."
As we view that dear soul in the light of God's word, we can say, “She is at rest!”
Dear reader, are you basking in the sunshine of God's love, so fully manifested in the gift of His only-begotten Son to a world of sinners? Or are you groping in the darkness caused by the intervention of some object of human or Satanic origin between yourself and God as revealed in the Scriptures, where we see Him as One who justifies the ungodly-justifies freely by His grace -through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Listen no longer to those who would tell you to labor, but listen to the tender pleading and loving entreaty of the kind and loving Savior, who now calls you to enjoy His love, His rest, His home. “Come unto Me ... and I will give you rest." G. G.