VERY poor indeed as to this world, but exceedingly rich for the next, was a very aged Christian called Peggy J —n, residing in a lonely hamlet in the North of England.
This happy saint of God, “of whom the world is not worthy,” once told us that her true home was “the Father’s house in heaven,” and that, in spirit, she lived and sang there every night.
From her manner of life it may be truly said that her sweet foretastes of that blessed home cheered her all along the road.
Why did dear happy Peggy long to reach that heavenly home? Certainly not to get out of her poverty and loneliness. But it was because she knew pretty well the blessedness and love of the Father’s house, the Father’s home, anal the Father’s heart.
She had made great acquaintance, too, with her Saviour and Lord, who had come from that very home of light and life and love that she might be in it with Himself for ever.
Praise His blessed name! He wanted companions to share that scene of unchanging bliss, and He will not be disappointed.
Peggy was like a boy we knew. He had to leave his home for business situated a long way off, where he had to remain three years from that home. Time after time during that period this boy would have gladly walked a thousand miles just to sit only a single half-hour by his mother’s side in the old home. Why so?
Because he knew so well his mother’s loving heart and the love that filled that home and his welcome there—well proved when he reached it.
Peggy’s relatives, knowing her poverty, once came to ask if she would go and live with her son at Halifax, otherwise she would have to go “to the poorhouse.” She thanked them for their kind offer and replied that if she went to her sons she knew they would be very kind to her, but it would be only to sit in the corner all day, therefore she preferred to be sent to the poorhouse, where she could speak to the inmates about their souls’ and read to them God’s word. So to the poorhouse at Skipton she went.
We had the privilege of visiting her there a few times, and we always found her bright and happy, and generally reading her well-worn Bible to a company of aged women mustered round a, small table.
Yes, happy Peggy knew something of the joyous atmosphere of her heavenly home, and wished others to enjoy it, too. This is the way, divine love works by the Spirit, and love is always active.
Ultimately Peggy was taken ill, and the time of her departure arrived. She passed away from earth to heaven exclaiming—
“PRAISE THE LORD! HALLELUJAH! GLORY!”
She was both triumphant in the poorhouse and triumphant in view of the glory, through Him who loved her and gave Himself for her. What was true for Peggy is open to all:
May her happy example be used to help and encourage every reader of this story. For she being dead yet speaketh.
“The Father’s love, the source of all,
Sweeter than all it gives,
Shines on us now, without recall,
And lasts while Jesus lives.
“The new creation’s stainless joy
Gleams through the present gloom;
That world of bliss without alloy,
The saint’s eternal home.”
ML 10/30/1904