114 SAFE IN THE GARNER. I rushed to her side, lifted her hand, called her by every endeared name, but, alas! no sign, no answer; only that heavy, struggling breath, growing more sluggish every moment. But I draw the veil over the incoherent wildness of my surprised grief, at that fearful hour of trial. This fell upon me indeed, as a new calamity: that the parting was come and must be in SILENCE. I sobbed aloud, and groaned in unspeakable anguish, “Oh Lord, thy hand is heavy upon me, my moisture is turned into drought." Recalling my thoughts, I remembered this was not giving glory to God, and again I poured out a prayer, "Oh Lord, I would say, 'Thy will be done."" The struggle was now evidently drawing to a close, and at length the emancipated spirit quitted its tenement of clay. But the moment none could determine, so calmly did the earthly pilgrim pass away to the heavenly home. For a while nature had its way, I fell upon the bed and wept BITTERLY, but grace-almighty grace-prevailed; while a sweet consciousness of the presence of one undying Friend, hushed the tempest, and constrained me to cry aloud, "The Lord gave, the Lord LEFT, BUT NOT FOR EVER. 115 hath taken away, and I will now say, blessed be the name of the Lord." Many days have dawned and spent since that hour of fiery trial, and now what shall I more say? I would not tell of the solitary sadness overwhelming my bereaved spirit; I could not speak the abundant consolation of that "Friend who loveth at all times," yet with my stony pillow would I erect an altar unto the Lord and inscribe thereon this truth When thus our earthly comforts fall He never takes away our all, Himself he gives us still. Upon the Lord's day previous I had preached upon a subject which my dear wife had given me, with fervent prayer, when leaving her; it was, " Hope On." And now the Sabbath was come again; blest Sabbath! Why should I waste it in idle grief? Would she wish me thus to spend it? I thought not, I felt not; so, first looking upon the precious body and praying, with a bleeding heart, that her last prayer might then be answered, I went and spoke of-"No separation from the love of Christ," Rom. viii. 35. In 116 THE CHAFF AND THE WHEAT. the afternoon, at the Lord's Supper, I dwelt on the "Knowledge of his love," Eph. iii. 19; and in the evening I sought to trace the fruits of this divine principle in "Affectionate obedience," John xiv. 15. Truly that day was holy; it was one of those seasons which prove the solemn truth, "There is but a step between me and death." On the following Lord's day we laid her still beloved dust in the grave. Our first pastor, Mr. Hamblin, spoke with much truth and feeling, and at night gave to a crowded congregation a powerful exposition of that Divine voice, "The wicked is driven away in his wickedness, but the righteous hath hope in his death." Oh, my reader, in which path are you travelling? Our journey will soon be ended.-Where then? We shall not see her again till we meet at the bar of God! Shall we join in her everlasting joy-or be for ever shut out? If your body were laid in the tomb to-morrow, could we say, "Blessed dead, dying in the Lord," and could we sing as we did sing while the earth fell upon her coffin? "Asleep in Jesus! blessed sleep! From which none ever wake to weep; Unbroken by the last of foes. THE BUNDLE OF LIFE. Asleep in Jesus! Oh, how sweet! Waiting the summons from on high." THE END. 117 De Knock, Printer, Upper Porchester Street, Paddington. |