Gathering Jewels: The Secret of a Beautiful Life: In Memoriam of Mr. & Mrs. James Knowles. Selected from Their Diaries.Knowles, James
Religion
Gathering Jewels: The Secret of a Beautiful Life: In Memoriam of Mr. & Mrs. James Knowles. Selected from Their Diaries.
Knowles, James
Allen Street Presbyterian Church (New York, N.Y.); Knowles, James, 1811-1886; Knowles, Matilda Darroch, 1811-1886
"The past three months have been the most trying of any I have
experienced since I began my work. There has been much sickness and
many deaths. But I have been kept and sustained amid many difficulties.
I have been kindly received in many Roman Catholic and Jewish families.
A poor woman whose husband was killed a year since, who had lost one
child, and has another very sick, is glad to have me read and pray with
her, and when I point her to the Saviour she says He is, indeed, her
best friend. Another Catholic woman said, she did not see why her
priest forbade her reading the Bible, 'for what you have read to me is
so beautiful.' When asked if she would like to have a Bible, she said
she would, and when I took one to her she gave me twenty-five cents,
and said she wished she could give me more. One day I was addressed in
the street by a little girl, who asked me to go and see her mother.
When I enquired who she was, I found she was a woman whom I had visited
some time before. She was very glad to see me, showed me the Testament
I had given her, and asked me many questions which would have led to
argument; but I told her I only taught the religion of the Lord Jesus,
and I wished them to come to Him and seek for light and salvation. She
urged me to come again, and gladly listened when I read to them from
the Scriptures.
"A young woman on being asked to attend church said, 'The only church I
go to is the theatre.' I gave her a Testament which she promised to
read; she has now begun to go to church regularly, and says she hopes
never again to live the life she has lived. I have been able to take a
number of mothers and their children to the sea side, which has been a
great blessing. I have given the Bible to two women who have paid for
it, and wished for one for a neighbor."
* * * * * *
It is a true and striking fact, that there are very few women who ever
labored so assiduously for the good of others as this Missionary,
especially in trying to save souls and make others happy.
We may say we believe in Jesus and, therefore, we will be saved; but we
must remember also that faith without works is dead, and on the great
day of judgment all will be made known, for St. John says in the
Apocalypse: "I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the
books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of
life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written
in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were
in them: and they were judged every man according to their works."
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE NINETY AND NINE.
When he lived on earth so lowly,
Friend of sinners was his name;
Now enthroned among the holy,
He rejoices in the name.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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