Faith and hope, ecstasy and prayer, were the outstanding features of her
new life. She had little time for special acts of Christian service, and
scant means wherewith to enrich the Church; but, according to the
witness of those who had known her longest, her character was clad in
entirely new charms, and her spirit was fired and filled with new
energies. She grew in experience of the grace and love of God, and
became at home with God in the deepest sense, and seemed rarely, if
ever, absent from her chosen dwelling-place. Her strongest feeling was
for God, all investing, all encircling; and with reverent freedom and
sweet security she lived and moved and had her being in communion with
the eternal Father. Prayer was not a task for specific occasions; it was
the breath of her life. It was not a wrestle or a struggle; it was an
uplifting of her being into a fellowship with God. It did not shrivel
into a litany of petitions; it was sustained aspiration; and aspiration
is a large part of achievement; it was deepest satisfaction with God,
and His will and His work: and such satisfaction is itself a source of
patient strength and a preparation for victory.
Nor was the effect limited. Her nature received a refinement, an
elevation, a beauty that triumphed over the physical features, and shone
out with a glory that is not seen on sea or shore. The expression of her
face seemed to be from God. A transfiguring radiance came from within as
she thought on the wonders and delighted in the treasures of the gospel
of God. Hers was a noble life. Like Martha, she was engaged in "much
serving;" but yet was never cumbered and worn with it, because, like
Mary, she sat daily at the Master's feet, and listened to His words,
and received His sustaining strength. She was as sweetly unselfish as
the flowers, and gave herself and her "all" to Christ, like the widow of
the gospels. Meekness and humility clothed her with their loveliest
robes. I never knew a purer spirit. She always breathed the softness and
gentleness of the Saviour, and yet I have seen her weak body quiver and
throb with its anguish of desire for the salvation of the lost. Faithful
unto death, she realised the support and joy of the Christian's hope,
and gently as leaves are shed by the flower that has finished its
course, she fell into the arms of Jesus; and as Deborah, Rebekah's
nurse, was buried under the "oak of weeping" amid affectionate regrets
and sweet memories, so this Christian servant was laid in the grave with
tears of real sorrow from those whom she had served so faithfully and
long, as well as from friends who had been gladdened and fortified in
the faith of Christ by her sweet, earnest, and beautiful Christian life.
That day is now far off, but the influence of her prayer-filled life
still feeds faith in God as the Hearer and the Answerer of Prayer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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