_One, however, has no hope of giving an adequate picture of her complex
nature, so full of contrasts and opposites. She was a woman of affairs,
with a wide and catholic outlook upon humanity, and yet she was a shy
solitary walking alone in puritan simplicity and childlike faith. Few
ham possessed such moral and physical courage, or exercised such
imperious power over savage peoples, yet on trivial occasions she was
abjectly timid and afraid, A sufferer from chronic malarial affection,
and a martyr to pains her days were filled in with unremitting toil.
Overflowing with love and tender feeling, she could be stern and
exacting. Shrewd, practical, and matter of fact, she believed that
sentiment was a gift of God, and frankly indulged in it. Living always
in the midst of dense spiritual darkness, and often depressed and
worried, she maintained unimpaired a sense of humour and laughter.
Strong and tenacious of will, she admitted the right of others to
oppose her. These are but illustrations of the perpetual play of light
and shade in her character which made her difficult to understand. Many
could not see her greatness for what they called her eccentricities,
forgetting, or perhaps being unaware of, what she had passed through,
experiences such as no other woman had undergone, which explained much
that seemed unusual in her conduct. But when her life is viewed as a
whole, and in the light of what she achieved, all these angles and
oddities fall away, and she stands out, a woman of unique and inspiring
personality, and one of the most heroic figures of the age._
_Some have said that she was in a sense a miracle, and not, therefore,
for ordinary people to emulate. Such an estimate she would have stoutly
repudiated. It is true that she began life with the gift of a strong
character, but many possess that and yet come to nothing. She had, on
the other hand, disadvantages and obstacles that few have to encounter.
It was by surrender, dedication, and unwearied devotion that she grew
into her power of attainment, and all can adventure on the same path.
It was love for Christ that made her what she was, and there is no
limit set in that direction. Such opportunity as she had, lies before
the lowliest disciples; even out of the commonplace Love can carve
heroines. "There is nothing small or trivial," she once said, "for God
is ready to take every act and motive and work through them to the
formation of character and the development of holy and useful lives
that will convey grace to the world." It was so in her case, and hence
the value of her example, and the warrant for telling the story of her
life so that others may be influenced to follow aims as noble, and to
strive, if not always in the same manner, at least with a like courage,
and in the same patient and indomitable spirit.
W.P.L._
CONTENTS
FIRST PHASE
A SCOTTISH FACTORY GIRL
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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