Women -- Biography; Women -- Social and moral questions
The source of all progress and power to the child of God is union, an
abiding union with Jesus. Miss Graham felt this for years, and longed
for it as the one thing needful to satisfy the cravings of her own
soul, and increase her usefulness to others. The abiding graces of the
Christian life, faith,—hope, and charity—are also its abiding forces.
Christians should learn to live, as well as learn to die. The twofold
significance of the text, “The just shall live by faith,” struck deep
into the generous soil of her ardent heart and active mind. The just
shall be _made alive_ first, and _afterwards learn to live_ by faith.
The just shall be _justified before God first_, and afterwards learn
the way _to become just also in heart and life_ by faith. “If ye abide
in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it
shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear
much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me,
so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my
commandments, ye shall abide in my love: even as I have kept my
Father’s commandments, and abide in His love. These things have I
spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy
might be full.” Simply to abide in Jesus is the whole philosophy of
progress and power.
_CHARACTER OF MISS GRAHAM._
The biographer of Miss Graham, has been constrained to compensate for
the paucity of incident—furnished by her life, to introduce large
extracts from her writings and correspondence. From these extracts, and
a portrait taken four years before her death, we learn that her
physical constitution was rather too finely strung. Bred delicately in
a great city, shut up in a nursery in childhood, and in a school
through youth—never accustomed to air or exercise, her beauty faded
quickly, and she was cut off in the midst of life. To preserve health
it is not necessary to visit some distant clime, nor to do some great
thing, but simply to obey her laws.
A striking feature of her intellectual character, was a total
concentration of every power of thought and feeling in the object of
pursuit immediately before her. In youthful games she engaged with the
same ardour which she afterwards applied to languages and sciences.
Indeed, she followed Solomon’s advice in everything she undertook:
“Whatsoever thine hand findeth to do, do it with thy might!” It was
impossible to divert her mind from the object that was engaging her
attention to any other employment or recreation. To subjects of taste,
she brought a glow of feeling and imagination; matters of a graver
cast, are drawn out with the sober accuracy of a reflecting and
discriminating judgment.
One of our poets glowingly exclaims,—
“O Thou bleeding Lamb!
The true morality is love of Thee.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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