Mrs. Whittelsey's Magazine for Mothers and Daughters, Volume 3Various
Religion
Mrs. Whittelsey's Magazine for Mothers and Daughters, Volume 3
Various
Christian life -- Periodicals
The history presented in this memoir has no startling incidents. The
subject of it, a beautiful and promising boy, full of life and
happiness, is suddenly smitten with a disease which hangs like an
incubus upon his progress through life, and terminates his course just
after he has entered successfully on the practice of the medical
profession, in the island of Cuba, led, as he had previously been, on
repeated voyages across the ocean, by the hope of permanent benefit from
change of climate. Scattered through the book are descriptions of
scenery, observations on men and manners, and pleasant narratives, which
give variety to its pages, but its charm rises in the character of
uncommon loveliness which it presents; in the unvarying cheerfulness and
patience with which the young sufferer met pain, disappointment of
cherished plans of life, defeat and delay in his efforts for
intellectual improvement, separation from the friends to whom his
sensitive spirit clung with a tenacity of affection which is often
developed by suffering, but which seems to have been an original element
in his nature; years of banishment from the home circle, and at last,
_death_, away from every friend, on the ocean, which he was struggling
to cross once more that he might breathe his last sigh on his mother's
bosom. The conscientiousness, the integrity, the simplicity of this
young Christian are as beautiful to contemplate as his elasticity of
spirit, his cheerful submission, and his resolute determination to be
all that, with the shattered materials, he was capable of making
himself. His patient efforts, retarded by his severe sufferings, to
educate himself, and acquire a profession, are touching and instructive,
though few, who have not experienced the slow martyrdom of chronic
disease, can fully appreciate his energy, or sympathize with his
difficulties. Better than all this is his unwavering trust in God, from
his boyhood to the day of his early death. Here was the secret of his
joyfulness. His biographer well remarks, "Beyond all doubt the
inalienable treasure and guarantee of cheerfulness, being
reconciliation to God, was in that heart, whose pulsations are still
beating in the leaves of this book. In his sky the star of hope was
always in the ascendant. The aspect which life had to him,
notwithstanding all his suffering, was green and cheerful. He was wont
to view things on the sunny side, or if a cloud intervened to look
beyond it."
Such a cheerfulness, so based, is worth more than "silver and gold." We
commend the book to the attention of our readers, as a beautiful
illustration of early and consistent piety.
* * * * *
POETRY FOR CHILDREN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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