Christian life -- Fiction; Conduct of life -- Fiction
MAY 13.-THIS has been a Sunday to be held in long remembrance. We were
summoned early this morning to Mrs. Campbell, and have seen her
joyful release from the fetters that have bound her long. Her loss to
me is irreparable. But I truly thank God that one more tired traveler
had a sweet "welcome home." I can minister no longer to her bodily
wants, and listen to her counsels no more, but she has entered as an
inspiration into my life, and through all eternity I shall bless God
that He gave me that faithful, praying friend. How little they know
who languish in what seems useless sick-rooms, or amid the
restrictions of frail health, what work they do for Christ by the
power of saintly living, and by even fragmentary prayers.
Before her words fade out of my memory I want to write down, from
hasty notes made at the time, her answer to some of the last
questions I asked her on earth. She had always enjoyed intervals of
comparative ease, and it was in one of these that I asked her what
she conceived to be the characteristics of an advanced state of
grace. She replied, "I think that the mature Christian is always, at
all times, and in all circumstances, what he was in his best moments
in the progressive stages of his life. There were seasons, all along
his course, when he loved God supremely; when he embraced the cross
joyfully and penitently; when he held intimate communion with Christ,
and loved his neighbor as himself. But he was always in terror, lest
under the force of temptation, all this should give place to deadness
and dullness, when he should chafe and rebel in the hour of trial,
and judge his fellow-man with a harsh and bitter judgment, and give
way to angry, passionate emotions. But these fluctuations cease,
after a time, to disturb his peace. Love to Christ becomes the
abiding, inmost principle of his life; he loves Him rather for what
He is, than for what He has done or will do for him individually, and
God's honor becomes so dear to him that he feels personally wounded
when that is called in question. And the will of God becomes so dear
to him that he loves it best when it 'triumphs at his cost.'
"Once he only prayed at set times and seasons, and idolized good
frames and fervent emotions. Now he prays without ceasing, and
whether on the mount or down in the depths depends wholly upon His
Saviour.
"His old self-confidence has now given place to child-like humility
that will not let him take a step alone, and the sweet peace that is
now habitual to him combined with the sense of his own imperfections,
fills him with love to his fellow-man. He hears and believes and
hopes and endures all things and thinketh no evil. The tones of his
voice, the very expression of his countenance, become changed, love
now controlling where human passions held sway. In short, he is not
only a new creature in Jesus Christ, but the habitual and blessed
consciousness that this is so."
These words were spoken deliberately and with reflection.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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