The Sheepfold and the Common; Or, Within and Without. Vol. 1 (of 2)East, Timothy
Religion
The Sheepfold and the Common; Or, Within and Without. Vol. 1 (of 2)
East, Timothy
Christian life; Christian life -- Pictorial works
The surgeon, who had been anxiously expected for several hours, now
arrived. "Do you think," said the grief-worn mother, "our child
is dying?" This question, though familiar to the humane man, was
not heard without an evident emotion of sorrow. "While there is
life there is hope; but I would not advise you to be too sanguine
in your expectations; she is very ill." There was no burst of
anguish at this reply. They all knew Jemima was dying, though they
were unwilling to believe it; and though their pulse beat a little
quicker on hearing this reply, and their faces turned paler, yet
they stood pressing round the bed, as if to keep off the king of
terrors, whose advanced guards had taken the forlorn hope.
We now went down stairs; and, as the storm was over, the surgeon
left, but I could not leave. "Will you," said the father, "go to
prayer with us? If it were not for prayer, and the hope which the
gospel gives, my heart would break." With this request I complied;
and while praying to the God of all grace that the little child
might be favoured with the light of his countenance in her passage
through the valley of the shadow of death, I heard the mother's
shriek, which convinced me that she was gone. The children started
up, weeping aloud, wringing their hands, and calling, "Jemima!
Jemima! don't leave us." And the mother, with a softened melancholy
of countenance, appeared among as, saying, with a faltering tongue,
"_She exclaimed, as I was raising her up on the pillow, 'I am going
to heaven!' and fell back in my arms, and died_."
I remained with them about a quarter of an hour, administering to
them the consolations of religion, and then left them, in company
with the eldest boy, who conducted me to Fairmount, which I reached
about ten o'clock. I related to my friends the adventures of my
ramble, which compensated for the anxiety which my long absence
and the state of the weather had occasioned. When reflecting on
this fact, and contrasting the bright prospect which the gospel of
Christ unveils to the juvenile as well as to the aged Christian,
with the dark and cheerless gloom of infidelity, I feel its immense
superiority; and with emotions which no language can describe, I pay
my adorations and praises to Him who brought life and immortality to
light.
A SABBATH MORNING AT FAIRMOUNT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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