Woman and Her Saviour in Persia: By a Returned MissionaryLaurie, Thomas
History
Woman and Her Saviour in Persia: By a Returned Missionary
Laurie, Thomas
Church of the East -- Missions; Missions -- Iran; Women missionaries
Her companions desired very much to be present when she went home; but
this was not permitted. One morning in June, she said, at early dawn,
"Mother, the day breaks; I think Jesus is coming for me now; let me
go." But seeing no change in her appearance, her mother lay down again,
and, when next she woke, found that Jesus had come, and taken her to be
with him in his home above. What was that vision of the glory of
Immanuel that prompted the cry, "Mother, the day breaks!" from one who
never remembered to have seen the light? She became blind in infancy. A
smile remained on her pale face; and well might the sight of Him who
said, "If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto myself," leave such a memento of the bliss.
Little Hannah, the youngest member of the school, was suddenly called
home the following September, when only eleven years of age. When she
first came to Christ, her teacher was awakened one morning by her
asking at the bedside, "Is it wrong to wish to die?" "But why do you
want to die?" "That I may go and stay with Jesus, and never sin again."
This desire never left her. Once she said, with tears, "It seems as if
I cannot wait so long to go to my Saviour;" and at another time, "I
fear that I have sinned in not being willing to wait till Jesus calls
me." Before leaving for vacation, each pupil put up her own things in a
bundle, to be laid away till her return. As Hannah was at work on hers,
she said to a girl near her, "Perhaps you will open this. I do not
think that I ever shall. When you come together in the autumn, I trust
that I shall be in the Saviour's school above." So strong was the
desire awakened in her by Him who intended soon to gratify it.
While the cholera raged around her in August, she frequently said,
"This may be my time to go to my dear Saviour;" and repeated it to her
mother on the last morning of her life, but went out as usual to her
work in the vineyard. About noon she became unwell, and said to a
companion, "I am sick; perhaps I shall die soon." "Are you willing?"
"O, yes, I am not afraid to go to Jesus." The disease made rapid
progress, and again she said, "I am very sick; I shall die soon: shall
we not pray together?" Her young friend led in prayer, and then called
on her to follow; but her time for prayer was almost finished. She
could just say, "Bless my dear sister; take me gently through the dark
river;" when she sunk exhausted, and was carried to the house. A mother
bent over an only daughter, and three loving brothers over an only
sister; but they could not keep her back from Jesus. She sent for her
companions, and they hastened to her bedside. She called for her
Testament; but her eyesight was failing her, and she returned it,
saying, "I can never use it more; but read it more prayerfully, and
love the Saviour more than I have done." She lingered through the
night, and rose with the dawn to her long-desired rest in the presence
of her Redeemer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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