{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_38383/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_38383","id":"gutenberg_38383","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38383","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: Parenthood & Family Relations","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Steward, Rebecca Gould, Mrs., 1820-1877"],"text":"Produced by Suzanne Shell, Matthew Wheaton and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This\nfile was produced from images generously made available\nby The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n    MEMOIRS OF _Mrs. Rebecca Steward_,\n\n\n    CONTAINING:\n\n        A FULL SKETCH OF HER LIFE, WITH VARIOUS SELECTIONS FROM HER\n        WRITINGS AND LETTERS; ALSO CONTRIBUTIONS FROM BISHOP CAMPBELL,\n        D.D., PROF. B. F. LEE, OF WILBERFORCE UNIVERSITY, B. T. TANNER,\n        D.D., EDITOR OF THE _Christian Recorder_, REV. T. GOULD, MRS.\n        ELIZABETH LLOYD, AND WM. STEWARD,\n\n    BY REV. T. G. STEWARD.\n\n        The motto I taught my boys was \"Aim at the Sun! If you do not\n        bring it down, you will shoot higher than if you had aimed at\n        the earth.\"--REBECCA STEWARD.\n\n    \"Her children shall rise up and call her blessed.\"\n\n    PUBLISHED AT THE\n    _Publication Department of the A. M. E. Church_,\n    No. 631 Pine St., Philadelphia, Pa.\n\n    1877.\n\n\n    _Copyright, 1877, by Rev. T. G. Steward._\n\n\n    To DANIEL A. PAYNE, D.D.,\n\n    Senior Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church:\n\n        IN RECOGNITION OF HIS LEARNING, TALENTS AND PIETY: AND AS A\n        TESTIMONIAL TO HIS HIGH APPRECIATION OF FEMALE EXCELLENCE, THIS\n        LITTLE VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.\n\n    THE AUTHOR.\n\n\n\n\n    CONTENTS.\n\n\n    Introduction,\n    In Memoriam, Poem,\n\n\n    PART I.\n\n    CHAPTER I.--Ancestory and Parents,\n    CHAPTER II.--Birth, Home, etc.,\n    CHAPTER III.--Wife, Mother, Writer,\n    CHAPTER IV.--Children all married,\n    CHAPTER V.--Retrospection,\n    Reminiscences, by Bishop Campbell,\n    My Recollections,--Prof. B. F. Lee,\n    Mrs. Rebecca Steward, by Dr. Tanner,\n    Mrs. Rebecca Steward, by Rev. T. Gould,\n    Aunt Rebecca Steward,--Mrs. E. Lloyd,\n\n\n    PART II.\n\n    \"Two years on the Brink of Jordan,\"\n    Sanctification, by Mrs. R. S.,\n          \"             \"    \"\n          \" conclusion  \"    \"\n    Story,              \"    \"\n    Poetry,             \"    \"\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nA life finished, is a proper subject for contemplation and study. To\nthe Christian, whose eye is ever turning to the end of life, nothing\ncan be more interesting than the life and death of the saints. It is\nnever difficult to secure a large congregation to the funeral services\nof a well known Christian.\n\nIn looking upon a life closed, from a Christian standpoint, we see the\nDivine and the human blended. We see human nature moulded by divinely\ncast circumstances; we see character developed and displayed through\nthese occasional circumstances. The \"hidden man of the heart\" is\nbrought out, and we are able to see the _inner_ through the _outer_\nlife.\n\nTo this pleasant and profitable study, the reader of these pages is\ninvited. He will be brought in contact with a life, humble and perhaps\ncommonplace, but interesting at every step, because always earnest\nand real. He is invited to follow that life through a responsible,\nlaborious and thorny pathway; and to see manifest, a character always\nglowing in brightness and stronger than any emergency.\n\nHe may learn the secret of that brightness and strength if he will. It\nis not of man but of God. He may hear a faith express itself before\ngreat difficulties (as I have often times) in these words: \"Who art\nthou O great mountain? before _Zerubbabel_, thou shalt become a\nplain.\" Zech. IV. 7.\n\nAnd, if his eyes are cleared to see the things of God, as were those\nof Elisha's servant, as he and his master stood in the midst of the\nSyrian hosts at Dothan, he will see, not the mountains round about\nfull of horses and chariots of fire; but a heavenly light streaming\ndown upon the toiler, and a crown of resplendent glory held in her\nfull view;--an angelic hand guiding her as she slowly pursues her way,\nsometimes weeping but often singing, through the inspiration of the\nhope set before her.\n\nIn presenting a sketch of this life I attempt to fulfill a threefold\nduty. First, it is an act of obedience to the feelings of my own\nheart. An imperious sentiment forces me to the task. This book is the\ntribute I bring to cast upon the tomb of a loved mother! Secondly, I\nessay to discharge this duty in obedience to the wish of many\nrelatives and dear friends. I feel myself honored in a very high\ndegree in being thus called to so delicate a responsibility, and I can\nbut deeply feel my inabilities. Knowing, however, their sincere regard\nfor the person whose name I endeavor to commemorate, I feel somewhat\nencouraged to entrust to their generosity my best efforts. Lastly, the\ninterests of Christianity seem to demand this at my hands. A voice\nfrom above which I regard as that of the Master urges me to lay before\nthe Christian world this life, as a help and solace to the many\nstruggling ones. Reverently bowing to this call, and imploring His\nblessings upon the humble effort, I assume the pen. May the Lord own\nthe work! And here I desire also to express my profound thanks to\nthose distinguished Christians, who have contributed most essentially\nto this volume, and to the many more, whose letters of sympathy and\nlove have furnished inspiration to the performance of this sad, yet\npleasing duty.\n\nT. G. S.\n\n\n\n\nIn Memoriam.\n\nBY WILLIAM STEWARD (\"WILL.\")\n\n\"They are love's last gifts, bring ye flowers, pale flowers.\"--MRS.\nHEMANS.\n\n\n    I stand alone beside the silent mound,\n      The dull, cold earth beneath me, and the sky\n    Dark blue o'er head.--The spacious hills around\n      Nor charms the gaze of my grief wearied eye;\n    Sad, tired, forlorn, I sink upon the sod,\n      With rev'rent awe and mournful bareed head,\n    I try to raise my thoughts to mother's God,\n      And with affection contemplate the dead.\n\n    I am a boy again--a lisping child,\n      With sunny face and merry prattling tongue;\n    I totter forth with joyous fancy wild,\n      And sing the lullaby we last night sung;\n    My young heart bounds with radiant happiness\n      As some new toy my angel-mother gives,\n    Or stoops to pat my head with sweet caress,\n      And my glad lips her cherished kiss receives.\n\n    Now I am grown to boyhoods first estate;\n      And thorns of life 'gin prick me one by one,--\n    Now aspiration's hopes, my thoughts elate,\n      And now by disappointments am cast down;\n    The daily avocations of the farm\n      Bring each in turn their elements of woe,\n    But mother's heart, its beatings always warm,\n      Is a sure haven where I ever go.\n\n    Th' unruly horse my youthful strength o'erpowers,\n      Or vicious cattle wear my patience bare,\n    Each is recounted of in evening hours,\n      In boyhood's confidence in mother's ear,--\n    Ah! we six childish ones with each our cares--\n      Bespeak we each ones place, in mother's heart,\n    Where we each pour our trouble, hopes and fears,\n      And mother, tenderly takes each one's part.\n\n    And at th' appointed hour the father comes;\n      His day's work o'er, prompt, day and day the same,\n    Then happiest ours of all the happy homes\n      Our lessons coning, or with sportive game,--\n    Oh would those days of childhood linger still--\n      The ev'ning game prolong--e'en daily task\n    Is welcomed linger! youthful years ye will\n      Be vanished and your stay in vain we ask!\n\n    Too soon with quickning steps the eager days\n      Bring manhood's strength--our childhood all outgrown\n    And then for life we take our sep'rate ways,\n      Each son and daughter choose a course their own;\n    Too soon, alas! the shadowy curtain falls\n      And sorrows, real, begin to cast their gloam,\n    Our consciences' tickle with increasing galls\n      As each new silv'ry hair comes to our home.\n\n    Dear cherished ones, thy load we now wish lighter,\n      Since we are grown, and see thy waning years,\n    Thy daily walks we would see fair and brighter,\n      But ev'ry effort still augments thy cares;\n    Affliction's hand, spares not the burdened mother,\n      But suff'rings, long, great, are thy constant lot;\n    Nor stintless hand divides it with another\n      Who'd die for thee and for thee be forgot.\n\n    Grown, stalwart boys and buxome girls we all are\n      And fain would bring renown to thy dear name--\n    Pride to thy heart, and comfort to thy leisure\n      By some good noble deeds, and worthy fame,\n    Alas, how short we've come! When thou complaisant\n      Looked on expectant for some virtuous act,\n    How Self appeared like some fierce tigress couchant,\n      And we with evil motive seemed impact!\n\n    And thou art gone! Well do I remember\n      Our childhood's days again--I'd live them o'er--\n    When chilly blasts of sleeting, bleak December\n      Kept us, long ev'nings, close within the door,\n    We stories begged and then some Bible tale--\n      Of David's valor, or Saul's treachery\n    Of Moses meekness or Methus'lah hale--\n      Of Abraham's faith or Esau's jealousy.\n\n    Of Enoch's constancy in serving God,\n      Of Joseph, sold a slave; of Egypt's kings,\n    Of Pharaoh's plagues, and Moses' wond'rous rod,\n      And of the Psalms which ev'ry Christian sings,\n    Of John the Baptist, Christ the living Word\n      Which was made flesh, and came and dwelt with men,\n    Who was, and is, and shall be, God the Lord;\n      Of His disciples, Holy ones, and then\n    The Revelation, and the last Great Day,\n      Each in its turn, in loving tones, was given\n    And thus our mother thought to point the way\n      With truthful finger, to the gates of Heaven;\n    The great \"Old Bible\" then across her knee\n      Was tender laid,--I see her sparkling eye,--\n    With trem'lous voice she read the \"Verily\"\n      And hushed, we listen'd, 'till no eye was dry.\n\n    Then, kneeling, when the Word had well been read\n      In very confidence she talked with God,\n    And then with happy tears we went to bed,\n      Now Mother lies beneath the silent sod!\n    And thus, when father was away at toil\n      In fact'ry's buzz, his cherished ones to keep,\n    Giving his strength for them, in hot turmoil,\n      We, his dear ones, were wrapped in blissful sleep.\n\n    But she is gone! we've laid her down to rest\n      In a soft bed of satin, white and pure\n    We spread her o'er white rose buds on her breast,\n      And bade her soul, waft to the better shore!\n    Where mansions fair unnumbered stand prepared\n      For her and hers--her Lord had told her so\n    His Fathers house, to her he said, was shared\n      By those who loved as she had loved below.\n\n    And would I grieve? Yes, many a poisoned dart\n      Have I with wilful hand flung straight at thee,\n    Yet stood aghast, when it did prick thy heart,\n      I mourn in silence, now--thou'rt gone from me;\n    Father, and we, the six yet still are here\n      And for thy sake will serve each others good--\n    Grief answers grief, now comes the ready tear,\n      To bring thee back we'd weep thee tears of blood;\n    And would we weep for thee to call thee hence?\n      Again instate thee in this world of woe,\n    Would we rebel and murmur--dread offence--\n      Against the God whose mandate bade thee go?\n    Nay, wearied one, fly to thy hav'n of rest,\n      God wills it so; content we are to be\n    Without thee here, thou dwell'st among the blest\n      Forever safe in realms prepared for thee.\n\n\n\n\nPART I.\n\nLife and Character.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nANCESTRY AND PARENTS.\n\n\nIn Cumberland County, in the southern part of the State of New Jersey,\nmay be found a little settlement called \"Gouldtown.\" It contains a\nchurch, a school house, a blacksmith shop, a wheelwright shop, two\nstores and a post office. The community is made up almost entirely of\nfarmers, and is of course very conservative as to modes of thought and\nexpression.\n\nIt takes its name from the large family of Gould's who have so long\noccupied the place. There are, however, three other families more or\nless intermixed with the Gould family; viz: The Pierces, the Murrays,\nand the Cuffs; but the Goulds have usually maintained the leading\nposition, both in number and influence.\n\nTradition connects this family with the early settlers of the State.\nJohn Fenwick, an Englishman, who had been a Major in the Parliamentary\narmy under Cromwell, and who had been specially appointed by Cromwell\nto \"see the sentence of death pronounced against the king, (Charles\nI.,) executed, in the open streets before Whitehall,\" after the\nRestoration emigrated to America. He had adopted the religious views\nof George Fox, and became associated with William Penn.\n\nHe arrived in New Jersey (Caesarea) in the year 1675, accompanied by\nhis three daughters, two of whom were married, their husbands, five\ngrandchildren, and ten servants.\n\nOne grand-daughter, Elizabeth, aged at the time of their arrival in\nAmerica at eleven years, subsequently caused him much grief, and, it\nis said did much to bring his gray hairs in sorrow to the grave. \"He\ndoes not disguise the sense of shame that hangs over him from her\ncourse of life, and strives to make her understand his displeasure, by\ndepriving her of any part of his property, immediate or prospective,\nbut on certain conditions.\"--_Life of John Fenwick by John Clemens._\n\nThe crime committed by Elizabeth, was uniting herself in wedlock to a\n_black man_. It may have been an informal wedlock; as perhaps no one\ncould be found in the colony who would have dared solemnize or record\nsuch a marriage. For its legality it may have had to depend upon\nHeaven's authority, and not upon the par-blind courts of men. The\n\"certain conditions\" upon which Elizabeth might share a part of her\ngrandfather's property were, to leave \"that Black,\" and repent of her\nsins. (See Fenwick's will.)\n\nA tradition universally accepted, connects the Goulds with the issue\nof this marriage. The name of this man, however, is not found in any\nof the family records, and in Fenwick's will he is simply\ncontemptuously called \"that Black.\" A vague tradition says he was a\nslave whom Fenwick purchased of some trading vessel, giving in\nexchange for him a barrel of rum. If this should be true, the sequel\nshows how large a trouble he bought with a small price.\n\nBenjamin Gould, the first Gould of whom we have any record, is\ndeclared to be the son of this Elizabeth. He is supposed to have had a\nbrother named Richard. The dust of Benjamin Gould and \"Ann\" his wife,\nlies buried in the old family graveyard at Gouldtown.\n\nTo them were born Elisha, Abijah, Samuel and Anthony. Samuel died\nJanuary 26th, 1793, and Abijah in 1806. Very little, indeed, is known\nof this generation.\n\nIt was simply an obscure family, struggling against terrible odds, and\nyet possessing intelligence sufficient to preserve some records and\nestablish a graveyard.\n\nThe graveyard is a hallowed rallying place. Abraham's first possession\nin the land of promise was a family burying ground; and to this sacred\nspot as a last earthly resting place, his immediate descendants were\ntaught to look.\n\nTo Abijah Gould were born Benjamin, Richard, Abijah Jr., Furman,\nLeonard and Hannah.\n\nFURMAN GOULD was for many years a licensed local preacher in the\nAfrican M. E. Church and was an honored member of the Philadelphia\nAnnual Conference. The older members of that Conference will readily\nremember his venerable appearance, coupled with his somewhat brusque\nand positive manners. He was a man who had views of his own, and the\nhardihood to express them.\n\nBENJAMIN GOULD quite early in life married Phoebe Bowen, a young woman\nbrought up in the family of Reuben Cuff of Salem, N. J. To them were\nborn Oliver, Tamson, Lydia, Jane, Abijah, Sarah, Rebecca, Phoebe and\nPrudence.\n\nThis Benjamin Gould, the brother of the Rev. Furman Gould, is\ndoubtless well remembered by the older itinerant preachers, who\nlabored in that section of the country, as for instance the Rev.\nRichard Barney and Bishop Wayman. He was a man of recognized worth,\nfor many years chief steward of the church, of some literary culture,\nquite a wag, and very fond of practical jokes. He was a thrifty farmer\nfor his times, and quite an extensive dealer in cordwood and hoppoles.\n\nPHOEBE GOULD, his wife, was possessed of considerable intelligence\nand evinced a fondness for learning. Deeply pious, her mind was well\nstored with Bible truths and with choice hymns. She manifested a\nfondness for children, and could repeat from memory to their delight\nmany long stories in verse; and she never failed to leave upon them an\nimpression for good. She seemed to live in a very holy frame, and did\nnot fail to bless all who came near her.\n\nBenjamin Gould, the father of Rebecca Steward, passed away on the 18th\nof May 1851, and twenty-six years after on the same day of the month\nand at the same hour in the day, viz., May 18th 1877, Phoebe Gould,\nthe mother, followed him to that better land. The heads of the family\nare gone over, and one by one the children who have walked in the\nfootsteps of their parents are being gathered home after them. The\nlatest grave is that which contains the precious dust of REBECCA\nSTEWARD, fifth daughter of Benjamin and Phoebe Gould.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nBIRTH, HOME, MARRIAGE, CONVERSION.\n\n\nRebecca Gould, afterwards Rebecca Steward, was born in Gouldtown on\nthe 2d of May, 1820. But Gouldtown a half century ago was not what it\nis now. It was then almost unbroken forest. The early childhood of\nthis family was passed in a rude little log house, in which one room\nanswered for kitchen, dining-room, parlor and bed-room for eleven\nsouls.\n\nA brave and stalwart father, a slight and sickly mother, seven girls,\nand two boys, made up that household. A little uncomfortable school\nhouse, answering on the Sabbath for church, was the only public\nbuilding known. In such circumstances, grew up this family; the\nchildren early learning to work in the fields and in the woods, girls\nand boys, very much alike, getting now and then a few months in\nschool, and working occasionally in other families. Thus they learned\nquite early the stern realities of life.\n\nThis home, though rude, was the abode of good cheer, in which the\nwayworn traveler and especially the minister of the gospel, always\nfound a welcome.\n\nLet me picture it as it lives in my earliest recollections. The\nlog-house had then given way to one of frame scarcely larger, and\nthis was old. The heavy oaken door painted red swung lazily on its\nhinges, and the leather latch string answered for a knob. In one\ncorner of the room stood an ancient corner cupboard, with its glass\ndoors and abundant carvings; in another the old clock, with its two\nbrothers clasped in affectionate embrace on its front; the fire place\nand the innovation of a ten plate stove, occupied one side of the\nroom; while opposite, stood the old table, with its legs terminating\nin dragon's feet, from which I have crept away in terror many times,\nimagining that the cloth concealed some hideous beast. A long settee\nand a few rush bottom chairs completed the furniture.\n\nMy earliest recollections carry me to this house; to the well that\nstood before it; to the old pear tree and apple tree near by. But\nclearest in my memory are the white bread, the rich butter and sweet\nmilk, that \"Grandmother\" dealt out to her hungry juvenile visitors\nwith such liberal hand. Oh, how peaceful and sweet appear the\nbeginnings of life when we look back upon them from the smoking\nperilous battle field of manhoods labors.\n\nAt nineteen years of age, Rebecca Gould was sought and won in marriage\nby James Steward. He was then a young man of promise, a steady and\nthrifty mechanic, having worked nine years in the Cumberland Nail and\nIron works. He had been reared practically an orphan, his mother\nhaving gone to San Domingo, doubtless with an intention of one day\nreturning. She never returned; and thus his last earthly relative, so\nfar as he knew, departed. Alone he battled his way up. Providence,\nhowever, ultimately gave him a home in the family of Elijah Gould,\nfather of Rev. T. Gould, where he remained until twenty-one. At\ntwenty-four years of age he took to his side Rebecca Gould and the\ntwain became one.\n\nOf James Steward and Rebecca, were born six children, viz: Margarette,\nWilliam, Mary, Theophilus Gould, Alice, and Stephen Smith.\n\nPermit me henceforth to speak of this couple as my father and mother,\nand I beg the reader to pardon me, if I should manifest a degree of\nlove and respect, which may seem to him somewhat partial.\n\nI write, I trust, as a man who feels that there can be no nobler\nsentiment than real filial love.\n\nNeither my father or mother were Christians at the time of marriage.\nThey commenced life in the town; but as children were born to them,\nalthough they had purchased a home in the village, they sold it and\nwent to the country.\n\nThe principal object had in view in this matter, was to keep their\nchildren in a pure and health giving moral, as well as physical,\natmosphere. I am not certain which took the lead in this change,\nfather or mother; but it is presumable that as father had been reared\nin the town and mother in the country, it was done directly or\nindirectly through her influence.\n\nFortunately father and mother agreed on all principal matters relating\nto the government of their children. They both resolved to do the best\npossible, to give them a practical education, an education that would\nbe of use; but mother being the better informed assumed the larger\nshare in the direction of this education. She, to some extent,\nexamined and encouraged the children even when in school, and kept the\nlove of learning burning briskly all the time.\n\nAbout seven years after marriage she became an active Christian,\njoining the African M. E. Church in Gouldtown, October 12, 1846, under\nRev. now Bishop A. W. Wayman; and not long after my father followed\nher in a profession of faith.\n\nMy whole recollection of my mother is of a Christian. In my early\nchildhood, I remember her as being much afflicted. During one of these\nlong periods of sickness, I remember her requesting my father to sing\nthe hymn:\n\n    \"Shrinking from the cold hand of death\n      I soon shall gather up my feet,\n    Shall soon resign this fleeting breath\n      And die,--my father's God to meet.\"\n\nI suppose she felt that her end was approaching. She had taken the\nbook and found the hymn and requested my father to sing it. As soon as\nhe saw the character of the hymn he bowed himself upon the bedside\nand wept. Though but a child scarcely above infancy, yet the scene is\nfirmly photographed on my memory.\n\nI also remember during one of these long periods of sickness, of\nreceiving an impression that I had seen her walking out in the garden.\nI was so sure that she had been out, that the next day I asked her if\nshe was going out again. She surprisingly asked \"Going out again? why\nwhen have I been out?\" \"Why,\" said I \"you were out in the garden\nyesterday.\" \"No, I was not,\" she replied. I insisted that she had been\nout; but she thought I had dreamed it; and that _disgusted me_, when I\nwas so sure I had _seen her and talked with her in the garden_. I\ncarry to this day a distinct recollection of her appearance in the\ngarden on that day.\n\nThe facts were, as I afterward learned, that she was sitting by the\nsouth window in her room overlooking the garden, watching me while I\nwas playing in the garden. I have no explanation to offer.\n\nThe work of my mother may be divided in at least three parts, viz: In\nher family, in the neighborhood, and in herself, in enduring\nafflictions and triumphing over them.\n\nAs a wife and a mother, she fulfilled her whole duty in the household.\nShe was intelligent, hospitable, and kind; securing for her children\nthe best company within their reach. By extensive reading and careful\nstudy, she prepared herself to entertain the young and the old, the\nrude, and the refined; and by her executive ability she could secure\nthe comfort and pleasure of almost any number of guests. Towards the\ncommunity she stood as an unofficious and unostentatious missionary\nand educator. In herself she suffered the will of God, and gave such\nan example of patience as is rarely met with.\n\nI shall try to present a brief sketch of her work in all these spheres\nand refer the reader for illustrations, to her own writings and\nletters, and to the contributions of those whose names honor this\nbook.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nWIFE, MOTHER AND WRITER.\n\n\nOn the 21st of March, 1869, my mother was taken with a serious\nillness, which confined her to her bed for two years, and to her house\nfor five years. During the period of her convalescence, in which for\nmost of the time she was unable to walk a step, she kept her pen\nemployed; and always upon Christian themes. Having read the Bible with\ngreat patience and care, she could glean from its inspired pages,\nthoughts not unworthy a place in our best religious journals.\n\nIt was while she was thus afflicted, that the movement for the special\npromotion of holiness assumed noticeable proportions. With this\nmovement she had no sympathy, and expressed unhesitatingly her\ndisapproval of any religious or political reform, lead in large\nmeasure by women. She wrote a series of articles on \"Sanctification,\"\nhaving direct bearing upon this movement. Her words have lost none of\ntheir weight with the lapse of time, and experience of the Church.\n\nShe commenced her articles with expressing surprise and pain, that\nChristians should talk about the _time when_ they were sanctified; and\nshould set apart times and hold special meetings for sanctification.\n\"Now,\" she says, \"this argues to me that they do _not know Christ_; or\nthey doubt God's power to forgive sins fully, freely and clearly; or\nthey do not believe Christ when he says believe and be saved. 'He that\nbelieveth on me though _he were dead_ yet shall he live' John. 11. 25.\nNow, if Christ does not mean to save to the _uttermost_ why does he\ninvite all the ends of the earth to come and be saved? He does not say\nrepent and believe _now_, and after awhile I will come to wash,\ncleanse, purify, sanctify you or set you apart; but he says repent and\nbelieve _now_ and ye shall be saved _now_.\"\n\nShe maintained with the approval of her own conscience, the testimony\nof her own experience, and abundant scripture reference, that we could\nnot be half in Christ and half-out, half-saved and half-lost, that\nthere was no concord between Christ and Belial, no partnership between\nGod and the devil.\n\nHer words are \"We cannot be half saved and half lost, there can be no\nhalf-way measures with Christ, _we must come unto Him and be saved or\nstay away and be lost_.\"\n\nAnd then she says \"Every part must be saved, not a hair of your head\nshall perish.\" As God sanctified the entire Sabbath from its very dawn\nto its close, so she argued does God sanctify the whole Christian\nlife. Her faith was to the effect that all Christians were sanctified\nfrom conversion, and she called on all Christians to so regard\nthemselves and to so repose upon all the promises of God.\n\nDuring this period of affliction she wrote the interesting paper found\nfurther on in this book, entitled, \"TWO YEARS ON THE BRINK OF JORDAN.\"\nIt was written with a view of reflecting her own experience. The cases\nalluded to in it of persons crossing the river in Charon's boat, are\nnot ficticious, but solemn records of the death of some of her\nacquaintances. She preferred to leave them un-named, and I would not\nnow trespass upon her preference; but I repeat, the reader may feel\nassured, that in every departure of the boat he is looking upon a real\ndeath-bed scene, and will understand that morning, noon, and evening,\nas there used, refer to youth, middle age, and old age.\n\nBut it was in the home circle that Mother was best known and most\nhonored. To exhibit something of her knowledge of life, I give a few\nof her letters addressed to her children. They are records of\nsuffering, of patience, of faith, and of love.\n\n     _January 9, 1875._\n\n     DEAR ALICE.--I have been kept at home again to-day by a fit of\n     cholic, which I am having every few days now, or whenever I eat\n     anything. It has not lasted as long to-day as usual, and was\n     not quite as bad. Last Sunday I went to Quarterly meeting in\n     the morning, thinking it would be sacrament service, but it was\n     put off till afternoon, so I have not had the sacrament since\n     August * * * You must not think because I said I had the cholic\n     that I am sick. I am going about, seeing to my work. We killed\n     hogs Monday, and I fixed all the dinner and I go visiting once\n     in awhile, and to day, although confined at home, I have been\n     picking some of the fruit off life's fair tree. I can't tell\n     you how much, but I have got pretty well filled; but I have not\n     got as much charity as I want. * * * * * * * * Your pigeon is\n     living and running with the chickens.\n\n     YOUR MOTHER.\n\nThe following letter was addressed to her daughter Alice and her\nhusband Rev. C. C. Filts, when he was very sick. It explains itself,\nand although it contains matters of a private nature, yet I give it\nentire to show the beauty and strength of her mind and heart.\n\n     _June 26, 1875._\n\n     MY DEAR CHILDREN.--I am deeply grieved that the dark hand of\n     affliction should fall on you so soon, and I can hardly realize\n     how hard it has been through all these weary weeks of\n     suffering; but, dear Alice, I hope you have done well your\n     duty, and Cethe I trust has born up with Christian patience.\n\n     I would gladly have been with you if it had been possible. I am\n     thankful to hear that Cethe is better and hope he will take\n     good care of himself and get quite well. We did not feel so\n     much disappointed at your not coming; we hardly looked for you,\n     although your father would not give it up until the last train\n     had come in. But do not worry to come home; tell Cethe I think\n     he has the _home sickness_ to contend with now, but he must be\n     patient as he promised.\n\n     My visit to New York was not much; I was so tired when I got\n     there, I could not do anything. Sunday I went to church and\n     Sunday School. Monday it rained, so I did not go out, and\n     Tuesday I came home; so you see I don't know much about\n     anything, only the beautiful ride up the bay from Long Branch,\n     which was amid the finest scenery I ever saw. Theoph's people\n     seem to think a great deal of him; but he is not very well.\n     Lizzie got down home all right and her brother is coming back\n     with her.\n\n     We are all well, but the weather is so hot we can hardly live;\n     the factory stopped yesterday for the heat. We are going to\n     harvest next week; we have the nicest corn.\n\n     We are having some great times about Bro. Faucett's money; we\n     have to pay up every week, but _I_ think he is nice, and he\n     gives us good preaching.\n\n     I know you will not mind bad writing this hot weather.\n\n     MOTHER.\n\nIn giving these two letters, I have desired to show my mother's\nappreciation of the sacraments of the church, and of the gospel, and\nher ability to give good counsel and comfort to her distressed\nchildren. _She had not had the sacrament since August!_ She felt the\nloss, and had through much affliction gone to church that she might\nonce more meet the assembly of the saints, at the table of the Lord,\nand then had been disappointed! She put her own feelings on paper,\nwhen, as against the clamor and complaints against the minister, she\nwrote \"_he gives us good preaching_.\" Little did she then know that\nthat minister, who gave the people, as she said, \"good preaching,\"\nshould one day be called upon to pronounce the last sad tribute to her\nworth over her open coffin. I am glad that I can put on record the\ntestimony of Rebecca Steward, a woman learned in the Bible, and\nexperienced in the things of God, in favor of the preaching of any\nminister. She calmly wrote that Brother Faucett gave the people good\npreaching.\n\nHow she could comfort the distressed, the letters themselves say. A\nfew more paragraphs will show how she lived in the atmosphere of\nHeaven, and how she looked upon Heaven as her near home.\n\nThe reader will pardon this anticipation and transposition of years.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nCHILDREN ALL MARRIED.\n\n\nIn the spring of 1874 my mother had so far recovered, as to be able to\nwalk about a little; and, in company with her oldest sister, Tamson\nCuff, since gone to rest, she made a visit of a few weeks to Newbern,\nNorth Carolina. Soon after her arrival she wrote the following letter:\n\n     _Newbern, N. C., April 17th, 1874._\n\n     Dear husband, and all the loved ones at home.\n\n     WILL wrote for me last night, so you will know that we got here\n     all safe; but Tamson is not feeling very well this morning. I\n     am quite as well as usual. I found Will and his folks as well\n     and happy as can be; Will is fatter than I ever saw him. I did\n     not get to see Theoph, I can't tell why; if you hear from him\n     let me know; and if you do not, after a week or two, write to\n     Mr. Hamilton, and see where he is. It was cold and dreary\n     enough when we came from home, but we have come right into\n     midsummer here; the birds are singing, and flowers blooming,\n     and the swamps and woods along the road are as green as in the\n     first of June. In the yards here, there are fig trees, and\n     peach and plum trees, as green with leaves as in July with us.\n     They are having peas, and onions, and lettuce, to eat. I had a\n     nice bunch of flowers given to me last night, and I want to\n     send you some before they wilt. * * * * We had a nice ride\n     around the city (in Washington,) saw the Capitol, Patent\n     Office, and Post Office, and I cannot tell you what else, until\n     I get home. We are invited to stop a week in Washington on our\n     return; but I reckon I shall want to come right home when I\n     start.\n\n     As ever, wife and mother,\n\n     R. S.\n\nShe came home from this visit much improved, and enjoyed quite good\nhealth until the fall of '75. During the winter of '74 she witnessed\nthe marriage of her two remaining children, and looked out upon life a\nsecond time almost alone. The couple that had married in the beginning\nof December '38, saw the last of their children married, at the close\nof December '74. Thirty-six years had been employed in rearing and\ntraining a family ere the last one is given to manhood, and the father\nand mother turn a moment to repose. Their work is done; time shall say\nif it has been well done. Time did I say? Nay, Eternity! Their work\ndone, they go back in that quiet home alone, but cannot recall the\nhopes and joys of youth. When married thirty-six years ago, they were\nwithout the Pearl of Great Price; now they sit in that homestead,\nafter exercising nearly forty years of command in the sublime domain\nof domestic government, and look up to their father's God. Now that\nfather and mother bow, and unitedly pray, \"God bless our offspring in\ndifferent parts of the world; teach them, educate them, give them\nknowledge, wisdom and understanding; make them useful in doing much\ngood, and instruments in Thy hand in winning many souls to Thy\nKingdom.\" This is no fancy sketch, dear reader, but an actual\nquotation from the prayer that went up from that altar.\n\nWhen somewhat discouraged with untoward circumstances, during this\nperiod of her life, I received two letters from her which I have ever\nprized. In one she said: \"I never close my eyes at night, without\nlooking over you all, and committing you all to God's care; and I _do_\npray God to keep you all; so that when we are all done with the cares\nof this life, we shall be a family united around the throne--children,\ngrandchildren, and all; and we will make the heavens ring with one\neternal song of praise.\"\n\n\"Follow after the meek and lowly Jesus; and if you can't make anything\nof the old people, try the children; sow the seeds of Divine Truth\namong _them_ as much as you can; leave no measure untried, no place\nneglected, as far as in you lies. Be faithful; be earnest; for\nremember He that goeth forth with tares bearing precious seed shall\nreturn again bringing his sheaves with him. And Oh! think of the\nglory, the rejoicing--when all the ransomed of the Lord shall come\nflocking to him--to meet those you have been instrumental in bringing\nto Christ.\"\n\nIn the other she said: \"Continue to look up, for Christ is the end of\nyour hopes and He will never forsake you. He has work enough for you\nto do. Seek to find out His will and obediently follow it. Work in His\nvineyard wherever you find a place; and, if you can find nothing else,\nthen quietly, like your mother, patiently wait and speak a word for\nHim whenever you can. Scatter seed wherever you go, and may the Lord\nbless you, and keep you and all yours, is the best wish of the heart\nof your mother.\"\n\nThe summer of '75 was to the inhabitants of South Jersey quite\nprosperous, so far as the productions of the field were concerned, and\nthis made abundant work for mother now left alone. It being difficult\nto obtain help, the chief burden of managing the affairs of the\nfarm-house fell upon her, and they were not light. She says, July 6,\n1875, in a letter addressed to Mrs. Felts: \"We are all pretty well and\nalmost done harvesting; the weather is very warm and I have had it\npretty hard, but it is over now, and I have stood it right well.\"\n\nOn the 5th of the same month she wrote a long letter to Mrs. Felts\ninviting her home. During the month of August, 1875 she presided over\na family reunion, at which were gathered all the members of the\nhousehold consisting of over forty persons. A long table was spread\nunder the trees just as the sun was sinking in the west, and after a\nshort prayer by Rev. R. Faucett this numerous family gathered around\nit in the utmost sociality. It was their last.\n\nThe remaining days of summer and early autumn passed away without any\nmaterial change in her health; but as the cool weather approached, and\nthe profuse vegetable matter began to die away, she was taken with a\nslight billious intermittent fever. Exposing herself too early on her\nrecovery from this, she was thrown into typhoid fever and was by it\ncompletely prostrated. During the winter as she was very low, I was\ninformed of her state, and came to see her, bringing her some\nnourishment, which I induced her to take, and there was soon a gradual\nchange for the better. During her former illness her hair had all\nturned grey, and fallen out; during the period of health from the\nspring of '74 to the autumn of '75 it had grown in again black, and\nnow this terrible typhoid fever leaves her reduced to little more than\na skeleton, and her hair all grey and falling out again.\n\nOn the 13th of February 1876, having recovered sufficiently, she wrote\nto her daughter as follows, writing with her own hand: \"Dear Alice.\nThe cloud indeed passed away, and I am much better; I am sorry I\ntroubled you, and made you sad (alluding to a previous letter in\nwhich she expressed no hope of recovery), but I thought it best then.\nI guess I will get well now, if nothing else happens. Father will not\nlet me go out of the room yet; he is very well; he went to a donation\nparty to Mr. Faucett's last night. You need not be uneasy about me, I\nam well cared for and do not wish you to come to me. I think it would\nbe out of your duty and you know I always say 'duty before pleasure;'\nand besides, 'Aunt Lydia' has been with me and will come again if I\nneed her. * * * * The people like Mr. Faucett better than they did. I\ncannot advise you about coming East. * * * You must both make it a\nsubject of prayer, but don't come for my sake; _I am not worth a\nsacrifice_; and besides I have sacrificed you all to the Lord. (See\nFebruary 6th 1876.) I have laid all of you, with all that I have, on\nthe altar; all my dearest affections, and you among the dearest; so\nyou see I can't take you back.\" And in this letter she adds \"here is\nthe last bit of my hair.\"\n\nThe same date she wrote to her son-in-law, Rev. C. C. Felts as\nfollows:\n\n     Dear Cethe:--I like to forgot, I had something to say to _you_.\n     I must answer your _grumbling_ as best I can, for I don't like\n     _grumblers_ any way. (Mr. Felts had written, that his room was\n     so small that he could not walk across without moving things\n     out of the way to make a passage, etc., and otherwise alluding\n     to his poverty. Of course the correspondence was rather\n     jocosely conducted.) She continued:\n\n     1st. You forget how much larger your room is than the cross\n     was; and how many things the Saviour had to move out of the\n     way; you forget also how much larger those mansions in glory\n     will appear.\n\n     2d. You forget, too, that your bread shall be given and water\n     sure; and having food and raiment, therewith to be content.\n\n     3d. You forget, too, that he that goeth forth weeping, bearing\n     precious seed, shall doubtless return again, bringing his\n     sheaves with him. Sow thy seed in the morning, in the evening\n     withhold not thy hand, for thou knowest not which shall\n     prosper, this or that. The other side looks so bright, I have\n     no comments.\n\n     MOTHER.\n\nThe summer of '76 passed slowly away, she regaining health slowly. Her\nhair, which all came out with the typhoid fever, grew in rapidly, and\nagain black. In August of that year she wrote as follows: \"We are all\nwell as usual. Theoph is here, and Lizzie is coming to day, and Bishop\nPayne Saturday. We had the finest pic-nic yesterday we have had for a\nlong time. * * * I shall be to see you week after next, if I don't go\nhome with Theoph; and if I do, I will be there the week after. I am\ngoing to Campmeeting now.\"\n\nShe went home with \"Theoph,\" passing a week in Brooklyn and going from\nthere to Philadelphia. Her deep interest in the welfare of her\nchildren, and her complete resignation to the will of God are so\napparent in these letters, as scarcely to need a hint. She has laid\nall on the altar and dare not take it off. She counts not herself\n\"_worth a sacrifice_.\" What further self-denial can be asked? What\nfurther consecration possible?\n\nFrom her visit to Brooklyn she went to Philadelphia, stopping a week\nat the latter place with her daughter, Mrs. Felts, and remarked while\nthere, that she was taking a rest after her severe summer's labor, and\nwas also visiting her children for the last time, unless called to\nthem by sickness. While in Philadelphia she visited the great\nCentennial Exposition, and called on many of her friends in the city.\nOn the Sabbath, it was her intention to visit \"Old Bethel\" _once\nmore_, but the day being stormy, she was disappointed. Her two weeks\nvacation, she said, saved her from an attack of sickness, and she\npassed the following winter in quite good health. She wrote me towards\nspring, saying she was rapidly gaining in flesh and had not been sick\na day since her visit.\n\nDuring the month of January her oldest sister was taken very sick,\nrequiring much of her attention; simultaneously word came that her\ndaughter, Mrs. Felts, was also seriously ill. She divided her time\nbetween these two afflicted ones, again visiting the city. As she left\nhome to go to the city, the weather was so bad, she had doubts about\nreaching it; but she said, \"My duty is to start.\" Staying two weeks\nwith her daughter, she availed herself of only one pleasure, and that\nwas to hear Dr. Lord's classic lecture on Gothic Architecture. This\nwas to her a great treat; and her perception was at that time so\nclear, and her memory so retentive, that after coming home she\nrepeated almost the entire substance of the lecture. During the month\nof March my brother Stephen and his wife moved into the homestead, to\ntake charge of the farm. My mother felt sad as she brought her\ndomestic arrangements within closer quarters, and remarked that it\nseemed to her \"like having gone to the top of the hill and now going\ndown again.\" Although she was delighted with her daughter-in-law and\nheartily acquiesced in the arrangement, in fact it was in accord with\nher own wish, yet she expressed a feeling of sadness as she\nrelinquished her hold upon active and responsible life. What with the\nlabor of caring for the sick daughter, her sick mother, and her sick\nsister, during the winter, when spring came she was very much worn\ndown. The last letter she wrote is dated May 7th, 1877, and is\naddressed to her oldest son. It reads:\n\n     Dear Will:--Yours kindly received. We were glad to be\n     remembered, and glad to know you had got so well; we are all as\n     usual except colds. I have not seen your family since you were\n     here. Steve is almost done planting corn; but the weather is so\n     cold, he gets along slow with his work. \"Aunt Tamson\" is very\n     low;--not expected to live from day to day. Tell Alice, we\n     can't--any one of us--come to the opening of the Exhibition;\n     but she can come home _any day she gets ready_.\n\n     We are getting along very peacably and nice with our two\n     families together. Our new preacher was with us yesterday and\n     kindly received. You will wonder why I have not written better;\n     but I am in a hurry for \"Grandmother\" and \"Aunt Prude\" are both\n     sick, and I am going there as soon as I can; \"Aunt Tamson's\"\n     family are all with her; you see we have trouble all around us;\n     it was the news of \"Ike's\" death that threw her back. Father is\n     working right on for four weeks, which is wonderful.\n\n     With much love, from your\n\n     MOTHER.\n\nSo far as I know this is the last letter she ever wrote. On the 11th\nof May, Mrs. Felts went home and took charge of her work, while she\ngave her time fully to the care of the sick. Every day and every night\nshe would visit one or the other, often going from one directly to\nthe other, taking but very little rest. One day she remarked to Mrs.\nFelts: \"Alice, this is the only time since your marriage that I have\never wanted you back; when I gave you up, I did so freely and have\nnever regretted it, and this is the first time I have ever really\nneeded you since, and now the Lord has arranged it for you to be\nhere.\"\n\nOn the 16th of May, \"Aunt Tamson\" (Mrs. Tamson Cuff, her oldest\nsister) passed away from earth. At the time of her death mother was\nabsent; coming to look upon her lifeless form, she talked pleasantly\nwith those around of the reality and glory of heaven, and came home\nsinging:\n\n    \"I know not the hour when my Lord shall come,\n      To take me away to His own dear home,\n    But I know that His presence will lighten my gloom;\n      And that will be glory for me.\"\n\nTaking off her bonnet, she said: \"Alice, attend to the work, I must\nindulge myself a little now\"; and lying down on the sofa, she wept\nfreely for some time. She lay there till evening and then rousing\nherself, passed the evening in conversation with the daughters of the\ndeceased. On the next day, May 17th, she worked very hard intending to\nspend all the next day with her mother. About 5 o'clock that afternoon\nword was brought that _her mother was dead_. Throwing up both hands,\nshe uttered a wail of horror, such as none had ever heard from her\nbefore, saying quickly: \"Oh! My mother gone; and I so selfish as to\nbe about my work and not with her!\" We replied: \"But mother you were\npreparing to spend to-morrow with her.\" She added immediately: \"I\ncould have gone to day. It was my selfishness. Mother said she would\ndie on the 18th and I intended to be with her on that day; but I ought\nnot to have left her, I ought not to have left her,\" she repeated.\n\nAs quickly as possible she was at her mother's bedside and to her\ninexpressible joy found her _still alive_. She had sunk so low that\nlife was thought extinct, but the Lord had revived her again and she\nstill lived, and recognized her daughter. She lived through the night\nand waited until the sun had sent his first beams to bless the earth\non the 18th, when her happy spirit fled to its eternal home. She had\nknown it would appear for some days, the day and very hour when she\nshould go away. It was the same day of the month and the same hour at\nwhich her husband died. Side by side their ashes sleep in the old\nfamily graveyard at Gouldtown, awaiting the clarion call of the\nresurrection trump.\n\nMy mother turned not away from the corpse of her mother until she had\nseen it all prepared for the grave. It was a work, she said, she could\nleave no stranger to do, and made the same request for herself. \"Never\nallow my body to pass into the hands of strangers,\" was her request.\n\nOn Saturday, the 19th of May, 1877, her sister, Mrs. Cuff, was buried,\nand Monday following, (May 21st,) her mother's corpse was laid in the\ngrave. After the funeral of the mother, at her suggestion, all the\nremaining members of the family went back to the old homestead and ate\ndinner together, she saying it would perhaps be their last time. From\nthese sad days she went direct into hard work, and when gently\nremonstrated with and fears were expressed that she would get sick,\nshe replied: \"Oh! I will get over it, I guess; and if I do not, it is\nin the end life everlasting.\"\n\nOn the 28th of the month she was taken seriously ill and medical aid\nwas summoned. From the first she expressed but little hope, saying: \"I\nnever was sick this way before.\" She talked freely with her children\nand would not be satisfied until she had made them say that they had\nforgiven her for persisting to work against their wish.\n\nDuring the last Sabbath she spent on earth, she fell into a gentle\ndoze when suddenly waking, she said: \"What do you think I saw?\" and\nthen musingly she added: \"It might have been a dream; I think it was,\nbut I saw the Lord holding Theoph and Cethe, in his arms, and I know\nHe is going to keep them safe.\"\n\nThat night being taken worse, the family watched with her and she\nremarked: \"Ah, children, I shall not be here in the morning.\" Morning\ncame, however, and she was still spared. In conversation that day she\nsaid: \"I thought I was dying, but I felt comfortable in mind and had\nno fear.\" As her daughter, Mrs. Felts, was obliged to leave, she urged\nher to watch with great care over her little girl, saying: \"As you\nmould her so will she grow. I never could think my children were only\nfor my pleasure, I did not dare make playthings of them, I thought the\ntraining of my children was part of the work God gave me to do.\"\n\n\"I may get well,\" said she, \"but anyhow my life is hid with Christ in\nGod and to be where there is no more pain, where all tears are wiped\naway,--Ah, you need not wonder that I do not care to stay here. I have\nbeen sick so much--and in that land no one says 'I am sick,' I have\nthought with 'Aunt Tamson' and 'Grandmother' that it was hard to open\nthe gates, but then there's glory on the other side.\"\n\nThe next day (Monday) she appeared better, but during the night was\nagain worse. On Thursday, Father becoming alarmed, despatched for the\nabsent ones; she knew this and objected, saying it would produce\nneedless alarm. That night she had sinking spells. Recovering from one\nof them, she exclaimed: \"Oh, can't you catch the glory of heaven all\naround me!\" Father burst into tears and she immediately added: \"Oh, I\ndid not mean to distress you!\" Although we knew she was dying, we said\nbut little. Who could talk? Her last audible words were: \"Though I\nwalk through the valley and shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for\nThou art with me,\" and taking the hand of her sister, added: \"I am\ndeep down in the valley now\"--\"deep down in the valley, but glory to\nGod,\" she could say \"Thou art with me!\"\n\nJust three weeks after her mother's death, viz: Friday, June 8th,\n1877, she passed away and there are now three fresh graves in that old\nburial ground.\n\n\nTHE FUNERAL.\n\nOn Monday, June 11th, 1877, a large concourse of people met in Trinity\nA. M. E. Church, Gouldtown, to pay their last acknowledgements to this\nmodest and excellent woman. The corpse was neatly dressed and in the\ncoffin lay quite a profusion of freshly blown roses. The services at\nthe church were conducted by Rev. Redman Faucett and Dr. B. T. Tanner;\nthose at the grave by Revs. E. J. Hammet, G. W. Boyer and Dr. H. M.\nTurner. All spoke eloquently of the virtues of the deceased. After the\ncoffin was lowered down in the grave and solemnly committed to dust, a\nlarge basket of white roses were distributed among the weeping\nrelatives and friends, and each threw a handful of sweet flowers on\nthe dust of her whom all had learned to love.\n\nAnd thus ends the earthly life of a noble woman. Ends did I say? May I\nnot rather say, begins! That life so illustrative of golden virtues\nand heroic principles, it is to be hoped will go down through the\npresent and succeeding generations, lived over by those whom she\nloved, and she being dead, may yet speak words of comfort and love to\nmany struggling ones among God's children.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nRETROSPECTION.\n\n\nShall we not now pause a moment by the side of this fresh grave, and\nlook back over the pathway trod by the modest woman, whose form lies\nsleeping here, embalmed in flowers, and call to mind anew the virtues\nshe possessed.\n\nWe have seen her in the midst of a large family, performing the duties\nof wife and mother. Shall we not for a moment regard her in that\nlarger sphere of Christian labor, which she filled in the church and\nin her community.\n\nIn 1846 she became an earnest and zealous follower of the Lord, and\nunited with the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Gouldtown, of\nwhich the Rev. (now Bishop) A. W. Wayman was then pastor. She was\nconverted during a period of affliction, and I think the lines written\nin that year and bearing the inscription \"written after a time of\naffliction,\" page 129, are intended to commemorate that event. The\nsecond and third verses seem to describe the state of a soul passing\nfrom death to life, through faith in the gospel. She joined the church\nin October of that year, and seems to have commenced her labors at\nonce. In the Sunday-school she became a teacher and was successful in\nthat capacity in bringing many souls to Christ. It was her object to\nsecure the conversion of every scholar committed to her care, and she\nseldom failed. She also became teacher of an adult Bible class, which\nmet weekly at her house or the house of one of the neighbors; she\nmanaged for some time a weekly prayer meeting, composed of the female\nmembers of the church, and subsequently became an active member of the\nchurch aid society. Yet, with all this activity, there was no\nostentation, no public show, no noisy parade, no extravagant shouting.\nShe was an uncompromising opponent to woman's preaching, and to all of\nthose mutual aid societies bearing high sounding titles. I think\nnothing could have induced her to countenance in any way the numerous\n\"orders\" which prevail so largely among our people, and she wore no\nbadge, or jewelry. No rings were on her fingers or in her ears, and\nyet she affected no plainness of dress. She repudiated extravagance of\nall sorts, and sought to avoid everything which might render her\nnoticeable. After five years of Christian life and labor she came\nforward as a candidate for baptism; for on this subject she\nentertained peculiar scruples. She was baptised in 1851, and surely\nnone could have been more worthy. This rite was performed by Rev.\nShepherd Holcombe in the church of which she had been a member five\nyears.\n\nShe seems to have consecrated herself most fully to the Lord, and\nalthough she repudiated the theory of the \"second blessing,\" yet she\ndoubtless enjoyed all that the strongest advocates of that theory\nclaim. She says in a letter dated February 13th, 1876, (see page 33),\nthat she had laid all upon the altar, even her children, and she did\nnot dare take them off! She counted herself as nothing, not even\n\"worth a sacrifice,\" and was certainly all the Lord's. What does she\nmean by this? Seven days before in a scrap book containing numerous\nclippings she had written the following: \"On this 6th day of February,\n1876, I consecrate myself and all I have anew to the Lord. Many years\nI have been His; but I renew my covenant. All I have,--all my\naffections, all my wealth (what I have), all my labors, as far as I\ncan understand, are His, to be used for His glory.\"\n\nMark, she says: \"I consecrate myself, _anew_.\" She had been the Lord's\nbefore, for many years, and she now makes no new covenant, but she\n_renews_ the old covenant. This was in strict accord with all her\nprevious life, and although she advanced far towards the heights of\nholiness, she always turned away from the theory of special\nsanctification, regarding it as an error in doctrine and an unreality\nin experience; and yet none could have gone farther in consecration\nthan herself. Every word of this declaration is solemn and sincere,\nand this consecration is without reserve. Here then is what she means\nby having laid her children on the altar and not daring to take them\noff.\n\nDuring her remaining days my oldest sister writes: \"She seemed more\ndevoted, more perfected to our Heavenly Father's will than ever.\"\nNotwithstanding her feebleness she regularly attended the church on\nSabbath mornings, and met the Sunday-school teachers once a week,\ngoing over the lessons and giving much valuable instruction. After the\ndismission of the morning service on Sabbath, she regularly met her\nclass, and my sister, whose seat was near hers, writes: \"Every Sunday\nshe would say, 'I am trying to _live_ a Christian; I wish to die a\nChristian and see what the end of a Christian life will be.' On the\nlast Sunday she met the class, which was just one week and four days\nbefore she died--she seemed if possible, more devoted than usual and\nher words impressed me much. I did not think then that I should never\nhear her speak in class again.\"\n\nMy mother had read the Scriptures with great care and was not fully\npersuaded that infant baptism was therein taught, and although a\nMethodist, she hesitated to give her children to God and the church in\nthis ordinance. Of her six children not one was baptised in infancy,\nnor did she teach them to \"say prayers.\" It required great faith to\ndepart from so general a custom, but being taught of God, she dared to\ndo it. The reader will observe in my brother's poem, which actually\nreproduces the scenes of our childhood, that there is no picture of a\nchild with clasped hands kneeling down and lisping his evening prayer\nby his mother's knee. No such picture was common there. Early in the\ndays of her life as a mother she abandoned the custom. Prayerless the\nsix children went to bed, and prayerless they went to their daily\ntasks, and this not through negligence but through principle. She\nthought \"saying prayers\" a grave species of trifling; and, as father\nworked sometimes nights and sometimes days, regularity in family\nprayer, if desired, could not be had. I am not certain that _it was\ndesired_. Religion, not even in its forms, was forced upon the\nchildren but on the contrary it was rendered so attractive, that the\nchildren of that household would crowd around that mother in the\nevening and tease her to tell them a story. The story would always be\ntold just before bed-time and would be likely to end with a solemn\nappeal to our consciences, the reading of a chapter from the old\nfamily Bible, a prayer and then all the children were hurried to bed.\nThis was not a nightly occurrence, but seemed wholly dependent upon\nour asking. The stories were always from the Bible and to our little\nminds were wonderfully well told; often filling us with such hatred\ntoward bad men, that on seeing their pictures we would wish to\ndestroy them, and making us cry over those that had suffered.\n\nSuch was the character of the religious training she gave her\nhousehold. I wish it were possible to obtain one of those stories just\nas she told it. The nearest approach to anyone of them is the little\nstory about \"SELF\" told with her pen many years later, when writing\nwas to her a great difficulty, to two of her grandchildren. While it\nmay be interesting, I am sure it bears but a faint comparison to those\nthat her own children heard in their childhood from her own lips.\n\nI had thought to pass over this part of my mother's work for fear it\nmight not be understood; or that others attempting to imitate her\nherein might suffer great loss in their families. Where the religious\ncare of the children is left to the mother, and she is not specially\ngifted, it is perhaps better to teach by rote and by form; but where\nconditions are otherwise, it is better to teach the children directly\nthe doctrines of religion and let them make their own forms.\n\nReligion and reverence for God and sacred things, then becomes a part\nof their nature and is more likely to be sincere.\n\nLooking upon this life, shall we ask what there is in it which has won\nso much Christian admiration and entitles it to so much praise. I\nanswer, it is found in her sincerity, purity and unconquerable faith.\nShe believed God and believed every word of God. It is found in her\nabundant Scriptural knowledge qualifying her to believe intelligently;\nin her knowledge of persons acquired by habits of close observation;\nher knowledge of history and the natural sciences, and her general\nacquaintance with literature. These accomplishments united to the most\nmodest demeanor, rendered her a woman of note and a Christian for whom\nany community, church or age might have been grateful. It is not mine\nto estimate her worth or paint her character. The homage which I bear\nher makes all praise seem tame. No words of mine can portray the\nexcellencies which I attribute her. I leave therefore, the work of\ndetermining her great moral and Christian worth to more competent and\nless partial judges. To be permitted to wreathe any name with such\ngarlands as are brought by the learned, the eloquent and the honored\nwhose names adorn this book, is sufficient privilege to me. Her\nearthly fame I entrust to their keeping and through them to posterity.\nShe enjoyed the testimony while on earth that her works pleased God\nand to Him who was her solace and stay in life, and her rod and staff\nin death; who gave her those shining qualities of head and heart, and\npreserved her to a life of usefullness, I commend not in hopeless\nsorrow but in hope of a glorious reunion her immortal and unburdened\nsoul.\n\nMy task is done. I lay the tribute humble as it is, and as I feel it\nis, upon the fresh grave of my departed mother. May her example, her\nwords, her suffering, her triumph, serve as happy angels, calling us\nto a higher and holier life, and to that reward which awaits on the\nother side the gates. Hear her words when entering death's vale: \"The\ngates are hard to open, but there's _glory on the other side_!\" Glory\non the other side! And hard as it may have seemed to open the gates\nwhen at some distance, I doubt not as she drew near them that they\nopened of their own accord!\n\n\n\n\nREMINISCENCE OF THE LIFE AND DEATH OF Mrs. Rebecca Steward,\n\nBY BISHOP JABEZ P. CAMPBELL, D. D.\n\n\nMRS. REBECCA STEWARD, wife of James Steward, was the daughter of\nBenjamin and Phoebe Gould, of Bridgeton, Cumberland County, N. J. She\nwas born May 2d, 1820. Her father, Benjamin Gould, was the son of\nAbijah Gould, whose father's name was Benjamin, who was either the son\nor grandson of Elizabeth, a granddaughter of Sir John Fenwick, one of\nthe proprietors of New Jersey in its early colonial times.\n\nRebecca, the subject of this sketch, was married to James Steward in\n1838, by the Rev. Vansant, of the M. E. Church.\n\nThe fruit of this marriage were six children; a boy and a girl\nalternately, all of whom are now living.\n\nThe early educational advantages of Mrs. Steward were those afforded\nby the township school. Here she became a good English scholar, and\nsupplemented the instruction, thus received, by extensive reading; so\nthat she became proficient, both as a writer and a conversationalist.\n\nShe was converted and joined the A. M. E. Church, at Gouldtown, in\n1846.\n\nIn 1869 commenced her physical suffering, which, at times was so\nacute, as to carry her to the very portal of the grave. What she said\nupon religious subjects was of the most earnest character. When her\nchildren were even very young, it was her usual custom to read to them\nfrom the Bible such portions as would impress upon their minds the\ndivine lessons of this Holy Book; and instil into their plastic\nhearts, \"line upon line, and precept upon precept;\" and, after thus\nreading and explaining, she would kneel with them and plead with God\nto guide them by His heavenly Light!\n\nOne evening, in the midst of these devout exercises, and while asking\nGod for His guidance, her husband entered the room, and then and\nthere, for the first time, bowed in prayer with his family.\n\nBut a short time after this occurrence, her husband and Mr. Abel Lee,\nthe father of President Lee, of Wilberforce University, were both\nconverted and united with the Church.\n\nLamartine relates in his opening chapter of his \"Voyage to the Holy\nLand,\" that the desire, to make the journey, was awakened in his mind\nby his mother's Bible lessons. He stated that his reward for a good\nlesson, was to be permitted to see the pictures of an illustrated\nBible, and hear from his good mother's lips the history and\nexplanations of these pictures. Is it necessary to be said, that we\ncan see the effect of Rebecca Steward's Bible lessons upon the minds\nof her children, in giving them an impulse to seek for things divine?\n\nFrom 1869 to 1872, two of her sons were in the South, one in Georgia\nand the other in Florida, viz.: William and Theophilus (Rev. T. G.\nSteward). They visited the paternal roof once a year. When their visit\nhad terminated, and they were about to depart, she would bid them\nadieu with cheerful words, and an invocation to heaven to bless them;\nshe would urge them back to their posts of duty, beseeching them to be\npious men, and in all things labor for the honor and glory of God, and\nbe not dismayed if a messenger should come to them, saying: \"_Mother\nis done suffering_.\" She would say: \"The Good Man\" would keep her\nsafely and take her home in His own good time.\n\nThe premonition of a sudden death was constantly before her; but this\nwas no evidence that it created fear; for she was on a Rock. A few\nevenings previous to her death, she said, with a tender smile:\n\"Children, you will look for me in the morning, but mother will not be\nhere.\" She was fully prepared to meet Death, but he came not then. A\nfew days after this she was seized with such violent spasms as to\ndestroy consciousness; but, when the spasms had passed, and her\nconsciousness had returned, and observing that her husband and the\nchildren, who were at her bedside, were sore distressed, and that her\nhusband had telegraphed to New York for Theophilus, and to\nPhiladelphia for William, the latter a clerk in the A. M. E. Book\nRoom, and the former had just closed his Pastorate of the Bridge St.\nA. M. E. Church, Brooklyn, N. Y., she chided her husband, by saying,\nthat it was not worth while to worry and distress them. Then, after\ntelling her husband to meet her in heaven, she expired in the arms of\nher oldest daughter.\n\nTaine, whose illustrations of individual or natural characteristics\nhave been unequalled, has said, with much force, that behind the\nfossil there was an animal, and that behind the old, faded manuscript\nthere was a man; and we know the man and his peculiarities from the\nmanuscript. For such axiomatic expressions as these, Taine has been\napplauded by the most learned of every land. Yet, to a Bible reader,\naxioms as forcible as Taine's, stand conspicuous throughout the sacred\npages.\n\nA man is known by his works. \"Do we gather figs from thistles?\" \"Can\nan impure fountain send forth sweet water?\" are Bible axioms.\n\nWe have been led to the above digression from the facts related to us;\nbecause, behind these facts, we shall show there existed no ordinary\nwoman. Though descended from what might be claimed as the aristocracy\nof one of the original thirteen States, a State as proud of its\nancestry as the most pretentious, she assumed no aristocratic\nprerogatives; but, among the humblest, still showed herself to be a\nChristian woman, in the full significance of these words; and, if she\nclaimed homage, it was conceded to her spontaneously by the right of\nher mental adornments and the graces of an unsullied Christian life.\nHere mankind are beginning, though late, to concede all the\ndistinctive traits of preeminence.\n\nRebecca Steward was a woman of extraordinary ability, and possessed\nsome of the most excellent qualities of both heart and mind. Eulogy\nwill not appear to be exaggeration, when pronounced in the presence of\nthose who knew her; and they will unanimously declare, that she feared\nGod and loved her race. None were her superiors, and few were her\nequals. She was not influenced by the arbitrary rules conceived in\nprejudice of caste or race; her sympathies were as wide as humanity,\nand as uncontaminated as a child's; her sympathies were guided by her\njudgements, and her judgements were made clear by the teachings of the\nhand of God, and not warped by the infections of exclusiveness. Gifted\nwith a mind of ceaseless activity, comprehensive observation, and the\nmost placid reflection, she yet possessed a head whose capacious\nbreadth could feel the pulsations of an humble heart. In whatever\nclass, or position, or society she was cast, she was equally at home;\nwith the refined and intellectual, she ranked their peer; to the\nignorant, poor, and lowly, she was a helping hand, and a guiding voice\nto a higher life. Her conversations were distinguished by freedom of\nlanguage and the appropriate words in which she clothed her thoughts.\nShe shunned the stilted words of the pedant as she conversed to\ncommunicate thoughts and principles. She did not read to treasure\nideas and sentiments for her own selfish, personal or mental\namusements, but she read and thought, that she might communicate to\nothers that which she read; and thus, here and there, plant a seed,\nwhose unending product could be estimated alone before the throne of\nGod. She was generous with her thoughts as with her means; and they\nwho needed either, received freely and liberally, as she herself had\nreceived most liberally from the bounteous Giver.\n\nCharlotte Brunte is often cited as an example of how much can be\naccomplished by the mind, even when the body is afflicted.\n\nRebecca Steward inherited a delicate constitution; but,\nnotwithstanding, the superiority of her intellect so husbanded the\nphysical strength, as to enable her in her mental achievements to\ncompensate for a weak body. Her mind seized upon thoughts with\nmarvelous facility; and religious thoughts were the permeating\ninfluence that flowed continually through her life. Her influence has\nbeen left upon all who came in contact with her; and her influences\nwere constantly on the side of her divine Master, from whose inspired\nBook she drew the web and woof of her most remarkable and impressive\nconversations; and she seemed to have relied implicitly upon the\nwords: \"_Open thy mouth and I will fill it_.\" Unassuming in all she\ndid; free to give expression to her thoughts; steadfast in faith; with\nsuch an abundance of those qualities that adorn humanity, that we\ncannot enumerate them; she was one of those of whom the world is not\nworthy; and therefore, God took her from the evil to come.\n\n     Dear reader, in the life and character of this beloved\n     Christian woman, we have a most happy illustration of Christian\n     faith and practice.\n\n     In it all the Christian graces are seen to shine most\n     conspicuously. I repeat, in her life the Christian graces of\n     faith, hope and charity, or the love of God and humanity, had\n     a most happy illustration.\n\n     Go thou and do likewise, and God shall reward thee as He\n     rewarded her.\n\n     May the grace of God enable thee so to do, is the prayer of thy\n     friend and brother,\n\n     JABEZ P. CAMPBELL.\n\n     PHILADELPHIA, PA.,\n\n     AUGUST 20TH, 1877.\n\n\n\nMY RECOLLECTIONS OF Rebecca Steward,\n\nBY PROFESSOR B. F. LEE,\n\nPresident of Wilberforce University.\n\n\nAmong the persons earliest and dearest in my recollections is she,\nwhose name stands at the head of this article.\n\nIn my childhood, I associated her with my highest ideas of perfection;\nin my youth, I looked upon her as one especially interested in my\nwell-being and well-doing; in my manhood I knew her to be a devoted\nChristian, who was always anxious for all men to know Christ and to\nkeep His commandments, and I never thought otherwise than that she was\npraying for my success. This has often stimulated me to perseverence\nand hope in good works, while it has kept me from many snares.\n\nMy aunt had an aptness in dealing with and managing children, which\nmade them feel easy in her presence; rendered her instructions\nimpressive, her society agreeable, her manners attractive, and her\nauthority respectable to them.\n\nShe possessed a form, general appearance and features, which would\nhave given grace and honor to any position ever filled by woman; while\nshe possessed a native intellect, which had reached that state of\nculture in which human life appears to best advantage, and which, had\nshe sought it, would have admitted her to the higher circles of life.\n\nHer ideas of life and things were clear, reasonable and definite;\nwhile her appreciation of the worth and object of life was highly\nphilosophic and Christian. She always breathed the purest atmosphere\nher circumstances and state admitted. It seemed to me that no one\ncould soar higher upon the strength of similar conditions than she. It\nis one of the finest points in the philosophy of life, to know where\nto place the lever in order to gain the greatest advantage of the\nweight, this she seemed to me to nearly always know, and, consequently\nto carry the burdens of life with comparative ease.\n\nWhen I was left at ten years of age an orphan, she gave me many items\nof advice and encouragement, which were as precious ointment to my\nsoul; when I lay on what I supposed was a death bed, she knew how to\ntalk with me and how to pray for me, so as to impress me with her\nsympathy for me and true faith in God. I can never forget those days\nof my fearful looking for the messenger, death, when I was without\nhope and God in the world. My dear aunt would say to me, when the\nphysician thought I would hardly recover: \"Frank, I think you will get\nwell. I believe God has a great work for you. I can see it. He will\nraise you up if you will only trust Him.\" Then she would bring duty\nright to my heart, urge me to trust, faith, and repentance towards\nGod. How well I remember her asking, with the tears streaming down her\ncheeks: \"Now, Frank, can't you see Jesus in this?\" the blessed _word_\nwhich she had been reading. \"Can't you look right to him and live?\"\nThen, after it pleased God to allow me to get well, she never forgot\nme, but always urged me to give myself up to Christ, pointing out to\nme the narrow escape which I had made, praying and agonizing with me;\nso that to-day, whatever I am for humanity and God, I owe largely to\nthat sainted woman, as God's instrument.\n\nAt the head of the domestic circle, with my uncle, she appeared to\nhave a clear and high notion of home economy. Her house was a house of\norder, pleasure, books, the Bible, religion, and prayer. Every member\nof her family was taught that noble and divine idea of liberty in\nlove. The erring were made to feel the weight of guilt keenly, and the\nforce of love deeply. The well disposed were not flattered to ruin,\nbut urged to grace. She reared her children for heaven and God. If any\nof them should fail to enjoy the end of her life in their behalf, she\nwill still have her reward.\n\nIn a letter to me, immediately subsequent to the marriage of her\nyoungest child, she said: \"I have raised a family of six children. I\nhad long set up in my house an altar to God to which we all came, but\nnow, thank God, we have seven altars set up to Him.\" How great must\nhave been the satisfaction of seeing every one of her children not\nonly settled in life, but given to God. \"Train up a child in the way\nhe should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it,\" is well\nverified in this case.\n\nThere was an air of grace and light in her house, which no one could\nfail to observe, after a very short residence in her family.\nDiscussion of general topics was free and intelligent. Happy\nexpressions showed that their source was happy hearts.\n\nThe books on her shelves, though not so numerous as in many houses,\nyet were of the best and from the finest authors. I infer, though I\nnever heard her say so, that Burns was one of her favorites among the\npoets.\n\nIn social life my aunt had few superiors. She took a broad view of the\nstate and wants of her community, and was, therefore, one of its\nleading and most useful members. Her opinions, with regard to matters\nof general interest, were highly respected, and her advice often\nsought.\n\nWhile she was earnestly and plainly Christian in all her thoughts and\nactions, yet she was not of a sad temperament. This made her able to\ndirect the thoughts of others in the proper way.\n\nIn the church she was for the last twenty-five years of her life an\nabiding and faithful Christian. I have never met with any one who had\nclearer views of the life and work of faith. Some of the most\ncomfortable, consoling, and impressive conversations I have ever had\nwith Christians, ministers not excepted, have been with her. Her\nexperience was rich, because she had cherished it as from God. The\nlatter part of her life was attended with great suffering, yet she\nwould not complain, but was made perfect through suffering and\nallowing patience to have its perfect work. She had learned how to\nendure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.\n\nI have made it a rule for ten or twelve years to write to my aunt as\nsoon as I returned home from watch-meetings. In this correspondence\nshe has given me much advice and encouragement in the walks of\nChristianity; telling me of her own experience in suffering and\ntrusting, in the true spirit of Christian heroism, always expressing\nherself as only awaiting the Lord's call. These letters have been to\nme as angel's whispers, as heavenly messengers, telling me how to\nlive, how to wait and trust, and I might add, showing me how to die\nunto the world daily.\n\nWith reference to the doctrine of holiness of heart, in my opinion,\nshe was perfectly clear, practical, and scriptural. By practical, I\nmean in experience and in practice. Her utter rejection of _human_\nperfection, but full faith in _Christian_ perfection, I think in\nperfect keeping with the teachings of the holy Scriptures. She knew\nthe truth, and the truth made her free.\n\nI have never heard one word of her latest testimony to the saving\npower of the blood of Jesus, but, without hearing this, I venture the\nassertion that she died rich in faith and abundantly sustained by\ngrace. O how sweetly, years before she died, have I heard her repeat\nthe consoling words: \"I know that my Redeemer liveth!\" (O, these\nblessed words! more than all the words addressed to the human hearts\nby all religions outside of ours), and \"I am striving to make my\ncalling and elections sure,\" \"I am pressing towards the mark,\" etc.\nThese added to what I know of her life, are enough to assure me of her\nsafe passage over the dark stream.\n\nIn the loss of her, Gouldtown has lost one of its stays and guides;\nthe world, an eminent woman, one of its greatest, because one of its\nbest, and the church one of its most valiant soldiers.\n\nAs for myself, I feel to weep with her children in the loss of a\nspiritual mother, as well as a beloved and highly respected aunt. Let\nher memory be dear to us, and her exemplary life be to us one of those\nlights which illuminate the path of the just, \"shining more and more,\nuntil the perfect day.\"\n\nWith my grandmother, my aunt Tamson, my own dear father, and the\nmillions of sainted dead, let her body rest and her soul enjoy the\neternal bliss of _the promises_ and the God of the promises.\n\n\n\n\nMrs. Rebecca Steward BY BENJ. T. TANNER, D.D.\n\n\nExactly when or where the writer first made the acquaintance of the\nsubject of this memoir, is forgotten; but he deems himself exceedingly\nfortunate in the fact itself. To know Rebecca Steward _now_, may not\nseem much; but in after years, when the real greatness of her\ncharacter will have become known, as we doubt not it will, to have\nknown her, will be accounted a most happy incident in one's life.\n\nIt is so easy to talk of personal greatness, when the fact is, the\ntruly great are as rare as purest diamond. Not one in a thousand\napproach it; not one in ten thousand attain to it, or, more properly\nspeaking, possess it--for it is a thing of possession, rather than of\nacquirement. Be it born in you, you have it. If not, not. For while\nthere may be a tide in the affairs of men, which lead on to \"fortune,\"\nthere is no such tide to a greatness that is real.\n\nOf the few really great souls whom it has been our privilege to know,\nMrs. Rebecca Steward was the peer of any. In a very broad sense she\nwas a great woman. As a daughter she was great in dutiful affection;\nas a sister, in the very broadest sympathy; as a wife, in her\nincomparable fidelity; and as a mother, in a patience that knew no\nbounds.\n\nIt need not, however, be expected, that any stranger could sound the\ndepth of her nature, in the above mentioned spheres. The qualities we\nhave presumed to mention, were those that floated upon the surface of\nher life, and, like sweetest water lily, must need attract the\nattention of the passer by.\n\nIt is as a friend and as a member of the African Methodist Episcopal\nChurch, that the writer himself knew her, and in both which spheres\nshe was eminently great. So vivid, indeed, are the remembrances of the\nfriendship that existed between her and ours, in view of her sudden\ndemise, we find most pertinent the words of Montgomery:\n\n    \"Friend after friend departs,\n    Who hath not lost a friend?\n    There is no union here of hearts\n    That finds not here an end;\n    Were the frail world our only rest,\n    Living or dying, none were blest.\"\n\nWhen the sad announcement of her death was made at our own dear\nfireside, \"Dead! Dead, Papa!\" were the only words that first passed\nfrom lip to lip, while a silence ensued that was painful.\n\nBut the real greatness of soul we purpose noticing, was that that\nevidenced itself in regard to the Church of her choice. A more zealous\n_African_ Methodist never lived. She had convictions in regard to the\nwork and the economy of the Church organized by Allen, and these\nshaped her every course in life. Nothing could turn her against the\norganization itself. Her love towards it was proof against episcopal\nmisjudgment or pastoral insufficiency. She looked from men to\nprinciples. Though exceedingly intelligent, she shrank not back from\nidentifying herself with a class, known to be generally ignorant. Well\nto do in the affairs of this world, she was content to remain as the\nequal of the poor. And lastly, it might be in place to mention a\npeculiarity of the locality in which this very attachment to a\ndespised Church was evidenced. The reader of this volumn will already\nhave learned that Gouldtown, N. J., is a peculiar place. Of descent in\nblood by no means low, and of the strongest Presbyterian proclivities,\nthe Goulds have ever been thought exceedingly _conservative_--utterly\nfree from that fire which many suppose to be the substance of\nMethodism. Upon the correctness of this thought it is no intention of\nours to pronounce. Sufficient is it to say, that the general bearing\nof the community, secular and spiritual, is in keeping with their\nrecognized descent and religious bias. Such being the case, the wonder\nis that they should have maintained their identity with the _African_\nMethodist Episcopal Church. Nor is it certain that they would, had it\nnot been for the uncompromising zeal of the subject of this volume,\nwho ever stood like a very breakwater in its defence.\n\nWhen we call to mind the scores of our people who have left us, on\naccount of our ignorance, our poverty, and our color, the fidelity of\nRebecca Steward is but an indication of that greatness of soul with\nwhich we credit her, and which is yet to be the admiration of\ngenerations unborn.\n\nFrom our heart we say:\n\n    \"_Requiescat in pace._\"\n\n\n\n\nMrs. Rebecca Steward BY REV. T. GOULD.\n\n\nWhat I have to say is after thirty years' observation, to say nothing\nof my early boyhood days, when I used to visit her house with my\nfather, who esteemed her as his own daughter and her husband as his\nown son. To me they both seemed as elder brother and sister.\n\nIt appears to me that I can remember when I knew but little difference\nbetween her husband and my own brothers. He being the oldest and the\nfirst married out of the household, to me it was my oldest brother\ngetting married, and I was wonderfully well pleased with his wife.\n\nWhen father would say \"Theodore, I guess we will go and see James and\nBeckie to-day,\" it was a grand treat for me, for I knew, boy like, I\nwas going to get something good to eat. Father having lost his\neye-sight, of course some one must lead him, and this was my lot, and\nI have many a time heard her read the news and books of interest to\nhim. To visit them was pleasant to him to the day of his death.\nAlthough he lived to have eight children married, (four boys and four\ngirls), I do not think he had a son-in-law or a daughter-in-law whom\nhe esteemed higher than he did the boy who spent fifteen or sixteen\nyears under his roof and the lady of his choice. In 1846 I united with\nthe church of which she was a member, and from that time to the day of\nher death, I looked up to her for that advice and counsel which had\nmuch to do with shaping my early life. And if I have been worth\nanything to the church as a minister, her prayers, instructions and\ncounsel have helped to mould me into what I am.\n\nI shall ever thank God for permitting me to have the association of\nthis Christian woman, whose very breath seemed to be perfumed with the\nodor of heaven, for her daily food was God's word.\n\nShe was a Bible student; and in the Bible history was so well informed\nand upon all the cardinal points of Bible doctrine, and the current or\npopular questions of the day, that a very eminent and learned bishop\nsaid to me several years ago after paying her a short visit, \"No one\ncan possibly spend five minutes in conversation with Sister Steward\nwithout being edified.\" Another intelligent minister said to me,\n\"Sister Steward is one of the best read women I ever had the favor of\nconversing with.\"\n\nTo the church she was a pillar. She was among the few that were found\nat the prayer meeting and Sabbath-school, and was always aiming to do\nsomething for the Master's cause. As a wife and mother, I can only say\nfew husbands are favored as was her's. No woman could possibly be more\ninterested in the welfare of her husband's business than she was. She\nwas a helpmeet in every sense of the word to her husband. To my mind\nbut few children among us have been favored as were her's.\n\nI doubt not but there are many lessons now fresh in their minds which\nshe taught them, which, if treasured up, will add to their present,\nfuture, and eternal happiness. Oh, that we had more mothers like her!\nwhose devotion to their children would extort from their lips the\nwords of Sister Steward. In conversing with her one day, some years\nsince, when the children were getting pretty well grown, she\nexclaimed, \"Oh, the souls of my children! Oh, what would I do if one\nof them should be lost! They are all good children, but the Saviour\nsays, 'ye must be born again,' that is what I want; to see them\nconverted is my constant prayer to God. Oh, it is the burden of my\nheart.\" And more than once have we knelt in prayer together that she\nmight enjoy the pleasure of seeing _all of her children converted_.\nYears passed, and one by one they came in.\n\nI had not seen her for some time, but after the usual salutations\namong the first things said was: \"Thank God! He has let me live to see\nall my children converted and in the church! My prayers are answered.\nThank God! The whole family is in the ark; what a happy woman I am!\"\nIt was my privilege to visit her during several severe spells of\nsickness. I have the first time yet to hear her murmur or complain;\nbut I have often heard her say: \"These light afflictions which are but\nfor a moment, are working for me a far more exceeding and eternal\nweight of glory.\" \"My work is patience\" was a familiar word with her\nin affliction. To me she always seemed cheerful when she was in the\nfurnace, and it was her lot to be often there. She has been a great\nsufferer, and yet, there seemed to be something in her experience that\nimpressed me that she was keeping up a terrible fight to get the\nvictory until her last sickness, which lasted between three and four\nyears. She said to me one day during that period: \"Thank God, I have\ngot where I have long desired to be; that is, where I can trust God\nfor all things.\" She said some of her happiest hours were spent in the\nsick-room.\n\nThe devotion to her aged and infirm mother, who had been confined to\nher room for twenty-six years, with but little exception, was marked\nand intense. When her health and circumstances would permit, she has\nwalked the mile, between her house and her mother's, back and forth,\ntwo and three times a week, to assist in making her mother\ncomfortable. It appears that a wonderful providence was attending her\nlife, and preparing her to depart to that Better Land. It seems that\nthe Master was sparing her to see her mother of ninety years close her\neyes before He called her to that blessed reward with that sainted\nmother, who went three weeks before her, and a dear sister, who had\ngone a day before her mother. Oh, what a blessed meeting there must\nhave been, when they met in that heavenly land; where affliction and\nsorrow are all over, and where the dead in Christ rest from their\nlabors and their works follow them!\n\n\n\n\nAunt Rebecca Steward BY MRS. ELIZABETH LLOYD. (NIECE.)\n\n\nI cannot remember the time when I did not love and revere Aunt\nRebecca; but my most precious remembrances of her are connected with\nthe sabbath school, where, to my mind, she was incomparable; and even\nnow, after the lapse of twenty-five years, the precious lessons that\nshe taught her class are still in my mind and heart, and have greatly\ninfluenced my life and kept me from forbidden paths. You must know, as\nlong as I attended Gouldtown Sunday School, which was from the\nreorganization of the school (which, under God, was wholly through\nAunt Rebecca's influence), I was a member of her class.\n\nThere was one lesson that she used frequently give us, from the second\nchapter of first Peter, it seems to me, that I shall ever remember.\nWith what earnestness and with what solemnity did she strive to\nenforce its beautiful teachings upon our hearts. Again I remember one\nparticular lesson she gave personally to me, and, as I remember it\nwell yet, it must prove how faithful she was in teaching. Among her\nvery words were: \"_Search the Scriptures, and may they make you wise\nunto salvation! May they be a guide to your feet and a light to your\npath, and may your sins be blotted out!_\" Very likely Aunt Rebecca had\nforgotten it long since, but I never have. When I was fifteen years of\nage, I was strongly exercised in mind about salvation, and it was Aunt\nRebecca who helped me then; and ever since, in my somewhat chequered\nlife, my heart has always turned to her, and, I must say, that never\nonce have I left her presence without feeling better, stronger, and\nwiser. She was a kind of inspiration to me. I have gone to her when I\nhave felt that I was in the depths, and have left, feeling as if I\ncould brave all things, and endure all things for the love of Christ.\nI have been so comforted by her words of wisdom and encouragement,\nand, sometimes, by her words of reproof also; for she never failed in\nher gentle, sweet, and yet decided manner in telling me wherein she\nthought I was wrong, for which to-day I thank her. In one instance, I\nwent to her, overwhelmed with my sorrow, and ready to despair; she\nreflected a while, and then asked: If I had ever prayed for C----? I\nfound that I never had. She showed me my duty in such a plain way, and\nsaid, that if I prayed for him, that I would not have such bitter\nfeelings; and how earnestly she entreated me to begin praying for him.\nAmong the words she used, were: \"You could not bear to see that man\nlost, cut off from Christ forever. Think of the relationship he holds\nto yourself and your children. _You must pray for him!_\" This was four\nyears ago, but the seed, that was sown that day, is still bearing\nfruit, and I have been blessed myself while praying for _him_. * * * *\nI now know that she had been taught of Christ. When I lost my little\ngirl, Annie, though she was unable to walk without a staff, like an\nangel of mercy, she came to me in my sorrow, and prayed and talked\nwith me, and now, my more than aunt, my almost mother, who, or what\nwill fill your place to me? With tears in my eyes, and pain in my\nheart, I ask who? Ever since I can remember, I have gone to you with\nwhat I could not go to any one else; always sure of a loving welcome,\nand always the gainer, through your words of wisdom! Oh! how I loved\nAunt Rebecca! I remember, when she was confined to her room so long,\nof her once saying to me, that she often prayed for me. I was overcome\nto tears, thinking how good, how charitable she was, to remember me in\nher afflictions. That parlor seemed to me then, and has ever since,\nlike the gate of heaven and house of prayer. When I think of my dear\naunt's goodness, and of her truly noble womanhood, of her grand\nintellect, and, withal, of her sweet humility, of her perfect faith\nand trust, and obedience to the Father's will, and of how she labored\nfor the advancement of Christ's Kingdom, I can but say: \"Many\ndaughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.\" She\nnever lost an opportunity of saying a word for Jesus, and no one ever\ncame near her influence, without knowing, that she had learned of\nChrist. I never remember of asking for instruction of her, upon any\nsubject, without getting it; and I have heard many others say the\nsame. It seemed to me, that she always had a word in season. She was\ncertainly the most self-sacrificing of any woman that I ever knew. She\nwas always willing to do good, no matter at what expense to the body,\nif she could; and, it seemed to me, that she was always looking for an\nopportunity.\n\nIn the purity and loftiness, and expansiveness of her nature, there\nwas no room for that narrow-minded selfishness, which cannot rejoice\nwith those that do rejoice. Of her it can be truly said: SHE LOVED HER\nNEIGHBOR AS HERSELF; and she was pleased with the advancement of every\none.\n\nAs long, and as well as I have known her, I have never known her to\nspeak of the shortcomings of others, only, in what seems to me, as the\nhighest and broadest charity of a pure-minded christian woman, with\nsorrow and regret that they had so failed.\n\nAnother admirable trait was her straightforwardness. Her clear\ninsight, that seemed to grasp and hold the most difficult truths,\nwhile the rest of us were struggling with doubts and fears, scarcely\ntelling gold from dross, led her to seize always the pure gold.\n\nTruly, she was ever ready for every good word and labor of love. I\ncall to mind deeds of charity, of which the world knows nothing, which\ngreatly benefitted the recipients; and her ever ready sympathies with\nthe wants and woes of others, assures me, that she won the approbation\nof Him, who said: \"Inasmuch, as ye have done it to one of the least of\nthese, my disciples, ye have done it unto me.\"\n\n     Dear cousin, there may be many more learned and eloquent\n     tributes paid to your mother's memory, but none can be more\n     loving than mine; and, if you will permit this letter (crude I\n     know, for I am not accustomed to writing out my thoughts), to\n     share a place among them, I shall feel honored.\n\n     Your cousin,\n\n     LIB.\n\n\n\n\nPART II.\n\nContaining: \"Two Years on the Brink of Jordan,\" with Letters on\nSanctification and a Story for Little Folks; the last named written\nexpressly for Two Little Nephews,\n\nBY MRS. REBECCA STEWARD.\n\n\n\n\nTWO YEARS ON THE BRINK OF JORDAN.\n\n\nEarly one spring morning, as I was going about my work, a messenger\narrived, saying my Father wanted me. So I made haste and finished up\nall my work, looked over my wardrobe, picked out and packed up such\narticles as I thought I should need, and started on my journey, my\nguide going on before. We had not traveled far before we came to a\nbroad, dark river, whose waters at the time were very much swollen. My\nguide said, I would have to wait awhile till a ferryboat could come\nand take me across; so I sat down on the bank of the river and began\nmusing. The river, though so dark and swollen, did not look so\ndreary, for my guide had given me a telescope, through which I could\nlook away beyond and see my Father's House, which was illuminated with\nglory and light; and the light from that far mansion shone over the\nriver and the dark valley all around. While I sat there musing, the\nboat came, but not for me; there were other friends there, the Father\nhad sent for before me; but he sent me this comforting message: \"I\nwill never leave thee, nor forsake thee,\" and my soul answered: \"All\nthe days of my appointed time will I wait till my change comes.\" (Job\niv., 14.) And so for many days I sat there waiting and musing; again\nand again the boat came and went, friend after friend passed over, but\nstill the message came not for me. At length I began to grow weary and\nimpatient; to neglect my Father's business; saying my Lord delays his\ncoming; then came this quiet reproval: \"Ye have need of patience, that\nafter ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.\"\n\"For yet a little while and He that is to come will come and will not\ntarry.\" (Heb. ix., 36, 37.) After this gentle reproof, I felt ashamed\nand strove to humble myself under the mighty hand of God, and in due\ntime He did build me up, for my guide advised me to take my telescope\nand take another look towards my Father's House. I did so, and the\nsight gave me new vigor, for I could see all the surroundings of my\nHome. I could see its beautiful gardens, all its choicest fruit and\nits sweetest flowers; and flowing through the midst of the garden I\ncould see the \"pure river\" of the \"Water of Life,\" which watered and\nenlivened every plant that grew in the garden; and on either side of\nthe river stood the \"Tree of life,\" \"which bore twelve manner of\nfruit, and yielded her fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree\nwere good for the healing of the nations;\" then there was the sweet\nLilly of the Valley, in its humble innocence sending up its rich\nperfume; then the \"Rose of Sharon\" was there, whose odor filled the\nair with sweetness, and the Birds of Paradise were there,--those sweet\nlittle songsters that the Father had brought from the cold, sterile\nregions beyond Jordan, and placed in His beautiful garden. They were\nbusily flitting from branch to branch, warbling forth their sweetest\nnotes, and making the air resound with their music. Some of them I\nthought I almost knew, by the mark of their feathers. As I sat gazing,\nthe river that before had been so swollen, seemed to subside and\nbecome very narrow, and seemed as if I had nothing to do, but get up\nand walk across; but my guide detained me, saying: \"If ye be willing\nand obedient, ye shall in due time eat the good of the land, but if\ndisobedient, the sword of the enemy shall devour you.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBeing still detained and feeling somewhat weary, \"I laid me down and\nslept, and awoke again, for the Lord sustained me.\" On awaking, I\ntook up my telescope to take another look across, but I only had it\nadjusted to my eye, when I again discovered the ferryboat in the\ndistance. This time I thought surely it was coming for me, and began\nto look around and make all things ready for departure; but again I\nwas doomed to disappointment. The boat came, but not for me this time\neither; another friend must go before me, one whom the Father thought\nmore weak and needy than I. And as He saw me begin to grieve and fret,\nHe sent me another comforting message, saying: \"I will not leave the\ncomfortless, in the sixth trial; and in the seventh, I will not leave\nthee nor forsake thee.\" Then again my soul replied, I will fear no\nevil; in God alone will I put my trust. When I found I had to wait\nawhile longer, I thought I would look around on this side of Jordan,\nfor I had been so anxious to get home to my Father's House, and so\nbusy looking beyond, that I had not noticed anything on this side so\nmuch; and in the glory of light that beamed across the river, I had\nnot noticed the poisonous flowers that spread their baneful influence\nover all the land, or the muddy, filthy pools, sending up their\nmiasmatic odors, poisoning the air; and while I was looking, with\nshame let me say it, poisonous as were those flowers, noxious as was\nthe vapor from the pools, I began to be interested in them, and to\nseek after them; so much so, that my guide said softly in my ear:\n\"Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.\" (Matt. xxvi., 41.)\nBut I was so engrossed with the flowers, and the whisper came so\nsoftly, that I did not heed it, but kept on going farther away from\nthe river, losing sight more and more of my Father's House. Again my\nguide called after me, but this time in louder tones: \"Therefore be ye\nalso ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man\ncometh.\" (Matt. xxvi., 24.) But still, strange as it may seem, and as\nungrateful as it appears after the pleasant view I had had of my\nFather's House, and the soothing promises he had given me, such is\nperverse human nature, that I paid but little heed, but still wandered\non, plucking flowers, now here, now there, 'till I had gone quite\naway; but still my loving Father would not leave me, \"for whom the\nLord loveth he chasteneth,\" and on looking up I saw my guide\napproaching with a rod, which, when he came near enough, he laid\nheavily about me. Humbled, ashamed and bleeding, he brought me back\nand laid me exhausted on the bank, where I lay for many days without\npower to move or courage to look up. Although I had been so\ndisobedient, yet was my guide most assiduous in his attentions and\ncare of me, saying: \"If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as\nwith sons, for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not. (Heb.\nxii., 70.) And as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth\nthem that love him, for he knows our frame that we are but dust.\"\n(Ps. clxxxiii, 13.) It sorely repented me, and with the Psalmist I\nexclaimed: \"My feet were almost gone, my steps were well nigh\nslipped.\" (Ps. lviii, 2) Then I began to cry mightily unto the Lord\nfor help, and from His temple He heard me, and from His Holy Hill He\nsent me succor. And I was comforted by this message: \"Before thou\ncallest I will hear thee, and while thou art yet speaking, I will\nanswer thee.\" Being thus comforted and somewhat strengthened, my guide\nadvised me to take up my telescope again and take another look across\nthe river. It had been so long since I had looked across, he thought\nit would do me good, and so it did; for as I looked the green shores\nappeared so pleasant and inviting to me, it made me feel at once like\npassing over, and while I was gazing I saw the boat again leave the\nshore; this time I thought it would certainly come for me. Again I\ngathered up my things making ready to depart, and many friends\ngathered around me, mourning and weeping, begging me not to go, but\nstay with them; yet I was anxious to be gone. Many were the petitions\nthat went over to my Father's House to spare me a little longer, that\n\"they could not do without me;\" in this I could not join them. I could\nonly say: \"Lord let thy will be done.\" Meanwhile the boat came nearer\nand nearer, and I lay looking, both hoping and fearing; hoping it was\ncoming for me, and fearing it was coming for me; for like the apostle\nI was in a strait betwixt two: \"for me to live is Christ, but to die\nis gain.\" (Phil. vii., 21-23.) And I suppose that the prayers of\ntender friends must have prevailed, for when the boat drew nearer, I\nfound it was not coming for me yet, but I received this message: \"Let\nPatience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire,\nwanting nothing.\" (James, i., 4.) From this I saw that Patience was to\nbe my best friend and I tried to take her close to my bosom, and my\nheart breathed the prayer: \"Lord help me with Patience to do all thy\nrighteous will concerning me,\" and, as I sat there, with Patience for\nmy comforter, I grew calm and composed and began to wonder what had\nbecome of the boat I had seen approaching, when, on looking around, I\nsaw it had stopped close by an old friend that had been laying there\nfor a long time; almost ever since I had been there, and, while I\nlooked, I saw her with a shout spring up and step quickly into the\nboat. Oh! with what rapture I gazed; and when the boat struck out from\nthe shore I could hardly contain myself, I felt I really must go too.\nBut Patience laid her hand on me, and whispered to me, to take my\ntelescope and look after them; and, as I looked, the boat sprang from\nthe shore with great velocity; the river seemed to become narrower,\nand the light from my Father's Temple so illuminated it, that the\ndarkness had all fled away; and, as I gazed, my vision became brighter\nand brighter, and my telescope became more powerful, and it seemed, I\nmight follow the boat with my naked eye, as it sped its way across,\nuntil it neared the other shore; and, as it neared the shore, I saw\nthe pearly gates of my Father's House fly open, a company came out to\nmeet her, with songs of welcome, saying: \"Come ye, blessed of my\nFather, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of\nthe world.\" (Math. xxv., 34.) So they took hold of her and led her in\nthrough the gates; and, as they went through, I could hear the\nwarbling of the birds amidst the rustling of the leaves, and could see\nthe waving grass and sweet flowers, and the waters rippling along\ntheir winding way. As I looked, I really thought there were more birds\nthan I had ever seen before; and I never heard them sing so sweetly.\nAs I gazed upon the shining ones, I tried to see if I could recognize\nany of them; and I thought I could see several whose faces were\nfamiliar to me there, and with whom I had associated; and, while I was\nstill looking, they led her into the vestry; then I lost sight of her\nawhile; but, presently, they brought her forth clothed in white linen,\npure and clean, and a palm of victory was placed in her hand; then I\nsaw a greater number come to meet her, and they all joined in one\nmighty overpowering song, saying: \"Salvation to our God, who sitteth\non the throne, and unto the Lamb.\" (Rev. vii., 10.)\n\nAs I heard this, my heart felt like bursting with rapture. O! how I\nlonged to be there! Just then the pearly gates swung to, and I could\nsee them no more. When I could see no more within, I thought I would\ntake a look around and view the holy ground, and \"mark well her\nbulwarks.\" So I looked well around her walls, and measured her towers,\nwhich I found to be very strong, so that no enemy could prevail\nagainst them; and her walls were great and high, and I found they lay\nfour-square and rested on twelve foundations, all of them precious\nstones, and on each foundation there was a name written, which, when I\nhad looked more closely, I found to be the names of the twelve tribes\nof the children of Israel; and in each wall I saw there were three\ngates, and on the gates I saw the names of the twelve apostles of the\nLamb; and, as I still looked, I saw numbers coming and entering in at\nthe gates, from all parts of the world, East, West, North, and South;\nevery gate seemed in use, and with every new arrival there were new\nsongs of praise. As I still looked, I discovered, that all that went\nover, did not enter the pearly gates; but, instead, some were hurled\nover a dreadful precipice, which lay just below the wall, and led to a\ndark, dreary gulf below, where the voice of their groanings was\ndreadful to hear. Then I asked: \"Who are these?\" And my guide informed\nme: \"These are they that go away into everlasting punishment, and the\nsmoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever.\" And now my guide\nthought I had seen quite enough for awhile, and so had better lie down\nand rest; musing on these words: \"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,\nneither has it entered the heart of man, the things which God has\nprepared for them that love Him.\"\n\nWhile wondering what more could be for the child of God, than that\nwhich my eyes had already seen, I fell asleep. When I awoke,\neverything looked calm and bright around me; so I thought, with\nPatience, I would take a stroll along the banks, and see if there were\nany friends there whom I knew; for I saw many had gathered there\nunobserved, while I had been so deeply interested in what was going\non, on the other side of the river. As I went around from one to\nanother, I found several I was acquainted with; some had been waiting\nfor a long time, others had just arrived. Some were waiting with\npatience, others were growing very impatient. To while away the time,\nand for mutual encouragement, I sat down, and entered into\nconversation with some of them. \"For as iron sharpeneth iron, so doth\na man the face of his friend.\" Some had grown very weary, and one\nsaid: \"I would have fainted, unless I had believed, to see the\ngoodness of the Lord in the land of the living; and now I believe,\nthat ere long I shall see the King in his beauty, for I have the\npromise, that He, that is to come, will come, and will not tarry. And\nmy Father's command is: Wait on the Lord, be of good courage; and also\nthe promise: And He shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the\nLord.\"\n\nWith this I felt very much encouraged, and felt as if I too could\n\"Wait on the Lord.\" Much more encouragement from one and another I\nfound, till presently I saw one coming up in great haste, saying: \"My\nFather has just sent for me in great haste, and I must be gone. Have\nyou seen the boat that takes us across?\" I looked up and saw it\ncoming, and, while waiting for it to come to the shore, I asked her at\nwhat time the messenger came for her. \"In the early part of the\nevening,\" she said, just as she had folded away all her work, and\nclosed up her house, and had sit down, to enjoy a long, quiet evening,\nthinking over those texts of warning: \"Let your loins be girded about\nyou, and your lights burning.\" Another: \"Be ye also ready; for in an\nhour, when you think not, the Son of man cometh.\" And said she: Just\nwhile I was musing on these things, there came a knock at the door,\nand the messenger came in, saying: \"The Master calleth for thee;\" so I\nleft all and made great haste to get here. The boat then came\nalongside; she sprang in, and it shot off from the shore like an\narrow. Again I felt as if I _could_ not be left behind; and, feeling\nso anxious to go, I almost sprang into the water; for the river looked\nso narrow, and I could see the bottom so plain; it seemed as if I\ncould walk across; but Patience laid hold of me and gently held me\nback, saying: \"Wait on the Lord, that the trial of your faith being\nmuch more precious than of gold, that perisheth, though it be tried\nwith fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the\nappearing of Jesus Christ.\"\n\nBut I still felt so homesick and complaining, that my friend had\nalmost gained the other side, before I had observed it; so, then, I\nthought, if I could not go, I could see across, and with my telescope\nI could follow her and see her enter the pearly gates; by this time\nshe had reached the shore, and I saw a great company come out to meet\nher, having harps in their hands; among them were several that I knew,\nwho had journeyed with us through life, whom I had heard many times\ntell their hopes and fears; but, now, they were safely housed in their\nFather's mansion, never more to go out. As they came to her they\ncommenced chanting: \"Blessed are they that do his commandments; that\nthey may have a right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through\nthe gates into the City.\"\n\nAs they led her through the gates, I again heard the singing of birds;\nit seemed to me, at this time, they sang louder and sweeter than ever.\nAnd amongst them I saw three,[1] that I thought looked more bright\nand cheerful than the rest. These kept all the time very near her,\nsometimes sitting on her shoulders, sometimes in one place, then\nanother; but all the time keeping near her, and expressing the utmost\njoy. On examining more closely, I found they were some pets that she\nhad sent to her Father several years before; and now they led her into\nthe vestry; and, while they were robing her, as the gates were still\najar, I thought I would look further within. So, by readjusting my\ntelescope, and increasing its magnifying power, I could see away\nbeyond the walls; and I discovered there \"many mansions,\" that my\n\"Elder Brother\" had gone many years ago to prepare, for all those that\nlove him. I thought, \"my sister will soon inhabit one of these\nmansions,\" and, how long, ere I too shall inhabit one also; and, in\nthe anxiety and desire of my soul, I cried: \"How long, oh Lord!\" Then\nmy guide whispered, reprovingly: \"In patience possess ye your soul.\"\nSo, being comforted, I continued my gaze, and, looking further on, I\nsaw a great and high mountain, which, my guide told me, was Mount\nZion; and a Lamb stood on the mountain, and with him a hundred and\nforty and four thousands, having their Father's name written in their\nforeheads; and I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many\nwaters, and as the voice of a great thunder; and I heard the voice of\nharpers, harping on their harps; and, they sang, as it were, a new\nsong before the throne. (Rev. xiv., 1-3.) Then I inquired of my guide\nwho the Lamb was, and who was this great company that was with him;\nand he said: \"The Lamb is He that was slain from the foundation of the\nworld, and they, that are with him, are those who follow the Lamb,\nwithersoever he goeth; these were redeemed from among men, being the\nfirst fruits unto God and the Lamb.\" As I listened to their music, I\ntried to hear what they were singing; and I found they were singing\nthe \"Song of Moses, the servant of God,\" and the song of the Lamb,\nsaying: \"Great and marvelous are thy ways, Lord God Almighty. Just and\ntrue are thy ways, thou King of Saints. Who shall not fear thee, O\nLord, and glorify thy name, for Thou only art holy; for all nations\nshall come and worship before thee, for thy judgments are made\nmanifest.\" (Rev. xv., 3, 4.)\n\n[1] Three children that this Christian mother had buried\nbefore.\n\nI had become so enraptured with this beautiful sight, and so charmed\nwith the music, that I had quite forgotten my sister; but now I\nbethought myself to look for her. I had not looked long, before I\ndiscovered her amidst the company of the just made perfect; and, I\nthought, her song was the loudest of any, as she sang: \"I have come up\nthrough tribulations, and washed my robes and made them white in the\nblood of the Lamb!\" Oh, how I longed to be amongst the heavenly\nthrong; but just then I heard friends calling me on this side, saying:\n\"Oh, be content to stay with us a little longer; we cannot let you go;\neven lying here, we cannot do without you; even this is better than\nnot have you at all.\" The little children came winding themselves\naround me, begging me to stay. \"Oh,\" they would say, \"we do want you\nto be back among us; we cannot bear you to leave us.\" Oh! the power of\nhuman love! How my heart was grieved! I was again in a strait betwixt\ntwo; for, indeed, I felt it better to \"depart and be with Christ.\" But\nmy Father knew best what he wanted me to do, so He left me the\npromise: \"Abide in me and I will abide in you; I will not leave you\ncomfortless; I will come to you.\" After this I entered into\nconversation with my guide, about my friends that had gone over; said\nhe: \"How did you know those friends?\" I answered by asking him another\nequally important question: \"How did you know the Lamb that was slain\nfrom the foundation of the world?\" Said he: \"I knew Him by the marks\nin His hands and side, (John xx., 20), and from what the angels told\nus when He was taken up into heaven and a cloud received him out of\nsight.\" \"This same Jesus,\" said they, \"which is taken up from you into\nheaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into\nheaven.\" (Acts i., 9.) Well, said I, that is just how I knew my\nfriends; by the marks on them. Some men will say: \"How are the dead\nraised up, and with what body do they come? Thou fool; that which thou\nsowest is not quickened, except it die, and that, which thou sowest,\nthou sowest not that body that shall be, but are grain; it may chance\nof wheat, or of some other grain, but God giveth it a body as it hath\npleased him, and to every _seed his own body_. There are also\ncelestial bodies and bodies terrestial; but the glory of the celestial\nis one and the glory of the terrestial is another. There is one glory\nof the sun and another of the moon, and another glory of the stars;\nfor _one star differeth from another star in glory_, so also _is the\nresurrection of the dead_. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a\nspiritual body; there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual\nbody. And so it is written, that the first man, Adam, was made a\nliving soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. How be it,\nthat was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and\nafterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of earth, earthy,\nthe second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are\nthey also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also\nthat are heavenly. And as we have born the image of the earthy, we\nshall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren,\nthat flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth\ncorruption inherit incorruption.\" (1 Cor. xv.) Now this is the way\nthat I know them. As the Lamb that was slain, took upon him the image\nof the earth, earthy, the form of a servant, so do they take upon them\nthe image of the Lord from heaven; and, as you have shown me the Lamb,\nI cannot be mistaken in them, and I think when I look again, I shall\nfind many more that I have known; for I think I know what kind of\n_seed_ they were, and from every seed I look for its own plant. Then\nsaid my guide: \"Who else do you think you will find there, besides\nyour immediate friends?\" I answered: \"I think I shall see Moses and\nElijah, from the fact that they were seen with my Saviour on the Mount\nof Transfiguration; and God is not the God of the dead, but of the\nliving. And I think I shall see Abraham, because Christ himself says\nthe rich man saw him with Lazarus in his bosom. And I shall see\nIsrael, for the Revelator tells me that he saw one hundred and forty\nand four thousand of the children there. I shall see Solomon and\nDavid, and Samuel and Paul, and Peter, and so many others that I\ncannot now name, all of the one hundred and forty and four thousand of\nthe tribes of Israel.\" I felt so rejoiced with the thought of meeting\nso many, that I could heartily join with the Poet in saying:\n\n    \"Give joy or grief, give ease or pain,\n    Take life or friends away.\n    But let me find them all again,\n    In that Eternal day.\"\n\nFor many days more I lay there on the brink, waiting for the boatman;\nbut still he came not. I began to think Patience was about to desert\nme; it seemed to me, I had so nearly lost sight of her, that I could\nhardly hear her voice; then I cried unto my Father: \"Cast me not away\nfrom thy presence, and take not thy holy spirit from me!\" Then came\nthe message: \"Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him;\" this\ncomforting, though short message, cheered me much, for it seemed to\nbring a sweet sense of rest and security with it; and with the\nPsalmist I could say: \"Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the Heavens, and thy\nfaithfulness reaches into the clouds; thy righteousness is like the\ngreat mountains; thy judgments are as great deeps; Lord, thou\npreservest man and beast; how excellent is thy loving kindness, O God;\ntherefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy\nwing; they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy\nhouse, and thou shalt make them drink of the rivers of thy pleasures.\"\nI felt filled with that sweet peace that flows as a river, and enters\nin and fills the soul with glory and with God. As the boatman came not\nfor me yet, I thought I would look around again and see if any new\nfriends had gathered along the brink; and, while I was looking, I saw\none coming with slow, reluctant step, as if he would rather stay on\nthis side of Jordan than to cross over; but his guide kept urging him\non with the Father's message: \"Come unto me all ye that are weary and\nheavy laden, and I will give you rest.\" \"Well,\" said he, \"I am weary\nand heavy laden; I have had a tiresome journey through this howling\nwilderness, and fain would find rest; but I have become so dirty and\nbedabbled through the swamps and quagmires, that I have not a garment\nfit to appear before Him in.\" The guide answered: \"All that _will_\ncome, may come and partake of the waters of life freely.\" Then said\nhe: \"I will arise and go to my Father.\" He brightened up and quickened\nhis pace; as soon as the guide saw that he was willing to go, he sent\nto the servants to bring hither the best robe and put it on him; and,\nso neatly clad, and in his right mind, I saw him approach the \"bank,\"\nand seeing he would have to wait some time for the boatman, I entered\ninto conversation, by asking at what time the Father sent for him; he\nsaid: \"Just about noon, just as I had finished up my morning's work,\nand thought the hardest of the day was done, and I could in the\nafternoon finish those little jobs that I had planned in the morning;\nbut in the hour, I thought not, the Son of man came.\" \"But what,\" I\nasked, \"made you so reluctant to come?\" \"Oh,\" said he, \"I thought the\nFather was angry with me; for it is written: 'God is angry with the\nwicked every day;' but I heard another say: 'He that cometh with a\nbroken and a contrite heart, he will in no wise cast out.' I thought\nI would go, for I could only perish anyway, and if I tried to stay\naway, I knew I should perish; another said to me:\n\n    \"A broken heart He'll not despise,\n    Nor on the contrite sinner frown,\n    His ear is open to their cries,\n    He'll quickly send salvation down.\"\n\n\"And He did send salvation; for, when I cried mightily unto the Lord,\nHe heard me, and from His Holy Hill He sent me help; He took me up\nfrom the mire and clay and dressed me in garments neat and clean, and\nhas brought me in sight of my heavenly rest! Only this narrow river\nlies between, and I shall cross that, for I think I see the boatman\ncoming now.\" With a glad shout of triumph he entered the boat and was\ngone. I knew the gates would be opened again, so I made haste to\ngather up my telescope; and again I saw the shining ones come to meet\nand welcome a brother to his eternal rest; and again I heard the glad\nshouts of welcome and praise, as they dressed him in clean, white\nrobes, and put a crown on his head, and led him to the Father, who met\nhim, and with His own hand wiped all tears from his eyes, telling him,\nhe should have no more sorrow, nor crying, nor sickness, nor death,\nnor go any more out, neither should he thirst any more, and the sun\nshould not light on him, nor any heat. Oh! What more, I thought, could\nI want to make up an eternal rest! Just then my attention was\nattracted by the sound of unutterable groanings and crying, and I\nlooked around to see what it all meant, and I saw close beside me one\nlying apparently in great agony. I inquired what could be the matter?\nSaid he: \"Just this morning, quite early, the Master has sent for me,\nand here I am; naked and barefooted; without a thing to cover me; I\nhad a garment all washed in the blood of the Lamb. The Master provided\nit for me, but I thought it was too long and straight for me; so I\nlaid it aside, and now I cannot find it; OH! HELP ME TO LOOK FOR IT!\"\nBy this time others hearing his cries had been attracted to the spot,\nand in piteous moans and tears he begged, he entreated them, to assist\nin searching for the neglected robe. All this while he lay there\nwithout making an effort to seek for it himself; and, although his\nfriends searched with much earnestness, they could not find it. They\nthen besought him to get up and look for it himself; but he could not\nbe persuaded, and would continue to lie there groaning, and begging\nthem to continue their search. Meanwhile the boatman was waiting and\nurging him to go, till finally he compelled him to go on board, and\nthe boat pushed off; and immediately the river became so dark and\nswollen, that we lost sight of it, and we _could see it no more_.\nSurely, thought I, \"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is\neternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.\"\n\nFor many days I lay there, feeling very listless, not caring to look\nbeyond the river, nor even to look on this side. I was just in the\ncondition to listen to the voice of the tempter, when he whispered:\n\"Why stay here any longer? the Lord delays his coming; He might have\ncome sooner; it is very cruel to be lying in this dreary, loathsome\nplace so long.\" And again, with shame I must confess, that after all\nthe visions of glory I had seen, and all of my Father's goodness to\nme, I listened to his wily whispering, till I became almost enraged,\nand began to cast about me this way and that, for a way of\ndeliverance. At one moment I would feel like going back into the\nwilderness, in all its filth and quagmires, and the next I would feel\nlike rushing headlong, uncalled for, into the river; any way, it\nseemed to me, to get out of this murky, deathly atmosphere. For\nseveral days I was thus tempted. Oh! those were dreadful days to me! I\nsat in sullen silence, and would not look toward my Father's house; I\nwould not see the light that was beaming across; would not see my\nFather's gracious smile; nor would I see His loving hand reached out\nto help me. My telescope lay beside me, but I would not take it up.\nBut, oh! the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God! \"How\nunsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!\"\nBlessed be His Holy Name. He would not leave me, nor suffer His loving\nkindness to be removed from me; but in the midst of deserved wrath He\nremembered mercy toward me. On looking up I saw my guide coming near,\nsaying: \"Dost thou well to be angry. Hast thou not received good from\nthe hands of the Lord, and shalt thou not receive the evil? And if\nthou doest well, shalt thou not dwell in the land of the living\nforever? For the mercy of the Lord is round about them that put their\ntrust in Him. Though clouds and darkness may be round about Him, yet\nrighteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne.\" At these\nwords the tempter left me, and Patience again resumed her seat, and\ncommenced to soothe and tranquilize my spirit, saying: \"Return unto\nthy rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with thee. Ye, that fear\nthe Lord, trust in the Lord, for He is your help and your shield. O!\nforget not all His mercies.\" At this I felt very much humbled and\nsinsick; and I longed to be free from the power of sin and temptation,\nand earnestly I prayed the Father: \"Lead me not into temptation, but\ndeliver me from all evil!\" And with the apostle I could exclaim: \"Oh!\nwretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this\ndeath? Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! Then I would fly away and\nbe at rest.\" \"But then,\" said Patience, \"as you cannot go yet, you had\nbetter take your telescope and look again beyond the river.\" So I took\nit up and began to look around; first on this side, but here, as\nusual, I could find no rest or abiding place; nothing but filth and\nstench that sickened me; but as soon as I turned my gaze toward my\nFather's house, I was struck with the glorious light that fell from\nthe place; for it seemed to shine with peculiar brightness; and, as\nthe gates were ajar, I could look full within; but I could see no sun,\nnor moon, nor the light of a candle; but the light was glorious, far\nsurpassing the light of the sun at noon-day. So I looked in wonder, to\nsee from where it came. My guide said: \"There is no need of the sun or\nof the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and\nthe Lamb is the light thereof. (Rev. xx., 2, 3.) And this is the same\nlight that has lighted up this valley ever since the time the Lamb\npassed through it and fought and conquered the tempter; for it was in\nthis valley He spent some time, and on this bank He was hard beset;\nhere was the dreadful conflict; here it was He was hedged in as you\nare; here the tempter raged as he never had raged before; and Jordan\nswelled and roared, and overflowed her banks; such a time was never\nknown before, since the world began; but the Lamb gained the victory;\nbound the enemy, subdued Jordan, and passed safely over. And all his\nfollowers have to do, is to keep in the light and they need not fear.\"\nThen the prayer arose from my heart: \"Oh Lord! help me to walk in the\nlight of thy countenance; my times are in thy hands; deliver me from\nthe hands of my enemies; make thy face to shine on thy servant; save\nme for thy mercies' sake.\" Then said my guide: \"_Be of good cheer_.\"\n\n    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *\n\n\n\n\nSanctification.\n\nBY MRS. R. S.\n\nCAN WE BE SANCTIFIED AND LIVE?\n\n\nI have often heard it questioned: Can we live in a sanctified state? I\nask first, is not Christ able to keep us in a sanctified state? Did\nGod ever break a covenant that He has made? Every covenant He has made\nwith man has been sealed with blood; and the Apostle says, without the\nshedding of blood is no _remission of sins_. When God made His\npromises to Abraham, that in his seed all the nations of the earth\nshould be blessed, He made Abraham take an heifer of three years old,\na she-goat of three years old, a ram, a turtle dove and a young\npigeon, and divide them asunder, that the flowing blood might, as it\nwere, cleanse the passage between the parts; and the Lord passing\nbetween the parts in the form of a smoking furnace and a burning lamp,\nswore unto Abraham that to him and his seed He would give that land\nforever. Having sealed the covenant with blood, and with an oath, God\nwas bound to keep it; and He did keep it. Although He permitted them\nto be severely tried and carried away from their own land into cruel\nbondage, and to serve under hard task-masters for many years, yet did\nthey become a great nation, for God had said: \"In blessing I will\nbless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars\nof heaven,\" and \"in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be\nblessed.\"\n\nWhen God is about bringing them out of bondage, He renews His covenant\nand again requires blood; but this time the blood of a perfect lamb,\nand the blood must be sprinkled upon the door-posts and lintels of\nevery door, setting the inmates apart to God, or showing that God's\npeople dwelt there; and the destroying angel passed over the land but\ndestroyed them not, because God knew and kept them. He brought them\nsafely out of bondage into a wilderness, and conducted them _through_\nthe wilderness safely to the promised rest. He did not at once let\nthen enter into that rest; but kept them in the wilderness to try\nthem, and prove them. They were His people, sanctified to Him by the\nblood of the perfect lamb, and He could keep them just as well in the\nwilderness as in the land of Canaan. He could spread their table in\nthe sight of their foes. When they wanted meat, He gave them quails in\nabundance; when they wanted bread, He sent them manna from\nheaven--angels food; when they wanted water the rock contained a full\nsupply, but must be smitten to produce it; and it sent forth a stream\nthat followed them through all their journey, typifying the spirit of\ngrace that accompanies the child of God through all his journey.\nAlthough they wandered forty years in the wilderness, their garments\ndid not grow old, nor their sandals wear out. So we see that God\nprovided for them through all their wandering and brought them to that\npromised rest, and according to his promise they became a great\nnation.\n\nOnce more, God renews the covenant He made with Abraham, or in other\nwords fulfilled it. Here it requires again the shedding of blood, and\nthis time it must be the precious blood of the Lord Jesus, the only\nbegotten son of God which cleanses from all sin. If the typical blood\nof Abraham's heifer and Moses' lamb, could prevail with God, to the\ntemporal salvation of man, how much more shall the precious blood of\nChrist prevail to the purifying and washing away of all our sins. As\nGod gave the promise of the \"seed\" to Abraham, and set it apart in\nIsrael, he has perfected it in Christ. As He kept them (His people) in\nthe temporal wilderness through which they had to pass to get to their\npromised rest, so will He keep us in Christ through this wilderness of\nsin through which we must all pass. It is not His will to take us at\nonce from the world; but to keep us in the world; to help build up\nHis kingdom in the world; for it must take perfect workmen to do\nperfect work.\n\nChrist when praying for his Apostles, prayed not the Father to take\nthem out of the world; but that He should keep them from the evil of\nthe world. Nor need we ever look to be freed from temptation; but He\nwill not suffer more to come upon us than He will give us grace to\nbear, and with every temptation will provide a way for our escape.\nChrist at one time said to Peter \"Satan desireth to have thee, that he\nmay sift thee as wheat;\" but what follows? The wrath of God hangs over\nPeter, but Christ our mediator intercedes, and his soothing words are,\n\"I have prayed the Father for thee, that thy faith fail thee not; and\nwhen thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.\" Thus we must be\nkept for mutual aid and for mutual comfort.\n\nIf God were to remove each one as soon as he becomes perfect in\nChrist, who would be left to tell transgressors the way? Or how could\nthe kingdom of Christ flourish in the world? For the kingdoms of this\nworld are to become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, and the\nsanctified Christian is the salt of the earth. Take him away, and what\nbecomes of the world? God has use for all His perfect men and women in\nthe world; they must be _in_ the world, but not _of_ the world.\n\nIt is a mistaken idea that we can be Christians and not sanctified\nChristians; and, as God has use for us in the world, it is very plain\nthat He is not only able to keep us, but He will keep us, until He has\nfinished all His righteous will concerning us; until everything is\ndone that we can do; until we have withstood temptation at every point\neven as our Saviour did; until the last battle is fought and the\nvictory won! Oh! I wish that every Christian would feel that he is a\nsanctified Christian, and go to work as such. Oh! that every one could\nfeel that to-day I am a _pillar_ in the temple of our God; a _living\nstone_ in the building; instead of sitting still and dreaming: \"Can I\nbe sanctified, or when can I be sanctified.\" Oh! that _Christians_\nwould awake, and look around, and see what they can do for the Master.\nThe fields are all white for harvest. The Lord calls for laborers.\nChristian brothers and sisters will you not awake; will you not have\nfaith in Christ; seeing that God hath perfected in him all that He\npromised in Abraham, and all that He \"set apart in Israel.\" The Lord\nwhich made heaven and earth is thy keeper. \"He will not suffer thy\nfoot to be moved; He that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold He\nthat keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy\nkeeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not\nsmite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee\nfrom all evil; He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve\nthy going out, and thy coming in from this time forth, and even\nforever.\" (Psalms cxxi., 3-8). This God, O Christian, is thy God. He\nthat spreadeth out the heavens as a curtain; who keepeth the stars in\ntheir courses; who causes the sun to show forth his light at morning,\nand the moon at evening. He that keeps all nature in its proper course\nyear after year for so many ages, will He not keep thee through thy\nlife's short day and bring thee to heaven at last?\n\nAs a father pitieth His children so the Lord pitieth them that love\nHim. The father will labor hard night and day, will make any\nsacrifice, will deny himself any pleasure, will travel East, West,\nNorth or South, and endure any hardships for his children's sake; and\nshould he have a dozen or more, yet his care over them will not\ndiminish, nor will he grow weary of his labors. \"If ye then being evil\nknow how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your\nHeavenly Father give His holy spirit to them that ask Him.\" Let us\nthen trust a Father's love, and dwell safely under the shadow of his\nwing and we need not fear!\n\n\"Though friends should all fail and foes all unite,\" we may go on\nfirmly trusting \"The Lord will provide\" trusting in His everlasting\narms, we shall pass safely through the wilderness of sin, and at last\nget safely into our Father's house, where we shall rest from all care\nand sing our sufferings o'er; where sin, and sorrow, pain and death,\nnever can enter. Being washed and cleansed in the blood of the Lamb,\nwe shall join our voices with one accord in singing blessing and honor\nand wisdom and thanksgiving be unto the Lamb forever and forever.\n\n\n\n\nSanctification. BY MRS. R. S.\n\n\nWhen God had finished His work of creation, He set apart the seventh\nday, and sanctified it to Himself. In it no one was to do any work; it\nwas to be holy. The day in itself was like all other days; nothing\ndifferent; just as long, just as short; but He chose it to himself. He\nchose the _whole_ of it, and all of it at _once_. He did not say, half\nshall be yours and half mine; or, I will sanctify a part now and the\nrest on next seventh day; but as soon as the day dawned, _it was\nhallowed to the Lord_.\n\nSo in the work of redemption. Christ has finished His work; done all\nthere is to do. He has opened the way and made it passible, and now\ninvites all to come and find pardon; and sets the time when they\nshould come. He says, now is the accepted time; to-day is the day of\nsalvation; if ye hear my voice, harden not your hearts. The time is\nfulfilled, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand; repent ye and believe\nthe Gospel.\n\nThe day of redemption has dawned. Our King has fought the mighty\nbattle; has gained the glorious victory; has set up His Kingdom, and\nnow invites every one to become willing subjects. And all He requires\nof us is simply to \"repent and believe the gospel,\" which promises\nthat all things shall be added unto us. We may ask for it with\nconfidence and without fear, for it is our Father's good pleasure to\ngive us the Kingdom.\n\nThen repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, are the\nvery groundwork of religion; and are more than all burnt offerings.\nFor He taketh no delight in sacrifices and offerings, but a contrite\nheart is always acceptable with Him.\n\nWhat is repentance but a sorrow for sin, and the forsaking of sin for\nour love to God. Love to God, because He first loved us. God loves us.\nHe wills our salvation; and draws us to Him by the cords of love. We\nfeel a sorrow in our hearts; a weariness of sin, a dread of coming\nvengeance; we begin to consider, and finally to ask, \"What shall I do\nto be saved.\" Then comes the promise: \"Believe on the Lord Jesus\nChrist and thou shalt be saved.\" What then is faith but believing in\nHim who was sent; believing that he came to save; believing that He is\nwilling to save; believing that He will save; because the Father sent\nHim for this purpose. Him hath the Father sanctified, and sent unto\nthe world to save the world. Believe that He is able to save; \"thou\nhast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life\nto as many as thou hast given Him.\" (John xvii, 2.) Believe that He is\nwilling. \"I lay down my life for the sheep.\" Then, we can go to God\npleading these promises, and God will _justify_ us through this faith,\nand Christ will apply the _sanctifying blood_ that seals the covenant.\nFor, by His own blood He has entered, once for all, into the Holy\nplace, having obtained \"eternal redemption for us.\"\n\nAnd as every law and every precept was sprinkled with blood, so has\nChrist sealed every promise and every covenant, with His own precious\nblood. Then it surely follows, we cannot believe without being\njustified; and we cannot be justified without being sanctified.\n\"Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God, through\nour Lord Jesus Christ,\" and this peace we can only have by being one\nin Christ and abiding in Him. It is a peace the world cannot give nor\ntake away; a peace that subdues all evil passions, a peace that keeps\nus patient and cheerful under difficulties; that keeps us humble and\ntruthful under trials and temptations. This is the grace that must\nprevail in a distressing hour; and, filled with the sweet peace, we\ncan sing \"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, etc.,\" and this\nsanctifying grace makes us heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ,\nwho owns us for brethren and writes our names in the Book of Life.\n\nBut some may inquire: \"How can we become perfect at once?\" Do you see\nthat little babe? As soon as it is born it is a _perfect child_;\nperfect in its father's love, perfect in its mother's tender care;\nperfect as a child--not yet a perfect man, but all the _germ of the\nman is there_. His limbs, hands and feet are perfect; of his body\nthere is no part lacking; and under the fostering care, and tender\nnursing of his mother, the rigid but wholesome discipline of the\nfather, he must grow to perfect _manhood_,--and who can fix the time\nwhen the child ceases and when the man begins. Or, see the branch in\nthe vine; as soon as it shoots its buds out of the vine, it is a\nbranch in the vine, and never ceases to be such until cut off. The\ngrain of mustard seed cast into the ground becomes a tree; but who can\ntell when it ceases to be a plant. So is every one that is born of the\nSpirit. \"The wind bloweth where it listeth, thou hearest the sound\nthereof and canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth.\"\n\nAs soon as we believe we are perfect in Christ; and through the wise\nand just discipline of God the father, and the loving and tender care\nof Christ as our mother, being fed with the word, we grow in grace and\nin the knowledge of the truth daily. We can no more exist in a\njustified state and not be sanctified, than a child can be born\nwithout a _natural mother_! _Ye must be_ _born again_,--born of the\nwater, and of the _spirit, and of the blood_; for that which is born\nof the flesh is flesh! The natural mind is \"enmity against God; it is\nnot subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.\" But if we are\nin Christ, we are new creatures; \"old things are done away, and all\nthings are become new. There is therefore now no condemnation to them\nwhich are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the\nspirit.\" Then\n\n    \"Christ the sanctifying blood applies,\n    And makes us white as snow.\"\n\n\n\n\nSanctification. BY MRS. R. S.\n\n\nA father, while making provision for his children, whether rich or\npoor, will naturally expect love and obedience from them in return;\nand an unkind or disobedient act in them must be a cause of great\nsorrow to the father's heart, yet it is very seldom that he will go so\nfar as to turn the child away from his door.\n\nSo with our Heavenly Father. He has done all for us that can be done;\nHe has laid up an eternal Inheritance for us; He has prepared for us\n\"many mansions,\" and preserves for us a crown \"that fadeth not away,\"\nand now requires of us humble obedience, full submission to His holy\nwill.\n\nHe not only commands us to repent and believe, but to take up our\ncross daily and follow Jesus.\n\nIf we wish to follow any one we must either see the person or the way\nin which he has walked; let us then find the foot-prints of Jesus,\nthat we may walk therein and live.\n\nWhile on earth, His whole life was spent in doing good; He was found\namong the needy and poor, the afflicted and sorrowing, relieving their\nafflictions, soothing their sorrow or quieting their fears. He was\nnever found among the giddy and gay, in the halls of revelry and\nmirth. He was ever ready to weep with those who wept, and to rejoice\nwith those who rejoiced in the truth. Was there a bereaved mother or\ndisconsolate sister weeping over their dead? Christ was there to join\nHis tears and comfort them. Did they need any of His assistance? He\nwas ever ready to give it. Was any afflicted with sore disease? He was\nready to heal them; none ever came to Him in vain; He upbraided never,\nand sent none empty away. He shunned none for their poverty and\nfavored none for their wealth. He was never presumptuous or proud.\nWhen tempted by Satan to exert His power for His own benefit, He\nrefused, and silenced the tempter with the scathing rebuke: \"Get thee\nhence, Satan, for it is written, thou shall not tempt the Lord thy\nGod.\"\n\nThus in all things our Saviour was bearing His cross; tempted by\nSatan; hated and scorned by false friends; persecuted by enemies; and\nfinally, dying for the sins of the world.\n\nThis, dear Christian, was the path trodden by our Saviour. And\nremember, He was a sanctified Saviour. \"Him hath the Father\nsanctified,\" etc.\n\nHe has not only left His foot-prints for us to follow, but He has also\nleft a rule for us to walk by, that, being in the light, we may walk\nin the light.\n\nThe first commandment given is: \"Thou shalt LOVE;\" and the second\ncommandment is: \"Thou shalt LOVE. LOVE is the fulfilling of the law.\"\nThis is the power that puts the whole Christian life in action. This\nlove must be toward God, with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength,\nand to our neighbor as ourself. As impossible as this may appear to\nthe \"carnal mind,\" yet to the child of God it is very possible. What\ncan be more possible than for a child to love his father and his own\nbrothers and sisters! Although, as children, they may not all agree in\neverything, they will have different sentiments, different opinions,\nand different ways of acting. They will still be united in their love\nto their parents and their love to each other. They will not, by any\nmeans, do anything to injure each other, but will do all they can to\nassist each other; neither will they be first to expose one another's\nfaults, but will practice that \"charity that covereth a multitude of\nsins.\"\n\nThis is just what God requires of His children, viz.: to be _perfect\nin our love to Him, and to have perfect charity, one with another_.\n\"Charity, that thinketh no evil, is not easily provoked, rejoices not\nin iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.\" This is the love that helps\nus to overcome difficulties, that enables us to bear each other's\nburdens, that makes us feel each other's cares, and forgive each\nother's faults; that prevents us from taking \"up a reproach against\nour neighbor, (Psalm xv., 3), and makes us one family in Christ.\"\n\nThis love purifies the heart and brings us close to God, making us\nbold to take up, and firm to sustain the consecrated cross. But it is\nimpossible to attain to this perfect life without some trials and\nsufferings. Our Saviour had His trials and temptations, so must we\nhave. He did not purchase our salvation and pass to Heaven \"on flow'ry\nbeds of ease,\" neither can we.\n\nHe laid aside His glory and made Himself of no reputation, and took\nupon Himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of\nsinful flesh, and humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even\nthe death of the cross; therefore, in following Him, we must, as saith\nthe apostle, lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets\nus. We must strip ourselves of all un-godliness and worldly lusts, of\nevery appearance of evil, to the plucking out of the right eye or the\ncutting off of the right hand. It is better to live maimed than to die\nwhole. We must also put on the whole armor of God which Christ alone\ncan give, as the poet grandly sings:\n\n    \"In the mountain of Zion, in Christ's armory\n    There are sword, shield and breast-plate and helmet for thee.\"\n\nHaving put on this \"whole armor,\" the command is to _stand_!\n\n    \"Stand then against your foes\n    In close and firm array,\n    Legions of wily friends oppose\n    Throughout the evil day.\"\n\nThe world, the flesh, and Satan will oppose us. The flesh will\ncontinually cry for ease, for comfort and for pleasure that is not\nbecoming. It will say the cross is too heavy, the way is too hard; the\nlife we are trying to live is too perfect, we never can attain to it,\nour Saviour never intended it and no one ever did thus live. It will\nappeal to our self-love, and tell us we are already better than our\nneighbors and should not mingle with other people. It will appeal to\nour pride and tell us the valley of blessing is too low, and those\nthat walk therein are far beneath us, and in our pride we may say of\nthem: \"Stand thou there, for I am holier than thou;\" or it may appeal\nto our malice and say, your brethren and friends speak evil of you and\ndo not believe you; and all this can only be overcome by that charity\nwhich is the \"bond of perfection.\" These are some of the battles we\nhave to fight, and we can only fight successfully clad in the armor of\ncharity.\n\nThe world will display all its charms, cause all its glory to pass\nbefore us. It will show its mines of gold, its mountains of iron, its\nhalls of learning, its ships of commerce. It will introduce us to its\nhalls of pleasure and its walks of recreation, but with an eye fixed\non the glory of the eternal world, the glories of this must fade and\nbecome as nothing. Its gold becomes as dross and its pleasures less\nthan the morning dew.\n\nWe have another dreaded foe, the Arch Fiend himself; who comes to us\nwith all his power and all his rage. We have not only to contend with\nflesh and blood, but with principalities and powers, who will employ\nevery means at their command to retard our progress. But we must\n\n    \"---- meet the sons of night\n    And mock their vain design.\"\n\nWe must conquer them all through the blood of Christ and the sign of\nthe Cross! In this alone can we conquer all our foes, this alone can\nhelp us to walk pleasantly in the valley of humiliation. It is only\nwith the Cross of Christ on our shoulders and the love of God shed\nabroad in our hearts that we can walk the heavenly road.\n\nBut with this love we can say always: \"Father, Thy will be done.\" In\nsickness or health, adversity or prosperity, in afflictions and all\ntrials we can possess our souls in patience. This is the love that\nremoves mountains, that makes enemies friends, and takes the _beam_\nfrom our own eye, so that we may see the mote in our brother's eye,\nand enable us to help each other on the way.\n\nIf a brother is in need, or a sister in distress, or a mother\nbereaved, we are ready to lend a helping hand or give a word of\nconsolation, thus fulfilling the law of Christ.\n\nLove must then pervade the soul, and unite us to Christ and to each\nother, as the sap pervades the vine and the branches, uniting them\ntogether and causing them to produce fruit. The branch cannot bear\nfruit of itself: no more can we separate from Christ; but if we abide\nin Him, we shall bring forth much fruit. \"If ye abide in me and my\nword in you, ye shall ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done\nunto you.\"\n\nLet us ask daily for grace to keep us in this perfect way, \"ask and ye\nshall receive.\" We need a constant daily supply of the bread of life,\nthat feeds the soul and keeps it alive in Christ. Let us go daily to\nour Father's table, that we may partake of the dainties of Heaven and\ngrow in grace and the knowledge of the truth.\n\n    \"That having all things done,\n      And all our conflicts passed,\n    We may o'ercome through faith alone,\n      And stand entire at last.\"\n\n\n\n\nStory originally written for her little Grandsons, James and Charley.\n\n\n     Dear Jim and Charley:\n\n     Here is one of my stories for little folks. It is about a\n     giant, that lives about here, and in fact I guess he lives in a\n     great many places. He is a monstrous big fellow, a great deal\n     larger than the King of Og, whose bed it was said was twelve\n     feet long and eight feet broad. He is bigger than Goliath whom\n     David killed, in fact larger than any giant you ever heard of.\n     And if you ever meet with this big fellow, I hope _you_ will\n     kill _him_, rather than become his subjects. For he is a king,\n     or rather a despotic emperor; he holds complete control over\n     his subjects and compels them to do whatever he wishes. He is\n     always peering around, knocking at people's doors, and peeping\n     into people's houses, to see if he can get any one to serve\n     him. In fact sometimes he walks right boldly into _my_ house\n     and compels _me_ to serve him. He is a wonderful fellow and I\n     think he must be very old, and he is very ugly; he is\n     blear-eyed and snub-nosed, and everything else that is ugly,\n     and he makes people do ugly things. He makes men and women\n     strut about and think they are somebody--why, I have heard of\n     so many bad things he has caused people to do, that I hardly\n     know what to tell you first. He has made nation go to war with\n     nation, he makes men fight and kill each other, and many years\n     ago he made an old king dress himself all up in purple robes,\n     and sit upon his throne, and declare he was God. He made\n     Joseph's brethren sell Joseph down into Egypt when he was a\n     little boy. And Absalom, David's son, to pursue after his\n     father to kill him, and he caused the wicked Jews to crucify\n     our blessed Saviour and kill him.\n\n     Oh, he has done so many bad things, and is still doing bad; for\n     he makes little boys and girls do bad. I must tell you\n     something he makes them do; he makes little boys run away from\n     their mother and tell lies and smoke segars and do a great many\n     bad things; he makes little girls primp themselves up and think\n     they are young ladies, and must not help their mothers any\n     more; he makes children quarrel and fight and call names to get\n     advantage of each other; he makes a little boy that I know call\n     his little playmate----. And now boys what do you think of my\n     giant, old and ugly and every way bad? Do you think you will be\n     his subjects, or will you kill him when you meet him, as David\n     did Goliath with a sling and stone? I should like to hear you\n     guess his name, but as you are so far away I shall have to tell\n     you; his name is \"GIANT SELF.\" See what a great big fellow he\n     is and what bad things he can make you do. Now if you don't\n     want to be his subjects, I will tell you what you must do. When\n     you meet him, for I know you will meet him, you must take the\n     sling of faith and the stone of prayer and kill him. That is,\n     when you feel any selfish thoughts coming into your heart you\n     must ask your Heavenly Father to take them all away, and keep\n     you from pleasing Giant Self, and make you good boys, help you\n     to grow up good men, and ever keep you in His care----\n\n     Your grandma prays.\n\nThe little scraps of poetry which follow, have lain among my mother's\npapers for over thirty years. I do not think they were ever shown to\nany of her most intimate friends. They were written mostly in 1846,\nwhen my mother was about twenty-six years of age, and were simple\nheart effusions, never intended for public eye.\n\nEven those addressed to particular persons I do not think were ever\npresented; and my mother, though fond of the poets, seems never to\nhave thought herself gifted to write poetry. I selected the few found\nin these pages from an old scrap-book, and I may say I regard these as\nthe best, and perhaps the only ones adapted to public reading, found\nin the meagre collection. I make no corrections in them.\n\n    T. G. S.\n\n\n\n\nPoetry\n\n\nThoughts suggested by the Return of Spring.\n\n    Once more I hail the happy spring\n      Tho' sadness to my heart it brings,\n    It brings to mind the seasons past\n      When sporting in the joys of youth\n    I sallied forth to meet the spring\n      And hear the birds so sweetly sing.\n\n    But ah, those days are past and gone\n      Those happy days forever flown\n    And now, through weariness and care\n      I wander on all through the year\n    My youthful friends are fled and gone\n      And not a friend for me remains\n    I feel deserted and unknown\n      A stranger in this world alone--\n\n    No one with me to sympathise\n      Or share with me my cares or joys\n    When sore afflictions rack my frame\n      And not one hope for me remains\n    Even then forsaken and alone\n      I vent my sighs and make my moan\n    And tho, I greet the happy spring\n      Yet sadness to my heart it brings.\n\n\nThe Inscription to this is simply \"Written after a Time of\nAffliction.\"\n\n    I love the Lord, my strength, my tower,\n      The Lord my rock and fortress is,\n    My God my strength in whom I trust,\n      My buckler and my hope of bliss.\n\n    The Lord is worthy to be praised,\n      He saves me from my enemies;\n    Sorrow and death compass'd me round,\n      Death and the grave made me afraid.\n\n    I called upon the Lord and cried:--\n      My God, he heard my feeble voice,\n    Out of His temple. Lo! He came\n      And bade my broken heart rejoice.\n\n    The earth shall tremble at His word,\n      The hills shall fly at His command.\n    He bows the heavens as their Lord\n      And rides upon a Cherrub's wings.\n\n    He will deliver me from sin,\n      And set my soul at liberty,\n    He will reward my righteousness,\n      If from my God I do not stray.\n\n\nTo a Sister on her Birthday.\n\n    Your birthday my sweet sister,\n    What shall my off'ring be,\n    I've no rich gifts or treasures\n    I can present to thee.\n\n    But Oh! my sweetest sister,\n    I raise a fervent prayer,\n    For all thy future welfare\n    While thou may'st sojourn here.\n\n    May many happy birthdays\n    Roll o'er thy peaceful head,\n    In good old age may you lay down\n    Your life among the dead.\n\n    And may your soul ascend to God\n    And reign with Him on high,\n    And praise Him in that bright abode,\n    Where pleasures never die.\n\n\nTo a Minister on his Return after a long Absence.\n\n    Dear Shepherd you've been wand'ring\n      So long and far away\n    Your sheep become disconsolate,\n      Therefore have gone astray.\n    Not so, the Mighty Shepherd,\n      He ne'er forsakes His sheep,\n    He leads them forth in pasture,\n      So rich, so green, so sweet;\n    He leads them to the fountains,\n      Along the crystal stream--\n    They feed beside the mountains,\n      Who put their trust in Him.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Note: Archaic spellings and punctuation have been\nretained.","title":"Memoirs of Mrs. Rebecca Steward, Containing: A Full Sketch of Her Life: With Various Selections from Her Writings and Letters ...","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":29179}