for my arrival. 'Praise the Lord, I am
glad to see you,' was her characteristic salutation. "Well, Mother, I
find you resting on Jesus?" "Yes," was the reply, "but I have been so
unfaithful." "You have nothing to do with that now; you must look only
to Jesus. You believe His atonement is sufficient to cover all your
unfaithfulness?" "Oh! yes, I do." "You know that Paul, and Mr. Wesley
had nothing else to plead but this,--
'I the chief of sinners am,
But Jesus died for me.'"
From that moment, looking off from herself, she trusted in Christ
alone, and was fully saved and sustained by divine grace. Leaning
on her Beloved, she was now ready to pass over Jordan;--not its
"swellings," the stream was narrow, and neither deep nor troubled. A
little time and she was on the opposite plains; but before she landed,
she uttered words of triumph, the sounds of which fell faintly on our
ears.
In the devotions of the evening, which we conducted in her room, she
participated with holy delight, and listened to the former part of the
14th chapter of St. John's Gospel, with an evident appreciation of
its overflowing fulness of consolation. In Jesus she contemplated
the revealed glory of the Father, and her believing "Amen" made the
blessedness of the revelation all her own. After giving me some
final directions, especially with respect to her manuscripts and
letters;--directions which were short and clear; and given with her
wonted happy expression of countenance, and cheerfulness of manner;
she gradually yielded to the force of disease. For three hours and a
half she lay quiet, occasionally slumbering, but breathing heavily.
It was thus I found her in the morning at half-past two. She was quite
conscious and recollected, and gave pleasing signs of recognition, but
the power of speech was almost gone. She had reached the middle of the
stream, but her head was lifted up above the flowing waters, for her
feet were upon the Rock. Mary quoted "The Lord is good; a stronghold
in the day of trouble; and He knoweth them that trust in Him," and
shortly after,
"Bright angels are from glory come,
They're round my bed, and in my room,
They come to waft my spirit home:
All is well."
She caught the idea; whispered "Bright Angels," and tried to say more.
I added the precious words, "Having loved His own, He loved them to
the end," also the lines of our own sweet singer;--
"And God Himself our Father is,
And Jesus i
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