20 MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. heart grew large, and she felt for the fathers, too; and proposed to some kindred spirits that a social tea-meeting should be got up, and the fathers invited, and some gentlemen requested to address them. The plan was soon formed, and it was hailed with pleasure. About a hundred and eighteen sat down to tea; of which number, ninety were of the humble class, and twenty of them men. Young ladies with their mothers waited upon them, and attended to the comfort of all present. After tea, they sang the hymn "The promise was divinely true," and all appeared to unite in earnest. A missionary then prayed very appropriately, and Dr. B. gave a very suitable and affectionate address on the importance of the maternal character, and its influence on children, and the consequent necessity for personal religion. After another hymn, a minister addressed them on the advantages those possess who are living in the observance of the Sabbath and religious duties, over the infidel, the careless, or the worldly, and appealed most powerfully to their consciences. Another gentleman then spoke on the advantages of temperance, which he illustrated by an affecting anecdote. Another pointed out to the fathers what were their duties, and the mistake of imagining that they were exempt from an equal responsibility with their wives. Another hymn was sung, and Dr. B. concluded with prayer. A suitable tract was given to each person as they departed. "Never," says our friend, "did a teameeting pass off better, in every respect. Many who were present expressed the delight they experienced, and the warmest expectations of the kind friends who provided for the meeting were more than realised." Is your Maternal Association in a cold state, and are mothers and fathers sleeping over their work?-Try what a social tea-meeting will do, and get some nice addresses to stir up the consciences. AND THEY SANG THEIR LAST SONG TOGETHER! We sometimes talk of this life as "a vale of tears," but those who have never wept over the grave of beloved ones cannot understand the meaning of the terms; yet how few of us have not had sorrow! how few have had a pathway through life so secluded and sheltered that no rude winds of adversity have ever reached them! Who has not felt storms of affliction? who has not known disappointment and grief, affliction and bereavement ? What heart has not known bitterness? Do you remember childhood? Have you forgotten how you ran to a mother, a sister, or companion, to tell your grief? Why did you go and burden another heart with your sorrows? You wanted sympathy. If we have deep afflictions, it is a relief to speak of them in the attentive ear of one who has experienced the same kind of sorrow. If a mother has buried her child, she seeks another mother who has been bereaved; no other can so well understand her heart, and speak to its sympathies. Is one left to the speechless sorrows of widowhood? Who can speak words of consolation to reach that heart? It is one who has known the same bereavement. A father, who had seen the grave close over his beloved wife and every child constituting his household treasures, heard of the afflictions of another like his own. They met in the street of the thronged city. This father grasped the hand of the other, exclaiming, "I cannot speak of your trials, but I know all about it." These were the first words of sympathy which had reached that stricken heart. There is a great want about all Christians who have not suffered; some flowers must be broken or bruised before they emit any fragrance; it seems needful to the Christian character-even an apostle exclaimed, 22 AND THEY SANG THEIR LAST SONG TOGETHER. "If we are afflicted, it is for you;"-he could better understand the path of sorrow after having walked over it. But there is one above all others to whom we can turn for sympathy, one who, having been "acquainted with grief," perfectly understands the bitterness of every heart, and can give sustaining and sanctifying grace, hushing every tumult within, causing our peace to flow as a river, light to shine in obscurity, making darkness as the noonday, and enabling us to rejoice in tribulation; and by-andby we shall feel that— "The keenest strokes to us in love were given, That hearts most crushed on earth should most rejoice in heaven." In the room of a neat cottage lay a young dying mother, her face beaming with heavenly love, and her heart already in tune for singing the new song. Raising her sweet voice, she sang "Thy shining grace can cheer This dungeon where I dwell; 'Tis paradise when thou art here,- Turning to her husband, she said, "Come, sing with me." While the big tears rolled over his cheek, her countenance was tranquil and happy, and they sang their last song together "When I tread the verge of Jordan, Land me safe on Canaan's side; Songs of praises I will ever give to thee." What a scene was here! How true and faithful is our God! How light and bright was this dying mother's passage to the better land! How glorious the hope she cherished of the happiness of heaven! And had she grown tired of the world? had she nothing to love AND THEY SANG THEIR LAST SONG TOGETHER. 23 and nothing to leave? Listen while we tell you. By her hearth stood a lovely boy, over whose young head only two summer suns had passed! By her side, on her dying bed, rested a tender infant, two weeks old! Before her stood a young, tender, loving husband! Near her was a weeping mother and sorrowing friends, and her home was one of love and comfort; yet when asked, "Can you leave all these?" she replied, "Yes, I love them tenderly, but I can leave them all with Jesus, and for Jesus, for a golden harp to sing his praise. Oh, how loud I shall sing!" "Are you resting entirely on Jesus?" Quickly she answered, "Entirely on she was asked. Jesus. 86 Nothing in my hands I bring, Simply to thy cross I cling." "What a mercy," it was remarked, "that you feel thus." "Yes," she rejoined, "but we deserve nothing at the hands of God. "A guilty, weak, and helpless worm, On thy kind arms I fall; Be thou my strength and righteousness, After this she warned those about her to seek Jesus at once, and desired that her minister would continue to warn sinners to flee to the cross, requesting, too, that MOTHERS might be warned to be faithful to their trust, remarking, "Mothers are asleep over their work!" Thus did she warn and counsel, and on the verge of the shores of mortality, while her feet touched the brink of Jordan's river, she sang, with "joy unspeakable and full of glory." Still did we hope against hope that she might live to train her dear ones in the path she had chosen in her youthful bloom. The march of death had warned us; but we did not take the token. Slow, wasting sickness, because 'twas slow, was full of hope; but soon she was 24 AND THEY SANG THEIR LAST SONG TOGETHER. arrayed, kind and tender hands had dressed her for the grave! They had sung their last song together! The young mother lay on her dying bed, A halo of joy shone around her head, Quickly she raised her sweet, musical voice, And bid all her friends around to rejoice, "Come, sing a last song before we part, The husband united his tremulous voice, The song is ended, -the music is past,— And the angels have borne her away; Though the shadows of death were gathering fast, Now she shines above, in the light of God, The shadowy vale her swift feet have trod, And she sings in glory now. But the song they sang, 'mid sorrow and pain, "BLESSED ARe the dead thAT DIE IN THE LORD." |