"I am Strong In Him."

 

MR. Mc LEOD of Scotland, recently addressing

the London Missionary Society, related

the following anecdote, which is richly 

illustrative of the Christian faith, and full of

 beautiful touching pathos:

"The other day I was requested by a brother

minister who was unwell, to go and visit a dying

child. He told me some remarkable things

of this boy, eleven years of age, who during

three years' sickness, had manifested the most

patient submission to the will of God, with a

singular enlightenment of the Spirit. I went to

visit him. The child had suffered excruciating

pain; for  years he had not known one day's

rest. I gazed with wonder at the boy. After

drawing near to him, and speaking some words

of sympathy, he looked at me with his blue

eyes. He could not move, it was the night before

he died and breathed into my ear these

few words: "I am strong in Him." The

words were few and uttered feebly. They were

the words of a feeble child, in a poor home,

where the only ornament was that of a meek

and quiet, and affectionate mother; and these

words seemed to lift the burden from the very

heart; they seemed to make the world more

beautiful than ever it was before; they brought

home to my heart a great and blessed truth.

May you, sir, and I, and every one else be

'strong in Him!' "



Happy  


I REMEMBER that on my return to France in

a vessel which had been on a voyage to India,

as soon as the sailors had perfectly 

distinguished the land of their native country, 

they became, in a great measure, incapable of 

attending to the duties of the ship. Some looked 

at it wistfully, without the power of minding 

anything else; others dressed themselves in 

their best clothes, as if they were going to 

disembark some talked to themselves, and

 others wept.

As we approached, the disorder of their

minds increased. As they had been absent

several years, there was no end to the 

admiration of the hills, the foliage of the trees,

 and even the rocks which skirted the shore, 

covered with weeds and mosses. The church 

spire; of the villages where they were born, 

which they distinguished at a distance up the

 country, and which they named one after 

another, filled them with transports of delight.

But when the vessel entered the port, and

when they saw on the quays their fathers, their

mothers, their wives, their children, and their

friends, stretching out their arms with tears of 

joy, and calling them by their names, it was no

longer possible to retain a man on board; they

all sprang on shore, and it became necessary,

according to the custom of the port, to employ

another set of mariners to bring the vessel to

her mooring.

What then would be the case were we indulged

with a display of that heavenly country?

The laborious and vain cares of this life would

be forsaken, and all our powers and feelings

would be lost in perpetual rapture. It is wisdom,

therefore, that a veil is spread over the

glories of futurity. Let us enjoy the hope that

the happy land awaits us, and in the mean time

let us fulfill with cheerfulness and patience what

belongs to our present condition. 




St. Pierre.