keep what I have committed to Him. Because He hath been my Help, therefore under His wings do I rejoice."
It seemed now as if the fountain of her speech was unsealed, and, though no moisture was in her eyes, and the few drops which started out on her forehead were cold and clammy, and the worn lineaments had lost the power to smile, and she lay still as marble, yet, with a voice clear and unfaltering, she went on to testify her faith in Christ, and of the peace that filled her soul. A strength denied to her body came from within.
"Oh! sir, I thank you for coming; I thank God for sending you to me, like the angel to Hagar in the wilderness. I prayed for it. It is four long years since I heard the voice of a Christian minister, and all that time I prayed for one to hold the water of life to my lips once more. Now I know that He has heard me; blessed be His name!"
The preacher interrupted her to say that she had not been left alone by her God, who needed not man's lips to comfort his people.
"Alone! no, never alone! I have seen Him in His mighty works. I have heard Him in the storms of winter and in the summer winds. I had my Bible, His own holy word. His Spirit has been with me. But I thank Him for the voice of His commissioned servant, whose duty is to comfort His people.". . . . . . .
The reader of this imperfect sketch can have little idea of the eloquence, almost supernatural, pervaded by Scriptural language and imagery, with which she spoke. It was the soul triumphing over the fainting flesh; truth in its own energy, unaided by human expression; a voice of the dead, not sepulchral, but of one near the gate of heaven.
The chaplain knelt beside the bed and all the rest knelt with him; but there was more of thanks than petition in his prayer. The clouds that hung about the borders of eternity were so bright with the glory beyond, that sorrow and pain were forgotten as he gave utterance to the dying woman's memories and hopes, the memories of grace and the hopes of immortality that met together in her faithful heart. Nor need I add that his own gratitude was strong to the Good Shepherd, who had sent him to find this sheep among the mountains,
