Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

when he has wished for fruit or other childish dainties and toys he reserved the money, denying himself in order to enjoy the higher gratification of bestowing it upon some hungry child or destitute and afflicted person. He had considerable strength of body, and when attacked by rude boys, and unable to reason with, or avoid them, he would secure their hands and hold them down until they begged for pardon, or promised to let him alone, but never hurting them. When his brother, who is full of health and spirits has behaved ill to him, and I have proceeded to correct him, Bertie would earnestly intercede for him; and when this has failed, nobly offer, even entreat me to punish him instead of the offender; so that the younger one thus won by the law of love, has rushed into his arms, and hung upon his neck, begging the repeated assurance of his forgiveness, being unable to forgive himself. Bertie sympathised deeply with any one in pain, he was the first to hear a cough, and would come to me when sleeping in another room to give me notice of it.

"On one occasion a dear aunt offered to purchase for him whatever he most wished for. This was a tempting offer; he looked at me-I understood him; he had just previously frequently expressed a wish for a copy of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. I knew that he would hesitate to name it, so I announced his choice, which instantly relieved him. Oh how anxiously his Pilgrim friend was looked for! At length he really held it in his hands. And now the Bible and the Pilgrim were almost always before him. All the references were carefully sought out; at first he was unacquainted with the Roman figures, but finding it difficult to obtain my assistance as often as he required it, he got a few minutes' explanation from me, and then retired; in about an hour he returned for me to test his perfect acquaintance with the figures, and to prove to me the ease with which he could now find the references.

"I remember on one occasion that he was talking very seriously to his brother, and said, 'Now, whenever you are tempted to sin, remember that God sees you, in the dark as well as in the light, and remember what it cost him to put sin away. You would not love the cruel nails that pierced Jesus' hands and feet, would you? I am sure you would not. Well, it was for our sins those hands and feet were pierced-so, our sins are the nails. And besides, when you are going to sin, there's a voice within you which says, "Don't sin!" That's the voice of God-hear him!'

"He was one day lying on the sofa, when, after a time he said, Mamma, this pillow is hard;' then, after a moment's pause, he continued,' But dear Jesus had no pillow! and Jacob only a stone

one.' I do not remember his ever complaining again of the hard pillow.

"

'Being now very weak and unable to walk we hired a donkey for him, which was not inclined to go faster than it could possibly help, or indeed to move at all, so we proceeded to use the whip; but were immediately checked by Bertie. Patting it gently, and speaking kindly to it, the animal mended its pace a little. 'There,' said he, poor thing, it isn't used to kindness, and it doesn't know how to be glad enough for a kind word-never beat them.' 'The patient ass, with many a load'-and he repeated a verse hich I have forgotten; but on returning home he showed me these lines :

:

'He hates the hardness of a Balaam's heart;
And, prophet as he was, he might not strike
The blameless animal without rebuke,

On which he rode.'

Some time after this, his mother writes:

"We were now hurriedly ordered away, by our medical adviser, to the coast, as our last resource; forlorn, although the hope we cherished was. And yet, Bertie had ever been in such excellent health when near the sea, that we hung tenaciously to the possibility of recovery. It was several weeks before a suitable place could be found and prepared. As soon as the dear child learned that a pretty cottage residence, promising fairly to be the abode of health and peace, awaited him, the most intense desires were expressed to get there. 'How happy we shall be in our sweet little home! our own home, mamma! and we'll have schools for the children who do not know about Jesus. When I get there I shall run on that shore and be well again. Oh, take me now, and bathe me in those waters!'

"It was the middle of April when we arrived at our new residence. All was bright and promising; the winter was past'-'the flowers appeared on the earth, and the time of the singing of birds was come.' When we were once more in the fields, he let go my hand, and was busy as the busiest gathering handfuls of wild flowers. We reached the shore; health seemed inhaled with every inspiration of that pure, bracing air. The tide was curling in white crested waves, borne on, in measured and marshalled order, till reaching the sandy barrier; and then, as if forgetting their assumed dignity, they dashed themselves into a cloud of silvery spray, and hurriedly gathering up the squandered remains, rolled back to swell the imposing majesty of the next line of advancing billows. Even dear Bertie's enervated frame responded to the invigorating influences; and again, hope, which comes to all, sprung up spontaneously within my breast."

These fond expectations were, however, never to be realized, for his heart-wrung but resigned biographer thus continues:

[ocr errors]

"It was on the 8th May, 1847, that I awoke to the sad certainty that the dreaded hour of separation from my beloved child was now at hand. As I reflected upon the value at which I should hereafter estimate these few fleeting days, I mentally determined with Elisha -'As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.' In accordance with this purpose I requested the members of my family not to disturb me for anything less than an imperative cause; and shutting the door of our little parlour upon all the world, I endeavoured to create a little world of interest around him. As I did so, the dear child exclaimed, How happy we are here in this quiet little room by ourselves!' It was a pretty spot; the windows were shaded by the luxuriant growth of ivy, which so embowered them, that curtains and sun-blinds were quite superfluous. They looked out into the gardens now clothed in May-day greenness, and as the spring was cold and backward, we were glad of the warmth of the little parlour, contenting ourselves with the view of the outside. The day was wet, too, so we made a little sunny sphere around us. We got our books, and pictures, and plates; and I endeavoured to amuse the sufferer, in the intervals of the distressing fits of coughing, with colouring little prints for his scrap-book, then got him to attempt the same amusement; but in a few minutes he laid himself down again on the sofa, exhausted by this trifling exertion. Looking languidly round the room, his eye rested upon a vase which he had filled with flowers of his own gathering; and observing that they were fading, he said, 'These flowers are fading fast, but I think I am fading as fast.'"

(To be concluded next month.)

POPERY IN NAPLES.

THE Official Gazette of the Two Sicilies contains a decree of which the following is a translation:

"Ferdinand II. &c., &c. Upon the proposition of our Minister the Secretary of the Interior, after having heard our Council of Ministers, we have resolved to decree, and we do decree as follows:

"Art. I. The National Guard of our most faithful city of Naples is placed under the special protection of the most holy Virgin of Carmel."

"Art. II. Our Minister the Secretary of State, President of the Council of Ministers, and our Minister the Secretary of State for the Interior, are charged with the execution of the present decree.FERDINAND.

Naples, March 15th, 1848.

(Signed)

POETRY.

"THE DESIRED HAVEN."

(Psalm cvii. 30.)

The ripples gently glide,
No angry billows foam,
While I on life's serenest tide,
Am wafted home.

The silver moonbeams play

O'er ocean's sleeping breast, Which glitters as the orb of day, Sinks in the west.

Anon the storm winds beat,

The heaving surges roar,

But soon this life, so short, so fleet,
Shall be no more.

On! 'mid the heaving surge,

On! 'mid the storm winds high, Onward, still on, my course I urge, For Christ is nigh.

I would not linger here,

To watch the moon's soft light, Nor heed the ripples sparkling clear, At sunset bright.

I would not wildly fear,

Amid the tempest's roar,
For every billow brings me near
The blissful shore.

Soon shall I anchor there,

Where heavenly breezes blow, And leave my every weight of care, My every woe.

C. B. C.

"OUR FATHERS, WHERE ARE THEY?"

WHERE are the ones so loved in other years,
Where are their beaming smiles, their bitter tears;
The voices lifted oft in fervent prayers,

The mighty deeds of some, their joys and cares?
Our Fathers, where are they?

Where shall we seek them? Hill and stately wood
Stand now as they for ages long have stood;
But here our Fathers' feet no longer rove,

Their steps have passed away from hill and grove.
Where then, oh, where are they?

Shall we look for them, then, in lovelier lands
Making through all the earth our loud demands?
Alas! no voice gives answer to our cry,
Echo returns the sad sound tremblingly-

Oh! tell us, where are they?

Come, let us go to the low grassy mound,
Where sweet but awful memories gather round;
Where the dark vault, in its sepulchral shade,
Tells for the slumbering dead that it was made-

There, there our Fathers lie.

But hark, what tones are those whose thankful song
Peals, through the arch of heaven borne along
By winds celestial? O'er the silent graves

In rapturous melody the music waves

Our Fathers, these are they?'

Yes; dust returned to dust, but the freed soul
Hath passed across the seas which ever roll,
On this our mortal home, whilst songs of love
Welcomed each victor to his crown above.

'Twas thus our Fathers passed from this sad land away, Then let us ask no more, Our Fathers, where are they?'

Homerton.

S. J. EDMESTON.

« FöregåendeFortsätt »