THE MISSION WORK. 141 The trials and sufferings through which my mother passed induced considerable nervous depression, which often manifested itself in a distressing fear of death. In several of her letters she speaks of this, and is the more depressed, because she cannot account for it. It arose from physical causes. She was not afraid of entering the great future which lies beyond death, for she knew that she had an inheritance above-“ a building of God—a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." But she shrank from crossing the dark river she feared to pass the swellings of Jordan. The prayer in the burial service, "Suffer us not, in our last hour, for any pains of death to fall from Thee," to which objections have been sometimes raised, was often her prayer; yet, there were times when she rose above all this, and when the prospect beyond was bright and clear; for we may rest assured that God will not suffer His people to be tried in this, or in any other way above what they are able to bear. And it is often the case that Christians who have been all their lifetime subject to bondage through the fear of death, have, when at length the hour has come, been as heroic as the martyrs, and as confident of victory as St. Paul himself. Not now, however, was she, of whom I write, to meet the last foe. God had yet to lead her through many trials, but had also in store for her many blessings. Both she and her husband were yet to travel over the rugged mountain, and through the dreary vale; but were now and then, at least, to catch bright glimpses of the city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Among the mysteries of Divine Providence this is one that God sometimes brings His people to the very gates of the golden city, and permits them to look into it as He did St. Paul—to gaze upon its enraptured hosts, and to listen to the music of their song; but then says to them, as it were, "You must not enter yet," and sends them back to earth, there to linger for months or, it may be, for years longer, yet with the recollection of the "rapture" they experienced never to be quite effaced. Well, let such as are thus favoured be thankful, and if afterwards they have sore conflicts with Satan, as if he would, notwithstanding, dispute every inch of the road, let them be confident, and in God's own time they shall not only look into the open door of heaven, but enter it, and enter it in triumph, waving the palm of victory, and shouting the deliverer's name. CHAPTER X. THE MISSIONARY ALTAR. THE REGIONS "THE PROJECTS OF MISSIONS ARE TO BE EXTENSIVE. BEYOND ARE VAST; AND YOUR WISHES ARE TO BE COMMENSURATE WITH THEIR WANTS. MISSIONARIES ARE TO BE ENLARGED ABUNDANTLY,' OR INTO ABUNDANCE; INTO A LARGE SUITE OF NATIONS; INTO AN ABUNDANCE OF LABOURS, SUCCESSES, AND TRIUMPHS; STILL EXTENDING THEIR LINE WITH EVERY YEAR, TILL THEIR LINE STRETCHES INTO ALL THE EARTH, AND THEIR WORD TO THE END OF THE WORLD."—Richard Watson. “Oh, let Thy word prevail. Spread the law, Throughout all lands: let every nation hear WORDSWORTH. CHAPTER X. THE MISSIONARY ALTAR. HE true Christian spirit is that of self-sacrifice. THE We are not our own, and therefore we are called to present ourselves to God without reserve, to consecrate all our powers to His service, to lay ourselves on the altar which sanctifies the gift. But self-sacrifice involves the sacrifice of our children. If we are not our own, neither are they our own; and if God requires them at our hands, either in their infancy or their childhood, either in their youth or in their still riper years, we are bound to render them up to Him. To the patriarch Abraham God said, "Take now thy son, thy only son Isaac whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of," and Abraham at once complied. True it is that Isaac was given back to him; but the sacrifice was really made in Abraham's experience, for doubtless he passed through L |