Grandmother's scrap-book, or, The way to do good. Designed to encourage the highest religious attainments within the power of man .. online

show you what I now see ! 0, the glory, the
unspeakable glory, that I behold ! My heart is
full ; my heart is full ; Christ smiles, and I
cannot choose but smile. Can you find it in
your heart to stop me, who am now going to
the complete and eternal enjoyment of Christ ?
Would you keep me from my crown ? The
arms of my blessed Saviour are open to embrace
me ; the angels stand ready to carry my soul
into his bosom. 0, did you but see what I see,
you would all cry out with me, ^ How long,
dear Lord ? Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.' "
Dr. Doddridge, when near his end, said,
" Such delightful and transporting views of the
heavenly world, as my Father is now indulging



96



me with, no words can express." " Light breaks
in ! Light breaks in ! Hallehijah ! " were among
the dying words of the pious Blumhart of Basle.
Dr. Bateman, a Christian physician, said, a
little before he died, " I can hardly distinguish
whether this is languor or drowsiness which has
come over me ; but it is a very agreeable feel-
ing ; " and, dying, he exclaimed, " What glory !
the angels are waiting for me ! Lord Jesus, re-
ceive my soul ! Farewell ! " Addison, the
English poet, when near death, called a young
man, who was rather indifferent to religion, to
his bedside, and while he pressed his hand with
tender affection, said to him, " Behold with
what peace a Christian can die I "

Such language reminds me of the swan's
song, which is sweetest when dying. It is like
some of that language of rapture, which we find
in the Scriptures, that trembled, like a thrill of
heavenly joy, upon the tongues of saints ready
to depart. Like that of Jacob : " I have waited
for thy salvation, Lord." Like that of
Simeon : " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant



OR. THE WAY TO DO GOOD. 97

depart in peace, according to thy word ; for
mine eyes have seen thy salvation." Like that
of Paul:> "I am now ready to be offered;
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness ! "

Why should not saints, " on the verge of
heaven," share a foretaste of it ? They liave
the assurance that the Comforter shall abide
with them always, and why not peculiarly amid
the trying scenes of death ? He, as a spirit,
has direct access to the spirits of saints, to fill
them with his consolation and peace. Beyond
doubt, also, the soul, in its last moments of stay
upon the earth, is so far free from its inward
affinities with the body as to see already the
glorious realities of that world which it is just
entering. Thus Stephen, the first Christian
martyr, when his soul was about stoned out of
his body, " being full of the Holy Ghost, looked
up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory
of God, and said. Behold, I see the heavens
opened, and the Son of man standing on the
right hand of God."



98 grandmother's scrap-book ;

These experiences of dying saints are, of
course, various in their degree ; some are rap-
turous and ecstatic, while others are more cahu
and peaceful. Some have glimpses of heaven
vouchsafed them while they, departing, have
still sufficient strength to express their feelings ;
while others, as in the cases mentioned, can
only yet give a faint token that joy is breaking
upon them through the gloom of death. In
this respect, too, there are diversities of gifts,
but the same spirit. Sure it is, tliat in one form
or other, the Comforter is doing his work at
the heart.

Such a joyful, peaceful end is to be desired,
not only because it tends to take away the
gloom from the prospect of death, but also be-
cause of its unspeakable blessedness to the dy-
ing saint. In that hour, when flesh and heart
fail, what must be the joy of such a portion !
It is desirable, too, on account of those who
stand in tears around our dying bed. It will
take away much of the bitterness of their sor-
row and bereavement to see that our death is



99



full of peace and hope. Their farewell looks
and words will lose much of their mournfulness
when we see their countenances lighted up wdth
an expression which seems to say, " I am
going home ! " ! the deepest of all sorrow
is sorrow without hope. The sweetest of all
consolation, in the hour of bereavement, is the
assurance that the spirit of the departed rests
— rests forever in the bosom of its God. After-
wards, too, it is the pleasantest of all the duties
of love to drop the tears of affection upon the
grave of one whose spirit we know to be in the
Heavenly Home.



Health is the working-man's fortune, and
he ought to watch over it more than the capi-
talist over his largest investments. Health
lightens the efforts of body and mind. It en-
ables a man to crowd much work into a narrow
space. Without it man is unfitted for the
labors, the responsibilities, and the enjoyments
of life.



152616B



100 grandmother's scrap-book ;



THE CHKISTIAN'S CROWN.

That ye may close with Christ, remember
there is a sixfold crown which shall be put
upon your head. Would ye have long life ?
Then come to Christ, and ye shall have a crown
of eternal life. Would ye have glory ? Then
come to Christ, and ye shall have a crown of
glory. Would ye have knowledge of the mys-
teries of God ? Then come to Christ, and he
shall crown you with knowledge. Would ye
have eternal felicity and an uninterrupted hap-
piness ? Then come to Christ, and ye shall
liave an immortal crown. Would ye have ho-
liness and sanctification ? Then come to Christ,
and ye shall have a crown of righteousness ;
yea, he shall put a royal crown upon your
head, a crown of pure gold. 0, what a day,
think ye, it will be, when Christ shall hold your
crowns in his hand, and shall put them upon
those heads, never to be removed again !



OE, THE WAY TO DO GOOD. 101



A MEDITATION.

""Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the
sepulchre r "

The gloomy week had closed up in mysteri-
ous sadness. Dark clouds of disappointment
closed down upon earthly hopes. Tragic scenes,
such as were not before, such as will not be
again, had transpired. Sorrowful had been
the last Sabbath of the old dispensation to the
loving ones whose hearts were smitten alike.
It was no common sorrow. Crucified had been
the more than brother, son, or sympathizing
friend. Had he done aught amiss ? No. Had
he done an unkind act, or spoken an unkind
word, even to his enemies ? No, never. Had
he not listened to every urgent call — with
more than mortal tenderness healed the sick,
cast out devils, raised the dead, bound up tlie
broken heart ? Did he not weep over the de-
voted city ? Never was such unbounded benev-
olence, such disinterested love. Every where



102 grandmother's scrap-book ;

teaching, every where preaching salvation to
the lost, pardon and peace to the penitent be-
lieving, mansions of blessedness and rest for
the weary and heavy-laden.

Not one erring act, not one unimportant
course, not one idle moment could be justly
charged upon him. The midnight hour and
mountain solitude echoed his prayers and
treasured his tears. " He went about doing
g-ood.^^ Why should he die such a cruel
death ? We wonder not that his fearful, and
in danger's hour, fugitive disciples were heavy
of heart, and confiding woman in tears. " We
trusted it had been he which should have re-
deemed Israel." Nor was it the Romans that
had done this, but chief priests and elders of
their own nation, the professed expounders of
the law and the prophets, — tlwse very doctors
who heard him at first with " astonishment,"
and reasoned that " never man spake like this
man." In process of time these same men,
stung with envy, reproved by the light he
shed, and by his holy life, cherished " enmity



103

ill their hearts," till they became his " betrayers
and murderers."

Well might the few who followed Christ be
in doubt. True, he had told them, " Behold,
we go up to Jerusalem, and all things tliat are
written by the prophets concerning the Son of
man, shall be accomplished. For he shall be
delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be
mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted
on ; and they shall scourge him, and put him
to death ; and the third day he shall rise again.
And they understood none of those things."
Their dark minds were not yet enlightened by
the Holy Spirit. Human, wisdom could not
fathom such a plan as Redemption ; and the
crucifixion of Christ, whom they knew to be an
innocent, and worthy, and lovely man, as a mal-
efactor, by the rulers of their nation, was well
calculated to bewilder their minds. They had
not a distant idea of his " rising from the
dead," for they had prepared sweet spices, that
they might come early in the morning and an-
oint his body.



104 grandmother's sorap-book ;

It was yet dark, but Mary Magdalene, and
Mary the mother of James and Salome (Mark),
were on their way to the sepulchre. Suddenly
a new difficulty was presented to their minds.
" Who shall roll us away the stone from tlie
door of the sepulchre ? " It was a great stone,
and placed tliere, and sealed too, by the highest
avithority, to prevent the clandestine removal
of the body by the followers of Christ. Did
the timid, though loving ones, turn back ? No.
Something urged them on. They would seek
out the tomb, though in d.®ubt what would be
done. Sadly strange had been the past hours.
Joyfully strange were the approaching ones.
"And when they looked, they saw the stone was
rolled aivay^ They enter the sepulchre — but
" he is risen "I — " he is not here ; behold the
place where they laid him " ! was the message
of the angel to them.

Is not here a lesson for all, and especially
for distrustful Christians ? Great difficulties
loom up in their way. They hesitate, perhaps
halt. Not so with those early disciples. Fear-



OR, THE WAY TO DO GOOD. 105

fill, feeble, thougli they were> they pressed for-
ward. Angels had rolled away the stone !



Mrs. Hemans. — A monument to perpetuate
the memory of this gifted lady has been exe-
cuted in England, and will soon be conveyed
to Dublin, and placed over the remains of the
departed poetess. It is a small Grecian mon-
umental tablet, in statuary, on a black ground,
and is inscribed :

Felicia Hemans.
Died May 16, 1835, aged 41.

To which are added the following lines from
her own solemn effusion, known as the Dirge :

*' Calm on the bosom of thy God,

Fair spirit, rest thee now !
E'en while with us thy footsteps trod,

His seal was on thy brow.
Dust to its narrow house beneath !

Soul to its place on high !
They that have seen thy look in death,

No more may fear to die."



106 grandmother's scrap-book;



HOW REVIVALS BEGIN.

" I WILL tell you," said a speaker in one of our
Fulton Street meetings, " how the revivals began
in Kalamazoo, Mich., last winter. We heard
of the wonderful work of grace in this city, and
in other parts of the land. We thought we
ought to share in it, and not stand idly by.
Still we had no such feeling as was here. We
appointed a daily prayer-meeting, however.
Episcopalians, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyte-
rians, and Congregationalists all united. We
appointed our first union prayer-meeting in
much fear and trembling. We did not know
how it would work. We did not know as any
body would come. We did not know how the
measure would be regarded. We came together.
At our very first meeting some one put in such
a request as this : * A praying wife requests
the prayers of this meeting for her unconverted
husband, that he may be converted, and be
made a humble disciple of the Lord Jesus.'



OR, THE WAY TO DO GOOD. 107

All at once a stout, burly man arose, and said,
* I am that man. I have a pious, praying
wife, and this request must be for me. I want
you to pray for me.' As soon as he sat down,
in the midst of sobs and tears, another man
arose, and said, ' I am that man ; I have a pray-
ing wife. She prays for me. And now she
asks you to pray for me. I am sure I am that
man, and I want you to pray for me.'

" Three, four, or five more arose, and said,
' \Ye want you to pray for us too.' The power
of God was upon the little assembly. The
Lord appeared for us, and that right early.
We had hardly begun, and he was in the midst
of us in great and wonderful grace. Thus
the revival began. We number from four hun-
dred to five hundred conversions."



Happy is the man that feareth always : but
he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mis-
chief.



108



EXCAVATIONS IN POMPEII.

The political state of Italy lias lately taken
up so much attention, that little time has been
found for its antiquities. Since the discovery
of the forty-seven gold coins, and more than
two hundred and fifty silver coins, together
with gemmed ear-rings, necklaces and collars,
pearls, jewels, and costly rings, a dwelling-
house has been excavated near Delia Fortuna,
which surpasses in richness and elegance all
that has hitherto been discovered. The open
vestibule is paved with mosaics, the walls
decorated with tasteful paintings. The atrium
opens into the tablinum and the reception-
room, and the latter leads into the dining-
room, which is painted with mythological sub-
jects the size of life. Here were several
trichnic couches, not unlike our modern sofas,
richly ornamented with silver. The reception-
room looks into a garden with a beautiful
fountain adorned with numerous mosaics, and



OR, THE WAY TO DO GOOD. 109

a small statue of Silenus ; the basin is sur-
rounded with the most exquisite sculptures in
marble. Adjoining the dwelling is another
atrium, where the servants lived. There was
a four-wheeled carriage with iron wheels, and
many bronze ornaments. In the kitchen, also,
are many ornaments and utensils of bronze,
and the traces of smoke are visible in many
places, after the lapse of eighteen centuries.
The apartments of the dwelling-house con-
tained numerous elegant utensils of gold and
silver, vases, candelabra, bronze coins, several
cases of surgical instruments, &c. What is
extremely rare, is, that there is a second and
even a third story, which are ascended by a
wide flight of stairs. On a small painting near
the staircase, is the name and rank of the
owner, in scarcely legible characters, and
from which it appears tliat he was one of the
Decurii, or senators of Pompeii. All the walls
and the rooms are ornamented with comic and
tragic paintings, one of which represents a
young girl with a mask and a flageolet.



110 grandmother's scrap-book ;

Hence the house has received the name of
" Casa della Sonatrice," " Casa della Ercole
ubbriaco." This is the most recent excava-
tion in Pompeii.



A Thought for Every Day. — We see not
in this life the end of human actions ; their
influence never dies. In ever-widening circles
it reaches beyond the grave. Death removes
us from this to an eternal world. Time deter-
mines what shall be our condition in that
world. Every morning, when we go forth, we
lay the moulding hand on our destiny, and
every evening, when we have done, we have
left a deathless impress upon our character.
We touch not a wire, but vibrates in eternity
— not a voice, but reports at the throne of God.
Let youth, especially, think of these things ;
and let every one remember that in the world
where character is in its formation state, it is a
serious thing to think, to speak, to act.



Ill



NEVER GIVE A KICK FOR A HIT.

I LEARNED a good lesson when I was a little
girl, says a lady. One frosty morning I was
looking out of the window into my father's
barnyard, where stood many cows, oxen, and
horses, waiting to drink. The cattle all stood
very still and meek, till one of tlie cows, in at-
tempting to turn round, happened to hit her
next neighbor ; whereupon the neighbor hit
and kicked another. In five minutes, the
whole herd were kicking each other with fury.
My mother laughed, and said, " See what comes
of kicking wl\en you are hit." Just so I have
seen one cross word set a whole family by the
ears some frosty morning. Afterwards, if my
brotliers or myself were a little irritable, she
would say, " Take care, my children ! Remem-
ber how the figlit in the barnyard began.
Never return a kick for a hit, and you will
save yourself and others a great deal of
trouble."



112 grandmother's scrap-book;



MOUNT ARARAT.

Nearly a thousand miles north-northeast of
Jerusalem, in the elevated table-land of Ar-
menia, rises this mountain, on whose side
Noah's ark is supposed to have rested, after
floating for a year on the waters of the flood.
It lies midway between the Black and Caspian
Seas, towards the south, in the region where
the Turkish, Russian, and Persian dominions
meet. This noble mountain is the highest
point in "Western Asia, and rises far into the
region of perpetual snow, to the height of
seventeen thousand two hundred and ten feet
above the sea, fourteen hundred feet higher
than Mont Blanc. Crowned with its mantle
of ice and snow, it awes the traveller by its
majestic grandeur, and dazzles him by its
sunlit splendor. It is sometimes visible at a
distance of nearly two hundred miles across a
vast plain, studded with numerous villages.
With deep emotion, the reader of the Bible



113

beholds this grandest monument in the world
of the judgments and the mercies of God ;
this second cradle of the human race, from
which the family of Noah descended to people
the globe anew.

Morier says of it, " Nothing can be more
beautiful than its shape, more awful than its
height. All the surrounding mountains sink
into insignificance when compared with it.
It is perfect in all its parts ; no hard, rugged
feature, no unnatural prominences ; every
thing is in harmony, and all combines to
render it one of the sublimest objects in
Nature."

Sir Kobert Ker Porter says, " It appeared
as if the highest mountains in the world had
been piled together to form this one sublime
immensity of earth, rocks, and snow. The
icy peaks of its double head rose majestically
into the clear and cloudless heavens ; tlie sun
blazed bright upon them, and the reflection
sent forth a dazzling radiance equal to other
suns. My eye, not able to rest for any time
8



114 grandmother's scrap-book;

on the dazzling glory of its summits, wandered
down the apparently interminable sides, till I
could no longer trace their lines in the mists
of the horizon, when an irresistible impulse
immediately carrying my eye upwards, again
refixed my gaze upon the awful Ararat."

The beloved Henry Martyn, in his journal
of the month before he died, wrote, " On de-
scending into the plain, my attention was
arrested by the appearance of a hoary moun-
tain opposite to us at the other end, rising so
high above the rest that they sank into in-
significance. It was truly sublime ; and the
interest it excited was not lessened when, on
inquiring its name, I was told it was Agri, or
Ararat. On that peak the whole church was
once contained ; it has now spread far and
wide to the ends of the earth, but the people
in the ancient vicinity of it know it no more.
I fancied many a spot where Noah, perhaps,
offered sacrifices ; and the promise of God,
* Seed-time and harvest shall not cease,' ap-
peared to me to be more exactly fulfilled in the



OR, THE WAY TO DO GOOD. 115

agreeable plain in which it was spoken, than
elsewhere. Here, upon Ararat, the blessed
saint landed in a new world : so may I, safe in
Christ, outride the storm of life, and land at
last on one of the everlasting hills."



Self-Education. — Mr. Gilford was appren-
ticed to the shoemaking business. He had an
inextinguishable thirst for knowledge. Meet-
ing accidentally with a treatise on algebra,
having some knowledge of arithmetic, he com-
menced the study of the work. He had not a
farthing to purchase either slate or pencil, pen
or ink, or paper. Laughing at all difficulties,
however, and knowing no such word as fail,
he beat out pieces of old leather pretty smooth,
and performed his algebraic operations upon
them with an awl. He went on triumphantly
in his career ; and ultimately became the
editor of the Edinburgh Quarterly Review,
one of the first publications of the age.



116 grandmother's scrap-book;

DR. FRANKLIN AS A MONEY LENDER

On all occasions he was prompt to assist the
necessitous, and liberal in his benefactions and
deeds of charity. For public objects, his con-
tributions were in full proportion to his means.
He had a delicate way of giving money, which
he called lending it for the good of mankind.
To an English clergyman, a prisioner in
France, whose wants he relieved by a sum
of money, he wrote, —

" Some time or other you may have an
opportunity of assisting, with an equal sum,
a stranger who has equal need of it. Do so.
By that means you will discharge any ob-
ligation you may suppose yourself under to
me. Enjoin him to do the same on a like
occasion. By pursuing such a practice, much
good may be done with a little money. Let
kind offices go round. Mankind are all of a
family."

This was a common practice with him, by



OR, THE WAY TO DO GOOD. 117

which he could spare the feelings of the re-
ceiver, and practically inculcate the maxim of
doing good.



Extent of the Universe. — It may give
some idea of the extent of the universe to
know the length of time required for light,
which travels one hundred and ninety-two
thousand miles an hour, to come from different
celestial objects to this earCli. From the moon,
it comes in one and a quarter seconds ; from
the sun, in eight minutes ; from Jupiter, in
fifty-two minutes ; Uranus, in two hours ;
from a star of the first magnitude, three to
twelve years ; from a star of the fifth magni-
tude, sixty-six years ; from a star of the twelfth
magnitude, four thousand years. Light, which
left a star of the twelfth magnitude when the
Israelites left Egypt, has not yet reached the
earth. Our entire solar system itself travels
at the rate of thirty-five thousand miles an
hour among the fixed stars.



118 grandmother's scrap-book;

THE BLESSEDNESS OF BEING USEFUL.

They were pious and pointed words which a
Christian father addressed to his newly-married
daughter : " All you can get out of life is use*
fulness. Some may understand the words to
mean that but little happiness is to be expected
in this world — that we may hope to be useful,
but not be happy. If, however, any persons be
useful in the world,' they must be happy too.
He who is useful, has more than health and
strength enough to wait upon himself ; he has
such a superabundance, that he can wait on
others too. He has more than wealth enough
for his own wants, for he can spare something
to relieve others' wants. He has so much in-
telligence and knowledge that, instead of ex-
hausting on himself others' means of teaching,
he can be himself a teacher. He has so much
consolation and joy himself, that he can com-
fort others with the comfort wherewith he him-
self is comforted of God.



119



" But argue, if you will, that the Christian is
useful, not from a superabundance of health,
wealth, intelligence, and religious joy, but by
self-denial and effort; I may reply that this
effort is truly an effort to be happy, and im-
plies happiness. To have our thoughts car-
ried away from ourselves, our infirmities, our
wants, our perplexities, our troubles, implies
some relief. And nothing makes us feel so
rich, nothing makes us truly so rich, as con-
triving to do some good. They are poor
whose expenditure crowds hard upon their in-
come, and who must plead the want of means
when called upon to help a benevolent object.
On the other hand, if persons can contrive
to be useful, and to give something to promote
the temporal and eternal good of others, they
may best feel themselves to be rich.

" How delightful the thought that, instead of
being mere helpless, burdensome invalids as to
body and mind, we can think of others, can be
useful to them, can help to save souls, can, on
the whole, advance Christ's cause in the world.



120 grandmother's scrap-book ;

and can see, forever and ever in heaven, the
blessed results of our living some years on
earth, and enduring some trials there !

" It is true that there is much sin and sorrow
in the world, and that we must suffer with
others. But here is the very place, of all God's
vast creation, to live and be useful. So far as
we can understand, the most blessed angel in
heaven might deem it a precious privilege to
become just like some humble saint on earth,
that he might directly labor in the work of
doing good and saving souls.

'' One of the most trying circumstances to