The Power of Faith Part 25

CHAPTER XII.

CLOSING LABORS FOR THE POOR-- SICKNESS AND DEATH.

During the last two years of her life, Mrs. Graham found her strength inadequate to so extensive a course of visiting the poor as formerly; there were some distressed families, however, that experienced her kind attentions to the last. She would occasionally accompany the Rev. Mr. Stanford on his visits to the state-prison, hospital, and to the Magdalen house. This gentleman was the stated preacher employed by "the Society for the Support of the Gospel among the Poor," and devoted his time to preaching in the almshouse, hospital, state-prison, debtors'-prison, etc., with great a.s.siduity and acceptance.

Mrs. Graham now spent much of her time in her room, devoted to meditation, prayer, and reading the Scriptures; she seemed to be weaning from earth and preparing for heaven. Prayer was that sweet breath of her soul which brought stability to her life. Genuine humility was obvious in all her sentiments and deportment. Religious friends prized her conversation, counsel, and friendship; sometimes they would venture on a compliment to her superior attainments, but always experienced a decided rebuke. To her friend Colonel L----, who expressed a wish to be such a character as she was, she quickly replied with an air of mingled pleasantry and censure, "Get thee behind me, Satan." To a female friend who said, "If I were only sure at last of being admitted to a place at your feet I should feel happy." "Hush, hush," replied Mrs. Graham, "There is ONE SAVIOUR."

Thus she was always careful to give her divine Redeemer the whole glory of her salvation.

This example of humility, self-denial, and sensibility to the imperfection of her conduct, is the more to be valued, as it is so difficult to be followed. Flattery is too commonly practised; and there is no sufficient guard against its dangerous consequences, except a constant and humbling recognition of the spirituality of the law of G.o.d, and our lamentable deficiency in fulfilling it. Pride was not made for man: "I have seen an end of all perfection," said the Psalmist, "but thy commandment is exceeding broad." It was by cherishing this sentiment, by studying her Bible, by searching her heart and its motives, and above all, by grace accorded of heaven in answer to her prayers, that Mrs. Graham was enabled to maintain such meekness of spirit, such an uniformity of Christian character throughout her life. May all who read her history be directed to the same sources of true peace and genuine happiness.

In the spring of 1814 she was requested to unite with some ladies in forming a society for the promotion of industry among the poor.

This was the last act in which she appeared before the public. A pet.i.tion, signed by about thirty ladies, was presented to the corporation of New York, praying that they would a.s.sign them a building in which work might be prepared and given out to the industrious poor, who being paid for their labor, might be saved the necessity of begging, and at the same time cherish habits of industry and self-respect. The corporation having returned a favorable answer, and provided a house, a meeting of the Society was held, and Mrs.

Graham once more was called to the chair. It was the last time she was to preside at the formation of a new society. Her articulation, once strong and clear, was now observed to have become more feeble. The ladies present listened to her with affectionate attention; her voice broke upon the ear as a pleasant sound that was pa.s.sing away. She consented to have her name inserted on the list of managers, and to give what a.s.sistance her age would permit in forwarding so beneficent a work. Although it pleased G.o.d that she should cease from her labors before the House of Industry was opened, yet the work was carried on by others and prospered. Between four and five hundred women were employed and paid during the following winter. The corporation declared in strong terms their approbation of the result, and enlarged their donation, with a view to promote the same undertaking for the succeeding winter.

In the month of May, 1814, a report was received from Mr. Stephen Prust of Bristol, in England, of the Society for establishing Adult-schools. Mrs. Graham was so delighted with a perusal of it, as immediately to undertake the formation of such a school in the village of Greenwich. She called on the young people who were at work in some neighboring manufactories, and requested them to attend her for this purpose every Sabbath morning at eight o'clock. This was kept up after her decease as a Sunday-school, and consisted of nearly eighty scholars. She was translated from this work of faith on earth, to engage in the sublimer work of praise in heaven.

For some weeks previous to her last illness she was favored with unusual health and much enjoyment of religion; she appeared to have sweet exercises and communion in attending on all G.o.d's ordinances and appointed means of grace. She was also greatly refreshed in spirit by the success of Missionary and Bible Societies, and used to speak with much affection of Mr. Gordon, Mr. Lee, Mr. May, and Dr. Morrison, with whom she had been acquainted when in New York, on their way to missionary stations in India and China.

Mrs. Graham was very partial to the works of Dr. John Owen, Rev.

William Romaine, and Rev. John Newton, and read them with pleasure and profit. One day she remarked to Mr. B----, that she preferred the ancient writers on theology to the modern, because they dealt more in italics. "Dear mother," he replied, "what religion can there be in italics?" "You know," said she, "that old writers expected credit for the doctrines they taught, by proving them from the word of G.o.d to be correct: they inserted the scripture pa.s.sages in italics, and their works have been sometimes one-half in italics. Modern writers on theology, on the contrary, give us a long train of reasoning to persuade us to their opinions, but very little in italics." This remark of hers has great force, and deserves the serious attention of those who write and those who read on theological subjects.

On the two Sabbaths preceding her last illness she joined in communion at the Lord's table. On the 10th of July, 1814, at Greenwich, and on the 17th at her own church in Cedar-street. On each week preceding these seasons she attended three evenings on religious exercises; on Thursdays at the Orphan Asylum, on Friday evenings the preparation sermons, and on Sat.u.r.day evenings at the prayer-meetings.

She appeared lively, and expressed comfort in those religious seasons, and continued actively useful until the very day on which her illness commenced.

On the morning of the 17th she attended the Sabbath-school with her daughter and grandchildren. Thus the Lord was pleased to direct that she should lead her children's children into the walks of usefulness before she took her flight to heaven, and impose a pleasing obligation on them that they should follow her steps. Of the same date is the last meditation in her diary.

"COMMUNION SABBATH, July 17, 1814.

"'Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls,' 1 Peter, 1:8, 9.

"I had requested to be brought to my Lord's banqueting-house, and to be feasted with love this day. I ate the bread and drank the wine, in the faith that I ate the flesh and drank the blood of the Son of man, and dwelt in him and he in me. Took a close view of my familiar friend Death, accompanied with the presence of my Saviour, _his sensible presence_. I cannot look at it without this; it is my only pet.i.tion concerning it. I have had desires relative to certain circ.u.mstances, but they are nearly gone. It is my sincere desire that G.o.d may be glorified, and he knows best how and by what circ.u.mstances.

I retain my one pet.i.tion,

"Only to me thy countenance show, I ask no more the Jordan through."

Thus she arose from her Master's table, was called to gird on her armor for a combat with the king of terrors, and came off more than conqueror, through Him who loved her.

On Monday she appeared in perfect health, and visited and gave religious instruction to the orphans in the asylum.

On Tuesday, the 19th of July, she complained of not feeling well, and kept her room; on Thursday her disorder proved to be a cholera-morbus, and her children sent for a physician. She thought this attack was slighter than in former seasons. On Sat.u.r.day, however, she requested that Mrs. Chrystie might be sent for; this alarmed Mrs.

B----, knowing there existed an understanding between those two friends, that one should attend the dying-bed of the other, Mrs.

Chrystie was a very dear friend of Mrs. Graham. For upwards of twenty-four years they had loved each other, feeling reciprocal sympathy in their joys and their sorrows; the hope of faith was the consolation of both, and oftentimes it had been their delightful employment to interchange their expressions of affection towards Him whom having not seen, they loved, and in whom, though they saw him not, yet believing on him, they rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory. On Mrs. Chrystie's entering the chamber of her friend, Mrs.

Graham welcomed her with a sweet expressive smile, seeming to say, "I am going to get the start of you, I am called home before you; it will be your office to fulfil our engagement." When she sat by her bedside, Mrs. Graham said, "Your face is very pleasant to me, my friend."

During Sat.u.r.day night, a lethargy appeared to be overpowering her frame. On Sabbath morning she was disposed to constant slumber; observing Mr. B---- looking at her with agitation, she was roused from her heaviness, and stretching her arms towards him and embracing him, she said, "My dear, dear son, I am going to leave you; I am going to my Saviour." "I know," he replied, "that when you do go from us, it will be to the Saviour; but, my dear mother, it may not be the Lord's time now to call you to himself." "Yes," said she, "now is the time; and Oh, I could weep for sin." Her words were accompanied with her tears. "Have you any doubts, then, my dear friend?" asked Mrs.

Chrystie. "Oh no," replied Mrs. Graham; and looking at Mr. and Mrs.

B---- as they wept, "My dear children, I have no more doubt of going to my Saviour, than if I were already in his arms; my guilt is all transferred; he has cancelled all I owed. Yet I could weep for sins against so good a G.o.d: it seems to me as if there must be weeping even in heaven for sin."

After this she entered into conversation with her friends, mentioning portions of scripture and favorite hymns which had been subjects of much comfort and joy to her. Some of these she had transcribed into a little book, calling them her "victuals" prepared for crossing over Jordan; she committed them to memory, and often called them to remembrance as her songs in the night when sleep had deserted her. She then got Mr. B---- to read to her some of these portions, especially the eighty-second hymn of Newton's third book:

"Let us love, and sing, and wonder; Let us praise the Saviour's name: He has hushed the law's loud thunder, He has quenched mount Sinai's flame: He has washed us with his blood, He has brought us nigh to G.o.d," etc.

Mrs. Graham then fell asleep, nor did she awaken until the voice of the Rev. Dr. Mason roused her. They had a very affectionate interview, which he has partly described in the excellent sermon he delivered after her decease. She expressed to him her hope as founded altogether on the redemption that is in Jesus Christ: were she left to depend on the merit of the best action she had ever performed, that would be only a source of despair. She repeated to him, as her view of salvation, the fourth verse of the same hymn:

"Let us wonder: grace and justice Join, and point at mercy's store; When, through grace, in Christ our trust is, Justice smiles and asks no more; He who washed us with his blood, Has secured our way to G.o.d."

Having asked Dr. Mason to pray with her, he inquired if there was any particular request she had to make of G.o.d by him; she replied, that G.o.d would direct: then as he kneeled, she put up her hands, and raising her eyes towards heaven, breathed this short but expressive pet.i.tion, "Lord, lead thy servant in prayer."

After Dr. Mason had taken his leave, she again fell into a deep sleep. Her physicians still expressed a hope of her recovery, as her pulse was regular and the violence of her disease had abated. One of them, however, declared his opinion that his poor drugs would prove of little avail against her own ardent prayers to depart and be with Christ, which was far better for her than a return to a dying world.

On Monday the Rev. Mr. Rowan prayed with her, and to him she expressed also the tranquillity of her mind, and the steadfastness of her hope, through Christ, of eternal felicity.

Her lethargy increased; at intervals from sleep she would occasionally a.s.sure her daughter, Mrs. B----, that all was well; and when she could rouse herself only to say one word at a time, that one word, accompanied with a smile, was, "Peace." From her there was a peculiar emphasis in this expression of the state of her mind: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you," had been a favorite portion of scripture with her, and a promise, the fulfilment of which was her earnest prayer to the G.o.d who made it. She also occasionally asked Mr. B---- to pray with her, even when she could only articulate, as she looked at him, "Pray." She was now surrounded by many of her dear Christian friends, who watched her dying-bed with affection and solicitude. On Tuesday afternoon she slept with little intermission.

This, said Dr. Mason, may be truly called "falling asleep in Jesus."

It was remarked by those who attended her, that all terror was taken away, and that death seemed here as an entrance into life. Her countenance was placid, and looked younger than before her illness.

At a quarter past twelve o'clock, being the morning of the 27th of July, 1814, her spirit gently winged its flight from a mansion of clay to the realms of glory, while around the precious remnant of earth her family and friends stood weeping, yet elevated by the scene they were witnessing. After a silence of many minutes, they kneeled by her bed, adored the goodness and the grace of G.o.d towards his departed child, and implored the divine blessing on both the branches of her family, as well as on all the Israel of G.o.d.

Thus she departed in peace, not trusting in her wisdom or virtue, like the philosophers of Greece and Rome; not even like Addison, calling on the profligate to see a good man die; but like Howard, afraid that her good works might have a wrong place in the estimate of her hope, her chief glory was that of "a sinner saved by grace."*

*This was Howard's epitaph, dictated by himself.

After such examples, who will dare to charge the doctrines of the cross of Christ with licentiousness? Here are two instances of persons, to whose good works the world have cheerfully borne testimony, who lived and died in the profession of these doctrines. It was faith that first purified their hearts, and so the stream of action from these fountains became pure also. Had not Christ died and risen again, all the powers of man could never have produced such lives of benevolence, nor a death so full of contrition, yet so embalmed with hope. Hallelujah, "unto Him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto G.o.d and his Father: to him be glory and dominion, for ever and ever. Amen."

At the next weekly prayer-meeting which she had usually attended, the circ.u.mstances of her death were made subjects of improvement. On the 16th of July she was a worshipper with her brethren and sisters there, and on the evening of the 30th they were called to consider her by faith as in the immediate presence of her G.o.d, among "the spirits of the just made perfect." The services of that evening were closed with the following hymn from Dobell's collection, which is beautifully descriptive of her happy change:

"'Tis finished! the conflict is past, The heaven-born spirit is fled; Her wish is accomplished at last, And now she's entombed with the dead.

The months of affliction are o'er, The days and the nights of distress, We see her in anguish no more-- She's gained her happy release.

No sickness, or sorrow, or pain, Shall ever disquiet her now; For death to her spirit was gain, Since Christ was her life when below.

Her soul has now taken its flight To mansions of glory above, To mingle with angels of light, And dwell in the kingdom of love.

The victory now is obtained; She's gone her dear Saviour to see; Her wishes she fully has gained-- She's now where she longed to be.

The coffin, the shroud, and the grave To her were no objects of dread; On Him who is mighty to save, Her soul was with confidence stayed.

Then let us forbear to complain, That she is now gone from our sight; We soon shall behold her again, With new and redoubled delight."

Mrs. Graham's death created a strong sensation in the public mind. Magistrates of the city were careful to express their sense of the public loss sustained, and many charitable inst.i.tutions paid affectionate tributes to her memory. Several clergymen also made her death the subject of their discourses, among whom was her beloved pastor, Dr. JOHN M. MASON, who, on Sabbath evening, Aug. 14, delivered the well-known powerful sermon, "CHRISTIAN MOURNING," from 1 Thess.

4:13, 14: "I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will G.o.d bring with him."

Contrasting the consolations afforded to the Christian with the darkness and doubt of the pagan or infidel; dwelling on the Christian's death as "sleeping in Jesus;" his immediate entrance into bliss, and his glorious resurrection and reigning with Christ in the judgment, he thus proceeds:

"In this faith the apostles labored and the martyrs bled. Ages have elapsed and it is still the same. It is not a distant wonder; not a brilliant vision; but a solid and present reality, under the power of which at this moment, while the words are on my lips, Christians, in various parts of the world, are closing their eyes to sleep in Jesus. It has come home to our own business and bosoms. It has chosen our houses to be the scene of its miracles. But rarely does it fall to the lot of human eyes to witness so high a display of its value and virtue, as was witnessed in that blessed woman whose entrance into the joy of her Lord has occasioned our a.s.sembling this evening.