Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1858-02-04

one long act of sin and ingratitude. / can
look back upon nothing but wasted mercics,
neglected opportunities, and perverted tai
ents. But blessed be God, since have
been led in penitence and faith to the feet
OF crucifed Saviour, / dare to believe
| that my sins are forgiven, and that my
trembling spirit will soon find rest in
Him, who lived to instruct and died to re-
deem me-
Ellen paused, for difficult breathing had
often impeded her utterance; but her pray
erful eyes, raised to heaven, told the inter
course her soul was holding with One
whom not having seen she loved, but in
whom believing, she rejoiced with Joy un-
speakable and full of glory At this mo-
ment, the door softly opened, and the gen
tie footsteps of him, whom On earth she
most longed to behold, entered the cham
Der. As she caught a glimpse of that be-
nign, that venerated countenance, she felt
glow of happiness pervading her being,
of which she thought her waning life al
most incapable. She elasped her feeble
hands together, and exclaimed, oh Mr.
NJ 1t was all she could utter, for
| tears, whose fountains she had thought
| dried for ever, gushed into her eyes and
rolled down her pallid cheeks. Mr. NJ
took one of her cold hands in his, and
looked upon her, for time, without speak
| ing.
My daughter at length he said, and
he did not speak without much emotion,
do you find the hand of God laid heavy
upon your soul, or is it gentle, even as a
fathers hand?
Gentle, most gentle she answered.
ooh! blessed, for ever blessed be the
hour that sent you, heaven-directed, to
guide the wanderer in the paths of peace
Had it not been for you, / should now be
trembling on the verge of a dark eternity,
without one ray to illumine the unfathom-
able abyss. Pray for me once more, my
beloved friend, and pray too for my dear
mother, that she may be enabled to seek
Him in faith, who can make dying bed
feel soft as downy pillows are
Ellen clasped her feeble hands together,
while Mr.. NJ, kneeling by her bed
side, in that low, sweet solemn tone, for
which he was remarkable, breathed forth
one of those deep and fervent prayers,
| which are, as it were, wings to the soul,
| and bear it up to heaven. Mrs. Loring
knelt too, by the weeping Agnes, but her
spirit, unused to devotion, fingered below,
and her eyes wandered from the heavenly
countenance of that man of God, to the
| death-like face of that child, whose beauty
had once been her pride. She remember
ed how short time since, she had seen
that form float in airy grace before the
| mirror clothed in fair and flowing robes,
and how soon she should see it extended
in the awful immobility of death, wrapped
Fin the still winding-sheet, that garment
whose folds are never more waved by the
breath of life. Then, conscience whisper
ed in her shuddering ear, that, had she
acted mothers part, and disciplined her
daughter to prudence and obedience, the
blasts of death had not thus blighted her
in her early bloom. And it whispered also,
| that she had no comfort to offer her dying
| child, in this last conflict of dissolving ma
! ture. 1t was for this world she had lived
| herself, it was for this world she had taught
her to live, but for that pntravelled world
| beyond, she had no guiding hand to extend.
| 1t was to a strangers face the fading eyes
| of Ellen were directed 1t was strangers
prayers that hallowed her passage to the
tomb. The realities of eternity for the first
! time pressed homo on that vain mothers
heart. She felt, too, that she must one day
| die, and that earth with all its riches and
pleasures could yield her no support in
that awful moment. That there was some
thing which earth could not impart, which
had power to soothe and animate the de-
parting spirit, she knew by the angelic ex-
preston of Ellen's upturned eyes, and by
the look of unutterable serenity that was
difused over her whole eountenance. The
voice of Mr. Nj died away on her
ear, and an unbroken silence reigned
through the apartment. Her stormy grief
| had been stilled into calmness, during that
holy prayer The eyes of Ellen were now
gently closed, and as they rose from their
knees they sat down by her side, fearing,
even by deep drawn breath, to disturb
her slumbers. A faint hope began to
dawn in the mothers heart, from the pla-
cidity and duration of her slumbers.
Il have never known her sleep so calm
BEFORE said she, in low voice, to Mr.
Nj. Mr.. Nj bent forward
and laid his hand softly on her marble
| brow
Calm indeed are her slumbers,' said he,
looking solemnly upward she sleeps now,
l trust, in the bosom of her Saviour and
her God
Thus died Ellen Loring-just one year
from that night when Agnes followed her
retreating figure, with such wistful gaze,
as she left her for the ball room, exclaim-
ing to herself, Happy, beautiful Ellen =
and Agnes now said within herself, even
while she wept over her clay-cold form,
Happy Ellenv but with far different emo