Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1876-03-01
Among the beautiful pictures
That hang an fueuuryfa wall

none stands out with more living freshness
aud beauty than that of fair young friend
Of our youth, on whom the sculptured doors
Of costly tomb have been closed for many
year.
She was blessed by nature as well as by
fortune. With a queenly form and air, she
had fine features and dark, lustrous eyes,
with a rich olive complexion inherited from
far off foreign ancestors.
The way in which our friend carried her
self, and the society in which alone she
moved, gave humber persons the impression
that she was sinfully naughty while she was
but acting among her equals as they were
among thsirs-making the best of her
charms and accomplishments to please others.
But now came a shadow over the hearts
of some who loved and admired her.
just as she was stepping over the thresh-
old which separates girlhood from woman
hood, sudden change came over her life.
All the glories she had looked for in the
opening future faded into insignificance
The gay world lost its charms. Her one
ambition was 10 own Christ, and to walk
with Him whithersoever He might lead her
To the amazement of her intimates, she took
up what might be called heavy cross, and
bore it as If ascending, by its help to a
throne. She was Overpowered with the honor
Of her new adoption, and often asked
" Why was I made TO hear His voice 2" She
did not for a moment look about TO see in
what branch of the Christian church she
would find the least trial TO her pride and
her old love of the world. She did not cast
one longing glance at the costly temple, the
chanting boys, and the burning candles,
which throw a halo Of sentimentalism over
l,n fka 10
cross. She cast aside all prejudice, and took
up the New Testament with an ardent long
ing to catch a glimpse of Jesus footsteps,
and to gain grace to walk in them. Very
soon, regardless of the opinions of the world,
she followed Christ in baptism, aud united
with a church noted neither for wealth
nor style, nor even for position among
churches of the same name.
From that hour her course was upward.
Gods people were her people; and those
who most resembled Christ were dearest to
her. Hers was a conservation such as we
rarely see carried out among us.
Her crown was not without its thorns.
" Society," so her friends said, had claims
on herr" and she bad a narrow and thorny
way through which to fulfill her right call
ing, and yet yield obedience due to her pa
rents. Should she steal time from these
lower claims 10 work for Christ, or from her
new work TO act part in scenes from which
her heart was absent? She had trials of
which poorer and humber girls know nothing.
Foreign missions never presented any per
sona claim on her; it is not every earnest
Christians duty to cross the sea. The
greater number must keep up the work at
home.
But through the streets of her own city,
and among the families of her own church,
she moved like ministering angel-we do
not say among the poor of her church, for
those who have all the comforts of life need
sympathy and love as much as those who
want bread and their needs are not always
so easily met.
This wellbalanced young Christian
seemed fitted alike for every kind of work.
She became the angel OF the sick-room and
she was not ashamed TO work among the
lost--if any this side of the grave may be
called so--and went among the fallen, wit
Messing scenes of woe such as we should
shudder at, if described from foreign field.
Many suffering fellow-creature was her
knsman; and she seemed to grasp the world
in the arms of her love.
Her pastor, often heart-sick and weary of
the coldness and unfaithfulness of many
WHO DTolcSStu AIIlsi, SOOH TtChuurN
among the few that he dared to lean on, and
of whom he spoke as those who labor with
me in the gospel"
A few years spent thus, her hopes and
works growing brighter day by day, and she
was called to her reward. Some said, " How
mysterious that she should be cut off in the
midst of her work !"
But il was not so her work was done.
She had accomplished more in those few
years for suffering humanity, and for the
honor of Christ, than dc many Christians in
| long life. She gloried in her labors, and she
reioiced in the call she hoard to rest from
| those labors.
Such toilers fold their hands and are seen
no more in the field. But the work remains.
The cry sounds lounder and more frequently
from distant shores, "Come over and help
u.s." the cry of woman to woman comes up
| from the miserable haunts of our own city
for help to rise and stand upright the little
children, inheritors of their parents sin and
shame call out from their cellar homes to
happy mothers and proud fathers for protec-
tion and for bread But how few respond I;
even the state, which will soon have TO care
for them as paupers or criminals does moth
ing 10 save them.
The Christian church and its individual
members have the work before them. The
harvest waits the day is passing, and the
night cometh, in which we cannot work,
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