Gathering Jewels

Gathering Jewels, by James
Knowles and

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Title: Gathering Jewels The Secret of a Beautiful Life: In Memoriam of
Mr. & Mrs. James Knowles. Selected from Their Diaries.
Author: James Knowles and Matilda Darroch Knowles
Editor: Duncan McNeill Young
Release Date: July 24, 2007 [eBook #22134]
Language: English
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GATHERING JEWELS.
JAMES KNOWLES.
[Illustration: THE LITTLE ORPHAN'S PRAYER When only eight
years old and left an orphan, at her father's death, she went to the corner
of the house and asked God to be a father and a mother to her--Page 85]
GATHERING JEWELS;
Or,
The Secret of a Beautiful Life.
In Memoriam of Mr. & Mrs. James Knowles.
Selected from Their Diaries.
"They shall be Mine in that day when I come to make up My Jewels."
Edited by Rev. Duncan Mcneill Young.

New York: William Knowles, 104 East Thirteenth Street. 1887.
Copyright, 1887. By Wm. Knowles

PREFACE.

The present volume is a purely pastoral attempt, emanating from a
fraternal affection for two of God's honored saints, and an increasingly
growing desire for the glory of God in the salvation of souls.
In presenting the following pages to the friends, acquaintances, and
co-laborers of our departed brother and sister I desire to record my
appreciation of the good achieved by two whose example among us
was as beneficial as that of the angel at the pool of Siloam, stirring up
the sluggish waters to fresh life and utility, and teaching us that
Beyond this vale of tears There is a life above, Unmeasured by the
flight of years; And all that life is love.
While a proper and very natural sentiment demands that the memoirs of
the beloved ones should not appear until some time has passed away, it
is also proper that their publication should not be put off till all trace of
the facts recorded and the impressions there from made have been
forgotten. During the preparation of these memoirs nothing has been
more clearly manifest to me than the steady recurrence, throughout
their lives, of a deep and earnest unison of feeling between man and
wife, in such unfailing sweetness as to find its way at once to our hearts
and clothe it with the freshness of a living, loving presence.
The subjects whose earthly career we are about to delineate, were
whole-souled enough to elicit the respect of all who knew them, hence
they made lasting friends, whilst to their own immediate family their
loss is irreparable, and it is hard to realize that they are no more; for
who is there among us who does not know what it is to be united by a
fond and passionate affection to those who are no longer with us--ever
to think of the beloved ones, and to feel ourselves constantly under the
influence of the vanished presence?
It cannot be claimed for James Knowles that he was a great man, a
learned scholar, or one possessed of extraordinary intellectual culture
above his fellows, but, as Hamerton says: "It is not erudition that makes
the intellectual man, but a sort of virtue which delights in vigorous and
beautiful thinking, just as moral virtue delights in vigorous and
beautiful conduct." So it was with our brother, he made the most of the

talents God endowed him with, and whatever he undertook to do, he
did with might and main; hence his success in any undertaking, or any
cause he espoused, for he seemed to realize that success in a good
cause is undoubtedly better than failure, while the result in any case is
not to be regarded so much as the aim and effort, and the striving with
which worthy objects are pursued. Although the Elder may have been
less than a Huss, a Calvin, or a Knox in public fame, he had emulated
them in self-contemplation and humility.
As for Matilda Knowles, our missionary, she was more than a Dorcas,
and equally vigorous in spirit with a Lydia; hence we speak of her in
the sphere in which it pleased God for her to labor. Those who will
carefully read the chapters devoted to her