The Annals of the Poor | Page 4

cast herself upon Christ as her hope
and salvation.
"And now, sir, she is gone, and I hope and think her sister's prayers for
her conversion to God have been answered. The Lord grant the same
for her poor father and mother's sake likewise!"
This conversation was a very pleasing commentary upon the letter
which I had received, and made me anxious both to comply with the
request and to become acquainted with the writer. I promised the good
dairyman to attend on the Friday at the appointed hour; and after some
more conversation respecting his own state of mind under the present
trial, he went away.
He was a reverend old man; his furrowed cheeks, white locks, weeping
eyes, bent shoulders, and feeble gait, were characteristic of the aged
pilgrim. As he slowly walked onward, supported by a stick, which
seemed to have been the companion of many a long year, a train of
reflections occurred, which I retrace with pleasure and emotion.
At the appointed hour I arrived at the church, and after a little while
was summoned to the churchyard gate to meet the funeral procession.
The aged parents, the elder brother, and the sister, with other relatives,
formed an affecting group. I was struck with the humble, pious, and
pleasing countenance of the young woman from whom I had received
the letter. It bore the marks of great seriousness without affectation, and
of much serenity mingled with a glow of devotion.
A circumstance occurred during the reading of the Burial Service,

which I think it right to mention as one among many testimonies of the
solemn and impressive tendency of our truly evangelical Liturgy.
A man of the village, who had hitherto been of a very careless and even
profligate character, went into the church through mere curiosity, and
with no better purpose than that of vacantly gazing at the ceremony. He
came likewise to the grave, and during the reading of those prayers
which are appointed for that part of the service, his mind received a
deep, serious conviction of his sin and spiritual danger. It was an
impression that never wore off, but gradually ripened into the most
satisfactory evidence of an entire change, of which I had many and
long-continued proofs. He always referred to the Burial Service, and to
some particular sentences of it, as the clearly ascertained instrument of
bringing him, through grace, to the knowledge of the truth.
The day was therefore one to be remembered. Remembered let it be by
those who love to hear "the short and simple annals of the poor."
Was there not a manifest and happy connection between the
circumstances that providentially brought the serious and the careless
to the same grave on that day together? How much do they lose who
neglect to trace the leadings of God in providence as links in the chain
of his eternal purpose of redemption and grace!
"While infidels may scoff, let us adore!"
After the service was concluded I had a short conversation with the
good old couple and their daughter. She told me that she intended to
remain a week or two at the gentleman's house where her sister died till
another servant should arrive and take her sister's place.
"I shall be truly obliged," said she, "by an opportunity of conversing
with you, either there or at my father's when I return home, which will
be in the course of a fortnight at the furthest. I shall be glad to talk to
you about my sister, whom you have just buried."
Her aspect and address were highly interesting. I promised to see her
very soon, and then returned home, quietly reflecting on the

circumstances of the funeral at which I had been engaged. I blessed the
God of the poor, and prayed that the poor might become rich in faith,
and the rich be made poor in spirit.


PART II.
A sweet solemnity often possesses the mind whilst retracing past
intercourse with departed friends. How much is this increased when
they were such as lived and died in the Lord! The remembrance of
former scenes and conversations with those who, we believe, are now
enjoying the uninterrupted happiness of a better world, fills the heart
with pleasing sadness, and animates the soul with the hopeful
anticipation of a day when the glory of the Lord shall be revealed in the
assembling of all his children together, never more to be separated.
Whether they were rich or poor while on earth is a matter of trifling
consequence: the valuable part of their character is, that they are "kings
and priests unto God;" and this is their true nobility. In the number of
now departed believers, with whom I once loved to converse on the
grace and