BIBLE ENIGMA, No. 89. FIND a short but important word, mentioned many times in the Bible. Also the verse and chapter in which it is mentioned in the following ways: This word is of God. He that doeth it is born of God. An act of God towards his church. It is the fulfilling of the law. What God doeth to a cheerful giver. It is a command to be acted towards God. Towards our neighbour. Towards our enemies. And what Christ did to the Church. F. H. S. (Age 16.) LINES FOR A WATCH-PAPER. TIME, my soul, is hastening thee To a vast eternity; Where, oh, then, shall I appear? Heirs of heaven are sealed while here. The Little Gleaner. BRIEF NARRATIVE OF J. SMITH. OSHUA SMITH, the Son of John and Mary Ann Smith, was born the 16th of August, 1850. Three weeks afterwards his dear mother (after a happy deliverance from the bondage of the law) fell asleep in Jesus. When about four years old, I was sitting fretting over some trivial family circumstance, when the dear little fellow unwittingly reproved me, by looking up into my face and saying, "Satan finds some mischief still For idle hands to do." Some time after, when on a visit to some friends in the country, he was asked to sing, he replied, "Shall I sing about the happy land ?" and then sang "There is a happy land, Far, far away." &c. Afterwards said, "Do you know I have been to that happy land?" His friend said, "No, dear, you have not." "Yes," he said, "I have; my sister Annie took me. I died and went into the pit-hole, where I had wings given me, and I went up, up, up above the sky, where I saw ONE sitting, and a lot of little augels, but somehow I came all down, down again, and I was in a field with lambs." His friend assured F him it was a dream.* From that time I always felt a peculiar attachment to my dear little brother. He was a "Timothy," for as soon as he could read and understand, His Bible and the " Pilgrim's Progress were his chief study. When at school, and his playmates were enjoying their sports, dear Joshua would be sitting alone, with his head resting upon his hand, searching God's holy Word,† and had frequently to be sent to the play-ground for recreation by his instructor. It was during his stay at school I took him with me to see a friend at South Moreton, and when returning the next evening, it became dark ere I was aware, and being alone in a strange country place I became nervous, which the dear child perceiving, asked if he should sing, and begun singing (to the tune of Twyford), "Behold a sure foundation stone, Which God in heaven lays," &c. Still I could not discern that the Lord had yet quickened his soul, as it was not until his last illness that I heard anything clear from him. He was taken ill at school at Clifton, with inflammation in the right lung. I went down to nurse him. He looked very pleased when he saw me, and heard I was going to stay until he was well enough to return home (little thinking it would only be his clay tabernacle that would return). I had not been seated long by his bedside, when he requested me to read to him out of Isaiah. I read the 55th chapter. He said, "That * Of course if he had never given proofs of possessing the grace of God, this dream could have been no evidence of his salvation. -ED. This is the last thing remembered of him in the schoolroom. When Miss W. called him to go to bed the night before he was taken ill, she found him alone, near the window, with his well-worn Bible. chapter papa read to me the other night, now will you read the 53rd?" I did so, and when I read these words, viz. :-" All we like sheep have gone astray," &c., he stopped me, and said, "That was the first part of Isaiah I ever understood." He afterwards requested me to read the 15th chapter of the First of Corinthians, saying, "it is a long chapter concerning the resurrection." I was obliged one night to leave him to take rest, and on my returning early in the morning, he looked up and said, "Are we alone?" I replied "Yes." Then he said, "Get the Bible, and read the psalm beginning, As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God;'" and several other chapters did he select, often stopping me, and bidding me to refer to chapter and verse where I should find the prophecy fulfilled. I mention this to show how diligently he had searched the Word. 6 He was very reserved, and it was with difficulty I could draw anything from him. I once mentioned something he had said, in his hearing. When we were alone he cried, and said, "Annie, when I say anything about the Lord, do not mention it; it so soon spreads, and I do not want to be talked of." I felt much concerned about his state, never having heard him speak like one convinced of sin, for "What comfort can a Saviour bring, To those who never felt their woe? A sinner is a sacred thing, The Holy Ghost has made him so."* But these fears were soon quieted. I did not like to press anything from him, feeling from the first I would rather it be spontaneous, and a fear lest I * i.e., made him sensibly so.-ED. should be left to think I had put it into his mind to speak. Satan is a crafty foe, and spares no pains to distract and distress the mind, especially where his own cause is defeated. His papa came down to see him, and sat up that night with him. When all was silent, he suddenly called him, and said, "Papa! papa! pray for me-do pray for me, that the Lord would forgive my sins. I have such LOTS of sins in me; do pray for me." His papa did so, and read to him, and told him that Jesus came down from heaven for that very purpose, to save poor needy sinners; and spoke of the thief on the cross, &c., and asked him if he knew that hymn, "There is a fountain filled with blood ?" To which he replied in the affirmative. He remarked to me one day how much he had enjoyed a sermon preached by Mr. Grace at Abingdon. He said, "I shall never forget it." I asked him "Why?" He replied, "I do not know, but Mr. Grace told me what had been passing within, and that he felt it was like Mr. Hobbs' ministry" (whom he heard when at home). And he went on to say, Once I used to gabble over my prayers, and often missed them, but I feel I cannot now;" and then asked for the 480th hymn (Gadsby's selection) to be read : 66 "Up to the fields where angels lie, And living waters gently roll; Fain would my thoughts leap out and fly, Also that hymn, And "Afflicted saint to Christ draw near." "Prayer is the soul's sincere desire." |