THE SOWER.

THE BLESSING OF NAPHTALI.*

(DEUTERONOMY XXXiii. 23.)

A SLIGHT SKETCH OF SOME OF THE LORD'S DEALINGS WITH EMMA L. MAURICE.

GOD in creation is a God of variety; and, as the God of all grace, He is as various in His dealings with His people. We see it around us, we feel it in our own experience, and we read it in His Word. In no part of the latter is it so clearly defined as in the very varied blessings pronounced upon the tribes of Israel. The "ways" (Job xxvi. 14) of our Lord in providence as well as grace are there distinctly foreshown. Unstable Reuben, burden-bearing Issachar, victorious Gad, and blessed Joseph; Zebulun bidden to rejoice in his going out, and Issachar in his keeping at home; Asher blessed with children, and Naphtali "satisfied with favour," are blessed hints to God's chosen people down to the end of time. One or two, however, seem to stand out beyond the others as especially "blessed," notably Joseph and Naphtali. How comprehensive in its perfection is that of the latter! How can any vessel of any size be more than "full" ? "O Naphtali, satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the Lord." This is the lot of perhaps few of the Lord's people in the present day, but was that in a remarkable degree of the subject of this notice.

Emma L. Maurice was born in 1807. Her eyes were opened to a sense of her lost condition as a sinner in God's sight when only seven years of age, the occasion, in the hand of the divine Spirit, being the death of a much-loved nurse. Her health even from childhood was bad. Long and varied attacks of illness were her frequent lot, but her diligence in study, in her earnest endeavours to make up for the lost time, was noticeable. She used to feel that, because she had received the "love of the truth" early in life, it was as incumbent on her to improve her mind and use all the opportunities for study that were put within her reach as if it had not been so. Truly one thing only is "needful," but many other things are right and desirable, and calculated to "adorn

*This sketch, by permission of the author and publishers, is abridged, with very little alteration, from a most interesting book, entitled, "SeltSurrender," by M. P. Hack; published by Hodder and Stoughton. It consists of a series of biographies, beginning with Anne Askew, who suffered martyrdom in 1546. Some of them are well worth perusal, especially that of Harriet Jukes.-E. M.

No. 51, NEW SERIES, MARCH, 1883.

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the doctrine of God our Saviour." The Word says, "Be pitiful, be courteous;" use hospitality, as well as "be careful for nothing." She suffered much from asthma before she was twenty, and having a dying elder sister to tend often concealed her nightly attacks from her family.

In February, 1826, she partook of the Lord's Supper for the first time. It was a day to be much-remembered, and her biographer says:-In a cottage where she dined after the service, she passed two happy hours in reading, prayer, and thanksgiving. At the evening service also, the hymns and prayers seemed for her alone, but the sermon on the " pure in heart afforded much food for meditation. On returning home, she sat in her invalid sister Anne's room. After a few words exchanged, silence reigned, Emma meditating on what she had heard and felt, but especially on these words, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." She

says that the calm peacefulness of the sick room brought them to her mind, and during an hour-and-a-half spent beside her beloved sister, she feasted upon them. She adds, "I realized indeed that peace which passeth all understanding.' A calm feeling of being dedicated (devoted, or 'set apart,' as the word means) to the Lord possessed my soul, and I rested on the arm of Jehovah. Unwillingly I left the sacred room to retire to rest, and, before I closed my eyes in slumber, again entreated the Lord to give me purity and holiness, by whatever means He might see necessary to employ. Yes, my heart said whatever means; and, though I trembled at the thought of what means might be employed, I again entreated the blessing most earnestly."

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After uttering this petition, Emma fell asleep, and later awoke with difficulty of breathing. Thinking it was her usual asthma, she took a dose of ether, but it failed to alleviate the suffering. Her tender thought for Anne prevented her from disturbing the household, and in the morning it seemed to those who came to her, and saw her great struggles for breath, that she could not be restored. She said afterwards, My mind was more than comforted during paroxysms of painful and dangerous oppressions of breath, by the assurance that the affliction was to purify me." Six weeks after, she wrote, "On the tenth day of my illness, my dear sister was worse, and, on the eleventh, left this wilderness for the paradise above.* Oh, how I longed, if but for one moment, to have looked upon her, even after death; but the Lord, in tender mercy, suffered not my desire to be accomplished. No; every

There is a short account of this sister in the volume from which this is extracted.

rebellious thought was graciously, most graciously, to be purged, and this severe discipline was necessary to do so."

Much weakness and suffering followed. Speaking of what she passed through during the winter of 1826-7, she says, "Each one of His sweetest promises has been more abundantly fulfilled to me than language can express. Sometimes the sweet consolations so abounded that I was astonished to hear any say of my complaint, How distressing it must be !'" And again, in May, 1827, "The last six months have been the happiest of my life, for I have enjoyed the presence of my God in them. Oh, who can tell what that is? What must heaven be, if this be only earth?"

In the summer she was removed into the country. The anticipation of change of scene tried her. She loved her sick room, hallowed with her Lord's presence, and dreaded leaving it. Emma soon found, however, that He was not to be limited to place, for she writes, soon after, "The peace of God which passeth all understanding.' Peace of God-truly it must pass all understanding; yet it is bestowed, felt, experienced, delighted in. Truly have I a goodly portion. The lines are fallen unto me' in more than pleasant places.""

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In 1828 she writes "My earthly abode is about to be changed; perhaps, also, my pursuits and habits. I know not what is before me. My body, soul, and spirit, circumstances and lot, to the end of my life-my friends, my comforts, my earthly and spiritual all-I place in Thy hands to order for me. Take my heart, gracious Lord, and fill it with Thy love; my understanding, and fix it upon Thyself; my will, and make it Thine; my desires, and let them all go out to Thee; my wants, and make them centre upon Thee; my time, and use it for Thy glory; my voice, my strength, all my bodily powers, and let them be for Thy service, in whatever way Thou choosest, by pain or ease, by health or illness, by ability or inability. Take my circumstances, and order them so as to maintain the nearest walk with Thee. My friends-yea, take them also, and make them to me what Thou wouldest have them to be-Thou, whose will is my sanctification."

A few days after writing the above, Emma was removed to a new residence. Thus was every earthly nest stirred, that she might rest only in "the secret place of the Most High, and abide under the shadow of the Almighty."

In February, 1829, the weight of illness was so overpowering, it seemed to those around as if the dear invalid could not survive from day to day. The suffering in the throat was very severe, and threatened suffocation. Her sympathy for those with her was very great. She sought continually to strengthen her sister's

faith, and soothe her suffering at watching such pain. In the midst of an acute attack she said, "It is not hard to bear, I assure you; the worst is to see you suffer so. With such heavenly health in my soul, this is really nothing." Another time, when her sister was cast down with the prospect of parting, Emma said, "Remember that sweet passage in Rutherford : 'Build thy nest upon no tree here; for see, God hath sold all the forest to death, and every tree upon which we would rest is ready to be cut down, to the end that we may flee away, and build upon the Rock, and dwell in the clefts of the Rock.'

After this her health was in a measure restored, and, though always weak, she could take a more active part in the affairs of this life. Many extracts might be given from her sister's record of her, and also from her letters, but lack of space forbids.

In October, 1829, she writes, "The prospects of the winter, and all its trials and sufferings, of which you know I have partaken largely in the previous one, and of which I expect a fuller share this season, seem rather animating and cheering than sorrowful or depressing."

The accession of illness came, increased by the severe cold of the season. Scarlet fever prevailed in the family, with the addition of some other trials which were then pressing heavily.

The last entry in her journal, dated February 18th, 1830, ends thus: "I had hoped ere this to have given thanks in a world where I should have been sinless; but, if it be the will of God yet to detain me in the bonds of debility and passive weakness or suffering, let me not wish it otherwise. I do bless Him that He is subjugating, crossing, ploughing up my will. Make it quite conformed to Thine, heavenly Father. Bring every thought into captivity, every wish into subjection."

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She much prized the visits of a venerable minister during the next attack of illness in June, 1830. He spoke at one visit of her extreme sufferings, and asked if she did not sometimes earnestly wish to have them removed. She answered, “Oh, I have not one more than I need." He asked, “ What, then, would be the petition you would most earnestly present if you were to comprise all your wishes in it?" She replied instantly, "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death."

The last letter she wrote was in February, 1831. She says in it, the large view she has had lately of the freeness of God's love shows her that her former realizations of it were but "as a grain to a mountain;" and then proceeds in these words: "Sleeping or waking, in pain or exhaustion, fainting or excited by fever, able to testify of the grace of the Lord, or too weak to articulate, and

often incapacitated from thanking Him, think of me thus, and wonder at the Wonderful One. Think of a sinner whom the Lord rescued from death, whom He has guided, kept, loved, favoured (you know a little how richly); then think of her Saviour, the 'faithful and true,' standing by her, as near to her as to the spirits in glory, supporting her and whispering peace, driving away every anxiety, sorrow, or oppression of mind or soul simply by that sweet word, 'Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself.'”

(To be continued.)

"IF I PERISH, I PERISH. I WILL GO IN UNTO THE KING."

SELF-SUFFICIENCY CONDEMNED.-If I grapple with sin in my own strength, the devil knows he may go to sleep.-Adam.