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قراءة كتاب Gathering Jewels The Secret of a Beautiful Life: In Memoriam of Mr. & Mrs. James Knowles. Selected from Their Diaries.
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Gathering Jewels The Secret of a Beautiful Life: In Memoriam of Mr. & Mrs. James Knowles. Selected from Their Diaries.
Children,231
Asleep in Jesus,235
Testimonials and Letters of Condolence,264
Conclusion,278
Dedication.
To the Pastors, Elders, Sabbath-School Workers, and
the New York Female Bible Readers' Society,
who were Intimately Associated
with the deceased
in Winning Souls to Christ,
These Memoirs are Affectionately Dedicated
By the Editor.
In Memoriam.
DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF MR. AND MRS. JAMES KNOWLES.
They died within a week of each other, after a married life of forty-seven years, and each at the age of seventy-five.
Ever faithful to the cause of their Master, they died as they had lived—in triumphant faith.
Hand in hand, together they trod
Through years twoscore and seven;
Their only staff was the Word of God,
Their path was the way to heaven.
Hand in hand, e'er the burning sun
Had drunk up the morning dew,
They started their earthly journey to run,
While the heavens were fair and blue.
But life's path lies not through a grassy dell,
In the cool of the morning's shade;
There are scorching sands, and torrents that swell,
As well as the flowery glade.
There are crags to climb in the mountains fast,
There are gorges, and canyons deep,
And the blinding snow, and the wintry blast
Must over the landscape sweep.
And the shoulders must bear a wearisome load,
Whether o'er mountain or moor,
Or through forest, or dusty highway, lay the road,
Or the feet be bleeding and sore.
But hand in hand we see them still,
When the sun had drunk up the dew;
They were toiling steadfastly up the hill,
Ever keeping the end in view.
They scaled the crags of the mountain steep
When the noontide sun was high;
And they forded the flood of the canyon deep,
When the sun lay low in the sky.
But their tired feet are no longer as light
As in days of the long, long past,
And their youthful tresses have turned to white
With the snows, and the wintry blast.
Now hand in hand, they stand by the shore
Of a river dark and wide;
And the songs which the seraphs are wafting o'er,
They catch from the other side.
And their faces beam with unearthly light,
In the rays of the setting sun,
As their eyes peer far beyond mortals' sight,
And they learn that life's journey is done.
Hand in hand by the river, they stray
Where the dark waves wash the shore;
And they hear the splash, and the feathery spray,
As the ferryman dips his oar.
Now the father waves a loving adieu,
As he looses his claspèd hand;
And the ferryman plies his oar anew,
Till he reaches the golden strand.
By the silent waves of the river of death,
The mother is waiting still,
With eager eye and with bated breath,
The call of the Master's will.
Now her face is illumed by a heavenly light
As sweet as angels' breath;
For she knows that the unclasped hands will unite,
Across the river of death.
George F. Sargent.
New York, February 17, 1887.
JAMES KNOWLES
GATHERING JEWELS
CHAPTER I.
BRIEF SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF JAMES KNOWLES.
"God bless thee, bairn—my bonnie bairn,"
She said, an' straikit doon his hair;
"O may the widow's God be thine,
And mak' thee His peculiar care!"
James Knowles was born at sea, December 5, 1811, his father, the previous day, having been swept overboard and lost. Unfortunately no record of the misfortune was kept to be available for the present purpose; hence we are unable to give either the name of the ship, or the latitude and longitude it was in when his birth occurred. Picture to yourself the deck of a vessel in mid-ocean, where the widow of a day becomes a mother the next, the subject of this sketch being the infant presented to her bosom, and you have a glimpse of the situation—though it be unconnected with either a cottage, a mansion, or a palace.
The mother returned with the infant to the home of her father at Ballymena, Ireland, where her relatives then undertook the care of the fatherless babe, which eventually grew into healthy boyhood of the most affectionate character.
As a youth he made rapid progress in the elementary branches of education, often surprising his teachers with the patience and care he exhibited in keeping in advance of his fellow-students—for he was almost always at the head of his class. He was noted for his quiet, unobtrusive disposition, underlying which was an internal force, which made him prompt in action, and to the point in word, when the display of such characteristics was sometimes necessary to establish his individual superiority with more than usual power among his fellow-schoolmates.
In 1826 he commenced his apprenticeship as a compositor, under the care of Mr. Dugan, in the city of Belfast, Ireland, where he continued until the expiration of the time of his indentures.
In 1832, after an ocean passage of sixty days in a sailing vessel, he arrived in Philadelphia, Pa.
During this long and tedious voyage across the Atlantic, he and the captain of the ship became very intimately attached to each other, and he was frequently invited to dine with the officers.
After a brief stay in Philadelphia, he came to New York City, where he found employment. Immediately after his arrival in this city, he became a member of the Rev. Dr. McLeod's Reformed Presbyterian Church, in Chambers Street, and continued with this church until after they had removed to Prince Street.
In 1835 he became an employé in the office of the Journal of Commerce. He frequently recalled that fearful night during the great fire in New York, when the greater part of the lower portion of the city was totally