Chapter 21—When Sorrow Comes
Illness
Lucretia Cranson was the daughter of old friends of the Whites.
She married D. M. Canright in 1867. She died on March 29, 1879
.
Dear Afflicted Sister,
I would much prefer to be with you and converse with you, but
this is impossible. I might say to you I sympathize with you in your
feebleness, but when I think of you it seems ever sure to me and vivid
before me that you are sustained by arms that never tire, and comforted
with a love that is unchangeable, enduring as the throne of God.
I do not look upon you as repining in your feebleness, but as one
upon whom the countenance of the Lord shineth, giving light and
peace, whose soul is in fellowship with the Father and with His Son Je-
sus Christ, growing daily in the knowledge of the divine will, partaking
of the divine nature, increasing in reverence, childlike holy trust, and
confiding love. Never did the appreciation of Christ’s blood, which
pardons, seem to you so precious, so priceless as in your feebleness,
when your hold is loosening upon the world.
You have been growing in inward experience, and others may profit
by your counsel and your advice. Religion to you, my precious child,
has become more and more beauteous. You now find so much comfort
sitting at the feet of Christ and learning of Him. The fear of death is
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past. If there is any terror in the look of the last dread enemy, it is
driven away by looking unto Jesus, for He has brightened the tomb
by His sacred presence. There is that in your heart which will not rest
unless enfolded in the arms of infinite love.
Dear child, your pilgrimage is nearly ended. We will not set up our
wishes and our wills, but we will let you rest in hope till the Lifegiver
shall call you forth from your prison house to a bright immortality.
Jesus is just the Saviour for you now, the One whose bright presence
will make, in any place, your heaven. Your life, my precious child,
is hid with Christ in God, and when He who is your life shall appear,
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