Kindred sympathies. CHAPTER II. THE DYING PARENT. "How our hearts burnt within us at the scene! His final hour brings glory to his God !"-Young. THE distance we had to walk was less than a quarter of a mile. The conversation on the way was of a desultory nature, and related chiefly to the character of the individual we were going to visit. "will be to "Mr. Northend's death," said Mr. Hme a sore calamity. We have lived here, side by side, with our farms adjoining, for more than twenty years. As neighbours, we have never had any difficulty; a perfectly good understanding has always subsisted between us. Besides the feelings which bind old settlers together, there is another tie, which has ever linked us in the closest unionwe think just alike on religious subjects. Often have we taken sweet counsel together, and talked of Christ and his salvation till our hearts burned within us. We live in a community who have little or no sympathy with us. There is but little spiritual religion around us; and we have found few whose views, in relation to doctrine and worship, harmonize with ours. These circumstances have created a kindred feeling, and cemented more closely the bonds of friendship between us. "There is still another reason why I am attached to this man, and it would have attached me to him, had none of the circumstances, to which I have alluded, existed. He is truly a most sincere and devoted Christian. He is one Mr. Northend's character. The sick room. of the excellent of the earth. I have often thought that if ever there was a perfect exemplification of the precepts of the gospel, in the life and conversation of any individual, it was in this man. Once it was far otherwise. An ordinance of the gospel was blessed to him in a wonderful manner; and I dare predict, that the great anxiety which he feels to see you this evening, is, to witness the initiation of his grandchildren into the fold of Christ, by baptism, before he dies. There is in his mind, connected with this holy rite, the remembrance of events which constituted a new era in his life." I was both delighted and surprised with the intelligent and feeling manner in which Mr. Hconversed upon religious subjects. As he finished the last remark, we had reached the dwelling of Mr. Northend. It was a neat and substantial farm house; every thing about it wore the aspect of comfort. The Mr. Heyden took me immediately to the sick room. group assembled there was of a truly interesting character. They consisted of the children and grandchildren of the sick man, together with a few neighbours, who had called to tender their services to the family. The grave and solemn aspect that sat upon each countenance would have told the most superficial observer, at the first glance, that, in the apprehension of that company, the angel of death had spread his awful wings over the dwelling in which they were assembled. As we entered the room all were seated except a female, the only surviving daughter of Mr. Northend, who stood, with tearful and anxious eye, bending over the couch of her father. The venerable old man lay stretched upon the bed, with locks as white as the snow-white pillow upon which his head rested. A holy calm was spread over his countenance. It was plainly evident, however, that he was suffering much bodily pain. His respiration was short, and difficult-his pulse feeble and irregular-and his already The administration of the holy supper. sunken eye and ghastly visage indicated that the days of Henry Northend were numbered, and the sands of life almost run out. As soon as my name was announced, I immediately approached the bed, and took his bony hand, which was already moist with the clammy sweat of death. 66 "My desire," he at length said, with some difficulty, my desire is, to receive once more before I die, if it be the Lord's will, the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ. The elements having been already prepared, I immediately commenced the communion service; a service at any time, and under any circumstances, solemn and impressive; but doubly so in the chamber of the dying, and under circumstances like the present. There were several, besides the sick man, who partook of the holy supper, and among the number his three children, a daughter and two sons. The view of his children stretching out their hands to receive the memorials of a Saviour's dying love, seemed to revive the strength, and spread new animation over the death-stricken features of Mr. Northend. At the conclusion of the service he appeared totally changed. Those symptoms of speedy dissolution, with which he was oppressed when I first entered the room, had entirely disappeared. His voice was now strong, and its tones clear and distinct. The short silence that succeeded the administration of the Lord's supper was first interrupted by Mr. Northend addressing himself to me, in the following manner :— "If you will now administer the sacrament of baptism to my grandchildren, I will withdraw my thoughts from earth, and rest them in the bosom of my God." The baptismal service of the church has ever appeared deeply affecting, and truly solemn, to me. But the other sacrament which had just preceded it, and the situation of Mr. Northend, now placed, as it were, on that invisible line which separates time from eternity, imparted to the A father's blessing. service, on this occasion, a peculiar pathos, and an almost divine power. When the administration of the holy rite of baptism was concluded, the old man, raising himself up in the bed, requested that the youngest child, bearing his own name, Henry Northend, should be placed upon his lap. When this was done, laying his hands upon the smiling infant, he said aloud, "The God of my fathers, the great and merciful God bless you, my child, and all of you, my children. With great desire have I desired to see this hour; it has often been the subject of my prayer since lying upon this bed of sickness, that one might be sent of the Lord to administer these holy ordinances before I closed my eyes in death, and my prayer has been answered." 66 Surely," continued he, addressing himself to me, "God has sent you here to baptize these little ones, and to administer to my children the pledges of a Saviour's dying love. Yea, and furthermore, to bury me. My two sons, 'who have now duly received the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ,' have been long desirous, and, I trust, in a state of preparation, to be partakers of those holy mysteries.' And, eternal God! thou art witness, how long and anxiously I have desired to see these little ones washed in the laver of regeneration.' Do not imagine," continued he, "that I attach any undue importance to the sacrament of baptism. I would give it in my esteem no higher importance than Christ has given it. I know very well, from what I have observed in others and seen in myself, that baptized persons may be as truly alienated in heart from God, and exposed to his wrath, as those who are in an uncovenanted state. I was baptized in infancy, but I spent one half of my life without hope and without God in the world.' Though God was exceedingly merciful to me, and gave me health and domestic happiness, and the means of comfortable subsistence; and though I lived here on the banks of this lake, daily witnessing the displays of almighty power, and walked amid this scene of beauty and grandeur, spread around us, from which there now seems to ascend, continually, as from one broad altar, the incense of adoration and the song of praise, I lived and walked here the enemy of God.' Baptism does not necessarily make us holy. It is an outward act- a sign of regeneration, or new birth, whereby, as by an instrument, they that receive baptism rightly are grafted into the church.'* There must be a renewed state of the affections, and an operation of the Holy Spirit upon the heart, before we can become truly members of Christ, children of God, and heirs of the kingdom of heaven.' If, on our part, agreeably to 'the solemn vow, promise, and profession made at our baptism, we do actually renounce the devil and all his works, and constantly believe God's holy word and obediently keep his commandments,' I believe that Christ, for his part, will most surely keep and perform the promise made in his gospel, to release us from sin, to sanctify us with the Holy Ghost, and to give us the kingdom of heaven and everlasting life.' "I do love to think and to dwell upon this subject. The baptism of my children was the commencement of a new era in my history. "O the baptism! How many thoughts rush back to that hour! O my God, hadst thou not blest that ordinance to my soul-hadst thou not, through it, awakened me to a knowledge of my character as a sinner, and led me by the guiding of thy Spirit to flee unto Christ for refuge-where had been my hopes in this hour? I plainly perceive that the world and all its possessions are receding from my view, and that eternity is very near me. Transcendently glorious and exalted does my Saviour appear at this moment; but when I turn my eye to that dark period of my life, in which I was the servant of sin, and was living with * The 27th Article of the Episcopal Church. |