My Life and Sacred Songs

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

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text excerpt

My hand was on the door, when the moaning voice of the dying girl fell upon my ear. " A dark, dark eternity ! " she sobbed out. Turning round, and seeing that imploring look of anguish, and hearing the hasty, half-choked breathing—the beginning of the horrid death-rattle, which, though familiar to one's ear, always inspires a shudder—I found it impossible to take another step. " O God ! " I said in my heart, " what wilt Thou have me to do ? " Suddenly, and for the first time in my life, it struck me that I might sing a hymn. " Shall I sing a hymn ? " I asked. "Oh, yes, you may ! " replied the girl, seemingly much pleased that we were to stay a little longer. We sang the well-known hymn, " Rock of Ages," and had reached the third stanza : Nothing in my hand I bring / Simply to Thy cross I cling, when suddenly the girl started from her pillow, and sat up in the bed with folded hands. Physical strength seemed to have returned to the wasted form ; her countenance began to beam ; and to our astonishment she exclaimed, " Oh, sir. He has come ! " Stopping short in the singing, I said, " Who has come ? " " Jesus ! " was the joyful reply. Had the sun shone out at that hour, my companion and I could scarcely have been more amazed at the sudden change. The burden under which she had groaned for months was, as she told us, entirely gone.

excerpt from 'My Life and Sacred Songs' pp. 202 (245 words)

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