Lives of the Three Mrs. Judsons eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 292 pages of information about Lives of the Three Mrs. Judsons.

Lives of the Three Mrs. Judsons eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 292 pages of information about Lives of the Three Mrs. Judsons.
form a rich hoard, laid up where neither moth nor rust corrupt; but if we let them escape unheeded, or sit and idly watch their flow, and even shake the glass to hasten it, they will gather into a millstone weight to sink us in endless, unavailing regret.  Though she is dead, Mrs. Judson’s works still live; and generation after generation of Burmans will associate her name with that of her honored husband, as benefactors to their race.

In December, 1844, the health of Mrs. Judson began to decline.  Her anxious husband, determined to leave no means untried, to save a life so precious to the mission and so invaluable to himself and his family, decided to quit for a while his loved labors in Burmah and accompany his wife to America.  They in May 1845 sailed, and on reaching the Isle of France, she found herself so far restored that she could no longer conscientiously detain her husband from his duties in India, and she resolved to let him go back to their home there, while she with her children, should complete the journey that still seemed necessary for her entire restoration.  One of the sweetest of her poems was occasioned by this resolution.

    “We part on this green islet, Love,
      Thou for the Eastern main,
    I, for the setting sun, Love—­
      Oh, when to meet again?

    My heart is sad for thee, Love,
      For lone thy way will be;
    And oft thy tears will fall, Love,
      For thy children and for me.

    The music of thy daughter’s voice
      Thou’lt miss for many a year;
    And the merry shout of thine elder boys
      Thou’lt list in vain to hear.

    When we knelt to see our Henry die,
      And heard his last faint moan,
    Each wiped the tear from other’s eye—­
      Now, each must weep alone.

    My tears fall fast for thee, Love,—­
      How can I say farewell! 
    But go;—­thy God be with thee, Love,
      Thy heart’s deep grief to quell!

    Yet my spirit clings to thine, Love,
      Thy soul remains with me,
    And oft we’ll hold communion sweet,
      O’er the dark and distant sea.

    And who can paint our mutual joy,
      When, all our wanderings o’er,
    We both shall clasp our infants three,
      At home, on Burmah’s shore.

    But higher shall our raptures glow,
      On yon celestial plain,
    When the loved and parted here below
      Meet, ne’er to part again.

    Then gird thine armor on, Love,
      Nor faint thou by the way,
    Till Boodh shall fall, and Burmah’s sons
      Shall own Messiah’s sway.”

But her health still sinking, her husband could not leave her, and she was borne back to the ship.  Her life ebbed away so rapidly, that he feared he must consign her to an ocean grave.  But a kind Providence ordered it, that her death did not occur till the ship anchored at St. Helena.  Her end was as peaceful as her life had been consistent and exemplary.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Lives of the Three Mrs. Judsons from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.