ELIZABETH was the only daughter of Christian Myers, a Hebrew of the tribe of Benjamin. The records of his genealogy were carefully preserved by his father, Hyam, as well as at the chief synagogue. Christian was given this name at a baptismal font in the Church of England, in commemoration of his being the first child born after his parents' conversion to Christianity.
For six months they had read in secret the New Testament, unknown to each other; but the mighty truths revealed in that precious volume, the Spirit of God used in convicting them of sin, and thus showing them that the endless rites of the Mosaic ritual could never atone for their guilt, and at last He revealed the Nazarene as their long-expected Messiah, as their Jehovah, their Savior-God.
It was no light thing for these two to confess Jesus, for it entailed being cut off by their family, and mourned for as dead. In after years, when Christian was a youth, he met his father's brother, who wept over the boy, and with his hand on the lad's head, looking in pity down upon him, said, "Is this my poor brother Hyam's child?" The writer, through whose veins the blood of Abraham flows, has often heard Christian repeat this story. Well does she remember the raven locks of this son of Abraham, and the expression of his face when repeating stories of his people.
Hyam by his confession sacrificed wealth and family, but possessing a good education, he was able to maintain his wife and children in comfort by his labors in the mercantile world. Christian, too, followed his father's footsteps, and at the commencement of our story, Elizabeth was a child of ten, living in her parental home, a pretty villa in a suburb of one of our commercial cities.
Christian married a Gentile maiden. Both, at the time of their marriage, were only Christians in name; but ere the birth of Elizabeth her mother found out a Savior's love, and she thus became more interested in her husband's people, and she delighted to search the scriptures until the time came that few women knew more of them than she. Thus Elizabeth was early blessed in having a Christian mother.
Early did she lisp the precious name of Jesus; early was she taught a Savior's love. Her father, too, became a follower of the "Nazarene," no doubt in answer to his wife's oft-repeated prayers; and for many years after (when he fully believed that Christ our Passover had been sacrificed) would his aged grandsire, who died in the faith of his fathers, go to Christian's house and burn the bone of the paschal lamb.
No word was ever uttered; but it was believed that this aged patriarch thought by so doing that Christian and his family partook of the blessing, and when this aged Hebrew was passing from the confines of this transitory scene the day on which he died was the Day of Atonement-not a morsel would he allow to pass his lips, not a drop of wine to moisten them. His constant prayer was that he might pass into Abraham's Bosom (the place of the departed) on the Day of Atonement, with all his sins forgiven him, as on that day he believed the sins of the past year were forgiven. He did die on that day, just as the sun was sinking in the western horizon. Would that he had known the Sun of Righteousness in all His healing power. The reader will wonder why this Hebrew had intercourse with his Christian relatives. The Jew says that the children cannot help what their parents do, so therefore are not responsible. Whatever were his faults, he was a godly Jew, "he walked in the law blameless," a pattern to many in acting up to his belief. Alas! that the outward life of so many denies what the lips utter.
Elizabeth's countenance, although a child, showed clearly from what race she sprang. Her dark eyes and hair, and sad, far-off look, indeed her whole appearance showed to an observer that she was one of Judah's daughters. While still young she disliked to be thought a Jewess, and one day when her father introduced her to a Jew, the latter said very warmly, "I thought she belonged to our nation," his quick eagle eye soon detected the look of annoyance on Elizabeth's face, and he said, "Are you ashamed to belong to our nation? Do not one half the world worship a Jew, and the other a Jewess, the Nazarene and Mary?”
In after years, however, when Elizabeth's heart was touched with the love of her Redeemer, when she knew the scriptures not only in the letter but in the spirit thereof, she felt glad that she belonged to that ancient people. We are glad to know that soul-stirring truth: "Dead and risen with Christ;" but still the heart glows with fervor when thinking that there are kindred ties with God's favored people, and there is an inward feeling of satisfaction in knowing that down-trodden Jerusalem will once again be queen of nations.
The Redeemer wept over that city. Within its gates some of His mightiest works were done; and without its gates He offered up Himself to God, and soon will come the time when He, the true King Solomon, will sit on David's throne, and that throne will stand forever, when they will look upon Him whom they have pierced. But He will comfort His people, like Joseph of old his brethren. The mighty temple will rear its head once more. What a scene of magnificence did that Roman soldier cause to crumble when he threw the firebrand into its midst! An ancient writer says, as a traveler on horseback towards sunset mounted the hill, when the sun in all his bold majestic beauty shed its rays on its gold-covered walls and pillars, such a sea of glory was revealed that no traveler could easily forget. But, blessed be His name, many a son and daughter of Judah have found out another temple, another building of God, eternal in the heavens, where the Sun of Righteousness will shed His golden beams.
Through disappointments in business, together with physical causes, the once stalwart frame of Christian Myers soon succumbed, and in a few months Elizabeth was left fatherless. Well does she remember that lovely spring day when the remains of her dear father were committed to their last resting-place,
“Till Christ his precious dust will take,
And freshly mold.”
What a crowd was around that grave! some out of sympathy for the mourners, others from morbid curiosity to see the interment of the converted Jew.
At the grave Christian's favorite hymn was sung, a hymn in which his rich bass voice had often joined, with the accompaniment of his father's flute often the family would unite in singing it, standing in the well-staircase of Christian's home, and as the notes ascended higher and higher, they would think of the time,
“When, in a nobler, sweeter song,”
they would sing His power to save. Hebrew voices will swell that chorus, and among them will Christian's blend:
“Not all the blood of beasts,
On Jewish altars slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away its stain.
“But Christ, the heavenly Lamb,
Took all our guilt away;
A sacrifice of nobler name,
And richer blood than they.
“Believing, I rejoice
To see the curse removed,
And bless the Lamb with cheerful voice,
And sing redeeming love.”
Elizabeth, as she stood at the grave, had the comfort of knowing that she would meet her loved parent again, where partings are unknown.
“Yes, we part, but not forever;
Joyful hopes our bosoms fill;
They who love the Lord, no never
Know a long, a last farewell.”
Just before his departure to that "Better Land," his prayer had been that it might be well with all his loved ones; but in the midst he broke off saying, "I will not pray that it might be well, for I know that it will be. All was well, all is well, and all will be well." On the tomb-stone that marked his last resting-place were the words: —
CHRISTIAN MYERS,
WHO FELL ASLEEP IN JESUS.
“It is well.”
How true that hymn:
“Asleep in Jesus, blessed sleep,
From which none ever wakes to weep,
A calm and undisturbed repose,
Unbroken by the last of foes.”
All, indeed, was well with the fatherless girl, and in after years, when she trod on foreign shores, her father's God was with her still, and how often there did her voice pour forth the strains:—
“Guide me, oh! Thou great Jehovah,
Pilgrim through this barren land.
I am weak, but Thou art mighty.
Guide me with Thy powerful hand,
Bread of heaven,
Feed me till T want no more.”
He did guide, and will guide her still, even unto the end.
She and her mother could not now command the comforts they had been accustomed to, still they had enough; so they removed to a pretty cottage in a village in Devonshire. Here did mother and daughter spend many happy days. Elizabeth loved to listen to her mother's recitals of her father's people. Her eye would kindle, and her heart burn within her, thankful that she was sheltered beneath the blood-stained lintel. She knew that her Savior had reared the crystal walls of salvation for her, and dry-shod she had passed within their confines safe unto the other shore. How she wished that her people could say so too.
Her mother told her that her grandfather would recite his daily prayers, and while doing so, owing to their length, his tired body would have to lean against some article of furniture for support.
He thought the number of his prayers would gain him favor with God. How that Elizabeth's aunt, Christian's eldest sister, who had been brought up in the Jewish faith, had found out the love of her Savior, and that now both brother and sister were roaming the courts of the heavenly Jerusalem.
The days passed smoothly and pleasantly on, till Elizabeth left her mother's home for that of her husband, and her mother went to live with her only son, who was residing in the north of England. He was several years Elizabeth's senior, had been married while she was a girl at school; so for this reason, Elizabeth and her mother for many years were alone.