Emma’s father was a worldly man. He stayed out late at nights, with ungodly men. Her mother died when she was five years old, and the dear child was brought up by a housekeeper, who was very kind to her.
She had no companions, and was often very lonely at nights. Her father seemed in have little interest in her, and seldom spent an evening in the house. A kind lady who had known Emma’s. mother sometimes invited the lonely child to spend the evening with her children, and this greatly cheered and delighted Emma.
Once a week, there was a children’s meeting in a hall close by, and to this meeting Emma sometimes went, along with these children. There was a favorite hymn often sung at this meeting, the first verse of which is—
“We know there’s a bright and glorious home,
Away in the heavens high,
Where all the redeemed shall with Jesus dwell;
But will you be there and I?”
Emma learned this hymn, and resolved that she would sing it at night to her father, and pray to God to bless it to his soul.
When he returned from his office at night, Emma was sitting on the sofa singing—
“We know there’s a bright and a glorious home.”
“What’s this you have tonight, child?” said her father as he sat down to tea. “Who taught you that?”
So Emma told about the meeting, and the happy hour she had spent there, to which her father made no reply. She thought he was offended, but to her surprise, when he had finished his tea, instead of hurrying away to his club as usual, he sat down beside her on the sofa, and taking her hand in his, looked very sad.
“Are you ill, father, dear?” asked Emma.
“No, my child, but I want to stay beside you tonight, if you will sing that pretty hymn,”
Emma was delighted and taking her hymn book, sang the hymn right through. When she had finished, she saw a tear drop from her father’s eye. That was so unusual, that she felt sure the words had reached his heart.
This was the beginning of his soul-anxiety. For several weeks he remained in the house, and read many books, but still no light, no peace came to him. At last one of his employers who was a Christian, and noticed his dejected look, asked him if anything was wrong. He told him the whole story of Emma’s song, and how it had aroused him to think of eternity.
That night his employer invited him to his house, and there he found the Lord as his Saviour, and passed from death to life.
Emma and her father, after this, often sat together for an evening, reading and singing together their favorite hymn—
“Will you be there and I?”
ML 07/28/1940