While hunting during his vacation, a young man’s attention was arrested by the sound of a feminine voice singing. As he came nearer to a gorge far away in the mountains in Virginia he recognized the words of the hymn:
There is a happy land,
Far, far away;
Where saints in glory stand,
Bright, bright as day.
Oh, how they sweetly sing,
“Worthy is our Saviour King!”
Loud let His praises ring,
Praise, praise for aye.
Come to this happy land,
Come, come away;
Why will you doubting stand?
Why still delay?
Oh, we shall happy be,
When from sin and sorrow free,
Lord, we shall be with Thee,
Blest, blest for aye.
At last he followed the voice to a log cabin where an old black lady with hair as white as snow was standing outside by her wash-tub singing away as though her heart were overflowing with gladness. She was unusually tall and straight. As the young college student stood enchanted with the scene, he found that she was also blind. She kept on singing and washing. Then straightening up, she turned her sightless eyes heavenward and made the surrounding rocks and mountains ring as her joyful voice was now singing:
We’re feeding on the living Bread,
We’re drinking at the Fountain head;
And whoso drinketh, Jesus said,
Shall never, never thirst again.
O could we make our doubts remove—
These gloomy thoughts that rise;
And see the Canaan that we love
With unbeclouded eyes.
We’re marching through Immanuel’s ground,
And soon shall hear the trumpet sound,
And then we shall with Jesus reign,
And never, never part again.
At last the student said to her, “Auntie, you are blind!”
“No, sir,” she said. “I’m not blind! I can’t see you, nor these trees, nor rocks, nor mountains, but I can see into the kingdom. I can see that ‘happy land, far, far away.” "
The young student was so impressed with what he saw and heard, that from then on, he became deeply concerned and convicted of sin. Nor did he rest till he found rest in Jesus. When later he became a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ, he often told that the echo of that black, blind lady’s song still followed him.
ML-08/12/1979