THE was dying; she sat in an easy-chair propped up with pillows, her young face turned towards the sunset.
She was but seventeen, but she had suffered much; and her poor body was emaciated by disease. Her eyes were shining brightly, as she sat there gazing, that quiet evening. I called to see her as I often did, for she had been a scholar in our Sunday-school for many years. She turned with a smile to welcome me, as I took her hand in mine and looked upon her passing away.
As I stood beside her, she gazed again upon the sky with a fixed and earnest look, her face lighting up with a smile of joy. “Look! teacher, look!” she exclaimed, with a far away expression in her eyes. I followed the direction of her glance, and I saw the glory of the sunset shining in the evening sky, shafts of radiant light gilding fleecy clouds. It was a beautiful scene―the whole sky round the setting sun tinged with wondrous tints of splendor, and pervading all a soft ethereal brilliance that cannot be described.
“Do you see them, teacher?” she exclaimed.
“See whom?” I answered.
“God’s angels coming to take me home, teacher.”
No, I could not see them. I could see the sunset glory, but no more. What she saw through the opening gates of death, I cannot tell. She may have caught a glimpse of angelic throngs mingling with the hakes of the sky: one cannot say.
I sat with her, and talked of Jesus and of the heaven where He was. “O,” she said, “it is meat and drink for me for you to come and speak to me of Him there.” She loved to hear of Christ in heaven; it was home.
Soon after she passed into His presence; but many a time, when gazing on the evening sky, have I thought of her and recalled her eager eyes and shining face, and her saying, “Do you see them, teacher?”
God be thanked, I shall see them; for I am going to that home where she is gone. I am looking there and waiting for Him now. ―Not for angels, but for Christ to come and take me to Himself; and one day, it may be when I am gazing upon the sky, I shall hear the voice that bids me rise to meet Him in the air, to be forever with the Lord.
Reader! Are you ready? Christ is coming.
Would you welcome Him were He to come today? Who would wait for you if you were dying now angels or demons?
Would you, if your eyes closed in death this moment, be with the Lord of angels, or know (as you never did here) the terrors of the lost? God commands you to repent, to believe on Christ; and then you, as an heir of salvation, shall have these blessed ministers welcome you to be with Him.