The Power of Faith Part 18

In the Thirty-fourth Annual Report of the society for 1840, we find the following record of G.o.d's goodness:

"On no former occasion has the board of direction been privileged to make to the friends and patrons of this inst.i.tution a more favorable report than the present. The orphan's home is completed, and the beautiful building on the banks of the Hudson is alike an ornament to the city and a memorial of the liberality of its inhabitants.

Within it are found, not only ample accommodations for a numerous family, but a place for the Lord, a habitation for the orphans' G.o.d.

On the 19th of November last the chapel was opened for religious wors.h.i.+p; the services were performed by reverend clergy of different denominations; and a highly respectable and apparently gratified audience attended. All the children, one hundred and sixty-five in number, were present, from the infant in arms to the youth who will this day p.r.o.nounce the valedictory.

"To those who have witnessed the progress of this inst.i.tution from the _small frame-house_ of 1806 to the n.o.ble edifice of 1840, accompanied by the recollection that the door has never been closed against the dest.i.tute orphan, how deep must be the conviction of an overruling Providence--the truth of the declaration, that G.o.d is the father of the fatherless in his holy habitation, and the fulfilment of his gracious promise, 'Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive.' Nor is the orphan family merely furnished with sufficient accommodation for dwelling and moral and religious education: the grounds afford ample room for exercise and recreation; the garden supplies them with fruit and vegetables; and there being pasture for several cows, wholesome milk is added to their simple breakfast, while the abounding river invigorates the frame by a saline bath, and by casting a net into it, furnishes an occasional dinner of fresh fish."

The society, ever grateful to the founders, have erected a tablet on the wall of the beautiful chapel, which bears the following inscription:

SACRED TO THE MEMORY

OF

ISABELLA GRAHAM, WHO DIED 27TH JULY, 1814;

AND OF

MRS. SARAH HOFFMAN, WHO DIED 29TH JULY, 1821.

THEY WERE BOTH FOUNDERS OF THIS INSt.i.tUTION.

TO THEIR PRAYER OF FAITH, AND WISDOM IN DIRECTING ITS COUNSELS, THE SOCIETY IS INDEBTED FOR MUCH OF THE SUCCESS THAT HAS ATTENDED IT.

THEY WERE LOVELY IN THEIR LIVES, AND DURING MANY YEARS THEY TRAVELLED TOGETHER THE WALKS OF CHARITY.

WHEN THE EAR HEARD THEM IT BLESSED THEM, AND THEY CAUSED THE WIDOW'S HEART TO SING FOR JOY.

THEY NOW REST FROM THEIR LABORS,

PARTAKERS OF THE BLESSEDNESS OF THOSE WHO DIE IN THE LORD:

THEIR WORKS DO FOLLOW THEM.

The success which has attended the Orphan Asylum Society, furnishes strong encouragement to attempt great and good objects even with slender means. G.o.d in his providence will command a blessing on exertions of this character. It is too common a mistake, and one fatal to the progress of improvement, that great means should be in actual possession before great objects should be attempted. Ah, were our dependence simply on apparent instruments, how small must be our hopes of success. There is a mystery, yet a certainty, in the manner by which G.o.d is pleased in his providence to conduct feeble means to a happy conclusion. Has he not preserved, cherished, and blessed his church through many ages, amidst overwhelming persecutions, and that often by means apparently inadequate to this end? We must work for, as well as pray for the blessing which G.o.d has promised to bestow on our sinful race. We must put our shoulder to the wheel, while we look up to heaven for a.s.sistance, and G.o.d will bless those who are found in the path of duty.

In this asylum, the ladies have set no limits to the number to be received; and it has pleased G.o.d also not to set limits to the means necessary for their support. The inst.i.tution is a great favorite with the public, and is frequently visited by strangers, who are delighted with the cleanliness, health, and cheerful countenances of the orphans.

The Society have received a charter of incorporation from the legislature; they have a handsome seal, with this inscription: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me."

For several years it was customary with Mrs. Graham to visit the New York hospital; and before the admirable provision since made for the separate care of those mentally deranged, she paid a particular attention to patients of this description.

To the apartments appropriated to sick female convicts in the state prison, she also made many visits; she met with some affecting circ.u.mstances among this cla.s.s.

In the winter of 1807-8, when the suspension of commerce by the embargo rendered the situation of the poor more dest.i.tute than ever, Mrs. Graham adopted a plan best calculated in her view to detect the idle applicant for charity, and at the same time to furnish employment for the more worthy among the female poor. She purchased flax, and lent wheels where applicants had none. Such as were industrious, took the work with thankfulness and were paid for it; those who were beggars by profession never kept their word by returning for the flax or the wheel. The flax thus spun was afterwards wove, bleached, and made into table-cloths and towels for family use.

Mrs. Graham used to remark, that until some inst.i.tution should be formed to furnish employment for industrious poor women, the work of charity would be incomplete. It was about this time that, deeming the duties too laborious for her health, she resigned the office of first directress of the Widows' Society, and took the place of a manager.

She afterwards declined this also, and became a trustee of the Orphan Asylum Society, as more suited to her advanced period of life.

The lady to whom the following letter was addressed was Miss FARQUHARSON, a person of genuine piety and worth, whom Mrs. Graham had educated and prepared to become her a.s.sistant in teaching. When Mrs.

Graham retired from her school, Miss Farquharson declined to succeed her, preferring to accompany and enjoy the society of her patroness and friend. Until 1804 she proved as efficient an a.s.sistant to Mrs.

Graham in her charitable labors in the Widows' Society and Sabbath-school, as she had been in her boarding-school.

During the prevalence of the yellow-fever in 1804, she was called to attend her own dying mother, and underwent so much fatigue, that on her return to Mrs. Graham she broke a bloodvessel, and for four months was confined to her room, during all which time Mrs. Graham attended her night and day. Her medical attendants prescribed a long voyage and residence in a hot climate as the only means of saving her life. About that time Mr. Andrew Smith was preparing to sail for the East Indies with his family, by the way of England. With them she embarked. She sojourned several weeks in Birmingham, and there the circ.u.mstances commenced which eventually led Miss Farquharson to become a missionary's wife, and the first American missionary to foreign lands.

Her history has been published by Rev. Mr. Knill, in a tract ent.i.tled, "The Missionary's Wife."

The London Missionary Society were preparing to establish a mission in the idolatrous city of Surat, but the East India Company would not allow Christian missionaries to sail in their s.h.i.+ps. The Society thankfully availed themselves of the privilege of sending Mr.

Loveless and Dr. Taylor in the American s.h.i.+p Alleghany. They arrived in Madras, June, 1805.

During the voyage an attachment was formed between Mr. Loveless and Miss Farquharson which death only could sever, and introduced her to scenes of usefulness for more than thirty years, for which she was eminently qualified by early training. As soon as Mrs. Graham heard how her friend was going to be employed, she wrote to her as follows:

"MY DEAR SALLY--Many tears have I shed over your letter. What a changing lot has been that of my family! The Lord's providences to me and mine have not been of the ordinary kind, and you, as one in it, seem to be a partaker with us. Surely, of all others, we have most reason to say, We are strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Oh that we may drink into the true spirit of that phrase, and enjoy the genuine, firm faith of an everlasting habitation, of living at home with G.o.d.

"My dear Sally, take the comfort of this, that it is the Lord who hath led you all the way by which you have gone. Of all persons whom I know, you were, from your temper and disposition, the least likely to travel, still less to continue a traveller. No ordinary means would have led you to leave your friends and religious privileges. And many a pang it has cost me, on reflection, to think how positive I was that you should take the voyage. But it was of the Lord. The physicians urged it as the only chance you had for life, and they had reason; for of all those who were attacked in the same manner, there is not one alive, within my knowledge, at this day.

"The Lord, by wonderful means, called you from your native land, and led you to the very spot where you met Mr. Loveless. The same G.o.d, being also his G.o.d, led him, by means perhaps equally unforeseen and uncommon, to the same spot, united your hearts to each other, and made you one in his hand, and I trust to his glory. You ask my blessing: I have carried both of you to my G.o.d and Saviour, and have prayed, and continue to pray, that the Lord will bless you individually and unitedly, give you much sweet communion with himself, and much social enjoyment with him and with one another. May he bless Mr. Loveless as a missionary, and give him the spirit of his office, and much fruit among the heathen, as seals to his ministry; and may you be a helper with him, and both be blessed and made a blessing.

"I feel my loss. You were a comfort and a help to us all, especially to me: but I do not mourn; I heartily acquiesce. This is not only agreeable to me, as it is one of G.o.d's wise arrangements to you and us all, but I think it will be more to your comfort. Religion and conjugal love will sweeten almost any lot. It is the Lord's appointment and his richest earthly blessing.

"My dear Sally, I have ever considered you as my child. You are very dear to my heart. Tell Mr. Loveless he must ever consider me as his mother.

"Your affectionate mother,

"ISABELLA GRAHAM."

In the month of January, 1807, the London Missionary Society, of which Mr. Bethune was a foreign director, sent to this country the Rev. Messrs. Gordon, Lee, and Morrison; the two first to sail in an American s.h.i.+p for the East Indies, and Mr. Morrison for China. These devoted missionaries shared largely in the hospitalities of Christians in New York, and spent much of their time with Mr. Bethune's family.

Mrs. Graham took great delight in conversing and advising with them, and though none of her letters addressed to them have come to hand, it is believed she corresponded with them. The following extract of a letter from Dr. Morrison, indicates the respect and Christian affection with which he regarded her.

"ON BOARD THE TRIDENT, May 24, 1807.

"MY EVER DEAR MOTHER GRAHAM--I think you were led by the special interference of our gracious Lord, to put into my hands the work which you did, accompanied by the edifying and comforting letter which you wrote me.

"I thank you for telling me what G.o.d did for your soul, and join with you in ascribing to the Lord salvation and honor. I had, my mother, from the time of leaving my dear relations and friends, pa.s.sed through waters deep as the fathomless ocean which I crossed; but with the Lord there is mercy; with him is 'plenteous redemption.' He is ready to forgive. He has restored to me, in some measure, 'the joy of his salvation,' and will not, I trust, take his Holy Spirit from me.

This is my prayer. To-day he enabled me, on board of this vessel, to open my lips to teach transgressors his way. O, that sinners may be converted unto him."

To Mr. and Mrs. B----, at b.a.l.l.ston Springs.

"NEW YORK, August, 1807.

"MY BELOVED CHILDREN--A husband, wife, and child, make a family, and G.o.d ought to be acknowledged by them as such. I am anxious that you should meet in your room for that purpose some time every morning.

"If it cannot be accomplished at an early hour, redeem that time in a later, and also before going to rest in the evening. The Lord has honored your family wors.h.i.+p with genuine fruits, follow it up in all places. Like Abraham of old, wherever you pitch your tent, for a longer or shorter period, there raise an altar to the Lord, to that G.o.d who has fed you all your life, carried you as on eagle's wings, and will carry you to old age and gray hairs."