“And above the rest this note shall swell,”

when she instantly took up the words, and with a heavenly smile completed the stanza,

  “My Jesus hath done all things well.”

The same tender solicitude for others, especially those of her own family, which had ever characterized her, was still manifest in her utmost weakness.  “Twice,” says her daughter, “during those few anxious days, while I was standing by her bed-side, she looked at me tenderly, and said, ’The Lord bless thee, and keep thee; the Lord make His face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.’  On telling her I was going to write to my brother John, she replied, ’Give my kindest love to him and Susie, and tell them to keep the one point in view.  To one who was ministering to her wants she said, with great earnestness, ’Oh! when one comes to the verge of another world, of what avail are all things else, if we are not on the sure foundation?  My whole care is to be ready—­quite ready.’”

The rapid decay of her strength seemed to produce no corresponding impression upon her mind, which, up to within a few hours of her departure, retained its wonted vigour and clearness of perception.  Her utterances were carefully weighed, and she grasped the full force of the words which were spoken to her; hence, when her daughter asked if she could say

      “Not a cloud doth arise
      To darken the skies,
  And hide for one moment the Lord from my eyes;”

she replied, “I can’t say that.”  “But,” mother, “you can trust Him in the dark?” Her ready answer was, “I can do that.”

On Tuesday morning, July 3rd, the day preceding her removal, for some hours she appeared rather better, and on being lifted up in bed, she asked for her spectacles, the Bible, and also the hymn-book, from which she read the hymn beginning

  “How do Thy mercies close me round,”

which was one of her favourites.  As the day advanced her disease gained ground, but, beyond the difficulty she experienced in breathing, there was no evidence of suffering.  She expressed a fear she was impatient, but it was far otherwise.  Not a murmur, nor a breath of complaint passed her lips; she possessed her soul in patience, and her language was praise and prayer.  Once, while gasping for breath, she repeated at intervals, the verse

  “O may I thus be found,
    Obedient to His word;
  Attentive to the trumpet’s sound,
    And looking for my Lord.”