In December, 1844, the health of Mrs. Judson began to decline. Her anxious husband, determined to leave no means untried, to save a life so precious to the mission and so invaluable to himself and his family, decided to quit for a while his loved labors in Burmah and accompany his wife to America. They in May 1845 sailed, and on reaching the Isle of France, she found herself so far restored that she could no longer conscientiously detain her husband from his duties in India, and she resolved to let him go back to their home there, while she with her children, should complete the journey that still seemed necessary for her entire restoration. One of the sweetest of her poems was occasioned by this resolution.
“We part on this green
islet, Love,
Thou for the Eastern
main,
I, for the setting sun, Love—
Oh, when to meet
again?
My heart is sad for thee,
Love,
For lone thy way
will be;
And oft thy tears will fall,
Love,
For thy children
and for me.
The music of thy daughter’s
voice
Thou’lt
miss for many a year;
And the merry shout of thine
elder boys
Thou’lt
list in vain to hear.
When we knelt to see our Henry
die,
And heard his
last faint moan,
Each wiped the tear from other’s
eye—
Now, each must
weep alone.
My tears fall fast for thee,
Love,—
How can I say
farewell!
But go;—thy God
be with thee, Love,
Thy heart’s
deep grief to quell!
Yet my spirit clings to thine,
Love,
Thy soul remains
with me,
And oft we’ll hold communion
sweet,
O’er the
dark and distant sea.
And who can paint our mutual
joy,
When, all our
wanderings o’er,
We both shall clasp our infants
three,
At home, on Burmah’s
shore.
But higher shall our raptures
glow,
On yon celestial
plain,
When the loved and parted
here below
Meet, ne’er
to part again.
Then gird thine armor on,
Love,
Nor faint thou
by the way,
Till Boodh shall fall, and
Burmah’s sons
Shall own Messiah’s
sway.”
But her health still sinking, her husband could not leave her, and she was borne back to the ship. Her life ebbed away so rapidly, that he feared he must consign her to an ocean grave. But a kind Providence ordered it, that her death did not occur till the ship anchored at St. Helena. Her end was as peaceful as her life had been consistent and exemplary.