Page:Robert Carter- his life and work. 1807-1889 (IA robertcarterhis00coch).pdf/69

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DEATH OF HIS FIRST-BORN.
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“The death of this loved boy taught us many useful lessons. I thought of a class of six children in my Sabbath school, and sent them a letter urging them to come to Christ, accompanied with a little book entitled ‘My Saviour.’ Four of the six became members of the church the next communion. One dear young lady died some years later with this book lying on her breast, and her thin, transparent hands pointing to the page which she had been reading when she breathed her last. A younger brother of my own, who had slept with the dear boy in his bosom for some years, was suddenly awakened to a sense of his lost condition. He was a bright scholar, and had become conscious of it, and proud of his acquirements, and sometimes questioned the wisdom of God's dealings with men. When this stroke came upon us, he was in an agony. The dearest object of his love lay dead. He had witnessed the simple piety of the child of less than four years of age, and exclaimed, ‘Where would I have been had I been taken instead of him? I had the audacity to question the goodness of God, and now I am lost.’ His struggles were fearful, but God had mercy on him, and made him a burning and shining light in this world of darkness. An older brother, who had professed Christ some years before but had been turned about and chilled, became a new man, and gave bright testimony to his faith in the dear Redeemer. In the Sabbath school whole classes were brought to a decision which affected all their future lives. We could only say, ‘See what God hath wrought.’ ”

Among the earliest publications of Mr. Carter were the writings of Miss Catharine Sinclair. She was the daughter of Sir John Sinclair, a leading British philanthropist and voluminous writer nearly a century ago. He closed a long and honored life in 1835, in his eighty-