Scripture Verse

Introduction

Anecdote

A col­lege stu­dent in Vir­gin­ia, proud of his in­tel­lec­tu­al at­tain­ments, thought if he ev­er be­came a Chris­tian it would be through an elo­quent ser­mon of some dis­tin­guished pul­pit ora­tor.

While hunt­ing deer dur­ing a va­ca­tion, he was drawn to a gorge far away in the mount­ains, by the sound of a sweet fe­male voice, en­gaged in sing­ing. As he drew near­er he re­cog­nized the words of the hymn:—

There is a happy land
Far, far away.

At length he pe­rceived a log cabin, and an old fe­male slave, with hair as white as snow, stand­ing with­out at her wash tub sing­ing away as though her heart was ov­er­flow­ing with glad­ness. She was unu­su­al­ly tall and ve­ry straight.

As the young stu­dent stood en­chant­ed with the ro­man­tic scene, he found that she was al­so blind, and, as she kept on sing­ing and wash­ing, her hap­py soul would be­come so full of joy that she would stop wash­ing, and, for a while straight­en­ing up, and turn­ing her sight­less eye-balls hea­ven­ward, would make the sur­round­ing rocks and mount­ains ring as her joy­ful voice would sing:—

There is a land of pure de­light
Where saints im­mor­tal reign.

At length the stu­dent said to her, Aun­tie, I see you are blind? No, mas­sa, said she, I is not blind. I can’t see you, nor dese trees, nor dese rocks, nor dese mount­ains, but I can see in­to the king­dom. I can see de hap­py land, far, far away.

The young stu­dent was so im­pressed with what he saw and heard that from that time on, he was deep­ly con­vict­ed of sin, and rest­ed not un­til he found rest in Je­sus.

He ev­en­tu­al­ly be­came a min­is­ter, and told the au­thor that the echo of that hap­py slave’s song still fol­lows him.

Long, p. 372