Sunset

Chapter 18

Sunset

A reminder of ‘pain far greater than mine’

As the 1940s wore on, Amy, confined to Dohnavur because of her ailments, saw blessings behind the dark cloud, and was in perfect rest in the will of God. Her time was well spent in writing books, which were of lasting interest and benefit to the souls of thousands. In the silent labours of love and wisdom, prose and poetry flowed from her pen and have been an immeasurable blessing to encourage the heart of the suffering Christian and for those longing to dedicate themselves to the Lord.

The war did not pass unnoticed by the DF, because three British men left Dohnavur to join the forces. The hospital was forced to continue in full operation, also with the German nurse Erna Struwe, who was allowed to stay and continued to assist the medical staff instead of being interned elsewhere.

For a long time a clock, which could be seen everywhere, was on Amy’s wish-list. It would make life orderly, but above all, ‘we wanted a clock whose hourly Call to a moment’s Remembrance, Recognition, Adoration’. Also a Quiet Room for the men workers, and two storerooms were needed. Already before the clock was bought, construction of the building started in 1941 (Figure 36). ‘The four needs were piled one on top of another, two storerooms, the Annachies’ Quiet Room, the clock.’ The Quiet Room gave the building its name – a Tamil name meaning Upper Room of Peace. It was dedicated on a windy, sunshiny morning after the rain. The hour struck for the first time as the children in their hundreds stood about in silence. It was 9 o’clock, the hour when they remember the ill, the wounded, the suffering. When the clock was heard, the workmen in the field, the sick in the hospital, the nurses on duty, the villagers in their houses:

[W]ill slip into the habit of ‘keeping the bell’. The constantly recurring reminder of Unseen Things is a vital part of our DF life. This will underline that […] 'God, whom I serve with the worship of my spirit, do Thou turn me all into love, and all my love into obedience, and let my obedience be without interruption' – This is the word of the Upper Room of Peace, the last room built in the second year of War.

How to cite: Kommers, J. (Hans), 2017, ‘Sunset’, in Triumphant Love: The contextual, creative and strategic missionary work of Amy Beatrice Carmichael in south India, pp. 481–498, AOSIS, Cape Town. https://doi.org/10.4102/aosis.2017.tl41.18

Source: © J. (Hans) Kommers.

FIGURE 36: The Clock Tower.

Every hour there would be a moment of stillness, and she quoted Brother Lawrence, who called these moments ‘little internal adorations. ‘It is opening a window to let peace flow in, still more, like shutting a door to keep the noise out.’2130

A pact between Germany, Italy and Japan caused great fear in Asia. The American naval fleet had been nearly completely destroyed in the Pacific Ocean. China felt the Japanese aggression, and the British were pushed out of India’s neighbour, Burma (Myanmar). The threat of a Japanese invasion in 1942 was a serious one, after they had bombed Madras, so they took precautions and an evacuation plan was worked out. Everyone in the Fellowship under the age of 35, at that moment more than 300, would go to the Grey Jungle. The invasion of the Japanese did not happen, but fear could not be banished from the thoughts of many in Dohnavur. They followed the news via wireless and papers they could get were read thoroughly. In March 1940, Amy received a book titled Hitler Speaks,2131 and having read it Amy wrote, ‘This view of treaties left me speechless’. Also, ‘Please read and pass on. Do not keep it if you do not have time to read it. It is the key to much that is happening now’ and ‘after reading this book turn to such words as in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 and 24’. About Hitler she writes: ‘That man is not normal […] The primitive world has invaded the West.’ ‘His life was a feverish dream. He will be called the great culprit. He has achieved

2130. Quotations in Amy’s description of the ‘Upper Room Of Peace 1941’, printed paper, in the Dohnavur library. 2131. H. Rausching, Hitler Speaks (London: Thornton Butterworth Ltd, 1939).

Chapter 18

nothing, except destruction.’2132 For her he was ‘a mad dog’, and the ‘devil incarnate’. In the north of India a famine struck Calcutta and surroundings. Thousands died, and when the Japanese bombed Calcutta on 05 December 1943, the catastrophe was complete. Some German Sisters of Friedenshort in Dohnavur did not agree with her opinion about Hitler and thought him ‘perfect’. They could stay but were not allowed to give their opinion about the war and had to be quiet and keep a low profile in those years. The family knew what was happening in the world around them at that time through the broadcasts of the BBC and regularly a newsletter called ‘The Essence of Politics’ was available. In the middle of this shaky time, Amy updated Dohnavur’s history by publishing Though The Mountains Shake. In the midst of all tension, Amy encouraged the Fellowship members to be of good courage and to be of good cheer:

Wars and rumours of wars are everywhere now, and we know that dark days are coming on the earth; but through all the thousand clamours that even now we cannot help hearing, these calm words come like the sound of bells through storm: ‘We wait for Thy loving-kindness, O God, in the midst of Thy temple’ (Psalm 48, 8 Prayerbook Version).2133 In spite of the rising of food prices, in World War I as well as in World War II, all the necessary food was provided and even money to buy building materials. However, there was concern for some of the Dohnavur boys now serving in the forces and others in the Indian army and navy. Amy agonised about countries overrun by armies, like Poland and several others in the west of Europe. The children were also informed and together they prayed for children in danger and those living in the conflict zones. The more she thought of the sufferings in those war days, the more she longed for Dohnavur to bring comfort to the Lord. Dohnavur should be the place where he could have a rest:

I want Him to find here the cooling of His weariness [‘I will cool your weariness’ is the literal translation of Matthew 11:28]. As He passed beyond the reach of what we mean by weariness, and yet He is as He always was. The grief and suffering of the world touch Him, even There. So I want Him to find comfort here.2134 As has been said before, Amy liked nature, but we can say her love for animals, which also suffered in wartime, went too far. Elliot writes about her agony, her uncontrollable sobbing about London’s maimed dogs! In 1939 in a letter to John Risk, an officer of the British navy who was a member now of Dohnavur’s team, she wrote about the suffering of the people in Poland. ‘A thousand killed in one city, many while at prayer, many ill and wounded, and little helpless children and those beautiful Polish horses and dogs and pigeons.’

Amy lived life to the full in India. Since her arrival she had not even once left the country. The bungalow in Dohnavur would be her dwelling place until she was called home. Amy has set an inspiring example to missionary pioneers. For her God was a father and every land had a right to become a fatherland. She even took Indian citizenship. During all the Dohnavur years she saw many goings and comings of other missionaries: some went on furlough, others after having served for several years returned home. She stayed. We can wonder why she took the Tamil saying ‘children bind their mothers’ feet’ literally. This expression she often mentions in her books. She did not talk much about this issue but sometimes we see a glimpse of her considerations. There was a time when some people were waiting for the moment that Amy would leave the country on furlough, so that they could snatch a child from the Fellowship. This was also the case with Star’s parents, who held the opinion that a child itself must decide to be a Christian:

But if once they had her in her own hands she would not be this kind of Christian, but the harmless child. And no more understanding the bonds that bound my heart and tied my feet than the parents understood the

2132. In Chapter 18, p. 254 and 287. Interesting in what Amy wrote in the margin of page 254: ‘Is there heredity in this. The Jews intermingled with the worshippers of Baal – he is the grandson of a Jew.’

2133. In Thou Givest… They Gather, 88.

2134. In Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur, 304. thoughts of God for their child, my dear home-people wrote expectantly. They are all in the land of everlasting brightness; they know now why I could not return, And I think that they understand.2135 In December 1947 she passed a milestone – her 80th year. She had now been half a century in India; the years after the Second World War were full of concern about to whom she would hand over the leadership of the DF. She lived so near to God, whom she had trusted from the start of her pilgrimage.

For herself and ‘her’ precious children, she knew, ‘we are in God’s keeping’. All was safe and sealed and the best in front! What could death do to her, to that which is eternal? In her own words: ‘What is death but a door?’ It was the sign that her warfare was accomplished:

Oh, what they do miss who do not know that love is eternal. But death is not the end, it is only another beginning, and that which makes life lovable and glorious cannot die, for Love is eternal.2136 She had peace with the way the Lord was going with her. Reading Christ’s words, ‘I give you peace, Not as the world gives do I give to you’, she wrote in the margin ‘May 1948’ and the explication: ‘Christ’s bequest of peace is effectual, and actually bestows a permanent possession’.2137 Since her peace was well grounded not in circumstance but in the Lord, she could be free from dismay. Peace independent of circumstance. In her life she had learned acceptance, and that word opened – as she wrote:

[D]oors into rooms of infinite peace, and the heart that accepts asks nothing, for it is at rest, and the pilgrim of love does not need a map or chart: ‘I know my road, it leads to His heart’.2138 She had dedicated her whole life to serve the Lord. Next to the words of Luke 2:49, ‘And He said to them, “How is it that you sought Me? Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house”?’, she wrote in the margin at the end of 1926: ‘Whole life in a sentence’. Here other translations have: ‘In the things of My Father’, and Amy wrote here: ‘The Thing of a Day in His day’.2139 Of all the years she had been in Dohnavur she could say now:

As we look back on past years, they are full of memories of great sorrows and great joys also. If I were asked to give the sum of the years in a sentence I would write this: I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications. Never, never did He not hear. Never was He far away. […] If there have been sorrows, you will see how marvellous His loving kindness was. If there have been joys, it will be the same. If the time held just one steady round of service, it will still be the same. Every day, every hour will seem to you then as if these words were written across it: I love the Lord because He hath heard.2140 On her sickbed she liked to read Morgan’s The Acts of the Apostles2141. She got this book in 1947. Amy wrote on the first page: ‘Full of Light’ followed by a song of Madame Guyon who was in a French prison from 1695 to 1705:

A little bird am I
Shut from the fields of air;
And in my cage I sit and sing

2135. Ploughed Under, 102–103.

2136. Ponnamal, 118.

2137. In Temple, Readings in St. John’s Gospel, 2nd series, chapters XIII–XXI. Amy’s writing on page 248. The book is in the Dohnavur library.

2138. Gold Cord, 312.
2139. In Stevens & De Witt Burton, A Harmony of the Gospels, 29.
2140. In Whispers of His Power, 22 April, 89–90.
2141. C. Morgan, The Acts of the Apostles (London: Pickering & Inglis, 1924).

Chapter 18

To Him Who placed me there;
Well pleased a prisoner to be
Because, my God, it pleases Thee.
Nought have I else to do:
I sing the whole day long;
And He Whom most I love to please,
Doth listen to my song:
He caught and bound my wandering wing,
But still He bends to hear one sing.

After 1945, Dohnavur experienced several changes, which had a tremendous impact. The much-loved Murray couple left Dohnavur. Murray’s wife Oda could not bear it to send the two sons Hanmer and Michael all by themselves to England for further education. On 07 April 1945, she wrote in her diary ‘Feeling it impossible to sacrifice H. and M., rather leave DF. Asked for special word. 1 Samuel 1 and 2 given’. Amy saw Oda’s anxieties and her tired body, ‘a tired (ill) body, an overstrained mind are not responsible for feelings. […] The real Oda has twice shone through the mists the cruel enemy has flung around her’.2142

Oda felt she could not send the boys off and continue her work in Dohnavur. She also had to go and make a home for the boys. The three left and settled in Dorset, where Oda became a teacher in a girls’ school. The boys settled but Oda, born and raised in the Netherlands, found living in England far from easy and dearly missed Murray. Murray, however, could not decide what to do. Were there not two loyalties: Oda and Dohnavur? Murray, as he wrote afterwards, ‘was blind and wrong. She was right and bitter. We were drifting apart’. His mother Evelyn stood behind Oda and wrote to Rev. Aldis, whom Oda had asked to intervene. Evelyn saw that:

Miss. C. took possession of Murray and dominated him, although he seems quite unconscious of this fact. And to Murray she wrote: years ago you sought my council […] but those days passed, and another woman [she meant Amy] took that place, though you may not have realized it. The Lord has given me the victory, so it has not separated us, thank God. You know already the sorrows my dear daughter-in-law is passing through on account of my son’s view of the will of God for him preventing him returning to England to be with her and to make a home for their boys, which is breaking her. I have sought again and again to point out the duty of a husband and father in God’s word.

Rev. Aldis sent Murray a stiff letter and finally Murray gave in and decided to go. In this conflict of two loyalties, he chose his family, giving him peace in heart that the Lord would provide for Dohnavur and the hospital. Amy tried to be brave and wrote:

Murray dearest, are you breaking your heart because you think we won’t be with you if you have to do what you never meant to do? Don’t feel like that. Whatever you must do, we shall be with you in eternal love. Do you remember the golden days of 1928 when you became sonthum – days of heaven on earth. Nothing can take away those days away from us.

And to Oda went a letter in March 1947:

Oda belovest, you know without words to tell you, how much I rejoice in your brother’s safety. [Oda’s brother, stationed with the Dutch navy, was safe after the Japanese invasion.] Much love, darling – Your Amma.2143 If one was happy for Murray’s coming back to England, it was Norman Grubb, the author of the foreword in Follow My Leader. In 1947, 03 April, he wrote ‘I am specially looking forward to seeing Murray again’.2144

2142. In Makower, Follow My Leader, 155.
2143. In Makower, Follow My Leader, 158 and 159.
2144. Grubb, in Winter, ed., My Dear C.U.M.B., 79.

Murray went back to England in February 1948 and settled in Lymington, Barton on Sea, in Hampshire, where he joined his old friend Harold Ball in his medical practice. Murray did not get the measure of things. When he was doing his work, he often forgot he was not working in a Christian hospital and sometimes talked with the patients about Christ, letting other patients wait for a long time. He and Oda were involved in evangelistic work in the neighbourhood. They had warm contact with the InterVarsity Fellowship and with the Christian Medical Fellowship. He and Oda were always popular in the student world.2145 Murray was also a diocesan lay reader and preached once a month at Hordle Parish Church, three miles from Lymington. In 1976 his old friend Howard Somervell, who lived in Ambleside, in the Lake District, died and also for Murray the final drew near and on 05 January 1982 Murray went into the presence of his Lord. When asked ‘How will you go?’, his answer never failed to be ‘Gladly’.2146 Oda went to the Lord on 11 June 1984.

Amy wrote some letters, on 08 May 1947 and on 05 September 1947, to those who were now actively in charge. However, she was still seen as the leader of the Fellowship. Whatever decisions they made, if they were after consultation with the Lord, she agreed. She closed the letter of 05 September with ‘To you all, may you be ten thousand times more valorous than ever I was. Amma’. Then follows a P.S.: ‘Hitherto… Henceforth…. Amen. Alleluia’.2147

Murray’s brother, Godfrey, was now more or less in charge and in January 1949, was formally elected as co-leader. He could now make decisions without consulting Amy. Godfrey was loved and greatly respected by everybody in and outside Dohnavur. He was a great lover of nature – this he shared with Amy – and studied all the flowers, plants and mammals in the forest along the slopes of the mountains near Dohnavur.2148 God, however, had other plans. On 27 December he wrote ‘Forgive only a wee note, I am not very fit’.

More and more his limbs gave in and towards the end of January his lungs were affected and quite suddenly he was seriously ill on 19 February with a coronary thrombosis, and within moments was face to face with his Lord. It is recorded in the Dohnavur logbook: ‘Godfrey developed a thrombosis’; ‘Godfrey not too well – nor Amma’; and in capital letters: ‘GODFREY WENT IN TO SEE THE KING,

2145. Cf. N. Grubb in his letter dated 17 September 1966 to the C.U.M.B.: Murray Webb-Peploe, with Oda, was with us for the largest conference, and his Bible talk on Sunday morning on Isa. 58 was really an outstanding meeting (in Winter, ed., My Dear C.U.M.B., 148).

2146. Cf. Makower, Follow My Leader, 186. On 23 February 1982, Norman Grubb writes to C.U.M.B.: ‘I only heard this week from a friend in England who saw it in the Telegraph that our loved Murray has joined the other brethren with Jesus. This was special to me because Murray and I have been close since our prep school days at South Lodge Lowestoft! […] Then we joined in our life days at Trinity, when I was Sec. of the CICCU and Godfrey Pres., and then I think Murray followed Godfrey. Then came Murray, together with his brother Godfrey, in their years of fruitful co-working with “Amma” (Amy Wilson Carmichael) in Dohnavur. […] He used to help us in some of our Faith at Work Conferences and had very special gifts in bringing much illumination on passages of scripture. What a love-bond we all have together, and for eternity’ (in Winter, ed., My Dear C.U.M.B., 200–201).

2147. The two letters are in the Dohnavur library.

2148. See C.G. Webb-Peploe, ‘Field Notes on the Mammals of South Tinnevelly, South India’, Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society (April 1947).

Chapter 18

AT 7.30 P.M’; ‘Godfrey laid to rest’.2149 Amy, after having heard the news of his death, was strong and wrote: ‘Nothing is wrong. God had trusted us with a great trust, Godfrey is in heaven’.2150 And further:

Godfrey was with me last on his Coming Day, December 15th 1948. There was a sense of stillness about him, and of purity like the purity of our tall, white mountain lilies. He had often reminded me of those flowers, so tall, so pure, so fragrant, and on that day it was more so than ever. As he left the room, I remember saying to myself, ‘Will you walk across the Border before I see you again?’ […] I used to say to the Lord, ‘Lord, if Thou dost give those two brothers to be leaders of the Fellowship it does not matter what happens to me. Let me be broken if only they may be strong and fit’. They both have gone and I am left quite broken, but content, for I know that we are safe in the hands of the mighty and loving One to whom this Fellowship belongs.

Politically the 1930s and the 1940s were years of unrest. Mahatma Ghandi had become the most recognisable symbol of anti-colonial protest. In India, as in many Asian countries, the awakening of Asia’s peoples became an irresistible phenomenon, and many sensed the dawn of an era of liberation and fulfilment all over Asia.2151

‘Victory over India’ was the call in many cities and villages of India when the country was declared independent on 15 August 1947. In the south of India, the transition of power did not cause much turbulence, but when in India new laws and regulations were implemented, the result was many clashes and death all over the country, especially in the north. Blood was streaming in the streets of Calcutta, where many died, butchered by knives and hatchets. Hindus and Muslims were killing each other. The partition into the two states, India for the Hindus and Pakistan for the Muslims, was a price the leaders were prepared to pay, feeling that the greater good was a nation where peace among the majority of the people all over India could be secured. We see as a result that the partition and the violence in the northern Indian provinces confirmed the understanding of India and Indian in largely Hindu cultural terms. Many Muslims were forced to go to Pakistan. Of those who remained, many were killed but also Hindus who had lived for many generations in what now was Pakistan were not safe and fled or were killed.

Since India got independence in 1947, Hinduism has enjoyed a restored prestige. This uprising of Hinduism was partly due to the liberal views of the Bible colleges, and city churches abandoning their prayer meetings. Thousands of Christians remained untaught, un-shepherded, and bewildered by the Church, which did not care for them. Hinduism now hastily tried to win them back.

The year 1950 can be taken as a new turning point.2152 Some evangelical leaders shifted to a more Biblical theology in the historic Churches and the Holy Spirit was moving. A group of evangelical missionaries, with some Indian brothers, grouped themselves together to form the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI). However, the Church Union in South India at the same time did not make any significant advance in evangelism.2153

2149. In the logbook of the Dohnavur Fellowship, 19 January and 21 January and 19 and 20 February 1949 (in the Dohnavur library). In a note to the author from Dr J. Woolcock, from 1969 to 1987 physician in Dohnavur, she mentions she had heard Nancy Robbins saying that Godfrey probably died of a pulmonary embolus. This fits with the leg thrombosis recorded in Houghton’s book.

2150. See Makower, Follow My Leader, 164 and 165: ‘And said what we all with deepest thankfulness about Godfrey. God’s ways are not ours. We would have thought that Murray and Godfrey were most needed now at Dohnavur, but God has another plan’ (N. Grubb in Winter, ed., My Dear C.U.M.B., 30 March 1949, 82).

2151. For information about the struggle for independence in Asia and special in India, see ‘At the Stroke of the Midnight Hour: 1930–1948’, chapter 19 of Keay, India, 484–509.

2152. L. Lyall, Missionary Opportunity Today. A Brief World Survey (London: IVF, 1965), 63.

2153. See TKW (1964): 143.

In Dohnavur the work went on. Dr Nancy Robbins arrived in 1946 and, together with Murray, restarted not only the work in the hospital, but also evangelistic work after the war. They went to villages around Dohnavur where evangelistic and medical work went hand in hand.2154 After Godfrey’s death, a lot of work was now done by May Powell, with John Risk as a co-leader, but still Amy was seen as the head and, what was more, she was the ‘mother’ of the family, and nobody could replace her in that position.

After the war, Amy realised that new decisions for the Fellowship were to be expected and that changes would be necessary. All those years the succession in leadership was an issue, which always went with her. On 06 October 1946 she wrote a short letter to those who already did most of her tasks, after she grew weaker and weaker. We give the full letter, for here we see, that what she once wished in 1886 for the Welcome in Belfast is her wish 60 years later, for the DF too. She gives the new leaders the assurance that she would not put up barriers and gave them freedom to make new decisions. In a small letter she wrote:2155 There is one thing, which I have often said to you individually. I may have written it – I want to make sure you have it. It is this: When decisions have to be made, do not look back and wonder what I would have done. Look up, and light will come to show what our Lord and Master would have done. It may be that decisions, which seem to change the character of the work will now have to be made. But if the same principles which have grounded us from the beginning are held fast there will be no real change. The river may flow in a new channel, but it will be the same river. If you hold fast to the resolve that in all things Christ shall have the pre-eminence, if you keep His will, His glory, His pleasure high above everything then all will be well. Now to Him that is able to establish you, to the only wise God, be glory for ever. Your sontha (own), Amma.

The Fellowship had to think seriously about the education of the older girls, due to new government regulations, which forced schools to have qualified teachers with recognised diplomas in the classrooms. Not all the teachers in Dohnavur had the required qualifications. With great pain in her heart Amy consented for the girls to have their education in boarding schools outside Dohnavur:

We have begun to send some of our boys and girls to outside schools in order that they may get the school leaving certificate that is now necessary for almost any kind of training that had Government recognition. We hope in this way to gain Government-certificated teachers for our own schools so that we may, if possible, continue to run them in the way we believe the Lord had shown us.2156 Many boys now attended the middle school in Dohnavur town. Amy called them the ‘Gideons’, and the girls ‘Timothys’, a word from 2 Timothy 2:3 ‘Endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ’.

At that time, still some letters were handwritten by Amy. She also accomplished her great desire to keep the remembrance of Thomas Walker vivid and for the third time a book about her spiritual leader and friend appeared, This One Thing. It would be her last book and already the title gives us an indication of what really lived in Walker’s and Amy’s hearts. This One Thing would also be the last hymn, played from the bells in the House of Prayer, the day when Amy saw her Saviour face to face. The hymn ‘In Heavenly Love Abiding’, sent to her in 1949 by Bishop Pakenham Walsh, was with her during the last days. She re-read the words:

2154. Since 1930 outreach had already been done; as well as medical work, evangelistic work was done by the Webb- Peploe brothers. See for instance the story of the conversion of Siva’s Son, described in Godfrey Webb-Peploe’s Into Eternal Health (p. 4), the story of a patient who came to the Door of Health in 1932 where Murray Webb-Peploe had a clinic; this patient became a believer of Jesus Christ.

2155. In a small letter from Amy about decisions, dated 06 October 1946. In the Dohnavur library. Also in ‘Copy of a Note in Amma’s Handwriting About Decisions’ (in the Dohnavur library).

2156. In Dust of Gold, March 1949.

Chapter 18

Green pastures are before me
Which yet I have not seen,
Bright skies will soon be o’er me
Where the dark clouds have been.
My hope I cannot measure,
My path of life is free,
My Saviour has my treasure,
And He will walk with me.

She had the words of Revelation 2:9–10, ‘I know … Do not be afraid’, on a board on the wall in her room with a light over them. Some months before her death she wrote:

I know. The words contain unfathomable comfort for our pain.
How they can hold such depths, I do not know- I only know that it is so.
Fear not. The words have power to give the Thing they name,
for in an hour of utter weariness the soul, aware of One beside her bed is comforted.
O Lord most dear, I thank Thee, and I worship – Thou are here.
And two of her friends got these words:

When I am in pain or too tired to find words, I look at a picture of the Matterhorn and the lake at its floor, and I let it pray for me, for you. Let the strength of the mountains be theirs, the purity of the snows, the beauty of the blue water, the steadfastness of the rocks, the loveliness of the flowers on the banks and, above all, the joy of the little stream that flows forth to bless others.

Amy would have liked to settle all the things for the Fellowship before she was transformed to glory. She remembered the start of the DF nearly 50 years before and the situation now: what a difference! It was as if she was now in a beehive and many of the daily affairs and decisions in the Fellowship were now taken and done by others. One thing however was running through her mind. ‘Sooner or later we must give an account of our stewardship.’ She remembered the Italian proverb, ‘for the work begun God finds the thread’. It all started with God’s love for the lost little ones in south India to whom he had sent his faithful servant and given her the vision to start the Fellowship. Perhaps she saw herself walking in Japan, doing home visitations, with ‘God is Love’ embroidered on her dress.2157 Really, a walking example of God’s love. For us now we can say, she was a Christ-like missionary following her Master, but she herself, she was still climbing, knowing that the summit was so near. Amy, in times when mountains shook, knew: ‘Do the mountains shake that those things which cannot be shaken may remain? One of those things is the certainty of the fulfilment of the promises of God’.2158

The world after World War II was still shaken and India’s independence was not all that smooth. Would someone intrude in the small affairs of this ‘bee-hive’ in south India’s plains? Yet she knew, they were not their affairs and the unseen leader in his love would provide for all and for everything.

For a long time, she prayed that the Lord would take her away in silence; meanwhile she had a lot of concerns and thoughts about the leadership of the Fellowship. In private, she brought her petitions to God and with some of the foreign and local staff she talked a lot about this issue. There was no wavering in her confidence of his love or acceptance of his will, which sustained her through the physical sufferings, but her memory was busy. Some nights, due to pain or fear, she practically did not sleep and

2157. From Sunrise Land, 35.

2158. Though the Mountains Shake, 1 and 2. experienced what the Bible teaches, viz. that we are strangers and pilgrims here. ‘And all the things that happen are meant to emphasize that.’2159

She had given herself in loving loyalty and in an undivided allegiance to the Lord. Never was she disappointed by the way the Lord had dealt with her. She herself knew the truth, when near the end of her life she wrote to one of the children, that ‘His dear child is never, never far away from His loving heart’.2160 She waited to be with the Lord. For those who love the Lord – and not themselves – everything serves the purpose to ripen for eternity.

Amy had gone to India in 1895. During the whole period of 55 years, she never once left the shores of India. There was no such word as holiday in her vocabulary; her mission was to her a whole- souled passion, and every hour was devoted to her work for the children. She went out to make India the country of her calling, her very home. She even took Indian citizenship; therefore, furloughs for her would not be a regular right. Those working with her in Dohnavur she never discouraged from going on leave, for health reasons or other circumstances made it essential. For workers to have a time-out she encouraged them to take a break in the forest home or down south to the holiday home Joppa in Kanyakumari at the south coast. She herself felt attached to the land, the people and especially to the children for whom she was the mother. ‘A mother doesn’t leave her children’ was her answer when someone questioned her for not going on leave.2161 In The Starry Cluster Amy gives the following answer when the question was raised: ‘Why do you not go on furlough regularly and frequently in a usual way?’ ‘Because India is home to us; unless medically ordered, no one is willing to leave home.’ ‘Do you mean that you lost affection for your own people?’ ‘No; they become dearer as the years pass. But another love is given to us, and it holds us fast.’2162

It was not a sacrifice for her to lose her English identity and she let herself be bound in the bundle of life with her Indian brothers and sisters.2163 She knew that it was good to have a break from time to time. In preparing Ragland, she quoted his words:

Our Master does not give us two things to be done at the same moment; and He only expects what He gives time, talents, and strength for. This thought was most comforting to me, and was the means of keeping me quiet when I had much to think about, and wonderfully helped me in getting through work.2164 Amy had once read in an Australian magazine: ‘She hath neither rusted out, nor burned out. She is burning still’. Then she wrote the following words, which show her passion and the reason for her continuous work:

I prayed that it might be true of each one of us. We want most earnestly not to rust out, we would gladly be burned out, but till that day comes, the Lord keep us ‘burning still’. […] It is not the place where we are, or the work that we do or cannot do, that matters, it is something else. It is the fire within that burns and shines, whatever be our circumstances.2165

2159. Candles in the Dark, 70–71.
2160. Candles in the Dark, 108.
2161. Nesaruthina Carunia, in an interview with the author, 16 November 2013 in Dohnavur.
2162. In The Starry Cluster, 9.

2163. Cf. Overweights of Joy, 72: ‘But the more India becomes home, the more the longing burns within one that this land should be purified, swept clean from north to south as by a wave of fire; for if ever a people were created to be a crown of glory and a royal diadem, surely the people of India were. But to the one who writes, it seems true.’

2164. Ragland, 35.

2165. In Edges of His Ways, 17 December, 182–183.

Chapter 18

Faithfulness to her calling was for her faithfulness to her conscience. Her faith in God, always strong, though not effusive, had been strengthened by her experiences of the life in this forgotten place in the Tinnevelly plain, known to God. Here with the other staff members and all the children, she always felt heaven nearby and for her God, the children, holiness and heaven were the things worth living for. Nothing had been done for worldly fame, honour or name. The vision she got, since the first girl sought refuge in her arms and of her further life, had not been a mocking mirage. She did not see death until she had seen the realisation of her boldest dreams. From her sickbed, her eyes often went to a poster on the wall with an image of a large cross. That sign only kept her climbing, to be God’s ‘athlete’ in her bed. Was not the cross for her a constant reminder ‘of pain far greater than mine’? Elliot records that in one of her last letters she dictated these words: ‘I am very happy and content. Green pastures are before me, and my Saviour has my treasure – the DF’.2166 She longed to see him and to be with him, whom she had loved so long. ‘And not alone, oh, not alone, shall we see Him as He is! There will be the little children, too.’2167

It was enough: Jesus crowned her with glory and honour. Standing in the presence of her Lord and Saviour, she received ‘the crown of converts won for Him’.2168 God’s unseen appointed Shining Ones carried her on her so greatly desired journey. It was enough, in her death as in life, she uplifted the crucified Saviour, worshipped him all life long, loved him as he should be loved. The last hours were lit by his presence. Her life song to uplift her Saviour she continued with the angels and those saved by his precious blood:

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom
And strength and honour and glory and blessing.2169
The words of Whitfield Guinness echo what during her life was her heart’s desire:

I long to hear the chorus of all voices,
With sweet, harmonious swell,
Uplift the Name at which my heart rejoices, Immanuel!
The angels their melodious thunder bringing,
Its sacred meaning tell,
And all the host of blood-washed harpers singing, Immanuel!
The God of glory Who in love transcendent
Has stooped with man to dwell;
The crucified, the risen, the now resplendent. Immanuel!
The Name Whose meaning evermore remains
A truth unspeakable;
Which praised of all, above all praises reigns, Immanuel!

Amy’s life went on to a tranquil sunset, her affairs settled. Her health grew poorer as her expectations grew richer. Her physical condition had worsened after she had slipped and fell in her bedroom on 23 June 1948. She was seriously injured. Her right wrist was broken and her right hip badly damaged. For about 10 days after the fall, her life hung in the balance. Slowly the agonising uncontrollable pain had gone. She had returned – as the newsletter at that time wrote:

2166. In A Chance to Die, 331.
2167. Lotus Buds, 302.
2168. God’s Missionary, 52.
2169. Revelation 5:12.

[F]rom the threshold of Heaven to the drabness of battle. […] Those of us, who have been privileged to see something of her during these difficult weeks, have seen the power of our triumphant Lord victorious in her, day by day and hour by hour.

The following letter Amy dictated for the Dohnavur family:

Opals are formed in the depths of the earth, by pressure and intense heat. I feel that all the pain of these days is permitted, in order that these illustrations may not be mere words, but may be lived, and my message to you is: Do not be perplexed and troubled that the pain is not taken away immediately. God is working out some good purpose.2170 Finally, the ‘warrior’ had to stop her earthly battle; heaven was calling her. When she could bear it, her dear loved ones entered the room for a final farewell. Many prayed day and night for her during the last days she was with them. The last hours were made light by Christ’s presence. Three days before the end came she went into a coma and died peacefully in her sleep. She died in the way she had prayed for so long. The New Year 1951 had just begun when it went around the world: ‘Amma, glorified on January 18th, got her Eternal reward’. Now in the Land of Welcome with her Master whom she loved and had served faithfully for more than five and a half decades, without one day off, in India.

It was enough: received in the Celestial City, she saw Jesus crowned with glory and honour. Standing in the presence of her Lord and Saviour, she received ‘the crown of converts won for Him’.2171 In her death as in life, she had uplifted the crucified Saviour, worshipped him all lifelong and loved him as he has to be loved. She expressed the essence of her lifework in these words about love. Asking, ‘Lord, what is love?’ she got the answer:

Love is that which inspired My life, and led Me to My Cross, and held Me on My Cross. Love is that which will make it thy joy to lay down thy life for thy brethren. Lord, evermore give me this love. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after love, for they shall be filled.2172 Many years ago, she had underlined the words of one of England’s martyrs, ‘that her death might be more glorious to the name of God, comfortable to His people, and also most uncomfortable to the enemies of God’. ‘As for death’, the martyr said, ‘I do not greatly heed it; when I behold the amiable countenance of Christ, my dear Saviour, the face of death doth not greatly trouble me’.2173

Women have always played a crucial part in the spread of the Gospel through overseas missions.2174 May we all live in full consecration as Amy did, and whether we ‘fall asleep in Jesus’, or remain until the Lord’s return, may we be faithful! As a pioneer missionary in south India she pointed out for us the areas, the possibilities, suitable for immediate evangelisation. When we have ceased from our noisy controversies, there will be silence enough to hear the voice of him who sends and commands: ‘Go Ye’. Amy heard and obeyed. She followed unto the breaking of the bread and unto the drinking of the cup of the passion and did the work in Dohnavur:

2170. The specifications about Amy’s accident in 1948 and her message are in ‘Note about Amma’, a special letter to the Dohnavur family, edited by Dr Nancy Robbins, August 1948. The letter is in the library of Rev. Doug Curry in Liss. 2171. God’s Missionary, 52.

2172. If, 82.

2173. Words of Miss Lewis, in A.C. Fox, Book of Martyrs. A History of the Lifes, Sufferings, and Deaths of the Early Christians and Protestant Martyrs, ed. W. Byron Forbush (Grand Rapids: Zondervan (Clarion Classics), 1967 [1926]), 838 (in the Dohnavur library).

2174. For an example of women’s contribution to mission, their faithfulness and compassion, see Griffiths’ Not Less Than Everything: ‘We meet ordinary women of extraordinary guts, faith and tenacity’ (in the foreword, page 9).

Chapter 18

But at this cost, that thou must first be burnt.
Burnt by red embers from a secret fire,
Scorched by fierce heats and withering winds that sweep
Through all thy being, carrying thee afar
From old delights …..
Not otherwise, and by no lighter touch,
Are fire-words wrought.2175
Hear and obey, for Amy knew:

[T]he time for choice is passing, and the chance to choose comes only once. I have often sat on the rocks by our mountain river and known that never once for one moment was I looking at the water of a moment before. It was passing, always passing, its several drops never for one instant held in suspension, never separable, never to be recovered. The several minutes, hours, days that make up the sum of life are like the drops that make up the sum of the river. They are flowing, flowing, flowing, and not one can be recalled. Soon that measured mile of water we call the term of human life will have passed. How shall we wish that we had chosen when the last drop has been received into the waiting sea?2176 Throughout her life all the little single fragments of her frail body and strong mind that she could offer were laid in her Master’s hands. He had blessed it, broken it, and multiplied it for the feeding and saving of thousands in south India. Newell’s words were in her heart:

I heard His call, ‘Come, follow!’– that was all! My gold grew dim: My soul went after Him. I rose and followed – that was all: Who would not follow, if they heard Him call! God in His goodness gave us from the first those who responded at once to the confidence we offered them. In India the ideal of a consecrated life is a life with no reserves – which seeks for nothing, understands nothing, cares for nothing but to be poured forth upon the sacrifice and service. […] Who, to whom the ideal is indeed ‘The Gleam,’ that draws and ever draws the soul to passionate allegiance.2177

In his likeness

O Love Divine, if we can see
In our beloved so dear a grace,
When Love unveils, what will it be
To see Thee face to face?2178

Again, for a short moment we zoom in on her last days on earth. She got her reward: to see and to be with him so dearly loved by her. ‘Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.’2179 Now all the old idiosyncrasies, all the ‘things as they are’ she had seen, and which she had refused to live with, all the sins, all the failures in character and temper, were now gone forever. Glorious moment, for now she was like him. Crosby’s hymn2180 so well fits here for this moment:

Some day the silver cord will break,

2175. In Windows, 237.
2176. Windows, 238–239.
2177. Lotus Buds, 218.
2178. Gold by Moonlight, 50.
2179. Revelation 3:10.
2180. Fanny J. Crossby (1820–1915): ‘Some day the silver cord will break’ (1891).

And I no more as now shall sing;
But, O the joy when I shall wake
Within the presence of the King!
And I shall see Him face to face,
And tell the story, saved by grace:
And I shall see Him face to face,
And tell the story, saved by grace. 2181

‘He knows where to find his willing hearts. He will not refuse to his dearest the joy that is bathed in the dews of Getsemane’, she once wrote.2182 At the end, writing of any kind became impossible; her last letter, undated, was written in pencil in large, sprawling letters, which straggled across the page: ‘Precious child. If so dear to me, what to Him? Amma’.2183

The last days were made light by his presence. And then Amy had to lay down her pen. Her hands with which she had carried many a stone for the many buildings in Dohnavur, hands that had drawn so many pictures to explain the beauty of God’s nature to the children, hands that were like a pencil in God’s hand, to write the name of Christ Jesus on so many hearts. Innumerable men and women, to this day, have been challenged to deeper devotional life and mission action by Amy’s gifted pen.

Once she had underlined the words in Lyra Sacra2184: ‘Heaven must be won, not dreamed’. She had fought the good fight and now for her war was over.

‘7.15 a.m. Amma went in to see THE KING’, was the entry in Dohnavur’s logbook.2185 Now her life journey was over, her warfare accomplished. Having fought the good fight, Amy, this lovely, Christ-like missionary, patiently, with the sense of his presence so near, crossed the ‘last defile’ and slipped quietly home on 18 January 1951, after about 65 years of unbroken evangelistic missionary work in Belfast, Manchester, Japan, Ceylon and India. Early morning her Saviour said:

‘Let us go over to the other side’.
Twas but a step for His victorious feet
From their day’s walk into the golden street.

God in his wisdom and love removed his servant from the scene of her untiring labours. Amy, this Christ-like lady, who had folded her arms around those who sought refuge; she, who had so often had children on her lap who felt safe in her arms, she now felt God’s arms around her. In a hallowed and unhindered communion and abiding in Christ, she sings:

Both Thine arms are clasped around me,
And my head is on Thy breast,
For my weary soul has found Thee
Such a perfect, perfect rest
Dearest Saviour,
Now I know that I am blest.2186

2181. Fanny J. Crossby (1820–1915): ‘Some day the silver cord will break’ (1891).
2182. Thou Givest … They Gather, 186.
2183. Thou Givest … They Gather, 125.

2184. In H.C. Beeching (ed.), Lyra Sacra. A Book of Religious Verse (London: Methuen & Co., 1903), 264. The book is in the Dohnavur library.

2185. The logbook of the Dohnavur Fellowship, 18 January 1951 (in the Dohnavur library).

2186. A Moody song. See also in J. Hudson Taylor, Union and Communion, ‘Thoughts on the Song of Solomon’, page 69.

Chapter 18

Now she would have ‘all eternity to celebrate the victories’2187 and in heaven she would see what she once wrote: ‘And not alone, oh, not alone, shall we see Him as He is! There will be the little children too’.2188 She could now touch the words of Psalm 16:11 for which she had longed all her life, ‘Close to Thee forever – that is Heaven’.2189 To see the Lord will be heaven.

Nesaruthina said to me, ‘Amma died with an angelic face’.2190 She died ‘clean’,2191 whether a death to self, to the world and to life itself. ‘One thing I have desired’, her deep longing, and God granted Amy Carmichael’s desire. Her desire dawned to full realisation on 18 January 1951.

An awe went over the compound in Dohnavur after having heard the news. For the whole day from the tower of the House of Prayer the joy-bells rang and played Amma’s most favourite song:

One thing have I desired, my God, of Thee,
That will I seek – Thine house be home to me.
I would not breathe an alien, other air
I would be with Thee, O Thou fairest Fair
For I would see the beauty of my Lord,
And hear Him speak, Who is my heart’s Adored
O Love of loves, and can such wonder dwell
In Thy great Name of names, Immanuel?

Thou with Thy child, Thy child at home with Thee - O Lord my God, I love, I worship Thee.2192 Amy lived to a veritable Biblical age. Death was the end of the first volume, and the beginning of another volume which has no end, the contents of which are beyond description, to see her Saviour and the marks of his wounds. She had wondered what it would be:

What an awakening, one who has walked with Him in the twilight must have, when suddenly she awakes in His likeness and the light is shining round her – all shadowy ways forgotten.2193 The long journey from Millisle to Dohnavur had ended and now she did not see the grief of so many children and the emptiness of a life without Christ, but heaven, the eternal home, and the Saviour face to face. A few days before her death she said farewell to Alison, who for health reasons had to go back to Australia: ‘Alison, we won’t meet again in this world. When you hear I have gone, jump for joy!’ When entering heaven Amy may have heard the song – ‘Jesus Loves Me, This I Know’ – the children sang in Harrogate the day she gave her life to Jesus. Now greeted by many little ones when she entered the gates of splendour. The song summed up her life, message and ministry:

Jesus loves me, he who died Heaven’s gates to open wide; He will wash away my sin, Let this little child come in. Yes, Jesus loves me… the Bible tells me so.

2187. Things As They Are, 158.
2188. Thou Givest … They Gather, 302.
2189. Thou Givest… They Gather, 192.
2190. Nesaruthina Carunia, in an interview with the author, 16 November 2013 in Dohnavur.
2191. Thus Amy described the death of Raj in Raj, Brigand Chief (Elliot, A Chance to Die, 228).

2192. In Dohnavur Songs, 140; Ploughed Under, 83; Toward Jerusalem, 126. For the ‘joy-bells’ see Gold Cord, 85. 2193. Candles in the Dark, 68.

Even today in Dohnavur the Easter service is at the break of dawn. The Fellowship gathers, when it is still dark, with lights and move forward to God’s Garden and walk around the place singing songs of Easter that those sleeping in the graves would rise. The choice of being together in God’s Garden is very appropriate, as Amy’s life was fragrant with grace and pointed to the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amy would have rejoiced to be in such company, because she shared their secret of triumph over death.

As Amy had once arranged during the funeral of Ponnamal,2194 so it was during her own last earthly journey. ‘Funeral: the word where the holy dead are concerned should be a singing word’; these words2195 refer to Ponnamal’s burial, but it can be said also of Amy’s funeral where songs of triumph were sung.

First she was carried to the Dohnavur church so that the people who so loved her could see her face once more. Bishop Selwyn, an old friend of Amy’s in India, led the service, with others taking part. So many attended the service, Christians and Hindus, who with their presence thanked her for so much love given to them. The boys and the men lined up as a kind of bodyguard and at Amy’s own request, the older servants, with Per,2196 were her bearers; meanwhile Tamil songs were sung, and love and tears were from Tamil hearts. In the church 1200 to 1500 cards were distributed with verses telling of eternal life and the way of salvation. The chimes in the tower rang out the tune of Alford’s ‘Ten Thousand Times Ten Thousand’:

Ten thousand times ten thousand What rush of alleluias
In sparkling raiment bright, Fills all the earth and sky!
The armies of the ransomed saints What ringing of a thousand harps
Throng up the steps of light: Bespeaks the triumph nigh!
’Tis finished, all is finished, O day, for which creation
Their fight with death and sin: And all its tribes were made!
Fling open wide the golden gates, O joy, for all its former woes
And let the victors in. A thousand fold repaid!
O then what ruptured greetings Bring near Thy great salvation,
On Canaan’s happy shore; Thou Lamb for sinners slain;
What knitting severed friendships up Fill up the roll of Thine elect,
Where partings are no more! Then take Thy power and reign:
Then eyes with joy shall sparkle, Appear, Desire of nations,
That brimmed with tears of late; Thine exiles long for home;

Orphans no longer fatherless, Show in the heavens Thy promised sign; Nor widows desolate. Thou Prince and Saviour, come. 2197

Amy was brought to the House of Prayer where the Fellowship held their own service in which the Lord was glorified. John Risk read Matthew 25:21; 2 Timothy 4:6–8 and Philippians 1:19–21, and after thanksgiving and prayer, all moved slowly to God’s Garden, singing all the time Alleluia! The strife is o’er, the battle done2198 and the children waving ferns as a sign of victory. Meanwhile the joy bells rang. It was

2194. See Ponnamal, Chapter XVII, 116–118.

2195. In Ponnamal, 116.

2196. Per was the intermediary between Dohnavur and the two fugitives, Raj and Chotu. Amy highly loved him for his zeal to teach the people of the love of the Lord Jesus. He was ‘a man dedicated to a crusade, ready to bend every power of mind and body to a high ambition, and to sacrifice all the softer things of life’ (Hopkins, Raj the Dacoit, 159). 2197. Rev. Henry Alford (1810–1871). In Golden Bells, hymn no.558, London: Scripture Union, n.d., 185. 2198. Composed by Giovanni P. Da Palestrina, 1591, under the title Finita iam sunt praeli. Text from 1695 translated by Francis Pott (1832–1909), in Golden Bells, hymn 165, London: Scripture Union, n.d., 58.

Chapter 18

Amy’s wish, as they rang when in the Pilgrim’s Progress the pilgrims left their mortal garments behind in the river. So for her, too, the joy bells rang when she was met by the Shining Ones and went up through the regions of air.2199 The girls dressed in white and yellow, the Dohnavur festival colours, and the little ones in blue, which stands for love, a big procession moved toward God’s Garden while songs of triumph were sung. A joy that Amma was with Christ and joy too, for once they should meet her again. Grief was there, but no gloom, for her body was sown as a seed to await its resurrection. Now the whole Fellowship gathered there and under a tamarisk tree Amy was put in her last resting place here on earth, while Devabakti read 1 Corinthians 15:50–58. All the graves in God’s Garden are equal, with no headstones to mark the graves; the only identification is a brick at the burial spot.2200 Even so Amy’s grave, but a little later a humble bird bath was placed beside it. The word written on it says everything, Amma (Figure 37).

As a woman she had lived close to earth; as a Christian, close to heaven. The long journey was over. A pioneer until the end. Her death was not an epilogue to a life fully lived, but the prologue to a still more abundant life. The far views of the Indian mountains are replaced by the still grander and more glorious prospects of ‘the land that is very far off’ in the nearer presence of ‘the King in His beauty’.

From all over the world many gave their recollections of her. From Chicago Norman Grubb wrote: ‘We think with joy of the old warrior, Amma, Miss Carmichael, at last with the Lord, and pray for Dohnavur’.2201 In the opening meeting of the 1951 Keswick Convention tribute was paid to Miss Amy Carmichael, who ‘recently had been called into the fuller life of heaven’ and ‘who had been closely associated with the Convention’. Amy’s poem ‘From prayer that asks that I may be’ is printed in full on the first page of the 1951 yearbook.2202 Her first biographer, Rev. A.T. Houghton, presided the Missionary Meeting of the 1953 Keswick Convention and referred to Amy ‘who rendered valuable service’ and who ‘established in India the great work among the children at Dohnavur’.2203 Mr John Risk, missionary in Dohnavur, commented:

A home was in existence where nearly 900 children were being cared for. […] The Vision Beautiful had to be translated into action, and the devil would fight every inch of the way with all the weapons at his disposal. Mr Risk concluded with a poem of Amy’s, ‘March on in strength, my soul. The sky is red’.2204

In her youth, Amy had first heard the question of the Shorter Catechism ‘What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?’ In her long life she had rested in the answer:

The soul of the believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection.

In many annals of missionary enterprise, Amy’s name will be mentioned as a missionary pioneer par excellence! We think of the blessedness and privilege of this life, which began in Millisle with sacrificing a doll2205 and ended in India by giving her love for India’s children.

2199. Cf. Fragments That Remain, 144.

2200. The pattern of God’s Garden in Dohnavur was according the plan of the earliest Quaker burial grounds which had no markers. Cf. Birkel, Silence and Witness, 111.

2201. In Winter, ed., My Dear C.U.M.B., 89.
2202. TKW (1951): 4 and 1.
2203. TKE (1953): 137.
2204. TKW (1953): 140–141.
2205. Cf. Amy’s own words: ‘Training of the right kind of missionary begins in the nursery’.

Source: © J. (Hans) Kommers.

FIGURE 37: Amy’s last resting place in ‘God’s Garden’.

I heard His call, ‘Come, follow!’- that was all!

My gold grew dim:
My soul went after Him.
I rose and followed – that was all:

would not follow, if they heard Him call!

W.R. Newell

O Jesus the Crucified I will follow Thee in Thy path. Inspire me for the next step, whether it leads down into the shadow or up into the light. Surely in what place my Lord the King shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will Thy servant be.

Trotter, Parables of the Cross, 36.