the extent of my ability.
Three months later she was carried back to her home, a dying woman, to
end her days. We were able to ride out and see her almost daily, and
once we found her very happy because in a dream she had seen a messenger
who called to her to cross the river, and when she shrank back I had
been there to assure her that angels would receive her to her Heavenly
Home.
That day her husband came into the room, and in my presence she for the
last time pleaded with him to leave the ways of sin and seek forgiveness
through repentance. To our care she committed her child, asking that we
would see that it was brought up as a Christian, and she also begged us
to insist on a Christian burial for herself. To the schoolgirls she sent
the message that they must meet her in her Master's presence, and a few
hours later "the bells of the city rang out for joy, and it was said to
her: 'Enter into the joy of thy Lord.'" The wail that went up from the
schoolgirls when I told them, I shall not forget; she was the first of
our company to pass over. Two days later the pupils of her class and
ourselves gathered with the family for a simple service in the courtyard
of her home. On the coffin the words were written at her own request,
"Until He come"--symbolic of the hope which sustained her through those
years of suffering, and kept her eyes ever upward turned to the promise
of the great day of deliverance. A congregation of some hundreds
assembled to see the unique sight of so many girls mourning for a
teacher and following the bier to the border of the village. The girls
and their parents showed their appreciation of Ai Do and her work by
presenting a large banner to the school in her memory. It was unveiled
on their behalf by the elders of the Church, and above the names of one
hundred girls who had been her pupils were inscribed the words: "She
rests from her labours, and her works do follow her."
We returned to take up the work which she had left, but with heavy
hearts, and the school and my study seemed empty without her presence. I
missed her help in consultation over difficulties and dealings with the
raw material which came into our hands at the beginning of each term.
Who could replace her? Her friend and companion who had helped her
during the past months was the only one to whom I could look, and she
was seemingly of too retiring a disposition to bear such
responsibility; but the "trees of the Lord are full o
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