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 FRIEND of Miss Nickerson said, regret- 
 
 fully: If she had died on the land we could 
 
 put up a stone to mark her grave/^ Another said: 
 ^^We may place the memorial where she worked, 
 and that would please her more.^^ So the plan 
 grew to build a house at Lucknow in her name 
 for our Bible women as a tribute to her worth and 
 a memorial of her life and work. To add to the 
 fund for that purpose this little sketch is written. 
 
 ISABELLA THOBURN. 
 
I FIRST saw Florence Nickerson at Columbus, 
 in May of 1880, when she came to offer herself 
 as a missionary candidate at the meeting of the 
 General Executive Committee of the Woman^s For¬ 
 eign Missionary Society. I remember, as though 
 I had never seen it otherwise, the pale, resolute 
 face, still bearing the impress of the conflict that 
 had taken place within. She loved her friends 
 with an intensity of afPection that measured the 
 depth of her suffering in parting from them. One 
 of the committee who saw her then said to me 
 since her death: ^^She was broken-hearted before 
 she left America.^’ Not that, but she suffered cru¬ 
 cifixion on the cross which she had taken up to 
 follow her Lord, and, risen with him,^^ she walked 
 in the sunshine of His face; and hers was bright 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON 
 
 enough when I saw her again in Lucknow, where 
 she had been a year at home and at work, when I 
 returned in the Autumn of ^81. Her letters to her 
 friends at that time show that she was not only 
 cheerful but very happy, and full of hopeful plans 
 for usefulness. She wrote: ^^For the first few 
 weeks I was home-sick, but that is past, and I am 
 so glad God ever called me to this field of work. 
 Our home is so nice. The presence of the Holy 
 Spirit is felt in every room, and I pray God may 
 so abide in me and so influence every act, that I 
 may be an added blessing to this home.^^ 
 
 Miss Gibson, who was her first co-laborer, writes 
 of her: remember how we all loved her in the 
 
 first days of her stay with us, while we were to¬ 
 gether at conference, and how glad we were when 
 her name was read ofi* for Lucknow. She became 
 an inmate of our home and at once entered into 
 its spirit of loving fellowship. Toward the close 
 of the first year she became Housekeeper,^ and 
 we remember how her dear hands rearranged and 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON 
 
 freshened up our home for the comfort of us all. 
 We had just gotten our work for the year well in 
 hand when my own illness brought from her heart 
 and hands a wealth of loving service and most 
 sisterly care. I believe that^ as much as to any one 
 thing, I owe my life to her unwearied labor of 
 love. Later in the year when Henrietta, one of the 
 Lord^s ‘gathered jewels,^ in the last days of her 
 illness was . brought from the school to the house 
 to receive more special care. Miss Nickerson left 
 nothing undone to make her last days full of peace¬ 
 ful comfort. So it was given her in that first year 
 not to be ministered unto but to minister. She 
 bravely bore up during that initiating, transplant¬ 
 ing period, under hard trials in her work and study, 
 doing earnestly and well what she could.^^ 
 
 She had a peculiar fitness for nursing the sick 
 that I heard one who had seen her call a gift. The 
 same sisterly hand and heart that Miss Gibson 
 speaks of ministered to me the last few months I 
 spent in the happy Lall Bagh home, and not in 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON. 
 
 one thing did her kind thoughtfulness ever fail. 
 But her helping hand reached out not only to sister 
 missionaries and school-girls^ but to the poor and 
 needy, by whom we were always surrounded in 
 India, to every one whom the love of Christ had 
 taught her to consider her neighbor. 
 
 One day she came in from the zenanas bring¬ 
 ing in the carriage with her a poor creature whom 
 she had picked up in passing through the bazar. 
 She was a European woman, young, but worn with 
 dissipation, in soiled, torn clothing and wretchedly 
 ill. Our house was full and Florence took her 
 charge into her own daintily kept room, had her 
 bathed and dressed in her own garments and cared 
 for her in every way until she seemed better and 
 able to be removed to the Home for Homeless 
 Women, then being prepared just across the way. 
 The day after her removal she was attacked with 
 delirium tremens and the same gentle hand that had 
 taken hers to support her unsteady steps in the 
 
 bazar was there the night long to restrain her mad 
 
 6 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON. 
 
 ravings. Not only personal service was freely given, 
 but during the following months, while the woman 
 remained at the Home under Miss Blackmar^s care* 
 Miss Nickerson’s purse paid her board and all 
 necessary expenses. 
 
 The same private purse was always open to 
 help both work and workers, *not only in subscrip¬ 
 tion books, but in ways known only to the recip¬ 
 ients. This was particularly the case at Pithora- 
 garh, where the people were so very poor and 
 where it was difficult to obtain money for the work. 
 Very little of her salary was spent on herself. 
 Much as she liked beautiful things, her own room 
 was kept plainly furnished and the comforts and 
 ornaments she thought she might indulge in were 
 placed in rooms shared in common by the family. 
 Once when I was having a little room done up, in 
 which the girls might see their parents when they 
 came to visit them, she brought pictures, a book¬ 
 shelf and finally curtains from her own room to 
 make the place attractive. 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON 
 
 t ' 
 
 So many, many little incidents come to my mind 
 as I write and if our fellow-laborers in India had 
 the privilege they would give numberless instances 
 of her faithfulness in all good works. 
 
 The following is from the Indian Witness, 
 written by Miss Nickerson’s successor in work at 
 Pithoragarh: 
 
 A REMIKISCEHCE OF MISS EICKERSOK. 
 
 SiK,—One day a man came to the school in Pithoragarh 
 bearing on his back his girl, whom, thinking she was dying, he 
 wished to make over to the school, and so be saved further 
 trouble and expense. A miserable object in human shape it 
 was, but it had a soul and to help and save souls Miss Nick¬ 
 erson had come across the waters. That little diseased one 
 was gathered into loving arms and there held night and day 
 and every remedy tried till she was cured. Two nights 
 the lady sat up with that little ,thing held in her arms so 
 that she might get rest some way. This little girl had been 
 in the village school and knew and loved Miss Nickerson 
 and begged her father to take her to the Christians, as she 
 wished to be buried there. She lives and is one of God’s 
 own little ones, saved through Miss Nickerson’s efforts. 
 And how many more are there of whom the same can be 
 said, “Saved through her!” The last great day will show 
 what her life was. Mourning hearts are left, a friend is 
 gone, one more sorrow is added to life’s cares for those who 
 
 8 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON. 
 
 still toil on and have the battle of life and sin to fight. 
 But He who is all tender love saw his tired child and gave 
 her rest. C. Grant. 
 
 Fatehgarh. 
 
 Miss Gibson says of her: I have seldom known 
 a heart as true to conviction of the right. 
 
 Dr. Mendenhall, who was her pastor at Clyde 
 and who preached the sermon at the memorial serv¬ 
 ice held there after the news of her death, said: 
 ^^Her leading characteristic was conscientiousness, 
 and this by nature as well as by grace. Before her 
 conversion she often wept tears of sorrow over her 
 condition and secretly cried for help; when 
 inclined to be gay and worldly she was sobered by 
 the inward voice. As a Christian her convictions 
 were profound, her inquiries strong and genuine, 
 her purposes sincere and noble.’’ 
 
 It is very easy in the best service to fill the 
 hands with mere routine work, and to be all taken 
 up with the business of directing and planning, to 
 the exclusion of the spiritual life of all, without 
 which works are dead. Miss Nickerson was 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON 
 
 particularly jealous about this and so desirous 
 that her work in the zenanas be not only a going 
 from house to house to teach or comfort^ but that 
 the power of the Spirit bear witness to the Word 
 and the women be truly converted. In a letter to 
 her secretary she wrote: Please, when you get 
 
 this, ask special prayer for the zenana-work in 
 Lucknow. So much depends upon the spirituality 
 of the missionary, assistants, and Bible-women, and 
 I feel that we—I—am not filled with the Holy 
 Ghost. Without help from above our work must 
 be in vain. I want this to be a most fruitful year.^^ 
 Her joy was unbounded when she believed that 
 one of these women had been born again. Though 
 much interested in the poor village people of the 
 mountains while she worked among them, yet her 
 special care was for the women of the zenanas 
 and her last wish that more missionaries be sent 
 to them. 
 
 She was born in Litchfield, Ohio, in 1853, but 
 
 from 1871 made her home with her sister in Clyde. 
 
 10 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON. 
 
 Her education was partly received in Oberlin, and 
 partly at the bigh-school in Clyde^ where she after¬ 
 wards became a teacher. She was converted at the 
 Lakeside camp-meeting in 1878^ and afterwards 
 joined the Methodist Church in Clyde. Again at 
 Lakeside she received a baptism of the Holy Spirit, 
 and a call to mission-work. Of her experience 
 there she said: ^^Last year I was so afraid of 
 Lakeside, and that God would meet me and trouble 
 me, and I said, unconsciously, perhaps, ^All of self 
 and none of Thee.’ He did meet me, O so lovingly. 
 This year I was afraid to come again, lest he might 
 make too great demands upon me, and I said, un¬ 
 consciously, perhaps, ^Some of self, and some of 
 Thee.’ Again, with even greater love. He has met 
 me and so wonderfully that my whole heart cries 
 out, ^ None of self, and all of Thee.’ ” 
 
 She once wrote from India what might have 
 been her testimony at any time after her consecra¬ 
 tion to the service of God: 
 
 ^^My life kept, not for me at all, but for Jesus; 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON 
 
 not for my safety, but for His glory; not for my 
 comfort, but for His joy; not that I may find rest, 
 but that He may see the travail of His soul and be 
 satisfied; kept to be His witness, that in me may 
 shine forth some tiny sparkle of His light and 
 beauty 
 
 After two years of happy work in Lucknow 
 there came a call for a missionary for Pithoragarh, 
 our most distant mountain station, several days’ 
 journey from a European residence. It seemed at 
 first that no one could be spared to go, but Miss 
 Budden was working there alone and was in fail¬ 
 ing health and had under her care a home for 
 women, a girls’ boarding-school and Bible-reading 
 in the villages; her necessity was greater than ours, 
 and Miss Nickerson offered to go to her relief. It 
 was no light thing to one who loved friends and 
 enjoyed social intercourse as she did. A year after 
 Miss Budden left the work for rest and medical 
 treatment and, with Miss Bowe, Florence remained 
 there a second year. Besides the duties of teaching 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON 
 
 and preaching, of relieving suffering and sympa¬ 
 thizing with sorrow, they had, in more than usual 
 degree, the care that comes into every missionary's 
 life—that of feeding and clothing the poor. The 
 women of the home were supposed to earn their 
 living from the fields around them and the school 
 girls also helped in planting and weeding, but the 
 harvest was often insufficient. Florence wrote: 
 ^^My thought has been taxed to the uttermost to 
 devise means to feed and clothe these women and 
 girls. I receive less than fifty dollars a month 
 from the mission and pay nearly half of this to 
 teachers and Bible women and with the rest piece 
 out the food and clothing of nineteen children and 
 twenty women. I sometimes wonder what I am 
 to do, especially since the wheat-crop failure, but 
 hope to get some aid in this country. 
 
 Pithoragarh is a high mountain valley and as 
 lovely a spot as any inclosed by the grand Hima¬ 
 layas. The villages nestling among walnut and 
 
 pomegranate trees and surrounded by terraced 
 
 13 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON. 
 
 fields of wheat or rice are very picturesque, but 
 within they are full of all uncleanness and life 
 there has its trials, even to those who are engaged 
 in the blessed work of trying to help and save. 
 
 And so the worker wrote: 
 
 Christ reigneth and will reign, even in Pitho- 
 ragarh. I have written it and repeated it over and 
 over, but with an awful ache in my heart, partly 
 occasioned by sad news from home and partly by 
 this neglected work.’’ 
 
 At the end of her second, year there she and 
 Miss Powe were both appointed to the Plains. 
 
 The following is her account of a trying experi¬ 
 ence at this time: 
 
 ^^As my successor could not at once take over 
 
 the Pithoragarh work it was necessary for me to 
 
 return for a short time. I left Bareilly January ( 
 
 17th and in company with Miss Knowles started 
 
 by way of Naini Tal, which we reached late in the 
 
 evening of Saturday. Sunday morning Pannah, 
 
 the man who had charge of my pony, sent in for 
 
 14 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON. 
 
 medicine, saying he was not very well. The med¬ 
 icine was sent at once and we went to church. 
 When we were returning the matron came running 
 to meet us with the news that Pannah was very 
 ill with cholera. We sent at once for Dr. Hum¬ 
 phrey, who came and brought the needed medicines 
 and pronounced the man in a collapse state. He 
 was a Christian and not afraid to die, but who 
 would care for his wife and children ? He placed 
 twelve rupees in my hand and said: ^ I leave the 
 children to you; care for them.^ 
 
 ^Ht was thought best, to prevent infection, to 
 send the man to the hospital. Mr. Kirk, always 
 very kind to the people, went with him and cared 
 for him. I was obliged to leave the pony and go 
 on in my dandi. I had a quick, nice journey from 
 Naini Tal to Almora where I was delayed a day 
 getting coolies for my dandi and baggage. I then 
 started and had gone over half-way of the sixty 
 miles to Pithora, when I was startled to meet on 
 the road Pannah^s wife, a former husband who had 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON 
 
 deserted her and turned her out of doors before 
 she married Pannah, and, to help him in forcing 
 her along, a government servant. The man had 
 been to Pithora before we left for conference, but 
 we had been assured by officials there that he had 
 no legal claim upon her. By false means he had C 
 succeeded in getting a government warrant from 
 Almora and was dragging the woman there in the 
 most shameful manner. When I met them I scarcely 
 knew her; she looked like a wild creature; she "" 
 had had nothing to eat for a day and a half and 
 the men had even sold a part of her clothing. At 
 first they were not willing to let her speak to me, 
 but after a command and a threat to report their 
 conduct, they stood aside and the poor woman told 
 her story. I did not know what to do. It seemed 
 as though I must go on to Pithora and yet Pan- 
 nah^s last words, ^ Care for them,^ rang in my ears. 
 
 I thought, perhaps I could report the case by 
 letter, but when the woman saw that I was pre¬ 
 paring to leave her she fell at my feet, pleading 
 
 16 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON. 
 
 me not to leave her and crying, know they will 
 
 kill me.^ As she clung to me the man raised his 
 
 stick to strike her and that decided me, although 
 
 the going and returning would give me five days’ 
 
 extra travel. I left her in charge of a Christian 
 
 servant, going a march and a half before dark and 
 
 the next day, by rising at four o’clock, I arrived in 
 
 Almora at one P. M. Kind friends there proved 
 
 themselves friends in need. We telegraphed to 
 
 know how Pannah was, and heard in reply that he 
 
 had died the day before. And at the same time 
 
 came a letter from Pithora to the lady with whom 
 
 I was stopping, saying, ^If you know where Miss 
 
 Nickerson is, please tell her to come on as fast as 
 
 possible. We are in trouble and need her.’ I 
 
 could not stay until the captive woman came, but 
 
 I left her case in the hands of our kind brother, 
 
 Kev. H. Coley, of the London Mission and the 
 
 next day I started again on my long journey. I 
 
 had gone about five miles when it commenced to 
 
 rain; then came sleet and then a blinding storm 
 2 17 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON 
 
 of snow. Once the wind was so violent I thought 
 it would be impossible for the men to go further 
 and they did put the dandi down with a groan, 
 saying they could not take another step. A promise 
 of good backsheesh stimulated them to further effort. 
 
 Only one man, the coolie who carried the provision f 
 basket, gave out, fell down and went to sleep. 
 
 The men tried in vain to make him get up and 
 walk and one of the dandi-bearers took him on 
 his back and brought him to the bungalow (the 
 little traveler’s rest house). How glad we were to 
 reach it! 
 
 The next day the sun came out bright and 
 clear, and although the mountain-paths were made 
 more difficult through snow and water, the light 
 of God’s countenance never was brighter; his pres¬ 
 ence, love and care never more precious. During 
 the many days of travel and anxiety—for you will ^ 
 remember I left Bareilly January 17th, and arrived 
 in Pithora January 31st—the 91st Psalm came to 
 
 me over and over again, with wonderful strength- 
 
 18 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON 
 
 ening power: ^He shall give his angels charge 
 over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. . . . He 
 shall call upon me and I will answer him; I will 
 be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and 
 honor him.’ 
 
 What of Pannah’s wife? The case was dropped 
 when the man confessed he did not want the woman, 
 but only wished to make her husband trouble and 
 get money from him. She was allowed to return 
 and is now in the Adeline Newman Home and her 
 three children in the school.” 
 
 Back in the Lucknow zenanas she spent her 
 fifth year in India. When leaving home she had 
 told her mother, who felt unwilling to let her go, 
 that she would return on a visit at the end of five 
 years, but as the time passed and she saw the 
 needs of the work and how few were the laborers, 
 she felt that she ought to stay. She wrote to her 
 mother: I want to see you all as much as you 
 want to see me, yet I dare not do a thing that 
 seems in opposition to God’s will. I am quite well; 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON. 
 
 quite able to remain another year. Several of the 
 ladies must return home because of ill health and 
 for me to return seems wrong. Mother, dear, if you 
 say stay ... I shall feel quite a burden lifted 
 and God will not only bless me and my work, but 
 will abundantly bless you all at home.^^ The ( 
 answer said stay and no home letter ever gave 
 Florence more pleasure, although during any year 
 of her absence she might have written as she did 
 once: Sometimes my heart grows faint with long¬ 
 
 ing for my very own. This has been a life-long 
 weakness.’^ 
 
 It is said sometimes now: What a mistake that 
 she did not come home a year sooner V’ No. She 
 made the choice of loving obedience to what seemed, 
 in the light given, the way of duty. She trusted 
 God and the issue is with Him, who,^^ as she wrote ^ 
 her friends, never makes a mistake.He is bless¬ 
 ing abundantly,^^ though now we only see clouds 
 and darkness. If Florence Nickerson had seen the 
 
 end from the beginning, had been told that after 
 
 20 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON. 
 
 six years of heavy responsibility and weary service, 
 her lonely grave would be in the sea, she would 
 not have faltered nor turned back. 
 
 During all the following year her health seemed 
 failing and it was plain that she must return, for 
 a time at least, to America. June 18th she wrote: 
 
 Since it has been decided that I go home at the 
 end of the year I can scarcely keep my thoughts 
 within bounds. Every night for the last week I 
 have dreamed of home and friends. You may pos¬ 
 sibly think I do not love India as I should. When 
 I think of my dear ^ Caroline mamma ^ and the 
 
 other Bible-readers and other friends, I wonder 
 
 % 
 
 how I can possibly leave India for two years, but 
 at once my mother’s face and a host of others 
 come before me, and my heart gives one great 
 bound with the thought that O, I am going home 
 next year! Then come other thoughts of parting 
 
 that make me almost wish, as-said, that we 
 
 were all dead. This leaving India and leaving 
 America is awful. Every year I have loved the 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON. 
 
 people and the work more. I do n’t know how I 
 shall ever leave it, even for a short time.” 
 
 As the hot season advanced she went for a few 
 weeks to the hills, but returned little better and 
 as time passed she was often unable to go out to 
 the zenanas at all. They tell us how she would 
 say, ^^If I can’t work with you, I will at least 
 make the home bright for you when you come 
 back;” and flowers were brought in and arranged 
 on the table and in each one’s room and little 
 things looked after about the house that are often 
 neglected in our busy life. 
 
 At this time she was superintending repairs on 
 
 the houses of some of our Bible women and she 
 
 was very much interested in the work, and often 
 
 expressed regret that she had not the means to have 
 
 it better done. To one of these Bible women, 
 
 Mrs. Caroline Richards, or, as she is called by her 
 
 friends who owe much to her motherly kindness, 
 
 Caroline Mamma,” she was much attached and 
 
 for her especially she wanted a nice house. I want 
 
 22 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON 
 
 Caroline Mamma to be comfortable/^ she would 
 often say. This woman’s last act when they were 
 leaving India was to slip into Miss Rowe’s hand a 
 little gift which was great to her means, to make 
 Miss Nickerson ^^comfortable” on her journey. 
 
 A change of place is often very beneficial in 
 India and in the latter part of September she went 
 for a few weeks to stay with some English friends 
 with whom she had rested before; but she was 
 failing rapidly and had to return to Lucknow for 
 medical treatment. A month later she was removed 
 to Cawnpore and to the perfect quiet at the girls’ 
 school during the vacation months. Miss Rowe 
 was her nurse and constant companion. She had 
 been associated with her during four of her six 
 years in India and she loved her most of her 
 Indian friends. Alone in the mountains, they used 
 to entertain one another in the evenings when 
 work was over, reading and singing together and 
 when they came back among us in Lucknow their 
 duets were very sweet, sung in voices that were in 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON. 
 
 sympathy as well as in harmony. Miss Rowe tells 
 us how they talked and prayed and sang together 
 at Cawnpore for the last time, the morning when 
 all the other missionaries were at conference in the 
 love-feast, always so blessed to those present. A 
 hymn that in those days she often asked for, some¬ 
 times over and over again, we copy entire, because 
 it expresses her last conscious hope and faith and 
 her friends have asked for its publication: 
 
 Since thy Father’s arms sustain thee, 
 
 Peaceful he; 
 
 When a chastening hand restrains thee, 
 
 It is He. 
 
 Know His love in full completeness 
 
 Fills the measure of thy weakness; 
 
 If He wound thy spirit sore. 
 
 Trust Him more. 
 
 Feareth sometimes that thy Father 
 
 Hath forgot? 
 
 When the clouds above thee gather 
 
 Doubt Him not. 
 
 Ever hath He comfort spoken; 
 
 Never hath His word been broken. 
 
 Better hath He been for years 
 
 Than thy fears. 
 
 24 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON 
 
 Without murmur, uncomplaining, 
 
 Follow on, 
 
 Saying, whatsoe’er God doeth 
 
 Is well done. 
 
 Bear to-day thy cross of sorrow, 
 
 Wear thy crown of life to-morrow; 
 
 Sing while calmly holding still! 
 
 ’Tis His will. 
 
 To His own the Saviour giveth 
 
 Daily strength; 
 
 To each troubled heart that liveth, 
 
 Peace at length. 
 
 Therefore, whatsoe’er betideth, 
 
 Know His love for thee provideth; 
 
 Do not question why or how% 
 
 Only bow. 
 
 In January after the meeting of the North 
 India Conference a final consultation of physicians 
 was held and it was decided that the only hope 
 for Miss Nickerson^s recovery lay in the possible 
 advantage to be derived from the sea-voyage to 
 America and treatment there. She was not able 
 to travel alone and Miss Rowe was selected to 
 accompany her. She bore the long railway jour¬ 
 ney to Bombay better than was expected, but 
 3 25 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON. 
 
 was not so well w^liile waiting there for the 
 steamer. Miss Rowe says: 
 
 ^^The last night of our stay she was very w^ake- 
 ful and delirious. Towards morning she asked for 
 the nurse, whom she seemed to think one of her 
 Sunday-school scholars. She said: ^ I love you; ( 
 
 you are a nice little girl. I want you to give your 
 heart to Jesus and do the work I have left in 
 India.’ These were the last coherent words she 
 spoke. We sailed on the 25th of January. From 
 the time we went to sea she daily grew worse and 
 Sunday the doctor said: ^ I am afraid Miss Nick¬ 
 
 erson is dying.’ From that time she lay in a 
 stupor; we longed for a word or look of recogni¬ 
 tion, but she gave no sign of consciousness. The 
 months of suffering had drawn lines of weariness 
 and pain on mouth and brow; but Monday evening 
 that look passed away and she lay restfully on the 
 couch in the cabin. It seemed that the Master 
 had seen us foiling in rowing’ and had come over 
 
 the water and said ^ Peace, be still,’ and there was 
 
 26 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON 
 
 a great calm. I held the little white hand until 
 the feeble pulse ceased beating, and we knew that 
 she was at rest for evermore. 
 
 The worn frame was prepared for burial and 
 very gently the strong sailors carried her to the 
 lower deck. At half-past nine the steamer was 
 stopped and in the solemn stillness the captain 
 read the burial-service. We were in the Gulf,of 
 Aden and the moon touched the rippling waters 
 with tender light as we laid her down in sure hope 
 of the resurrection.^^ 
 
 
 %\x pXjemjcrvianx. 
 
 BY REV. B. H. BADLEY. 
 
 Even so, our Father, in our tears we say: 
 
 What seemeth good to thee is best for us; 
 
 And while we weep, and mourn our heavy loss. 
 We bow submissively. Thy will be done. 
 
 But yesterday we sat and planned. “The sea,” 
 
 We said, “will surely bring her health and home.” 
 And so it has. The blessed land of health. 
 
FLORENCE NICKERSON. 
 
 Where sickness never comes, is hers to-day, 
 
 And she has reached the heavenly home above. 
 
 And joined tlie angelic company at home. 
 
 ’T was here she wrought with faith and hope and love, 
 At peace with God, upheld and kept by him; 
 
 An earnest prayer forever on her lips. 
 
 That God would kindly grant her great success 
 In winning souls. Here, in the darkened homes, 
 
 She went a messenger of light to all. 
 
 Zenana women are in tears for her. 
 
 She loved them so—her strongest argument; 
 
 The years to come will show the seed she sow'ed 
 Has bloomed and vielded rich and golden fruit. 
 
 “ Beloved, now are we the sons of God ; 
 
 It doth^not yet appear what we shail be.” 
 
 Thi^bften sang this sweet-voiced friend of ours. 
 
 , And sooner than she dreamed the Lord has come 
 ■ -' And called her to himself. She sees his face. 
 
 And with a clearer voice and happier song 
 She hymns his praises in the courts of bliss. 
 
 O restless, dark and deep Arabian Sea, 
 
 Thou hast no conquest in this tearful hour! 
 
 Thou, too, of God’s great acre art a part; 
 
 From out thy hidden depths, when God shall say. 
 
 The dead shall rise, and from thy coral groves 
 Shall plume their flight for blissful realms above. 
 
 And in the blessedness of heaven’s delights 
 God’s countless saints shall rest for evermore. 
 
 Lucknow, India. 
 
 28 
 
It