The wish of Ellen, which she gave expression to, as she narrated her
visit, unlike most earthly wishes, was, in the space of a year or two,
abundantly realized.
Through the instrumentality of Agnes and her devoted husband, a neat
little church was erected; a school-house quickly followed; a minister
and teacher were obtained; the people, stimulated by their example,
rebuilt and improved their dwellings; began to cultivate their land, and
that with such success, that fruit and flowers, and shady trees, and
fields of waving grain, were, in a comparatively short time, to be seen
in every direction, so that with regard to those changes, and the
instrumentality through which they had been effected, it is little
wonder that Mrs. Williamson, as she pointed them out to her family,
would now and then exclaim,--
"The wilderness and the solitary place were made glad by her, and the
desert rejoices and blossoms as the rose."
Verily Agnes Bernard has her reward now, in the enjoyments which cluster
so thickly around her; in the happiness of which she is at once the
dispenser and partaker; but how greatly shall it be increased, when,
from a Saviour's lips, shall be heard the welcome plaudit:--
"Inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these, ye did it unto me.
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