Letters: Mr. Robert Young Edinburgh (1) - Bonar, Andrew

AFTER MRS. BONAR’S DEATH
GLASGOW, 17th Oct. 1864.
MY DEAR MR. YOUNG,
—This has been an awfully sudden and solemn stroke. All went well till the afternoon of Friday—nothing indeed to startle us till about six o’clock, and in three hours all was over. . . . During the three hours she was at last only half-conscious—no pain at all—but rapid breathing and restlessness. Not long before she passed away I said, ‘I know you are leaning on Jesus.’ She tried gently to speak, but in vain, and soon the breathing became lower and lower, till she sank, we believe, into the arms of Him who loved her more than any of us ever did, for He gave Himself for her. It is bewildering still—so sudden. . . . O how stunning the thought from time to time, ‘Isabella gone!’ What an awful blank! for there could not be a happier home than she made mine to be. But the Lord has said, ‘Them that sleep in Jesus He will bring with Him.’ O that the day were come! . . . I know how Mrs. Young will feel. It is the quenching of a long and happy friendship till it be relighted up in Glory. You will both pray for me and mine. We need it—for it would be bitterer still were we to suffer all this in vain. Will you ask that the children may know (and I also) what that means, ‘When . . . mother leaves me the Lord will take me up,’ —becoming Himself mother in every way, and Himself taking her place to do and to be all.—Yours truly, my dear Mr. Young,
ANDREW A. BONAR.