“THE PATH I HAD FEARED TO SEE”
By David Paulson
A SCORE of years ago, a young woman went as a missionary to the Kongo region in the heart of Africa. After years of faithful service, she was about to return home for a vacation. Her baggage had been put on board the steamer, when she was suddenly stricken with Kongo fever, and died in a few hours. When her trunk was opened, there was found on the inside cover of her Bible, drawn in most beautiful characters, in different colored inks, this poem: I said, “Let me walk in the field.”
He said, “No; walk in the town.”
I said, “There are no flowers there.”
He said, “No flowers, but a crown.” I said: “But the skies are black.
There is nothing but noise and din.”
And He wept as He sent me back.
“There is more,” He said. “There is sin.” I said, “But the air is thick,
And fogs are veiling the sun.”
He answered, “Yet souls are sick,
And souls in the dark undone.” I said, “I shall miss the light,
And friends will miss me, they say.”
He answered, “Choose to-night
If I am to miss you, or they.” I pleaded for time to be given.
He said: “Is it hard to decide?
It will not seem so hard in heaven
To have followed the steps of your Guide.” Then into His hand went mine;
And into my heart came He;
And I walk in a light divine,
The path I had feared to see.
— George Macdonald. It was said of her that “the natives of the Kongo River simply adored her; her consecration, her purity of life, and her personal love for them, made her like a queen among them.”