Page:Tributes to Helen Bell, Woman's Progress, April 1895.djvu/9

202 bringing some valued contribution from her ample store house and inspiration to the meeting.

As in literature so in art, beauty appealed to her. In her dainty painting on china, the touch is fine, the execution delicate. Nature, too, offered its charms, and therefore she loved and enjoyed travel at home and abroad. Her charity also was wide and catholic, including all kinds and conditions of men. No religious cant soiled her pure lips, but she loved the simple rites and hopeful faith of the church of her ancestors, the church known throughout Christendom for its missionary labors, its peaceful spirit, its quiet and unobtrusive piety. To the Moravian, after this earthly life, comes sleep—the green sod and the leafy trees adorn the resting place, from which the sleeper rises refreshed. Each Easter morn is welcomed with music by the living in joyous memory of those who have awakened into heavenly life. What could be more in keeping with her nature than this child-like faith?

Much time she had spent in quiet Nazareth, the home of many Moravian relatives. At Nazareth her uncle, Mr. Jordan, purchased for the home of aged and disabled missionaries of the Moravian Church a large house with lawn, but could not purchase a small house with some ground attached, because the owners were unwilling to sell. After the uncle's death Helen Bell found an opportunity of purchasing the desired property, and so complete the gift of Mr. Jordan, known as "The Ephrata Estate." She reserved a life interest—how short it proved!—in this part she purchased, and made the deed to the Moravian Society, thus manifesting affectionate regard for her uncle, and the missionary spirit which carried the love of Christ to all peoples. Such was the religion learned from her mother.

If happiness comes unsought to those who use their talents for the enriching of their fellow-beings, happiness sought her and possessed her. Her face told the story.

She was happy in doing what she loved to do; happy because success crowned her efforts in literature, in social life, in philanthropy; happy because she was appreciated by young and old; by men and women; by rich and poor; by learned and ignorant.

And why was she so beloved? The charm was not because of unusual attainments; not in what she said; not even in what she did. There was something more than attainment, or speech, or action. There was the attractive personality; the genial benignity; the generous appreciation; the contagious keenness of enjoyment; the child spirit of the happy now; the absence of anxiety for the future. There was a perpetual youth whose present moment is ever the fullest of life. Therefore, her coming was a joy; her leaving ever a sadness.

To women born and bred in the leisure class, she ought to be a stimulus to holy living; to the selfishly indolent, the victims of ennui and misanthropy, a perpetual rebuke.

Many there be who live to old age, but few accomplish so much as did this energetic devoted woman. Her going away was