'Was that lovely young life wasted?

Was that lovely young life wasted?

Few names in modern missionary days shine with more splendor, than that of Harriet Newell . When eighteen years of age, she was asked to go to a foreign, heathen land as the wife of a missionary. It was not so easy then to go, as it is now; but she accepted the call and was soon on her way to India.

She and her husband arrived at length on the heathen coast, only to remain a few weeks and to be sent away. With heavy hearts they put to sea again. The young wife was stricken with fever, and in the autumn days, at the early age of nineteen, she joyfully surrendered her life to the service of her Savior.

Thus in one short year — the Christian woman became missionary, wife, mother, and was taken to Heaven. She seemed to accomplish nothing. She merely sailed away over the sea with a great love in her heart — only to be exiled, to die, and to find a grave amid strangers.

She taught no heathen woman; she told the story of redemption to no benighted soul. But was that lovely young life wasted? No, all this century her name has been one of the strongest inspirations to missionary work.

The story of her consecration has kindled in many other women's hearts, the flames of love, sending them to carry Christ to dark lands. God broke the alabaster casket which held her life — that the fragrance might flow out over the world.

We must get the same spirit in us, if we would become in any large and true sense, a blessing to the world. We must be willing to lose our life — to sacrifice self, to give up our own way, our own ease, our own comfort — if we would be truly helpful to our sin-cursed world.

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