Part 3 (1/2)
So far as I know this is the last letter she ever wrote On the 11th of May, Mrs Felts went hoave her tiht she would visit one or the other, often going fro but very little rest One day she remarked to Mrs
Felts: ”Alice, this is the only tie that I have ever wanted you back; when I gave you up, I did so freely and have never regretted it, and this is the first time I have ever really needed you since, and now the Lord has arranged it for you to be here”
On the 16th of May, ”Aunt Tamson” (Mrs Tamson Cuff, her oldest sister) passed away fro to look upon her lifeless form, she talked pleasantly with those around of the reality and glory of heaven, and ca:
”I know not the hour when my Lord shall come, To take me away to His own dear holoo off her bonnet, she said: ”Alice, attend to the work, Idown on the sofa, she wept freely for so herself, passed the evening in conversation with the daughters of the deceased On the next day, May 17th, she worked very hard intending to spend all the next day with her ht that _herup both hands, she uttered a wail of horror, such as none had ever heard froone; and I so selfish as to be about my work and not with her!” We replied: ”Butto spend to-one to day It was my selfishness Mother said she would die on the 18th and I intended to be with her on that day; but I ought not to have left her, I ought not to have left her,” she repeated
As quickly as possible she was at her mother's bedside and to her inexpressible joy found her _still alive_ She had sunk so low that life was thought extinct, but the Lord had revived her again and she still lived, and recognized her daughter She lived through the night and waited until the sun had sent his first beams to bless the earth on the 18th, when her happy spirit fled to its eternal home She had known it would appear for soo away It was the same day of the month and the same hour at which her husband died Side by side their ashes sleep in the old fa the clarion call of the resurrection trump
My mother turned not away from the corpse of her rave It was a work, she said, she could leave no stranger to do, and made the same request for herself ”Never allow ers,” was her request
On Saturday, the 19th of May, 1877, her sister, Mrs Cuff, was buried, and Monday following, (May 21st,) her rave After the funeral of themembers of the faether, she saying it would perhaps be their last time Froently reet sick, she replied: ”Oh! I will get over it, I guess; and if I do not, it is in the end life everlasting”
On the 28th of the month she was taken seriously ill and medical aid was su: ”I never was sick this way before” She talked freely with her children and would not be satisfied until she hadto work against their wish
During the last Sabbath she spent on earth, she fell into a gentle doze when suddenly waking, she said: ”What do you think I saw?” and then ht have been a drea Theoph and Cethe, in his arht being taken worse, the family watched with her and she re” Morning came, however, and she was still spared In conversation that day she said: ”I thought I was dying, but I felt cohter, Mrs Felts, was obliged to leave, she urged her to watch with great care over her little girl, saying: ”As you row I never could think my children were only for ht the training of ave et well,” said she, ”but anyhow my life is hid with Christ in God and to be where there is no more pain, where all tears are wiped away,--Ah, you need not wonder that I do not care to stay here I have been sick so ht with 'Aunt Taates, but then there's glory on the other side”
The next day (Monday) she appeared better, but during the night was again worse On Thursday, Father beco alarmed, despatched for the absent ones; she knew this and objected, saying it would produce needless alar frolory of heaven all around me!” Father burst into tears and she imh we knew she was dying, we said but little Who could talk? Her last audible words were: ”Though I walk through the valley and shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art withthe hand of her sister, added: ”I am deep down in the valley now”--”deep down in the valley, but glory to God,” she could say ”Thou art with me!”
Just three weeks after her mother's death, viz: Friday, June 8th, 1877, she passed away and there are now three fresh graves in that old burial ground
THE FUNERAL
On Monday, June 11th, 1877, a large concourse of people met in Trinity A M E Church, Gouldtown, to pay their last acknowledgements to this modest and excellent woman The corpse was neatly dressed and in the coffin lay quite a profusion of freshly blown roses The services at the church were conducted by Rev Redrave by Revs E J Hammet, G W Boyer and Dr H M
Turner All spoke eloquently of the virtues of the deceased After the coffin was lowered down in the grave and solee basket of white roses were distributed a relatives and friends, and each threw a handful of sweet flowers on the dust of her whom all had learned to love
And thus ends the earthly life of a noble woins! That life so illustrative of golden virtues and heroic principles, it is to be hoped will go down through the present and succeeding generations, lived over by those who dead,ones a God's children
CHAPTER V
RETROSPECTION
Shall we not now pause a rave, and look back over the pathway trod by thehere, embalmed in flowers, and call to mind anew the virtues she possessed
We have seen her in thethe duties of wife and er sphere of Christian labor, which she filled in the church and in her community
In 1846 she became an earnest and zealous follower of the Lord, and united with the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Gouldtown, of which the Rev (now Bishop) A W Way a period of affliction, and I think the lines written in that year and bearing the inscription ”written after a tie 129, are intended to commemorate that event The second and third verses see froospel She joined the church in October of that year, and seems to have commenced her labors at once In the Sunday-school she beca many souls to Christ It was her object to secure the conversion of every scholar committed to her care, and she seldom failed She also became teacher of an adult Bible class, which hbors; she , composed of the female members of the church, and subsequently became an active member of the church aid society Yet, with all this activity, there was no ostentation, no public show, no noisy parade, no extravagant shouting
She was an unco, and to all of thosetitles I think nothing could have induced her to countenance in any way the nu our people, and she wore no badge, or jewelry No rings were on her fingers or in her ears, and yet she affected no plainness of dress She repudiated extravagance of all sorts, and sought to avoid everything which ht render her noticeable After five years of Christian life and labor she came forward as a candidate for baptism; for on this subject she entertained peculiar scruples She was baptised in 1851, and surely none could have been more worthy This rite was performed by Rev