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REFLECTED LIGHT --------------------- Near Death Testimonies of Some Old Time Believers -------------------------MRS. SARAH MORE From An Antique Book in Webmaster's Library - Editor Unknown

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"I want to put on my attire Washed white in the blood of the Lamb; I want to be one of your choir, And tune my sweet harp to His name! I want --- Oh, I want to be there, Where sorrow and sin bid adieu --- Your joy and your friendship to share, To wonder and worship with you." O death, no more, no more delay; My spirit longs to flee away, And be at rest; The will of Heaven my will shall be, I bow to the divine decree, To God's behest. --- Longfellow. "The Christian magnanimity by which the departure of this valuable person was distinguished, has been recorded by a friend who was constantly in her chamber during her last sickness. "The last hours of our dear friend, Mrs. Sarah More, afforded so wonderful a manifestation of the mercy and faithfulness of God, and of the efficacy of the Holy Spirit, that I have felt it a solemn duty to set down as many of the particulars (too many have escaped) as I can recollect, both for my own edification, and for the consolation of those friends who are more peculiarly interested in this display of the power and goodness of the Lord. "'From a very slight indication which appeared about six months before her departure, she was able to anticipate the whole progress and fatal termination of her disorder, which she explained to a confidential servant with a composure and an acquiescence in the Divine will which was truly admirable, and which never for a moment forsook her; adding, at the same time, that not an hour of any day passed in which she did not inwardly send up that supplication of the Litany, "In the hour of death, and in the day of judgment, good Lord deliver me." "'At one time, when she was sitting in the parlor under very sharp suffering, one of her sisters exclaimed, "Poor Sallie! you are in dreadful pain. . . . She answered, "I am, indeed, but it is all well." " 'At length it became impossible for her any longer to support a sitting position, and just before she was assisted up stairs for the last time, she threw a look all around her, evidently taking a mental farewell of the scene to which she had been so long accustomed, with a look which, though she uttered no word, was full of solemn meaning. " 'One day after she had lain for some time in an almost insensible state, a friend tried her with a few texts of Scripture; she suddenly burst forth; "can any thing be finer than that? it makes one's face shine!" Towards the latter part of her illness, she asked one day to have a little girl, in whom she was interested, brought to her. She could only deliver herself in short sentences, but her words were, "God bless thee, my dear child ; love God; serve God; love to pray to God more than to do any thing else. "One night she complained of too much light, adding that "the smallest light was enough to die by." " 'Mrs. H. More asked her if she had comfort in her mind. "Yes," she replied, "I have no uncomfort at all." She was then asked if she knew some friend that was in the room. "Oh! yes," she answered, "I know everybody and remember every thing." "Oh, poor dear soul," said one of her attendants, "she remembers her sufferings, too!" " No,"she answered in a tone of the most affecting resignation, "I do not think of them." When she was supposed to be very near her last hour, on her medical attendant wishing her a good morning, she raised her hands in a holy transport, exclaiming, "Oh, for the glorious morning of the resurrection! --- but there are some grey clouds between!" She then blessed him and all his family, and exhorted him to love God and to take care of his soul. "Oh," she exclaimed, "if this should be the blessed hour of my deliverance, may I die the death of the righteous, and may my last thoughts be thoughts of faithfulness! "The following day she awoke suddenly out of a tranquil sleep, crying out in a rapture, "Blessing and honor, and glory, and power be unto the Lamb, --- Hallelujah!" . . . " 'In the evening of her last day but one, though scarcely able to articulate, she murmured out to those who stood around her, "Talk of the cross --- the precious cross --- the King of love." On the very morning of her blessed and quiet release from an earthly existence, though no longer able to swallow food or discern any outward object, she was still enabled to give an evidence of the heavenly frame of her mind; a friend repeating to her the heart-sustaining assurance, "The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin," she pronounced with a devout motion of her bands and eyes, "cleanseth,' and a moment after, "Blessed Jesus," and these were the last of her words that could be collected. It is scarcely necessary to repeat, after such a relation, that her whole conduct during her conflict with this last enemy, was one uniform and uninterrupted display (when she was in the possession of her faculties) of those fruits of the Spirit enumerated by the Apostle, "Love, peace, meekness, longsuffering, faith; "--- and it only remains for us to pray that our latter end may be like hers. Go To Complete Index - Testimonies of Old Saints