Latter Day Saints; United States -- Description and travel
Mrs. W---- went home serious and thoughtful. She retired to her chamber and
took down her long neglected Bible. She perused the sacred page for a long
time. She knelt down and tried to pray. She found her heart was cold, and
that there was no love to Jesus there. She called upon God for mercy. The
deep fountains of sensibility in her heart were at length broken up, and
she wept in agony of spirit over her impenitence and hardness of heart.
When her husband came in, he found her bathed in tears and instantly
demanded the cause. She told him of Peggy's death, and of the solemn
impression made upon her mind, adding, "I have a presentiment that I shall
not live long, and I am determined no longer to neglect the salvation of my
soul." "Oh," said W----, who at that time was rather inclined to be
skeptical, "do not indulge in such gloomy and nervous feelings or think
about such superstitious matters."
Mrs. W----, however, remained steadfast to her purpose. From this time she
daily read the sacred Scriptures, and sought divine illumination at the
mercy-seat. The Methodist ministers who had officiated on the plantation
among the slaves, and by whose instruction old Peggy had been taught the
way to heaven, were invited to visit Mr. W----'s house. The voice of prayer
was now frequently heard in that dwelling. Mrs. W---- had already become a
decided Christian, and was leading her husband on in the same path, when
she was suddenly attacked with a violent fever. From the very commencement
she felt that this sickness would be unto death. When it was evident that
she was rapidly sinking and could survive but a few hours, she begged her
husband to sit down at her bed-side and the children to stand by their
father, and then calmly addressed him in substance as follows: "Charles, I
told you a year ago I had a strong presentiment that I should not live
long. Ever since that time I have been looking forward to this hour. I have
a hope in Jesus, which is 'as an anchor to my soul.'--Though I love you and
these dear children above all earthly things, I am willing to leave you all
in the hands of God and to _depart and be with Christ which is far better_.
But, dear husband, will you not join me in yonder heaven? Will you not
bring these dear, precious ones with you there? Oh! then seek the salvation
of your soul in the atoning blood of Christ, and train up these children in
the nurture and admonition of the Lord." These were her last dying words.
The green grass has for more that two years waved over her grave. Before
her death the decease of her father had thrown a vast increase of wealth
into her husband's hands. But that bereaved husband with all his vast
wealth, as he looks upon his motherless children, and upon Jane's
grass-covered grave, feels that this world is all an empty show, that we
look for happiness in vain beneath the skies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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