Memoirs of Mrs. Rebecca Steward, Containing: A Full Sketch of Her Life: With Various Selections from Her Writings and Letters ...Steward, T. G. (Theophilus Gould)
Religion
Memoirs of Mrs. Rebecca Steward, Containing: A Full Sketch of Her Life: With Various Selections from Her Writings and Letters ...
Steward, T. G. (Theophilus Gould)
Steward, Rebecca Gould, Mrs., 1820-1877
The next day (Monday) she appeared better, but during the night was
again worse. On Thursday, Father becoming alarmed, despatched for the
absent ones; she knew this and objected, saying it would produce
needless alarm. That night she had sinking spells. Recovering from one
of them, she exclaimed: "Oh, can't you catch the glory of heaven all
around me!" Father burst into tears and she immediately added: "Oh, I
did not mean to distress you!" Although 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 with me," and taking the 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. Redman Faucett and Dr. B. T. Tanner;
those at the grave 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 solemnly committed to dust, a
large basket of white roses were distributed among the weeping
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 woman. Ends did I say? May I
not rather say, begins! 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 whom she
loved, and she being dead, may yet speak words of comfort and love to
many struggling ones among God's children.
CHAPTER V.
RETROSPECTION.
Shall we not now pause a moment by the side of this fresh grave, and
look back over the pathway trod by the modest woman, whose form lies
sleeping here, embalmed in flowers, and call to mind anew the virtues
she possessed.
We have seen her in the midst of a large family, performing the duties
of wife and mother. Shall we not for a moment regard her in that
larger sphere of Christian labor, which she filled in the church and
in her community.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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