The American Missionary — Volume 36, No. 6, June, 1882Various
History
The American Missionary — Volume 36, No. 6, June, 1882
Various
Congregational churches -- Missions -- Periodicals; Home missions -- Periodicals
Miss Sarah A. G. Stevens, for 14 years a teacher among the Freedmen
under the commission of the A. M. A., the last three of which were
spent in Fisk University, was called to her rest, from the home of
her brother in her native place, St. Johnsbury, Vt., on April 5th.
She entered the service of the Association in the fall of 1866, and
retired at the close of the school-year in 1880, with health and
strength so impaired that the rest and change of climate, which she
subsequently sought, brought no real improvement. These years of
faithful service had been cheerfully and enthusiastically given.
The thought of them gave her great comfort and satisfaction during
the months of weariness and suffering which preceded her death. Her
recovery was hoped for by herself and friends up to the beginning
of the new year. In January her physician sent word to Miss E. M.
Barnes, a teacher in Fisk University, that there were developments
of a fatal disease, and that death was but a question of a few
weeks, possibly months.
Miss Barnes had been associated with Miss Stevens for ten years
as a teacher in the South, and had been her most intimate friend
and companion. She owed her life under God to the faithful nursing
and care of Miss Stevens, when attacked by yellow fever during the
prevalence of that scourge in the city of Memphis, Tenn., in the
fall of 1873, at which time three teachers of the Mission Home
lost their lives. Miss Barnes resigned her position and hastened
to the bedside of her sick friend. The following extract from her
letter, announcing the death of her friend, will best illustrate
the peacefulness and beauty of the closing weeks of her life:
“The messenger came for her Wednesday morning, April 5th. Yesterday
we laid her body away to its last rest. Rest--how much that means
to her; it had been so long since she had known rest. She had
failed very rapidly during the week, and yet death came suddenly
in the end. Tuesday afternoon, after some hours of great pain and
suffering, a change came, and, breathing peacefully as a child,
she passed away with an upward look, as if the joys of Heaven were
already bursting upon her sight. During the last days of her life
she spoke confidently and calmly of her hopes of the future. Often,
when suffering the most intensely, nothing would soothe and quiet
her so quickly as reading from the Bible. I never remember a murmur
against her suffering during all her illness. Allusion was made at
her funeral, by her pastor, to her work in the South; that such an
example of self-denial and devotion to the Master’s work among the
lowly was a legacy to any community.”
* * * * *
RECEIPTS FOR APRIL, 1882.
* * * * *
MAINE, $2,594.67.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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