The following, he says, “are the facts,” relative to another incident
that happened in his vicinity. “In September, 1831, a worthy and highly
esteemed inhabitant of this town (Haverhill, Mass.) died suddenly on
the bridge over the Merrimack, by the bursting of a blood-vessel.
It was just at daybreak, when he was engaged with another person
in raising the draw of the bridge for the passage of a sloop. The
suddenness of the event, the excellent character of the deceased,
and above all, a vague rumor that some extraordinary disclosure was
to be made, drew together a large concourse at the funeral. After
the solemn services were concluded, Thomas, the brother of the dead
man--himself a most exemplary Christian--rose up and desired to relate
some particulars regarding his brother’s death. He then stated--and his
manner was calm, solemn, impressive--that more than a month previous
to his death, his brother had told him that his feelings had been
painfully disturbed by seeing, at different times on the bridge, a
quantity of human blood; that sometimes while he was gazing upon it,
it suddenly disappeared, as if removed by an invisible hand; ... that
many times in the dusk of the evening, he had seen a vessel coming down
the river, which vanished just as it reached the draw; and that, at
the same time, he had heard a voice calling in a faint and lamentable
tone, ‘I am dying!’ and that the voice sounded like his own: that then
he knew the vision was for him, and that his hour of departure was at
hand. Thomas, moreover, stated that a few days before the melancholy
event took place, his brother, after assuring him that he would be
called upon to testify to the accounts which he had given of the vision
on the bridge, told him that he had actually seen the same vessel go up
the river whose spectral image he had seen in his vision, and that when
it returned the fatal fulfilment would take place.”
Though of still earlier date, the remarkable premonition of Rev. Samuel
Newman, of Rehoboth, will bear being repeated here. According to his
biographer, he not only felt a certain presage of the approach of
death, but seemed to triumph in the prospect of its being near. Yet
he was apparently in perfect health, and preached a sermon from Job
xiv. 14, “All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change
come.” In the afternoon of the following Lord’s Day, he asked the
deacon to pray with him, saying he had not long to live. As soon as he
had finished his prayer he said the time was come when he must leave
the world; but his friends seeing no sign of approaching dissolution,
thought it was merely the effect of imagination. Immediately he turned
away, saying, “Angels, do your office!” and expired on the spot.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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