Twenty-Two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman: Embracing a Correspondence of Several Years, While President of Wilberforce Colony, London, Canada WestSteward, Austin
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Twenty-Two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman: Embracing a Correspondence of Several Years, While President of Wilberforce Colony, London, Canada West
She had previously made a confession of her faith in Christ, and had been
buried with Him in baptism. A few days after her demise, a long, sad train
wound its way to the village church yard, where we deposited the remains
of our beloved,--Patience Jane Steward, in the eighteenth year of her age;
and then returned to our desolate house, to realize that she had left a
world of pain and sorrow, where the fairest rose conceals a thorn, the
sweetest cup a bitter drop, for a home where the flowers would never fade,
and where pain, sorrow and death will never come. We all felt the solemn
and impressive warning, "Be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think
not, the Son of Man cometh."
As often as I recalled her triumphant, peaceful death, her firm reliance
on God, and sweet submission to His will, I could not forbear contrasting
her departure with that of Mrs. Helm, whose death I have elsewhere
described; and could fervently pray, that I might live the life of the
righteous, that my last end might be like hers.
"Behold the Western evening light,
It melts in deep'ning gloom;
So calmly Christians sink away,
Descending to the tomb.
The winds breathe low, the withering leaf
Scarce whispers from the tree,--
So gently flows the parting breath,
When good folks cease to be.
How beautiful on all the hills,
The crimson light is shed;
'Tis like the peace the Christian gives,
To mourners round his bed.
How mildly on the wandering cloud,
The sunset beam is cast,--
'Tis like the mem'ry left behind,
When loved ones breathe their last.
And now above the dews of night,
The yellow star appears;
So faith springs in the breast of those,
Whose eyes are bathed in tears.
But soon the morning's happier light,
Its glory shall restore;
And eyelids that are sealed in death,
Shall wake to close no more."
CHAPTER XXXVI.
CELEBRATION OF THE FIRST OF AUGUST.
The anti-slavery friends in Canandaigua, had resolved to celebrate the
anniversary of the West India emancipation, in suitable manner in that
village, for which funds had been unsparingly collected, to defray the
expenses of the coming demonstration. The first of August, 1847, fell on
Sunday, and our people concluded to devote that day to religious meetings,
and the second to their proposed celebration.
Frederick Douglass and Mr. Van Loon, from Poughkeepsie, addressed the
people on the Sabbath; and also, on the same evening, a large concourse at
the Court House. The day following, there were not less than ten thousand
people assembled on the beautiful grounds, belonging to the village
Academy-attentive listeners all to the eloquent speeches delivered, and
interested spectators of the imposing exercises.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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