Testimonies for the Church Volume 1 - A New You Ministry

power to hold him back from death. He slowly revived, but continued very weak.The next morning he seemed slightly to revive, but about noon he had a chill, whichleft him unconscious. At 5 p. m., Sabbath, August 6, 1881, he quietly breathed his lifeaway, without a struggle or a groan.The shock of my husband’s death—so sudden, so unexpected—fell upon me withcrushing weight. In my feeble condition I had summoned strength to remain at hisbedside to the last, but when I saw his eyes closed in death, exhausted nature gaveway, and I was completely prostrated. For some time I seemed balancing between lifeand death. The vital flame burned so low that a breath might extinguish it. At nightmy pulse would grow feeble, and my breathing fainter and fainter till it seemed aboutto cease. Only by the blessing of God and the unremitting care and watchfulness ofphysician and attendants was my life preserved.Though I had not risen from my sickbed after my husband’s death, I was borneto the Tabernacle on the following Sabbath to attend his funeral. At the close of thesermon I felt it a duty to testify to the value of the Christian’s hope in the hour of sorrowand bereavement. As I arose, strength was given me, and I spoke about ten minutes,exalting the mercy and love of God in the presence of that crowded assembly. At theclose of the services I followed my husband to Oak Hill Cemetery, where he was laidto rest until the morning of the resurrection.My physical strength had been prostrated by the blow, yet the power of divine gracesustained me in my great bereavement. When I saw my husband breathe his last, I feltthat Jesus was more precious to me then than He ever had been in any previous hour ofmy life. When I stood by my first-born, and closed his eyes in death, I could say: “TheLord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” And I feltthen that I had a comforter in Jesus.110