Page:Robert Carter- his life and work. 1807-1889 (IA robertcarterhis00coch).pdf/157

Rh in the better country where all is peace. Dr. Thornwell’s letter is as follows:—

, June 27, 1859. I have just received your kind and cordial letter of Christian sympathy, and as the subject is one upon which I take a melancholy pleasure in dwelling, I proceed at once to answer your tender and affectionate inquiries. You may remember that I told you of her approaching wedding. She was to have been married on the 15th instant, to a young man eminently worthy of any heart or any hand. I reached home on the morning of the 9th, and found her in bed with a raging fever. She had then been sick two days. Her symptoms appeared to me unfavorable, and I called in two other physicians. The next day I became alarmed, and on Friday gave her to understand that her case was critical. She was not at all disconcerted; she assured me that her peace was made with God; that though she had many earthly ties, and some of them very tender, there was nothing that she loved in comparison with the Lord Jesus Christ, and nothing that she was not ready to sacrifice at his call. She called all the family to her bedside, united in prayer with them, and gave to each a parting benediction. The scene was sublime beyond description. To see a young girl, elegant, accomplished, and highly esteemed, with the most flattering prospects in life, just upon the eve of her marriage with one whom she devotedly loved, resign all earthly hopes and schemes and joys with perfect composure, and welcome death as the voice of one supremely loved, was a spectacle that none who witnessed can ever forget. It was grand, it was even awful. It impressed some who were in the room in a way they were never impressed before, and I felt more like adoring God for the wondrous triumph of His grace than weeping for my own loss. After this scene she rallied, and the next day the physicians thought that there was a fair