Page:Twelfth annual report of the Association for the Religious Instruction of the Negroes, in Liberty County, Georgia.djvu/26

 strength: having a preaching and catechetical exercise every Sabbath, and preaching on plantations every other night in the week. Toward the close of the year, he candidly acknowledged " his feelings had gone beyond his judgment." Consumption had fastened upon him, and his days of usefulness in the ministry were numbered. The Lord blessed him with the confidence and affection of the planters and of their people, and he rejoiced in evidences of the presence of His spirit among them. " About twenty-five, in November 1845, had been received into the different churches, from under his ministry, and there was a general inquiry on the subject of religion among them." "For all this," said he, " I thank God and take courage." In a letter to me, he says, 'my mind has of late dwelt more on the Heavenly rest, than ever before in my life. I will labour until the Father calls."

He relinquished his chosen field, and a people to whom he felt great attachment, and returned to his home in this County, in the spring of 1846. He gradually declined until the 18th of this month, when he fell asleep in Jesus, and passed into that heavenly rest, which he spoke of a few hours before his departure, as " exceedingly glorious," and going to it, was " like going home."

Well may we exclaim, in view of the death of this young servant and minister of God, so advanced in piety, so remarkable for quiet energy, perseverance and success in the Master's service, so humble in character, so patient in affliction, so cheerful in disposition, so faultless in his life, and so eminently fitted for useful ness, God's ways are not our ways, neither are His thoughts our thoughts. The coloured population have lost in him a sincere friend and able labourer. May God, in mercy to them and us, raise up many possessing his spirit, to enter this great and destitute field, not only among ourselves, but over our whole land.

Through the goodness of God, I was permitted to wait around the dying beds of each of these individuals. I saw them walking through the valley of the shadow of death. I saw two of them, to whom the Lord granted reason and strength and grace to the last, borne above all fear, and standing upon the threshold of the eternal world, in perfect peace ; and heard them speak of their Father's house, of the preciousness and strength of their Redeemer Christ Jesus, and pray that He would come and release them from earth, that they might be forever at rest with God in Heaven. Their dying beds have revealed the emptiness of the world—the unspeak