Thibodaux minerva. [volume] (Thibodaux, La.) 18??-1858, 1855-01-27
Obituary

Died, of yellow fever, on the Sth OF Nov. in the
Parish of Terrebonne, near T%hibodaux, Louisiana, Colonel
Z. WINDER in the 4tth year of his age, The char
acter Of the deceased, as a gentleman of lofty sense of honor.
love of Justice, and large beneyolence, was too well known
in Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee, to require public
notice. Prominent as were these characteristics, yet he was
no less remarkable for his social and domestic qualities.
1t has been truly said of him, that az he was the friend of
all, every one was his friend. There was no sacrafce, how
ever great, that was not cheerfuny made for the good of his
fanilg and friends. And perhaps it may be said that he
sacratced his life in the discharge If what he deemed a
duty to those whom he loved next to his own family. For,
when demonstrated with about his exposure to the disease,
he replied, 81 feel it my duty to go, and would go even if |
We're sure of contracting the fever and dying next week"
Thus fell this noble man, a martyr to principle. Not that
he coveted death for the ties which bound hun to earth
were too strong and too numerous to be severed without a
struggle. Such was the viruience of his disease, that in
four short days the strength of manhood was gone, and the
work of death consummated. On the third day, when the
physician apprised him of his situation, and informed him
there was no hope for his recovery, he calmly replied, '' If
such, be the will of God, his win be done.' Such patience
under suffering, such tranquility of mind, such abnegation
of self, and such entire resignation to the divine will, We
have seldom witnessed. And these were attributable not SO
much to natural disposition as to the all-suficient grace of
God. For although Col. Winder had not as yet made any
public profession of his faith in Christ, yet he was a man of
PRAYER, and expressed during his illness, a trembling hope
of his reconciliation to God the Father, through the media
ton and atonement of Christ. Since the death Of a beloved
daughter, about a year since, his mind has been deeply ex-
ercised about his salvation, as was evidentfrom his constant
attendance, and his deyout appearance in the house of God,
letters to absent members of his family, conversation with
his pastor, and his own avowal on his death bed; as igniug
as he reason why he had not connected himself with the
Church, that he had not felt himself worthy. Yet he left
his dying testimony to the excenency Of the hope of the be-
liever-even that 8 good hope which maketh not ashamed"
70 a valued friend of many years, he said with that man-
nr and information of voice peculiarly to his own, "When
a man comes to lie down and die, he needs religion" At
another time, he remarked to several gentlemen standing by
his bedside, 81 have endeayored to do my duty to my
feHow-men," and pausing a moment resumed, 'more than
to my God.' Could our wishes have been gratifed, he
would have been spared to his family to the country, and to
the Church, that he might have Illustrated bis faith by a
Christian life, and thus have been the means of extending
the Redeemer's kingdom i'll this community, where he was
so long and so favorably known. But it becomes us t. say,
as he was enabled TO say, Z" Not my will, but thine, o Lord,
be done, His family and friends have special cause Of graft
tude to Almighty God, for the continuance of the power Of
speech, and of all his mental faculties, until within a few mo-
ments of the departure of his spirit to, as we fondly hope,
that better land, to dwell with the Saviour, and to meet those
dear children who had gone before. "AndI heard q voice
from heaven saying unto me, write, Blessed ae the dead
who die in the Lord from hencefoith." C.