The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1869-12-28
The Last Days of Rev. samuel e.. Coc.
Cleveland, Ohio, Dec. 18th 90

NleNelhnQ, OhlO Dec. Ibth W.
EDIToR OF THE REGISTER.
DEAR SIN Thinking that you and
your readers might desire to hear some
thing of the manner in which one Of your
former pastors closed his public ministra-
tons in the service of his Lord and mas
ter, send you few words upon this
subject.
On the I'd Sabbath Of Dee. at the
morning service, the Rev. Dr. Eells of
the I'd Presbyterian church announced
the death of the Rev. Samuel g. Coe, in
fitting and appropriate terms. TO the
speaker, Mr.. Coe was a stranger, but he
knew that his service as a minister here,
previous to his return, were highly ac-
ceptable and gratifying to this congrega-
ton. That he was held by them person.
ally, in great esteem. He himself had
found the good fruits Of Mr.. Goes labors
among the people,a he visited from house
to house, and expressed his qualification,
that his congregation, had been so highly
favored as to enjoy the faithful and useful
ministry, ofhim who had so soon ended
his work in his Masters vineyard on the
earth, and has now gone to world where
no sickness or infrmity of the flesh or
spirit, would interfere with the free, full
and uninterrupted praise and service of
God.
DR.. Eells rightly anticipated the feel
ings Of his people in respect to Mr., Coe,
and their sympathy in the aiiliction and
sorrow Of his bereaved family. The whole
address forming suitable preface to the
appropriate prayer that followed in which
all united with deep and heartfelt in
terest.
Mr. Coe came from New Haven, Conn,
to Cleveland in the month of March He
preached as a supply for the % church,
till the last Sabbath in August. He was
the first minister, it was my privilege to
hear, on recovering from protracted and
Frustrating sickness. The quietness Of
his manner, the ease and graceiulncss
of his style, and the appropriate charac.
ter Of his subjects, gave to his discourses
an interest and charm which, to my taste
and nervous sensibility, was peculiarly
soothing and agreeable.
Mr.. Coe came here an entire stranger,
yet he soon engaged the interest, had
almost said the affections, of the people,
and had the church not succeeded in
recalling their former and much esteemed
pastor DIR. Eells, it is quite possible if
his health had been deemed sufficient that
q call would have been extended to Mr..
Coe. 1t is now evident, however, that
his health would not have been equal to
the labor required, and it is well that this
labor was not, as it might have been I'M
der other circumstances, imposed upon
him.
Whom parted with him last summer
to revisit my old home in Vermont, [
thought he had hopeful future before
him. 1t now appears that when he left
here, his life work was done. He went
east from this place, about the first of
September, by way of the st. Lawrence
and Montreal, expecting to make stop
at Middlebury on his way, which from
some unexplained cause he was prey
from doing, but passed down to his broth
er's residence at Yonkers near New York.
There, while attending church on Sab.
bath morning, he was struck with paraly.
sis in the left side, but did not disclose
his situation till the close of the service,
when he was removed to his brothers
residence, where he remained sometime
under medical treatment, resulting in no
permanent relief. He was subsequently
removed to New Haven, Conn. But his
disease, (Brights,) which he had been for
considerable time subjected, continued
to increase, and after period of extreme
suffering, terminated in his DEATH at the
age of 81 years.
On the last Sabbath Of Mr.. Goes term
of service here, he spoke very feelingy
Of the kindness and courtesy with which
he had been treated by the people,
and said that the few months he had
spent with them would be remembered
among the most pleasant periods of his
life. Alas, how little did they think
what was so soon to follow.
But he is gone, in the meridian of life
while some of us, who have passed our
"Three score years and ten, are for
reasons which We know not now, but may
know hereafter, still permitted to live.
Very Truly Yours.
j. ANDERSON.