The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1869-04-14
From the Missionary.
Letter from the Rev DR.. Kingsbury
ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF REV. CYRUS
BYINGT0N.

| ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF REV. CYRUS
| BYINGToN.
PINE RIDGE, CHocTAw NATION, Feb. Is, go.
Accept my thanks for your kind favor of Janu
airy 20, which have just received. Our mission
and the Choctaw people have indeed sustained ar
rreparable loss by the death of our beloved broth
err Byington. But the Master, whom he served SC
long and so faithfully, best knew the proper time
to remove his servant from earth to heaven. He
has only gone little before us. We shall soon
follow.
You request me to send you such sketch Of
the life and labors of our deceased brother as may
be published in the Missionary" and you wish to
have it Jy the middle of this month. presume
you are not aware of the tardy movement of the
mails on this side of the Mississippi. Your re-
quest reached me but one day before the time you
wished my reply to be in your hands.
I find myself in difficult and trying position.
The Christian public have a right to expect suit
able notice of the character and labors of our de.
ceased brother, and it might be expected that ]
should furnish it. IF were able it would be both
duty and privilege to prepare such memorial
as would present to the churches the grace of God,
as displayed in the excellent character and useful
life of our departed brother. But in my present
feeble state, both of body and mind, am utterly
unable to perform such duty as it ought to be
done. Should attempt it, it would be a misera-
BILE failure Such an article ought to be well done,
or not done at all.
The following are extracts from letter received
from COL Samson Folsom, written at Fort Smith,
when on his way to Washington to attend to pub
lie business for his Nation:
Rev. Cyrus Kingsbuy-
"My Dear Sir: have just read in the Fort
Smith Herald the announcement of the death Of
the Rev. Cyrus Byington 1t appears he died at
Belpre, Ohio, on the last day Of the year 1867
Thus passed from earth to heaven good man and
jealous Christian, who spent his life among us
for our good.
"His translations of the Old and New Tesla.
book, grammar, defner, tracts for Sunday Schools,
and other valuable Choctaw books of which he
was the author will ever be read and had in COM
memoration of his exemplary and laborious Chris.
tan character, so long as the Choctaw language
exists.
"'He being dead yet speaketh, was the text
of bis funeral semon, more than twenty years SINCE
on the death OF my beloved uncle, Col. David Fol-
som. Now he, too, being dead yet speaketh;' and
his life shows conclusivey to me- and ought to those
who were the objects of his Christian love and
training that to live and die for the cause of Christ
is great gain.
II first knew the deceased when was ten years
of age at Mayhem School, then under your charge
in the Old Choctaw Nation, east of the Missis-
sippi River | am now in my forty ninth year.
1.-THE news of the death of Mr. Byington touches
nv heart most tendery, and leads me to look back
to the days of his pastoral services in the Nation
I beg leave to sympathise with his friends gener-
ally especially with his interesting family, who
have lost good husband and father. He is the
last one of those missionaries who came to the
Choctaw Nation and commenced Christian labors
with you before was born. y
Such testimony, unsolicited, from one who
had been acquainted with our deceased brother
for forty years, who had been one Of his pupils,
who had listened to his faithful and impressive
preaching who had been instructed by his trans.
lations of the Scriptures and other books, ought
to be of more value to the churches than any
obituary could prepare.
Almost fifty years ago, in the infancy of our