The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-12-13
cronveIps Dying Mourn.

I.tt
At.the royal palace of Whitehall, ON
the I'd of September, 1858, a man lay
dying. Eight days before he felt so
confident Of life that he told his, wife
not to think that he should die, as he
felt sure of the contrary. 4 Now he was
speechless, sinking; and the last thing
about which he had seriously troubled
himself was q curious metaphysical one.
"Ten me-" he said to Sterry, a minis
ter who stood By y, him, ..is it possible to
s'Hiis not possible, said the minis
Them exclaimed the dying man, 81
am safe; for know that 1 was once in
grace. ~ eh+ i2sseai 90 SIC
And then he prayed, :. Lord, though
a miserable and wretched creature,
am in covenant with Thee through Thy
grace, and may and will come to Thee
for Thy people. Thou hast made me a
mean instrument to do them some good
and Thee service Many of them set
too high a value upon me though others
would be glad of my death. Lord,
however Thou dsposest of me, continue
TO go on and do good for them. Teach
those who look much upon Thy instru-
ments, to depend more upon Thyself,
and pardon such las desire to trample
upon the dust poor worm, for they are
Thy people, too" ssie-i -
The attention of all England was riy-
eted on the sick room at Whitehall, with
keen and sincere interest From the
lips OF many went forth earnest prayers
that God would be pleased to spare the
invalid's life; in the hearts of many
there were fears and misgiving as to
what would come in the event of that
prayer being rejected; in other hearts
there was Joy and exultation over the
death of a.sinLer; while in others, that
should have been kindly disposed, there
was a certain sort Of assurance that
there is something in the misfortunes of
our greatest friends which is not. dis
pleasing to us. -. -,
A frightful wind-storm ragged, roofing
up trees in the park, and tearing off the
roofs OF houses In London The friends
of the dying argued that God was Civ
ing warning of His intentions to take to
Himself the great soul of the sufferer;
his enemies argued that "the princes of
the powers of the. air" were holding
fearful reyels amid the storm-driven
clouds in honor of the prospects of,seiz-
ing on great offenders soul. -i'er
The dying man was Oliver Cromwell,
lord protector of England and Ireland,
the man who for ten years had governed
the kingdom in right kingly way, and
made it stronger and more respected by
all foreign powers than it had been since
the days of Henry V. and AgincOurt. q
: 1t was the third of September, the
day Cromwell was wont to call his for
tunate day sa On a third of September he
overcome The, Scots army at Dunbar,
when, looking at the position of his
army in a military point of view, he
was committed to certain destruction at
their hands,. on a third of September he
had fought the battle of Worcester.
"the Lords browning mercy to him., as
he called it, when the royalist cause was
so lost in England, SO long as Cromwell
could move a regiment or man ship.
In this last sense surely the third of
September, was still Cromwell's fortu-
nate day; for if ever a man was weary OF
life and anxious to be quit of the cares
of it, Cromwell must, have been that