Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-06-09
est Is Beautiful"

How often the wish of the Syrian
prophet as he stood on the top of Poor
has been echoed by human hearts! But
the coveted death of the righteous
receives its chief significance from a
righteous life that precedes it. The
''edifying' deathbed of Louis XIV, of
France, after his mean and immoral ca
reer, impresses more as a success
full theatrical performance than as the
closing scene of a sincere Christian ex-
perience. No such unhappy suspicion
hung over the dying hours and utter
ances of Mr.. Elizabeth Barrett Brown
ing, and no such contradiction mars
her biography or the beauty of its end.
Hers was a lovely Christian life, and it's
close fulfilled the Scriptural promises.
A severe cold in the GUNNER of 1861
soon developed into a threatening ILL
ness, which confined her to her bed, in
her home in Florence from whose "Casa
Guidi Windows she had so often looked
with wisely wondrous eyes. She raj
lied, however, and on the sixth day an
intimate female friend who had visited
her went away with no suspicion of
what was so soon to be the terrible re-
ality. Mrs. Browning's own bright boy
babe his mother goodnight" cheered
by her oft-repeated II am better, dear;
much better"
Only one watched her breathing
through the night-her husband, who
for fifteen years had ministered to her
with all the tenderness of q m It
was a night void of suffering to her. AS
the morning approached, and two hours
previous to the fatal moment, she
seemed to be in q partial ecstasy, and,
though not apparently conscious of the
coming of death, she gave her husband
all those many words of love whose
value death has made priceless.
Such moments are too sacred for the
common pen, which pauses as the
woman-poet raises herself UP to die in
the arms of her poet-husband. He
knew not that death had robbed him OF
his treasure until the dropping form
grew chill, and froze his hearts blood.
At half-past four on the morning of the
29th of June Elizabeth Barrett Browning
passed away.
Her last words were: cit is beauti-
full"
God was merciful to the end, spar1ng
her and hers the agony of a frenzied
parting. giving proofs to those who
were left of the glory and happiness in
store for her, by those few words: sit
is beautiful!' The spirit could see its
future mission even before shaking of
the dust of the earth.
Mrs. Hemans wrote hopefully and
beautifully of the browning hours of a
Christian life. In her last DAYS she
said: 81 feel like Mary, sitting at the
feet of my Saviour, and learning of
Him to be meek and lowly." No pen,
she said, could describe the visions of
blessedness that rose upon her spiritual
sight.
Like Mrs. Hemans, Mrs. Browning
wrote confidently of life's harvest DAYS.
In connection with this anecdote, how
like a prophecy is her poem: "He Civ
eth His Beloved Sleep"
"Beautiful!n Yet only those who.
after hard struggles, climb to the high
SUBMITS of an unselfish and pure-hearted
lite, see at last these beautiful prospects.
Not all good people have such disclos-
ures here, even at the last, but to every
one who does his duty to God, day
by day, the prospect of the future life is
beautltul.-pouth's Companion.