Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1885-08-28

object Of deep solicitude, but not long hence
her redeemed soul win reioin her husband
and daughter amid the praises and hallelu-
jahs of Heaven.
But it was as a friend that knew her best,
and here as everywhere, she was firm, faith
full and true The voice Of calumuy, the
tongue of Islander, the fires of persecution,
all tended to bind her more closely to those
whom she believed in and trusted. Where
she once gave her heart in friendship, she
never Withdrew it, and she never failed to
defend when those she loved were assailed.
Friendship, to her, was far more than a sen
tiinent, far more than a mere kindly interest
It ment the conservation of her energies OF
mind, body and soul to the relief of their suf-
fering, to the wiping away of their tears, to
the alienation of their sorrows, as well as
selfsacri6cing endeavours for the comfort OF
their bodies No one here knows better
than how true friend she was when friends
were most needed. How firm and unfalter-
ing in her synpathies and how active and
persistent in her efforts in those dark DAYS
when tears of sympathy were more precious
than dust of diamonds, and words of cheer
than nuggets of gold. There are many sad
hearts here to-day because in the death OF
Mrs. Willis they have lost their truest. no.
blest and best freind. III common with them
lay the tribute of grateful affection on her
casket and pledge myself to meet her in hea-
ven. Her popularity is so well attested by
this great concourse that need but to men
ton it. Her kindness to servants and all
within her employ was proverbial, and apart
from those Immediately and closely 5ereaved,
none will miss her more or regret her loss
more deeply, than the servants of the house
hold who delighted to honor her, and whose
alteration was almost worship.
Religiously she was firm believer in the
God Of the Bible and in the atoning sacrifice
Of the Lord Jesus Christ She believed that
God had given us this beautiful world and
all its treasures, that we might enjoy it, and
life to her was full of joy and brightness.
She took the gifts with an open hand, but
did not forget the giver. She had firm
faith in her own personal salvation, and met
her death with all of the horrors surround
ing it, with unfaltering nerve and willing
spirit. She believed i'll the redemption work
Of the Saviour of men, and rarely failed
when opportunity offered to join in the sac
rament of the last supper. She might be
called by some a fatalist, or at least she firmly
believed in election or predestination, she
believed that she herself was predestined to
die in a certain way, she knew not what at
a certain time she knew not when, and that
she was elected to eternal glory. No argu-
ment could shake her, in this belief she was
radically grounded, and in this faith she
died Whether her belief in this particular
doctrine was well based or not, tits not for me
to say, but believe as firmly as I believe in
the goodness and love of God, that her soul
is in eternal glory reaping the reward of the
just remember that when the messengers
of John the Baptist came enquiring cart
thou Him that was sent or look we for an
other" he established his divinity by those
works which gave greater proof of his hui
manity. So have thought of her, and if
called upon to-day to enumerate evidences
of divine life within her, I would summons
as witnesses that great number to whom she
has ministered in sorrow, whose wants she
has relieved, and with whose woes she SYM
pathized, and pointing to her would say, by
these tokens of her great humanity learn the
truth of her divinity. And pointing to these
l believe the Lord will say, inasmuch as ye
did it to the least of these, We have done il
unto Me God is good, God is loving and
merciful, and in infinite wisdom lie las ginr-
iously saved this noble true hearted woman,
The life of true christian does not consist
in intellectual belief, nor church member
ship, nor Sabbath worship, nor formal pray
ers, nor Bible reading, but in the perfectness
of the smallest acts of each passing day, in
the unrufIled temper, the unselfsl purpose
the words of kindness, the deeds of honesty
and the magnanimity, the unselish love
which stamps her myriad truths and express
siops of the heart unto the signet 9fthe King
The life of this woman was painting made
up of the mosaics of daily life, but when put
together sublime in its calm hefoism and
grand In the grandeur Of love- Thy works
shall follow thee Rest thou We tired hands,
Be still ye weary feet Stop beating true
heart on which burdens have lain so long!
Fly hOmeward with one cry of Joy beloved
spirit, for thy mission Is done and well done,
and the harvest grain will be thy imperish-
able monument, ever growing more beauti-
full as the days roll on towards the final CON
sumation of all things in the full glory of
God.
The loYed and lost, WHY do We call them lost
Because we miss them from our onward road,
GODS unseen angel DER our pathway Ca ssCd,
Looked on Us all. and loving her The most
Stgaightway relieved her fI0m life's heavy load.
She is not lost, she is within the door
That shuts ont loss and every hurtful thing,
With angels bright and loved ones gone before,
In her Redeemers presence evernOTe,
And God Himself her Lord, and Judge and King
Thus rejoicing in her heavenly JOY we see
tile relation so beautiful of all that she was
here. in gentleness, in wisdom, in truth and
and service in that higher life Of
the sainted in glory. We would place no
broken column of flowers on her bier, for
there was nothing broken for her by death, |
her mind has not ceased for an instant its |
pulsatiOns of thought her heart has not stop |
ped beating, her soul is marching on, she |
has not exchanged worlds, has only passed |
to grander field of service. Death claimed |
The tired burned and tortured body, but
Christ claimed the noble, true, sweet woman.
Therefore in this hour of glad anticipation .
Of glory when our gloom of sorrow is illum-
med with the flashes of immortality, we
-hink not Of the way by which she went |
home, we shut out from our minds for this |
hour at least that fearful STRUGGLE with the
Hame, those hours Of torturing agony; keep
he bitterness of our grief in the back
ground, as We think only Of her as safe at
iome And we remember that it matters
title to the traveller on the mighty deep, as
he anchor drops in the harbor, and so,
though one may go by disease and another
~ violence and another by Wntoward ACCT
lent the rapture of the home at last Il
,rowds out all memory of the way the har-