St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-04-16
Ryegate.
OBITUARY.

Mrs. Agnes Nelson Whitehill passed
into the heavenly rest March Goth,
1885, aged thirty-eight years. She
was the child of piOus parents, by
whom she was early dedicated to God
and carefully trained in the principles
of pure and undefiled religion. AT an
early age she made profession of her
faiths in Christ, united with the Re-
formed Presbyterian church of Rye
gate, then under the pastoral care of
the Rev. James M. Beattie. In Oct.
1876 she was united in marriage by the
same pastor to Henry E. Whitehill
who, with five sons, still survives.
From her childhood she loved the
Bible. 1t was her constant cOmpan-
ion. She took it as a lamp to her feet
and light to her path. 1t gave her
continual comfort to search the scrip
lures for passages which seemed to her
specially applicable to her peculiar
circumstances. These short verses and
many other long portions of the Bible
she committed to memory while from
constant reading of the Word of God
she could turn to almost any text de-
sired. She made the Scriptures her
guide and so implicitly did she trust
their leading, that she would go any
where and submit to anything when
she was told that God commanded it.
Feeling in her own soul the precious
ness of the Word, she was DESTROYS
that others should also experience its
power. 1t was her custom to give a
copy of the Scriptures to every one
employed to work about the house or
on the farm and scarcely servant
aUar left thair hona Uitbnut thiS
mentO from her. The noon hour every
day she devoted to the reading of the
Bible. She desired that all in her
house should engage with her in this
exercise. When other means failed
she would make expensive gifts on
condition that her family and house
hold would regularly attend. One of
the last acts of her life was the giving
of money to her sister with which to
purchase Bibles and tracts for free dis
tributiOn among the poor.
She loved the church, taking a deep
interest in all her affairs, and contrib
uting large sums to her different
schemes. Of the various missions, she
manifested special concern for the
Southern mission, the Chinese mission
and the Bible and Fruit mission in
New York. To this latter work she
gave twenty-five dollars within the
week before she died. The fruit of
all her labor and the answer to her
prayers eternity alone can reveal. The
influence of such life does not cease
with death. She being dead yet
speaketh.
The last year and a half of her life
was clOuded with sorrow. These
heavy trials she believed her God sent
to her for her good and so believing
she would say, "ThOugh He Stay me
yet will trust in Him." At one time Il
friend said to her, 81 hope God will
stand by you in your trial" She re-
piled, ale has stood by me nightly"
She had been failing for some three
months and, talking with wonderful
calmness of her approaching death, she
set her house in order. Although the
Bridegroom came suddenly He found
her watching. While upon her feet,
telling the servant not tn do any I'M
necessary work on the Sabbath, her
summons came, and her soul passed to
an eternal Sabbath in heaven. Her
feet have touched the golden shore.
She sings the new song. She has
white robes and there is a crown upon
her head. She behOlds the King in
His beauty. She has met sainted
loved ones. Eternal sunshine rests
upon her brow.
Her friends here left behind have
much to mourn; yet they who have
tried to make her life happy one may
at least have this to comfort them
that their relation to her will help to
prove at last their relation to Jesus
Himself; for He will say "Inasmuch
as ye have done it unto one of the
least of these my brethren, ye have