The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-08-17


funny They were skilfully wrought sill
/ houettes, and l read them with "gufahs"
and unrepressed pleasure. She used her
Fen to aid the people, and in paying ten
der tributes to her friends and pupils
/ who had gone before into Beulan Land.
The last exercise of her facile, graceful
! pen was to write a sympathetic, pathetic
/ article, on the death of one of Oxford's
most charming and we'll loved young
women, Miss Annie Booth. who but few
weeks before had passed away. While
writing the obitual notice she was seized
/ with an urenlic convulsion, which render
! ed her unconscious but caused her no
pain. She was laid upon her bed by
loving hands, and upon returning con-
seriousness she was in her usual pleasant
humor and with mind of unbroken clear
ness. AS she lay, chatting and joking
with members of the family she dozed
off, and soon, without a shudder or strug-
gle, her heart stopped it's pulsations,
and she Law with a smile on her face
dead. That is, as dead as it is possible
for a genuine believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ to ever be. The spirit had left
the body and returned to the Father OF
all spirits. The blessed Saviour said
heareth My word, and believeth on Him
that sent Me, hath everlasting life. and
shall not come into condemnation; but
is passed from death unto life johns
Gospel 5th chapter and oath verse.
There is no doubt here There is no
statement that the believer shall be,
but that he is. 1t is the present tense =
''hath everlasting life and lis passed
/ from death unto life" This tribute to
/ Miss Booth. SO far as written, has been
published, and it was most worthy of
/ the tender hearted and clear headed
writer of it who was then on the very
verge of mortality and the eternal
/ shores.
There survive her five children, John
/ W., civil engineer of Petersburg, Va;
Mrs II. o. Furman. of Oxford; Francis
/ b., editor of the Southern Drug Journal
Atlanta, Ga. DR.. Benjamin X, practicing
medicine at Oxford. and Mrs. Kate Hays
= Fleming, of oxford. Her second son. Dr.
lanes Macintosh, died at Greensboro
! May 18th, 1897, and her baby girl, Mary
Marvin, died an infant, in 1876.
She left also twelve grandchildre i.
Several of her sisters survive. They are
Mrs Mary Davis, of Granville county;
/
! Frost, of Massachusetts,; Mrs. Maria
/ Harris of Henderson, Mrs Sue Doub, of
/ Greensboro.
! For probably thirty years she had
4 charge of the music in the Methodist
church, playing the organ with her son
Mack and daughters Lucy and Kate sue
ceeding her in later years.
The Christian experience of a good
! oil
often very inspiring The quiet, earnest
testimony is of the truly pious, the sim
cere, persistent, unfaltering pursuers
after the higher purer intensely spirit
ual life are almost invariably strength
ching and soul-upliftng to other religious
hearers. How one was first awakened
by Gods Spirit, and so stirred and
animated by new desires and impulses
as to seek God with pure hearts fer
vently," and never-ceasing to cry out
for help and deliverance until the un-
swerving work of the Holy Spirit vas ac-
complished, and the new life was i'm
planted in the soul, and the great work
of the new creation in Christ Jesus was
perfected and the fallen and lost was
'born again." is full of impressiveness
and exhortation. Mrs. Hays was a
ed fully in the atonement of Jesus Christ,
her dear Saviour and Lord. that has
consummated amid the awful tragedies
of the Cross and she walked continually
in the way of life the end whereof is
unending peace joy, happiness, rest and
bliss She wrote the following concern
ing her conversion to God, and coming
from a Christian woman of such mental
qualities and large experiences in re-
ligion it is certainly interesting:
81 was only thirteen years of age when
my favorite brother-in-law, Rev. stephen
Ira Ellis, sckened and died. l had
thought very little of death or my own
responsibility, but after his physicians
told him of his approaching end he
called us ALL one by one, to his bedside,
and gave us a parting hand and word.
l do not recall what was said to the
others, but / never forgot his dying words
to me. He took my hand and holding it
firmly, looked me straight in the face
and said: 'Sallie, you are old enough to
know what this means, and old enough
to think of your own SOUL and now |
want you to promise to meet me in
heaven. These and other encouraging
words he spoke ere he uttered a beauti
full prayer for his two attendant physi
clans, Drs. John r. and Henry G. Hern
don, and for my father and mother and
for his sweet wife (my elder sister Par
thenia) and each Of us younger ones. He
passed away-has long since turned to
dust-but his words followed me, and in
a few months my desire to be a Chris
thin grew into a purpose, and asking
God to accept me and feeling happy and
Joyous in the thought and assurance of
acceptance, l joined the Methodist
church of Oxford, n. c., with niece
(1attie N. Cousins) and sister (Patte),
together with several young men, among
whom was Willis. Hays, who became my
husband about ten years afterward.
have never felt the remotest desire to go
back to the world or throw off my
allegiance to the church. / pray that
/ may grow in grace. in humility, in,
faith and good works"
On November goth, 1SS7-more than
fourteen years before the final summons
came to her-indulgng in that truest in
trospection that is so necessary and often
so Statutory, commencing with her own
heart, surveying her own life, looking