Anna Maria Day, Saffron Walden. 68 11mo. 8 1849
Gulielma Deane, Reigate. Daughter of James and Sarah Deane. 18 11mo. 4 1849
Sarah (Sally) Deaves, Eglantine, Cork. Daughter of Reuben and Sarah Deaves. 22 10mo. 3 1849
The sudden death, by Cholera, of this dear young friend, caused at the time a very lively emotion among a wide circle of friends. She was the only and much beloved child of her bereaved parents;—naturally of a most amiable disposition, and of that lively temperament which gives a peculiar zest to life and all its passing enjoyments, she diffused around her somewhat of the buoyancy and sunshine which seemed ever to attend her own steps. Thus attractive and admired, and drinking largely of the cup of present pleasures, the thoughts of the future appear to have had but little place in her mind. In a state of excellent health, she had gone to
Mountmelick to pass a few weeks with some near relatives, when she was seized with the disorder which, in a few hours, closed her life. Those hours were passed in much bodily suffering, but sorer still were the conflicts of her mind. The scales which had prevented her from seeing the real worth of life and the awful realities of the future, at once fell from her eyes, and she saw or rather felt with indescribable clearness, that the great truths which appertain to the welfare of the soul belong alike to the young and the healthy, to the sick and the dying. She saw that she had been living to herself and not to God, and this, whatever particulars she might lament, was the heavy burden of her awakened spirit. In the depths of contrition, and in the earnestness of faith, she was enabled to pray to her heavenly Father, and Saviour, to draw near and to have mercy upon her.
Thus passed some hours never to be forgotten. The rapid progress of her disease hardly allowed time for much further mental exercise or expression. She sank into a state of quietude of body and of mind. And when all was over, the sorrowing parents were condoled in the hope, that
the prayers of their beloved child had been heard, through the mercy of Him who never turned away his ear from the truly repentant suppliant.
What lessons does this brief narrative offer to survivors. Awfully does it speak to the children of pleasure, of the inestimable value of the soul—of the importance of time—of the folly of living in forgetfulness of God, and unmindful of their high destiny as immortal beings. What a light does it throw on the responsibility of parents; and whilst affording no encouragement to delay in the hope of a death-bed repentance, what a view does it open of the infinite mercy of our heavenly Father in Christ Jesus.
Martha Dell, Birmingham. Widow of Joseph H. Dell, of Earls Colne. 78 4mo. 30 1850
Samuel Dickinson, Denbydale, Highflatts, Yorkshire. 79 2mo. 19 1850