Afterwards one asked, how she was? She answered, “Weak in body, but happy in soul: I long to be gone to heaven.” Being told, you must be resigned, she answered, “I am resigned, but would rather be with Jesus.”
Some who desired to serve the Lord, but were not heartily in earnest, came to see her. One of these, she had invited some time before to the class-meeting; and he had almost promised to come, but neglected. She said to him, “I thought you would have been at the meeting as you proposed; O how was my soul grieved that you did not come! Will you come the next time? The Methodist way is the right way. It was a happy turn that I was ever brought into it. O how good have I found it to remember my Creator in the days of my youth. Now I can say, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for the Lord is with me, his rod and staff shall comfort me.” She then encouraged them heartily to join with the people of God, and not to fear any reproach they might suffer on that account.
When the disorder was at the height, she said, “Some may think that I have a heavy affliction. No: I have none that I can spare. Oh! it’s a happy affliction!”
*“Others, said she, may say of me, she was once blooming; how is she altered now? But I was never so beautiful in all my life; I am as the King’s daughter, all-glorious within: and my raiment is of wrought gold.”
A little before her departure, being visited by the wife of one of the leaders, she asked how her husband did? Adding, “He has had many struggles to help me forward in the ways of the Lord; but now he may rejoice in all his labours, for I am going safe to glory, and hope to meet him there. O little children! Love one another.” She also advised her, as she had many children, to take care what example she set before them.
Afterwards one asked whether she thought her present sickness would end in death, she answered, “I cannot tell; but the will of the Lord be done. Only this I know, that neither life nor death shall separate me from the love of Jesus, who has redeemed me from the foundation of the world. If I die, as soon as you see me depart, sing Happy soul, thy days are ended: and when you carry me to the grave, sing the same hymn. When you return let not your hearts be filled with grief, but praise God, as I shall be rejoicing with him in glory.”
An HYMN,
Sung at the time of her departure.
1.HAPPY soul, thy days are ended,
All thy mourning days below: