pared, and he was looking out of the window, waiting for the stage to take him in." When speaking of the sufferings he endured, parti cularly the sensation of burning in his side and left leg, he said that if he expected to live long enough to make it worth while, he would have his leg taken off. On Mrs. Payson's uttering some expression of surprise, he replied-" I have not a very slight idea of the pain of amputation; yet I have no doubt that I suffer more every fifteen minutes than I should in having my leg taken off." His youngest child, about a year old, had been under the care of a friend, and was to be removed a few miles out of town; but he expressed so strong a wish to see Charles first, that he was sent for. The look of love, and tenderness, and compassion with which he regarded the child, made an indelible impression on all present. At his request some of the choir belonging to the congregation came a few days before his death, for the purpose of singing, for his gratification, some of the songs of Zion. He selected the one commencing, "Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings;" part of the hymn, "I'll praise my Maker with my breath ;" and the "Dying Christian to his Soul." Sabbath day, October 21, 1827, his last agony commenced. This holy man, who had habitually said of his racking pains, "These are God's arrows, but they are all sharpened with love"-and who in the extremity of suffering had been accustomed to repeat, as a favorite expression, "I will bless the Lord at all times' had yet the " dying strife" to encounter. It commenced with the same difficulty of respiration, though in an aggravated degree, which had caused him great distress at intervals during his sickness. His daughter, who had gone to the Sabbath school without any apprehensions of so sudden a change, was called home. Though laboring for breath, and with a rattling in the throat similar to that which immediately precedes dissolution, he smiled upon her, kissed her affectionately, and said—“God bless you, my daughter!" Several of the church were soon collected at his bedside; he smiled on them all, but said little, as his power of utterance had nearly failed. Once he exclaimed, "Peace! peace! Victory! victory!" He looked on his wife and children, and said, almost in the words of dying Joseph to his brethren-words which he had before spoken of as having a peculiar sweetness, and which he now wished to recall to her mind-"I am going, but God will surely be with you." His friends watched him, expecting every moment to see him expire, till near noon, when his distress partially left him; and he said to the physician, who was feeling his pulse, that he found he was not to be released yet; and though he had suffered the pangs of death, and got almost within the gates of Paradise— yet, if it was God's will that he should come back and suffer still more, he was resigned. He passed through a similar scene in the afternoon, and, to the surprise of every one, was again relieved. The night following he suffered less than he had the two preceding. Friday night had been one of inexpressible suffering. That and the last night of his pilgrimage were the only nights in which he had watchers. The friend who attended him through his last night, read to him, at his request, the twelfth chapter of the second Epis tle to the Corinthians; parts of which must have been peculiarly applicable to his case. On Monday morning his dying agonies returned in all their extremity. For three hours every breath was a groan. On being asked if his sufferings were greater than on the preceding Friday night, he answered, “Incomparably greater." He said that the greatest temporal blessing of which he could conceive would be one breath of air. Mrs. Payson fearing, from the expression of suffering in his countenance, that he was in mental as well as bodily anguish, questioned him on the subject. With extreme difficulty he was enabled to articulate the words, "Faith and patience hold out." About mid-day the pain of respiration abated, and a partial stupor succeeded. Still, however, he con tinued intelligent, and evidently able to recognise all who were present. His eyes spoke after his tongue became motionless. He looked on Mrs. Payson, and then his eye, glancing over the others who surrounded his bed, rested on Edward, his eldest son, with an expression which said—and which was interpreted by all present to say, as plainly as if he had uttered the words of the beloved disciple-" Behold thy mother!" There was no visible indication of the return of his sufferings. He gradually sunk away, till about the going down of the sun, when his happy spirit was set at liberty. His "ruling passion was strong in death." His love for preaching was as invincible as that of the miser for gold, who dies grasping his treasure. Dr. Payson directed a label to be attached to his breast, on which should be written-" Remember the words which I spake unto you while I was yet present with you; that they might be read by all who came to look at his corpse, and by which he, being dead, stili spake. The same words, at the request of his people, were engraven on the plate of the coffin, and read by thousands on the day of interment. His funeral sermon was preached by the Rev. Charles Jenkins, (who was soon to follow him,) from 2 Tim. 4:6-8. "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." "BEHOLD THY MOTHER!" The scene at the death-bed of Dr. Payson, described on the preceding page, has been happily expanded in the following beautiful lines from the pen of Mrs. Sigourney. WHAT SAID THE EYE?-The marble lip spake not, M. P. 486 MEMOIR OF EDWARD PAYSON. Upon that lov'd companion, and the groups Which purge the dross of selfishness away; Would take the balm-cup best from that dear hand That smile, whose winning paid for sleepless nights Be strong, young man! So farewell, Leader in Israel!-Thou whose radiant path Revelation, 19:17. THE END. |