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The Death of Elder J. M. Rees

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 22, 1909

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 86, No. 16.

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The Death of Elder J. M. Rees

By F. M. W.

In the death of Elder Joseph Madison Rees, as announced in the REVIEW last week, the cause of truth has lost a devoted and loyal advocate. His long years of service and his wide range of operation in connection with our church work, together with the spirit of Christian helpfulness and genial companionship which ever characterized his relationship to his associates, endeared him to many hearts. These will be interested in the following record of his life and labors in the gospel ministry:—
Brother Rees was born in eastern Tennessee, Dec. 17, 1844. When he was four years of age, his parents moved to New London, Ind., and here he grew to manhood. At the age of eleven years he was left an orphan. This sad experience, although disappointing to his early hopes, was nevertheless turned to good advantage in the development of those qualities of perseverance and strength which were characteristic of his later life, and which constituted him a stanch leader of his fellows.
The call for volunteers in connection with the Civil War thrilling his young heart, he enlisted in 1862 as a member of Company G, of the Eighty-ninth Indiana Regiment. He served most creditably as a soldier, and was mustered out at the close of the war, in 1865. About one year after retiring to civil life, he was married to Miss Melvina Seaward. She was a Christian and an observer of the seventh day as the Sabbath. Her religious faith deeply engaged the attention of her husband, and the year following, through faithful study, directed by the prayers and example of his godly companion, he accepted the system of truth and doctrines held by this church. Its principles appealed to his heart. He felt that upon him rested the duty of going forth to proclaim the gospel of the coming kingdom to his fellow men. Accordingly, closing out his prosperous business as a merchant, he began, in 1877, publicly to preach the gospel. Fruit attended his early labors, and convinced his brethren of the genuineness of his call to the ministry of the word. Hence the year following, in 1878, he was ordained a minister in the Indiana Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. In this State he labored till 1886, when he began his long service of official responsibility in church work. He was sent by the General Conference to take charge of the North Carolina Mission field. The following year he was invited to accept the presidency of the Tennessee Conference. Here he remained till the autumn of 1889, when, on account of his wife’s failing health, he was compelled to return to Indiana, where he continued in public labor till 1893. He then became president of the Arkansas Conference. After this, from the years 1895 to 1906, he filled the position of president in the conferences of Oklahoma, Colorado, Missouri, and Southern Illinois. In January, 1906, he voluntarily retired from his official labors, feeling that his own health, as well as his wife’s, demanded that he should be less burdened with the care and perplexity attending conference management. Returning to his old home conference, he again became a laborer in Indiana. But the anticipated rest and relief did not long continue. His experience was again needed in the work in which he had rendered such efficient service for many years. He was asked to respond to the earnest appeal of the West Virginia Conference. Hence, in the autumn of 1907, he accepted the presidency of that field, and entered upon his last charge, in which he was doing most acceptable work at the time of his death, April 8.
FROM A LATE PHOTOGRAPH OF ELDER J. M. REES
FROM A LATE PHOTOGRAPH OF ELDER J. M. REES
Beginning his public life in 1877, Elder Rees engaged in the Christian ministry for a period of thirty-two years. For more than twenty years of that time he occupied the position of conference president. His work was uniformly successful both in soul saving and in executive administration. The latter work he accepted only as the call of duty, the former was his chief delight. In the presentation of the truth for this generation, and in leading men from the thraldom of sin to the liberty of the sons of God, he found his greatest pleasure.
The last few weeks of Elder Rees’s life seemed particularly marked with hope and abiding trust. He often spoke to his family and friends of his confidence in God and his strong hope in the speedy triumph of the work to which he had devoted his life.
As already stated, funeral services were conducted in Washington, D. C. These were attended by the only son, Prof. D. D. Rees, of Mt. Vernon (Ohio) College, and the two daughters, Mrs. Smith and Miss Pearl L. Rees, the latter being the secretary and treasurer of the West Virginia Conference. These, with one daughter, deceased, constitute the children of Elder Rees. Unfortunately the afflicted wife and mother, who has been practically a helpless invalid for eight years, was unable to be present, being confined to her bed in the Washington Sanitarium. Three of Elder Rees’s fellow ministers conducted the funeral service, while six other fellow ministers acted as pallbearers. The body was taken to the old home at Kokomo, Ind., where, after final services, it was interred in the family burying-ground.
Brother Rees rests from his faithful labors, but the influence of his godly life still lives. That influence, gathering strength and volume with passing years, will constitute a monument to his memory more enduring than that of granite or marble. The full fruit of his labors of love he will see and rejoice in throughout the eternity of the redeemed.
The sudden fatality resulting in the tragic death of our lamented brother, as well as similar occurrences of daily happening throughout the world, should appeal with solemn admonition to every observer. We know not what may wait on the morrow in our experience. Now is the accepted time. To-day and every day should there be a squaring of accounts, a knowledge of divine acceptance, a constant abiding in Christ Jesus. Our times are in his hands; and whether we live or die, we should commit to him, moment by moment, the keeping of the life here and the realization of the life that is to come.
F. M. W.