The Deathbed Testimony of Ezra Treat
By Samuel Treat
BRO. SMITH: Through the goodness and mercy of God I am yet alive; and for the benefit of friends abroad desire to give some particulars of the death of my son, Ezra F. Treat, who died Apr. 2d, after a very long and painful disease of Bronchial Consumption, aged 27 years. He had not spoken above a whisper since last Sept. It has been quite a trial to me because I could not talk with him, I being dull of hearing. One evening a few weeks previous to his death he wrote to me on the slate as follows. “Dear Father: I thought as we are unable to converse with each other, I would write a few thoughts on the slate. I expect if we are both faithful we shall soon meet to part no more in a land where there will be no more feeble voices, nor dullness of hearing; for we shall be immortal never more to decay. Oh, dear father, what a blissful hope this is to contemplate while I lie here suffering, unable to speak. How this hope cheers me! It seems that the Lord will save me if I continue faithful unto the end. I want to be at peace with God and all men.” “I do not expect to be able to talk much more with any one, for my strength in that respect is failing Father; I have thought much since lying here of the Sabbath. I have felt more than two thirds convinced for some time that I ought to keep it. Even when opposing you the hardest I sometimes thought you were right; and I now very much regret such opposition, and ask you to forgive me. I think if I had my life to live over again, I should try and obey the commandments of God. But still I feel at times as though I was the Lord’s. Pray for me that I may be patient in all my sufferings.” Thanks be to God, he was patient, and although young, he went down to the grave as a shock of corn ripe for the harvest. Since sitting down to write this letter, another son who never made a profession of religion has been in and said that his dying brother’s earnest entreaties had harassed him day and night, and he had resolved to live for the Lord in the future. He has commenced to pray in his family, and wished us to pray for him. So in the midst of trials I am exceeding joyful, and hope to meet in the morning of the resurrection my dear departed friends and unite my voice with theirs in ascribing glory and honor to God and the Lamb forever. I am highly pleased with the Review since its enlargement and hope it will still be enlarged. I am willing to pay three dollars a year as long as the Lord provides the means. I think that time is short, and it becomes us to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure. I wish we could have some preaching here on the present truth. There seems to be a spirit of inquiry among the people after the truth in this community. In hope of eternal life. SAMUEL TREAT.
Searsport, Me.