Obituary Notices by Joseph Bates

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 6, 1870

Obituary Notices.

By Joseph Bates

Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth.

DIED, in Monterey, Allegan Co., Mich., August 27, 1870, my beloved companion, Prud[y?] M. Bates, aged 77 years and 6 months. Light chills arrested her from family duties and usual health, followed by intermittent fever for ten days. At 5 P. M., on the peaceful, holy Sabbath of the Lord, she yielded up her breath of the spirit of life, to God who gave it. Often when asked how she was, she would respond, Oh, I am so tired! She expressed great thankfulness for the manifestation of God's grace to her before her fever wasted her vitality. Brethren prayed for God's will to be done. She revived, and said, Go to meeting. After meeting she began to sink until life was extinct, and our connection ceased, which, by God's grace, had continued fifty-two years and a half. Our evening and morning family altar had been maintained for forty-four years.

For about sixty years she walked with the professed people of God. She was in full fellowship with the Advent movement of 1844, and more than twenty years voluntarily engaged in the third angel's message.

Her last letter to me, a few days before she was taken sick, closes thus: “I long to have my mind free from care and so many household duties, that I may more exclusively give my mind and time to the all-important subject of getting just right before the Lord. I feel the importance of this more than anything else. I do long ‘for a closer walk with God.’ I know I have your prayers, which is a comfort to me, believing the fervent effectual prayer of the righteous availeth much. God bless and prosper your efforts to do and get good, and return you in safety to us, is the prayer of your affectionate wife.” The funeral was attended August 30, by Bro. Smith, who spoke upon the promises and the true hope of the Christian.

JOSEPH BATES.

Monterey, Mich., Aug. 29, 1870.