Death of Sister Mary Gifford
By Joseph Bates
Sister Mary, wife of Wm. Gifford, of Parma, Jackson Co., Mich., departed this life, May 15th, 1857, aged fifty-three years. Bro. G. had recently removed with his family from Massachusetts to the West. Sister G.'s health had been declining for several years past. After their preparation to leave for the West, she was in such a low state of health that her husband proposed to give it up, but she urged him to proceed onward. Her health was apparently improving while on their journey, and for some days after their arrival in Mich., after which she began to sink until she quietly fell asleep in Jesus. Sister G. professed to be a Christian for many years, and when the announcement of Christ's second coming was being made to all the world, through the First Angel's Message in 1843, she gladly and joyfully embraced it, and also the Third Angel's Message, to which she tenaciously adhered to the last. And when she felt the pangs of death stealing o'er her mortal frame, she requested her children to come to her bed-side, and after charging them to obey God and keep his commandments that they might meet her in peace, she was reminded that one of her daughters was in the East. Said she, My dying request to J. is, that she leave off her pride and vanity, and keep the commandments of God that she may have the hope which now sustains me. This was a solemn scene. Sister G. retained her senses to the last moment. Her faith was firmly settled in the great Physician who prescribes no stupifying drugs to deprive his children of the realities of a dying hour. I came to the place about half an hour before she died. Said she in a whisper, Pray that I may have an easy passage. We bowed in prayer, a few moments after which her request was granted, and she passed from her mortal state without a groan. "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." Bro. J. Byington was providentially with us, and assisted in the funeral services, which took place on the 17th inst. A large company of people came to the funeral who seemed deeply interested to hear the word of the Lord, "Ah! she has gone—there enshrouded she lies,
Hushed is her voice, and bedimmed are her eyes.
Cold in that form, and all motionless now,
Death's fatal seal on her calm, pallid brow." "Mournful we gazed on the face of the dead,
Many the tears that in sorrow we shed;
Deep was the anguish then rending the heart,
Sad was the hour when we saw her depart." "Slowly away moved the burial train,
Severed one link in affection's fond chain;
Low in the earth have they laid her to rest,
Precious the treasure inclosed in its breast!" "Father! the loved from thy bosom is torn,
Children our mother hath left us to mourn;
Lonely the hearth-stone—for one is not there—
Broken the circle—and vacant the chair." "Peaceful thy slumber! O sweet thy repose!
Safe from life's turmoil, its cares and its woes,
Short is the silent embrace of the tomb;
Hope, pointing upward, disperses its gloom." "Soon will the King in his glory descend,
Triumphant o'er Death, and the grave's fetters rend;
Kindred and friends shall we meet as they rise,
Bright and immortal ascending the skies." Sharon, Mich., May 20th, 1857.