The Death of Giles S. Ray
By Samantha B. Ray
Bro. Smith: I have been very much afflicted of late. Last Friday morning, I was called to part with my dear companion, Giles S. Ray, in the 33d year of his age. His disease was brain-fever, consequently he did not have his reason all of the time, during his sickness; but the day before he died his disease went from his head to other parts of his system, and his mind became clear and cloudless. He was sensible of his condition, and gave orders concerning his burial, selected the preacher, and the text for his funeral, and seemed perfectly resigned to the will of the Lord. When he was dying I spoke to him of his sufferings. He said, “Jesus suffered for me.” When I asked him what I should do when he was gone, his answer was, “Fear God and work righteousness.” He embraced the Advent faith about four years ago, and had ever since been a firm believer in the second coming of Christ, the sleep of the saints, the resurrection of the dead, &c. He was a strict Sabbath-keeper and taught it to his children; a sincere lover of the Review, and always perused its pages with delight. For two years we had tried to serve the Lord together, but now he is gone and I must travel on alone; yet not alone if the Lord is with me. Oh! I feel my incompetency to fill the place I now occupy. How much grace I need to train up our little children, (four in number) in the way that they should go! How my heart is made to mourn by the loss of so kind a husband! and he was ever a tender and loving father. Can those sisters who have had the same affliction, drop a tear with me? I feel that I need the resignation and composure of the sister whose daughter was drowned under the ice. I truly need the prayers of all those that have access at a throne of grace, that I may be enabled to bear this sorrow, with christian patience, for I am very weak in the faith. I could hardly stand or walk with my kind husband at my side, much less now that I am alone. I never was a full believer in all the doctrines he set forth as taught in the Bible, or I did not take the same view of them that he did. Perhaps it is not necessary to state all my views and feelings; suffice it to say that I believe all those that fear God and work righteousness will be accepted in the great day when Christ shall come to judge the world. I was always prejudiced against “Millenism,” as it is called by opposers to the truth; but I feel that I want grace to come out more decidedly and fear not the reproach of men. “Let them revile me and scoff at my name,
Laugh at my weeping, endeavour to shame,
I will go forward for this is my theme,
There, there is rest! there is rest.” I cannot close without mentioning the last hymn my husband ever sung. It was this, “Are we almost there?” The last verse he sung twice. “He is waiting to hear the trumpet sound!
And to meet his Saviour in the air,
The day star dawns! soon with joyous bound,
He can say indeed, We are almost there.”
Samantha B. Ray.
Middleport, Ills., Oct. 25th, 1859.