She Sleeps | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 12, 1863

She Sleeps.

FELL asleep in Jesus, May 6, 1863, at Battle Creek, sister Lucia King, aged eighteen years and ten months. She died of disease of the liver and lungs.

We usually object to lengthy obituary notices, as their especial interest is generally local. But in this case we may be indulged in a free expression of thought and feeling.

The subject of this notice is the only daughter of our much-esteemed Bro. Seneca H. King, of Orleans, Ionia Co., Michigan. When we visited that part of the State last winter Bro. King was made very happy to see his daughter and her two younger brothers publicly manifest their desire to become Christians. He soon took her to Battle Creek to spend a year or more in our family. We were happy to hear her voice in prayer at the family altar, and her decided testimony in inquiring-meetings. She was one of the happy fifteen who were baptized Sabbath, January 3. We sent Lucia to our well-organized and disciplined school, and she seemed very happy in our family. While we were holding meetings at Monterey she went to visit relatives in Convis, and was too much exposed in going, took a violent cold, and was said to have lung fever. As soon as she was able her father moved her to Bro. Amadon's, in this city, where she lingered, a sufferer, held between hope and fear by her friends, for nine tedious weeks. During this time abscesses formed upon the lungs and broke within and without, making her case a dreadful one, not only for herself, but for her numerous sympathizing friends. Bro. King did all that a kind father could do. Relatives from Convis were attentive. The two younger brothers came seventy miles to see their affectionate sister, and joined with us in prayer at the family altar. The eldest brother came from the army of the Potomac on furlough to see his sister he so much loved once more before her death. This meeting of father, brother, and sister, was most touching. By Lucia's request we had a season of prayer, when father and son bowed and wept together by the bedside of the wasted form of the daughter and sister. As we parted this noble soldier arose, with benevolence beaming from every feature, grasped our hand in his, and expressed his "heartfelt thanks for the care and attention" we had given his sister. May God still save him from the missiles of death, and return him to his friends to join them in fighting the battles of the Lord.

The funeral services were performed the 7th inst. Eld. Moses Hull preached on the occasion from Hosea, xiii, 14. The congregation was large, with a good representation from the relatives from Convis and Marshall, making quite a full circle of mourners. In fact, the entire audience seemed as mourners, among whom was Mr. Collier, the school-teacher, with twenty-five of his students, seated by themselves, who arose at the close of the discourse and sung—

"Sister, thou wast mild and lovely, Gentle as the summer breeze, Pleasant as the air of evening When it floats among the trees. Peaceful be thy silent slumber, Peaceful in the grave so low; Thou no more wilt join our number, Thou no more our songs shalt know. Dearest sister, thou hast left us! Here thy loss we deeply feel; But 'tis God that hath bereft us, He can all our sorrows heal. Yet, again we hope to meet thee, When the day of life is fled; Then, in heaven, with joy to greet thee, Where no farewell fear is shed."

Sister Lucia bore her sickness with Christian fortitude and patience; talked of death, her funeral, and resting place with wonderful clearness, and expressed her willingness to sleep if it was God's will, and her hope of meeting her friends at the resurrection of the just. She rests at Oak Hill cemetery, in this city, from whence, by her request, she will be removed in the winter, and buried beside her pious mother, whose last breath, thirteen years since, was spent in praying for her husband and children. May that prayer be fully answered, and in the morning of the resurrection of the just, may that family chain, with its now broken links, be brought together in perfection, never to be severed.

As Bro. King leaves us to attend to neglected home duties, the brethren feel that they part with a Christian gentleman, whose heart is hungering and thirsting to be right with God, and whose first interest is in the next world. And we are certain that the attention which his afflicted daughter received from the brethren and sisters of the Battle Creek church has bound him to them in double chords of Christian affection.

The blessed hope sheds rays of cheering light around afflicting bereavements, and pours consolation into wounded hearts, so that Christians may sing— "Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal."