OBITUARY

“Friend after friend departs,
Who has not lost a friend?
There is no union here of hearts,
That has not here an end.”

How often are we called to mourn over the fate of the loved and lost?
The companion by our side, with whom we have taken sweet counsel, who partook with the cup of sorrow and of joy, one whom our souls stayed, even such have been found “ripe for the reaper death,” and have fallen, leaving the survivor stricken, lonely, desolate.—Such are the reflections of the writer in paying a brief tribute to the memory of CAROLINE ELIZABETH EDGEWORTH, who departed this life on the 29th of January last.  Altho’ the deceased was possessed of fine mental endowments, improved by constant daily culture, and set off, and adorned by all the virtues which belong to her sex—such was her unobtrusive modesty, and disposition to shrink from display in public, that those only whose privilege it was to enjoy an intimacy of friendship with her, could place a proper value upon her character.  As a follower of her Saviour, she possessed a portion of her spirit—the spirit inculcated in the gospel—in such passages as these.  “In lowliness of mind let each esteem others, better than himself.  Bear ye one an others burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.”

In readiness to recognize the rights of others or in tender regard for their feelings, none could surpass her. In the sick room—she was an angel of mercy; so kindly, so tenderly and so constantly did she minister to the necessities and wants of the sick and afflicted.  As a Sabbath school teacher, she endeavored to have her little charge, in sweet subjection to the law of love; indeed, in all the relations which she sustained, both to the church and the world, her conduct was regulated by the strong unbending principles of truth and righteousness.

The closing scene was in beautiful harmony and consistency with her life.  The Saviour she had loved and served did not desert her, in that last hour of trial, but was her “rod and staff,” as she walked through “the valley and shadow of death.”  She died at the residence of Maj. Rowland, Etowah valley, whither she had gone on a visit three weeks before her death which was caused by typhoid pneumonia; and if the presence of kindred, devoted friends and medical skill could have availed, then would Caroline have been spared.—But such was not the will of an overruling Providence.  She was in the full possession of her mental faculties, and conscious of her approaching end, exhorting her friends and relations who surrounded her dying bed, to prepare to meet God, by a life devoted to His service, and exhibiting to all around her willingness to depart and be with Christ.

She sleeps in Jesus and is blessed,
How calm her slumbers are—
From suffering and from sin released,
And free from every care.

BY A FRIEND.