mild.




CHAPTER III.


SEPARATION.

But this aged couple were to share their joys and sorrows in their
retirement but a few years. Joshua was the first called away. He died in
his seventy-seventh year, in peace with God and all men. Just before
his speech failed one of his sons inquired how long he had been in the
Methodist Episcopal Church. His answer came slowly but firmly: "Fifty-two
years ago I said to this people, 'Whither thou goest, I will go; and where
thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my
God: where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried.'

'The word hath passed my lips, and I
Shall with thy people live and die.'"

And the good man had the desire of his heart.

Elizabeth was now a widow, and had nearly reached her "threescore and ten
years." She was not much bent with age, though "compassed with infirmity."
She still found some little to do among the sick, the poor, and the
perishing, and was not gloomy or desponding in her loneliness. She wrote
much to her scattered children, who were too distant to be seen often, and
her letters breathed the spirit of heaven.