1814-1853 - The Missionary Register [Sections relating to New Zealand.] - 1847 - Brief obituary notice of Mrs. Dudley, Obituary notice of a New Zealand child, p 371-372

       
E N Z B       
       Home   |  Browse  |  Search  |  Variant Spellings  |  Links  |  EPUB Downloads
Feedback  |  Conditions of Use      
  1814-1853 - The Missionary Register [Sections relating to New Zealand.] - 1847 - Brief obituary notice of Mrs. Dudley, Obituary notice of a New Zealand child, p 371-372
 
Previous section | Next section      

Brief obituary notice of Mrs. Dudley, Obituary notice of a New Zealand child.

[Image of page 371]

BRIEF OBITUARY NOTICE OF MRS. DUDLEY,
WIFE OF MR. DUDLEY, CONNECTED WITH THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY'S STATION IN THE MIDDLE DISTRICT, NEW ZEALAND.

THE death of Mrs. Dudley was mentioned at p. 385 of our last Volume; but a few particulars respecting it will doubtless be received with interest. Mr. Dudley writes, in a Letter dated Sept 24, 1845--

It pleased God, on the 19th inst., to take to Himself the soul of my dear wife. She died at the Bishop's house in Auckland, where--in part owing to the precarious state of her health, which prevented her from performing any active duties--we had been resident since we were obliged to leave Kororarika last March. A temporary amendment in her health enabled me to leave her early in

[Image of page 372]

August to fulfil some ministerial engagements in the Thames; but from them I was speedily recalled by a sudden change for the worse in her state, which, from that time to her death, required the closest attendance. The unerring wisdom and love of God ordained that she should be tried by a most protracted death, for she was actually dying for the fortnight preceding her departure; but by the grace of God her faith failed not. She was mercifully upheld through this as through every other trial of her most painful illness, and throughout was enabled to feel that it was a Father's hand which was laid upon her, and to rest her hopes on His love in our Lord Jesus Christ. The poor people for whom she thought and laboured have lost a devoted Christian friend in her, and by the younger ones of the flock she will be especially missed. May I so follow her, as she followed Christ, that at death I may join her in Paradise, and at the resurrection have, together with her and all God's saints who have departed this life in His faith and fear, my perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in His eternal kingdom!

OBITUARY NOTICE OF A NEW-ZEALAND CHILD,
CONNECTED WITH THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY'S STATION IN THE MIDDLE DISTRICT NEW ZEALAND.

THE following recital of the power of the Gospel on a little boy will afford a happy contrast to the warlike scenes which prevailed around. Mr. Maunsell writes, in his Letter of September 1--

During the past two months I have been permitted to witness a most pleasing proof that the movements of the blessed Spirit are not confined to times, means, or places. Our excellent Bishop, while on his way to my Station to open our Church on the 28th of June last, met, in a distant part of my District, a little boy, about thirteen years of age, who was suffering much from a deep abscess in the side and back. He placed him in his canoe, and brought him to my Station. I was struck with his mild and patient carriage under his sufferings; and, on conversing with him about the Saviour, was truly surprised to find that he was well acquainted with what He had done for him, and with the means by which he might obtain an interest in Him. His aged and feeble mother had, it appears, been induced, by his means, to acknowledge the same Lord, and had learned from him the leading truths of the Gospel. On my asking him what he prayed for, he repeated a prayer of his own composition. It was remarkably simple and spiritual; and the poor little fellow repeated it with much earnestness and devotion. This, it appeared, was the form that he had been in the habit of using with his mother; and when he was too weak, the poor old woman repeated it for him. After he had been about six weeks on the Station, I proposed baptism to him. He gladly accepted the offer, and on the following Lord's Day was admitted, with his mother, into the fold of Christ, taking the name Josiah, that having been the name of his elder brother, who had been killed in the late battles with Ngatitipa.

About a fortnight afterward his strength seemed to be sinking fast, and his friends determined on removing him immediately, that he might die on their own lands. He was placed in the canoe, and after they had pulled about four miles one of them asked, "When do you think you will go?" i.e. die. He simply replied, "Let me go to my Saviour," and expired. To God alone be the glory! Amid so many distractions, and so much weakness and insufficiency, how cheering to reflect that all does not depend upon us; and that, even from those parts of our vineyard where we least expect it, He raises up plants which will flourish for ever in His own paradise!


Previous section | Next section