The entirety of the memorial is as follows:
Memorial Concerning Cidney Scholfield.
That it may prove a means of encouragement to survivors to labor for the same blessed attainment, we are induced to bring into notice, some of the last exercises and expressions of our friend, Cidney Scholfield, daughter of Issachar and Edith Scholfield, who, we trust, was permitted, through the mercy of God in Christ Jesus, to realize that "the work of righteousness is peace, and the effect thereof, quietness and assurance forever."
For some time previous to the illness which terminated her life, she manifested a seriousness of deportment - and when assembled with her friends for the solemn and awfully responsible duty of worshipping God, the retired frame of her mind gave evidence that she was seeking to draw near to Him through the quickening operation of that faith, "which works by love, and purifies the heart." Thus, while her friends were indulging the hope, that through a more full submission to the work of Divine Grace, she would in due time be prepared for usefulness in the Church, He who doeth all things right, saw meet to cut short the work in righteousness, and finish her earthly course whilst in the bloom of youth - afresh proclaiming to our understanding, the immutability of His sacred declaration through the mouth of the prophet: "All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field; the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it; surely the people is grass, the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever." She was taken ill about the 20th of the Eighth month, 1836. In the early part of her sickness, she deeply felt the want of an evidence of Divine acceptance, which, above all other things, her soul was made to desire, accompanied by a sense of her own helpless condition - she was nevertheless enabled, through the extension of Holy help, to rest her hopes of salvation solely on the mercy of God, who, in his own time, granted her an assurance of the love of Christ to her soul.
Calling her sister to her on one occasion, she addressed her as follows: "We must deny ourselves, and take up the cross, endeavoring to do our day's work in the day time, not choosing our own way. All this world can afford, is nothing in comparison of a glorious inheritance in the Redeemer's kingdom."
On the 28th, she desired her mother to be called to her bedside; with much tenderness she said to her, "I have labored under great exercises for several days past, but through unmerited mercy, I am now favored with peace of mind, for which I feel thankful. Thou hast been a means of preserving me out of many evils, and it has rested on my mind to ask thy forgiveness for all I have done amiss towards thee." Her mother replying comfortably to her exercised mind, she said, "I love thee dearly, and thank thee for all thy care towards me." At another time, she said, "If we are ashamed of Christ and his words, He will be ashamed of us before his Father and the Holy Angels." To one of her brothers, she said, "I feel as though I might be about to leave the world, and I want to leave thee a few admonitions: seek the Lord whilst he may be found, call upon him whilst he is near, and he will establish thy goings, and make thee rejoice to thy mother and thy friends. When I was first laid on this bed, my mind was covered with awful feelings - I felt as though I had no hope or faith in Christ, the dear Son of God - yet through his adorable mercy, he taught me where to seek, and enabled me to obtain. Blessed be his holy name! To be kind and obliging, is a christian disposition. I have been deficient in this respect to my parents." Her sister also being present, she added, "I want this not to be to you as an idle tale, but that you may remember it when I am gone. I feel resigned as to life or death." On the 29th, she said, "I am low and weak, and, ere long, the curtain may be drawn - and if so, I leave an evidence that I have a well-grounded hope of an inheritance in the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I love the Lord above all; I have many times tasted of his excellence, yet the world has often disappointed it. It is good for me that I have been afflicted; before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep thy word."
To a young friend who visited her, she said, "Thou art now in the bloom of life, with a prospect of many days before thee; yet thou mayst be mown down as the grass of the field, as many others have been. Therefore, endeavor to have thy day's work going on in the day time." On the 31st, she said, "I have been beset with temptations, doubtings, and fears, but have been all the while feebly endeavoring to resist them; I hope these trials will strengthen my faith, and be a means of preparing me to bear greater temptations, should they be permitted to assail." "What a happy experience to feel an establishment on that foundation which no wind can shake, no flood destroy, and against which no tempest can ever prevail."
Ninth month 1st, she supplicated her Heavenly Father as follows: "O Lord, establish thou me upon the Rock of ages, and I shall be established, and shall not be moved - thou art my rock, my fortress, and my safe hiding place."
On the 2d of Ninth month, when several young friends were in the room, she requested that a chapter in the Bible might be read; which being done, she said, "If you would mind what this good book says, you would find peace therein; even that peace 'which the world can neither give, nor take away.' Lay aside all your foibles and trifles, and come up as children walking in the truth, not choosing your own ways." At another time she expressed as follows: "I will praise thee, O Lord my God, for thy loving kindness and thy tender mercies - they have been very great to me since I have been on this sick bed. Thou hast redeemed my soul from the pit, my life from sin and iniquity, therefore will I praise thee forevermore. I cannot nor dare not approach thee, but through the mediation of thy dear son, Christ Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity."
On the forenoon of this day several friends called in to see her; on which occasion, a solemn opportunity occurred, at the conclusion of which, under feelings of much brokenness of spirit, she said, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, my spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviour, because he hath redeemed my soul from the pit, and set me in a large place, and given me to see the beauty, and excellency, and joy of his salvation."
She continued to grow weaker, and in the afternoon of this day, quietly breathed her last; being in the 23d year of her age. |
