Elwood F. Howell
DIED, in Lebanon, Ohio, on Sunday, 3d of August, 1851, after a lingering illness, Elwood F. Howell, aged eighteen years and ten days.
This young and excellent brother made a credible profession of religion during a protracted meeting in the C. P. Church in the early part of April, 1848, and shortly after united with this congregation, then under the pastoral care of Rev. F. G. Black, in which he lived a life of devotion to the cause of Christ worthy of imitation by all young men, and especially by all young Christians.
Bro. Howell’s disposition was not excitable, but resolute. His was the religion of principle, and although he was the object of strong, stirring emotions, not of evanescent zeal. His apprehensions of Divine truth were clear and forcible—his conversion sound and thorough—his life consistent and influential for good. We have reason to believe that his highest aspiration as a Christian was to be a humble, worthy follower of our dear Redeemer—for him we claim nothing more.
During the last two years of his life he was deeply impressed with the conviction that it was God’s will that he should preach the Gospel; and in that time, up to the period at which his health failed, he was sedulously engaged in a course of classical and literary preparation for the responsible duties of the sacred office of a Gospel minister. He was not, at all times, free from doubts as to the truth of his call by the Spirit to the holy office, as he was not as to the genuineness of his change of heart; yet ordinarily his evidences of both were clear and satisfactory.
In a recent conversation with him touching his hope in Christ, I took occasion to ask him, “now that his hope of rendering active service to the cause of Christ appeared to be cut off, how he viewed his former impressions of a call to the ministry?” He replied that his conviction was firm and unchanged, and that if it were God’s will to spare his life and restore his health, his desire to preach “Christ crucified” was only second to that of being in heart and life a humble and obedient Christian.
My last conversation with him was on Thursday morning previous to his death, when he assured me that all was well with him—his confidence in God unwavering. For several hours before his death he could not speak or hear—his death was calm and without a struggle. May his deeply afflicted father, brothers and sisters share the comforting and supporting grace of God in this their affliction.
J. H. Coulter
—Cumberland Presbyterian.
Amanda Haggott
DIED—At Sidney, on the 14th inst., Amanda, daughter of Dr. J. P. and Mary Ann B. Haggott, aged two years and nine months.