Asenath Blanche Whitney
OBITUARY
Asenath Blanche, eldest daughter of Mrs. Julia A. B. Whitney, died Feb. 5th, 1881, of Paralysis of the Heart- resulting from Diptheria. Aged 11 years and 10 months. During an illness of two weeks, in which much of the time for sufferings were intense, she was not heard to complain, bearing all with a patience and fortitude which was remarkable. At the close of the first week, diphtheria relaxed its hold and as possessed a good constitution, hopes were entertained of her ultimate recovery; but the strain upon the nervous system had been too great for human endurance. Obedient, loving and kind as a child, faithful and studious as a pupil, devoted to the Sabbath School, reverencing God and reading the Scriptures with especial delight-we feel assured of her safe entrance to heavenly mansions; but, how desolate the earthly home!
“Whom some
beloved voice that was to you,
Both sound and sweetness, faileth suddenly,
And silence against which you dare not cry.
Inches round you like a strong disease and new
What hope? What help? What music will or
That silence to your sense?
Not a friendship’s sigh.
Not reason’s subtle count; not melody
Of viols, nor of pipes that Fannus blew;
Not songs of poets, nor of nightingales,
Whose hearts leap upward through the cypress trees
The clear moon! Nor get the spheric laws
Self-chanted,-nor the Angel’s sweet All
hails,
Met in the smile of God. Nay, none
of these.
Speak Thou, availing Christ; -and all this pause”
Submitted
by: Kay Doss