“Elmshaven” Funeral Service
357
“Then I said to her, ‘I can only repeat to you, Sister White, what
you wrote us in one of your last letters. You said: “The shadows are
lengthening, and we are nearing home. We shall soon be at home, and
then we will talk it all over together in the kingdom of God.”’ She
replied, ‘Yes; it seems almost too good to be true, but it is true.’”
“Passed away from earth forever,
Free from all its cares and fears,
She again will join us never,
While we tread this vale of tears,”
the first lines of the second hymn, affected deeply many in the listening
congregation. Years ago these lines
[453]
were penned by one of Mrs. White’s associates in the Master’s service,
the late Elder Uriah Smith. Sad are the partings of this life;
“But a glorious day is nearing,
Earth’s long-wished-for jubilee,
When creation’s King, appearing,
Shall proclaim His people free;
When, upborne on Love’s bright pinion,
They shall shout from land and sea,
‘Death, where is thy dark dominion!
Grave, where is thy victory!’”
Elder E. W. Farnsworth, who had charge of the service, spoke as
follows:
“It seems, brethren and friends, almost impossible for any one to
think of preaching a sermon, a memorial sermon, commemorative
of one whose life and labors have been a constant living sermon for
nearly fourscore years. Seventy-eight years ago this summer, Sister
White gave her heart to God; and during all those years, there has
scarcely been any cessation or interruption in most ardent and earnest
labor for the Master, and her life and what it represents in literature is
the greatest eulogy that could possibly be pronounced on her funeral
occasion.
“I have wondered what Sister White herself would say if she were
here alive, and one of us were in her place. I am certain of some things