31. Last Scenes of his Life and Labors.
Last Scenes of his Life and Labors His last sermon was preached from the text, "The word of the Lord is true." It was not written, of course, but no discourse that he ever wrote was more instructive or eloquent. When speaking of the trials to which the Bible had been subjected by its enemies, never were the mightiest infidels made to appear so puny, insignificant, and foolish. " He who sitteth in the heavens" could almost be seen deriding them. When describing the manner in which Christians have tried it, his experience aided his eloquence, and added strength to the conviction it wrought in the minds of his hearers. On pronouncing the benediction, he descended from the pulpit, took his station in front of it, and commenced a most solemn appeal to the assembly.
" I now put aside the minister," said he. " I come down among you—place myself on a visible equality. I address you as a brother and fellow-traveler to the bar of God." He then gave vent to the struggling emotions of his heart in a stream of affectionate entreaty, and requested them, mentally and silently, to adopt a series of resolutions touching a belief in and practice of Christianity, which he was about to propose. Though his withered arm hung helpless by his side, yet he seemed instinct with life, and every succeeding resolve was rendered emphatic by a gesture of the left.
One of his last communion seasons is thus described : " His body was so emaciated by long and acute suffering that it was scarcely able to sustain the effort; but his soul, raised above its perishing influence, and filled with a joyful tranquility, seemed entirely regardless of the weakness of its mortal tenement. His right hand and arm were so palsied by disease as to be quite useless, except that in the act of breaking the bread he placed it on the table with the other hand, raising it as a lifeless weight, until it had performed the service required, as if unwilling that even the withered hand should be found unemployed in the holy work!
Aug. 5. This day he entered the meeting-house for the last time. Twenty years had passed since he entered it for the first time as a preacher: then a trembling youth, now the spiritual father of many hundreds ; then just girded for the warfare, now the veteran who had fought the good fight, and was about to resign his commission.
He was supported into the house by his senior deacons, and was privileged to witness the admission of twenty-one candidates into the Church. He only had strength to read "the Covenant" and to say to the Church, " I want you always to believe that God is faithful. However dark and mysterious his dispensations may appear, still confide in him. He can make you happy when everything else is taken from you."
Payson Confined to the Chamber of Sickness and Death — His Triumph.
He was asked by a friend if he could see any particular reason for this dispensation. He replied, " No; but I am as well satisfied as if I could see ten thousand reasons." In a letter dictated to his sister, he writes : " Were I to adopt the figurative language of Bunyan, I might date this letter from the land of Beulah, of which I have been for some time such a happy inhabitant. The celestial city is full in my view. Its glories beam upon me, its breezes fan me, its odors are wafted to me, its sounds strike upon my ears, and its spirit is breathed into my heart. Nothing separates me from it but the river of death, which now appears as an insignificant rill, which can be crossed at a single step, whenever God shall give permission. The Sun of Righteousness has been gradually drawing nearer and nearer, appearing larger and brighter as he approached, and now fills the whole hemisphere, pouring forth a flood of glory, in which I seem to float like an insect in the beams of the sun, exulting, yet almost trembling, while I gaze on this excessive brightness, and wondering why God should deign thus to shine upon a sinful worm." On being asked, " Do you feel reconciled ?" he replied, " O that is too cold ; I rejoice ; I triumph ; and this happiness will endure as long as God himself, for it consists in admiring and adoring him. I can find no words to express my happiness. I seem to be swimming in a river of pleasure which is carrying me on to the great fountain. It seems as if all the bottles in heaven were opened, and all its fullness and happiness have come down into my heart. God has been depriving me of one blessing after another, but as each one was removed he has come in and filled up its place. If God had told me some time ago that he was about to make me as happy as I could be in this world, and that he should begin by crippling me in all my limbs and removing from me all my usual sources of enjoyment, I should have thought it a very strange mode of accomplishing his purpose. Now, when I am a cripple and not able to move, I am happier than I ever was in my life before or ever expected to be.
"It has often been remarked that people who have passed into the other world cannot come back to tell us what they have seen, but I am so near the eternal world that I can almost see as clearly as if I were there; and I see enough to satisfy me of the truth of the doctrines I have preached. I do not know that I should feel at all surer had I been really there."
"Watchman, what of the night?" asked a gray-headed member of his Church. " I should think it was about noonday," replied the dying Payson. The ruling passion being strong in death, he sent a request to his pulpit that his people should repair to his sick-chamber. They did so in specified classes, a few at a time, and received his dying message.