51-2.

Martha Yeardley continued very unwell during the autumn, and by the end of
the year her disorder assumed a more alarming form. It soon became evident
that her dedicated life must at no distant period be brought to a close;
and after many weeks of suffering, with confinement to the chamber during
the latter part of the time, she expired, full of peace and hope in Christ
Jesus, in the Fifth Month, 1851. The following memorandum, touchingly
descriptive of her illness and death, was penned by her bereaved husband,
probably soon after her decease.

After our return from the Continental journey my beloved M.Y. became more
poorly. A severe influenza cold weakened her much; and a second attack she
seemed never to recover. It was succeeded by a regular rheumatic fever.
From the commencement of 1851, with but little exception, she was confined
to the house, and for a little while to her bed, until the 8th of the
Fifth Month, when her sweet and purified spirit ascended to her Saviour,
and commenced an eternity of bliss.

Thus was I deprived of my only earthly treasure. She was the Lord's
precious loan, granted me for nearly a quarter of a century, for which I
can never be sufficiently [thankful]. She was his own, bought with the
blood of his dear Son, and he saw meet to take her from me. Ours was a
blessed union, and a happy life, spent, I hope, unitedly in the service of
our Lord. In all our imperfections we did desire, above all earthly
things, to do the work of our Divine Master, and to labor for the
promotion of his kingdom, and for the spread of his knowledge in the
earth.

I was her only nurse till within ten days of her happy close. Long had a
covenant been made between us, in the time of health, that whichever of us
was taken ill the first, should be nursed by the surviving one, if
permitted and strength afforded; which it mercifully was to me, and a
happy season was the sick-room. We seemed to live together in heaven;
never, I think, could two mortals be more favored with the answer to
prayer.

In the early part of her illness she spoke much of the satisfaction she
had felt in our three last journeys to the Continent, and that she was
thankful in having been enabled to go through the whole of the service
which her Lord had put into her heart. I have since thought it was a mercy
that I did not proceed into South Russia, as, in all probability, my
precious one would have fallen on the journey, and never seen h