Newton County GaArchives Obituaries.....Purington, Elder Joseph L.  December 3 1874
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Phyllis Thompson http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00011.html#0002524 June 18, 2004, 7:43 pm

The Georgia Enterprise, December 18, 1874
SUDDEN DEATH  
  Many of our readers will be painfully surprised by the announcement that our
former fellow citizen and esteemed friend, Elder Joseph L. Purington, died of
Paralysis, in Alexandria, Va., on the 3d inst., in the midst of his labors at 
the age of 56 years. The following particulars of this most afflictive and 
mysterious dispensation of Divine Providence are afforded by a private 
correspondent who was present when he breathed his last.
  "He had been in rather better health, to human appearance ________ ______
usual, for some time past, till Tuesday night. On that evening, Elder D. Bartley
of Illinois, who is here on a visit, preached in the Meeting room in this city.
Elder Purington followed in some very appropriate remarks, in which he repeated 
a wish, to which he gave utterance on Sunday night, while preaching in the same 
place, that "he wanted to die at his post." After concluding his remarks he 
read, and the congregation sang the hymn, beginning, "O! for a thousand tongues 
to sing!" The congregation was dismissed and had begun to depart, about half of 
them having passed out, when Mr. Bartley noticing a peculiar look about him, 
said, "What is the matter, Brother Purington?" He replied, "I feel as if I 
should faint and fall." They got him a chair, and he vomited pretty freely, 
seeming to revive somewhat, when the brethren present got him into a bedroom 
adjoining. He was able to talk and complained of feeling strangely about his 
head, and continued to grow worse till 3 o'clock, Wednesday morning, when it 
became evident that he was stricken with Paralysis. His throat and tongue were 
much affected, and the whole left side was paralyzed. He was only able to talk 
in broken sentences from this time till at ten o'clock, p. m., he ceased to 
articulate, and it became evident that the hand of death was upon him. I did 
not get to see him till nearly noon yesterday only two hours before he died. He 
was then past all consciousness untill his death which took place at five 
minutes before two p. m. Thursday, Dec. 3d, 1874.
  On Wednesday, Elder Bartley asked him; if it were the Lord's will that he 
should recover and again serve his churches, did he feel willing? He answered
yes, and repeated the words of Bro. B. 
Bro. B. then asked him if he felt willing to go if the Lord should take him? He 
said, Yes.
  About the last of his expressions were, " I have finished my course, I have 
kept the faith."
  His wish was as near fulfilled literally, as it could well have been. His 
sermon Sunday night, is said by those who heard him to have been the ablest 
that they ever heard from him, and he was more earnest in his manner of 
delivery.
  Truly the ways of God are past finding out! Dear Bro. Purington was to all 
human appearance in the very midst and prime of a most useful life among the 
churches of his charge. But God has called him to himself, and we are left
to mourn.
  The foregoing was written by a fellow laborer in the ministry who was 
intimate with __________, but with the exception of the bereft widow and son, 
none can feel more deeply the weight of this calamity than the writer. No
ties known to human relationship can be closer than the union of heart and 
spirit which has bound us together for the last thirty years, during which time,
socially, religiously and politically, discord has never in the slightest degree
severed our hearts. He was at once a father to advise, and a brother to 
sympathize, in every trial; while to more than manly fortitude he joined the 
most tender womanly feeling for every distress, sustaining under every trial
and cheering in every sorrow. Well may we adopt the exclamation of the Poet
King of Israel, "Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail 
from among the children of men." To his mourning widow and son we can only say 
the Hand by whom this bitter cup given alone can afford strength to sustain 
them. May they be comforted with the remembrance that the rest for which our
dear brother so often sighed, is now attained. God grant them submission to his 
righteous will! The field of his arduous ministry is indeed left destitute;
may the Lord of the harvest send forth to that field a successor worthy to 
enter into his labors. While we feel that another tie to earth is loosed in the 
departure of our brother and friend, we would be submissive under the mighty
hand of God, and know that the judge of all the earth does right, and orders 
all things well.

This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/gafiles/

File size: 5.0 Kb