His Last Illness and Death
While in Africa, Mr. Mills was exclusively devoted to the objects of his agency; diligent, unwearied, watchful, persevering “in season and out of season,” almost to a fault. How obvious to the eye even of a careless observer, that a Divine superintendance not only raises up and qualifies his agents for their work, and affords them the opportunity of usefulness, and crowns their efforts with success — but that the same invisible and omnipotent energy also limits the sphere of their labour! It is the economy of a wise Providence, if I may so speak, not to accomplish too much by the agency of any one man. “The Lord of Hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory.”
Mr. Mills’ work was well nigh done. He often appeared much less fitted for eartfi than heaven. Few men were apparently more matured for “the £;lory to be revealed” than he. For several of the last weeks of his life particularly, he enjoyed peculiar manifestations of the Divine dorv and fivour.
Though away from his native shores, burnt by the sun, and drenched with the rains of an inhospitable dime, that Father of Mercies, who is every where present, “put gladness into his heart.” After his return from Sherbro to Sierra Leone, and while in waiting for a passage to England, it was his happiness to be the guest of the Rev. Samuel Brown, an English Missionary from the Methodist connexion, a man of an excellent spirit, and who ‘• knew the heart of a stranger.” Both Mr. Brown and Mr. Burgess were led to take notice of the spirituality of Mr. Mills during that period, and even to make it the subject of private remark. His frame of mind was unusually devout. At their stated seasons for prayer, these brethren expressed great delight when the duty devolved on him to lead in their devotions, and great satisfaction in his peculiar nearness to God, and his sweet and delightful views of another world. To adopt the sentiment of his colleague, “Notwithstanding my own apprehensions while in Africa, there was something in Mills, while we were at Sierra Leone, which left the impression on my mind that he was ripe for heaven, and would go before me,”
Having finished his inquiries in Africa, and become convinced that he could do no more to promote the objects of the American Society, as there was no Ameri’^’an ship in the vicinity, he improved the only opportunity for leaving the coast before the rainy season should set in with violence, and took passage for London, in the brig Success, on the 22d of May, 1818. It was a delightful evening when he took his final leave of Africa. The sun was just going
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226 OlEMOIRS OF THE LATE
down, and the mountains of Sierra Leone appeared in great majesty and beauty. As he stood on the quarter-deck, taking a last glance at unhappy Ethiopia, his bosom began to heave with the thoughts of home. “Vc may now,” said he to his colleague, *•’ be thankful to God, and congratulate each other that the labours and dangers of our mission are past. The prospect is fair, that we shall once more return to our dear native land, and see the faces of our beloved parents and friends.” To all human appearance it was. The ship was good, her accommodations were pleasant — the sea air was cool, and the latitude toward which they were sailing both agreeable and healthful — “But my thoughts are not as your thoughts,” saith Jehovah, ‘• neither are my ways as your ways.” What is too vast in the works ot God for the limited understanding of his people to comprehend, they learn to adore; what is too minute for them to discern, they leave to other beings who have clearer perceptions; what is too high for them to see, they look at with admiration; and what is too deep for them to fathom, they pass by without complaint.
The health of Mr. Mills before he left the United States was slender, having a stricture on the lungs, and a dangerous cough. In England he complained much of the humidity of the atmosphere, though on the Atlantic, and during his residence in Africa, he enjoyed excellent health. During the early part of the voyage, after he left the coast, (and we have reason to acknowledge it with grateful admiration,) he was employed in transcribing his loose papers, and ftEy. SAMUEL .t. MILLS. 227
(Embodying every thing that was of importance to his agency.
On the evening of June the 5th, two weeks after he sailed from Sierra Leone, he took a heavy cold, became ill, and expressed some apprehensions of a fever. The ordinary antidotes were employed with apparent success. He sat up daily, read his letters, manuscripts and books, and occasionally walked on deck. He confined himself to a light, nutritive diet, and sometimes took a little medicine according to his own prescriptions. An irregular fever, however, lodged about him, disturbing his rest, and sometimes attended with severe pains in his head. It was soon evident that he began to decline.
On Saturday, the 13th, he sat up a part of the day, but was in considerable pain, and very restless.
On Lord’s Day, the 14th, he had little or no fever, and was very composed and much refreshed. It was a day of high spiritual enjoyment. He conversed freely on religious topics, and could not rest satisfied without it. His colleague would repeat devotional parts of the Psalms, and to these he himself would add others with sensible emotion, and indeed elevated rapture. Too sensibly to those around him, this Sabbath was an earnest of an everlasting rest near at hand. In the afternoon and evening he was in some pain, his thoughts were confused, and a distressing hiccup came on, which filled all his fellow passengers with alarm.
On Monday, the 15th, he had a restless night; the hiccup was painful, and almost incessant. He had still considerable strength, sat up some, and even walked across the cabin.
On Tuesday morning the hiccup abated — he slept, with short intervals of wakefulness — and, though his strength was gradually declining, he knew those who were around him, and gave correct answers to all their inquiries. About noon he spoke with some freedom, and his sentiments were full of piety and trust in God. Death had no terrors. He seemed to be looking forward to the immediate presence and enjoyment of God in heaven, and to be in constant expectancy of that inheritance which is incorruptible, undcfiled, and that fadeth not away. Between 2 and 3 p. m. his hiccup ceased. There was no convulsion — no deep groan — He gently closed his Hands on his breast, as if to engage in some act of devotion — and, while a celestial smile settled upon his countenance, and every feature expressed the serenity and meekness of his soul, he ceased to breathe. — Mark the righteous man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace.
Thus, in the thirty -fifth year of his age, did this beloved man close his life of distinguished piety and usefulness, and leave Africa and the world to mourn! No monumental marble records his worth — no fragrant dews shall descend upon his tomb. His dust sleeps unseen amid the pearls and coral of the ocean, and long shall his name swell upon the breeze, and be echoed from the wave As the sun was going down, all on board assembled with great seriousness
REV SAMUEL J. MILLS. f29
—a circle of mourners — when, with painful solemnity, and tender supplications to the God of Heaven, his body was deposited beneath the mighty waters, there to rest till that Great Day, when the sea shall give up her dead