A PIOUS COLORED WOMAN OF SOUTH CAROLINA, WHO DIED AT THE AGE OF A
HUNDRED AND TWO YEARS.
The subject of this memoir was brought up in a state of ignorance
unworthy of a Christian country; and following the propensities of a
corrupt heart, she was, by her own confession, "sold under sin," and
involved in almost every species of iniquity. And for the furtherance
of her wicked designs, she learned to play on the violin, and usually,
on the first day of the week, sallied forth with her instrument, in
order to draw persons of both sexes together, who, not having the
fear of God before their eyes, delighted, like herself, in sinful and
pernicious amusements, which keep the soul from God and the heart from
repentance.
But even on these occasions she found it difficult to struggle against
the Spirit of the Most High. Often was it sounded in her conscience,
"Clarinda, God ought not to be slighted--God ought not to be
forgotten;" but these monitions were treated with derision, and in the
hardness of her heart she would exclaim: "Go, you fool, I do not know
God--go, I do not wish to know Him."
On one occasion, while on her way to a dance, these blasphemous
thoughts, in answer to the monitions of conscience, were passing
through her mind, and in this frame she reached the place of
appointment, and mingled in the gay throng. While participating in the
dance, she was seized with fits, and convulsively fell to the ground.
From that moment, she lost her love of dancing, and no more engaged in
this vain amusement.
She did not, however, forsake the evil of her ways, but continued her
course of wickedness. Thus she went on for about twenty years, when she
lost her only child, and was confined for several months by severe
illness. During this period of bodily suffering, her mind was brought
under awful convictions for sin: she perceived that the great Jehovah
is a sin-hating and sin-avenging God, and that He will by no means
clear the guilty.
She remained in a distressed state of mind for about three months, and
when a little bodily strength was restored, she sought solitary places,
where she poured out her soul unto the Lord, and in His own good time
He spoke peace to her wounded spirit. One day being thus engaged in
earnest prayer, and looking unto the Lord for deliverance, the evening
approached unregarded, her soul was deeply humbled, and the night
passed in prayer, while rivers of tears (to use her own expressive
language) ran down her cheeks, and she ceased not to implore mercy from
Him who is able to bind up the broken-hearted.
While thus engaged, and all this time ignorant of her Saviour,
something whispered to her mind, "Ask in the name of Christ." She
queried, "Who is Christ?" and in reply, these passages of Scripture
seemed repeated to her: "Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in
God, believe also in Me." "In My Father's house are many mansions: I go
to prepare a place for you, that where I am there ye may be also." "I
am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but
by Me."
Being desirous to know whence these impressions proceeded, she was
led to believe that they were received through the influence of the
Holy Spirit. This remarkable passage was also presented to her mind:
"Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."
She now felt the love of God shed abroad in her heart; the overwhelming
burden of sin was removed, and she received ability to sing praises to
the Lord on the banks of deliverance.
Having been thus permitted to see the desire of her soul, she was
anxious to learn more of the divine will, and inquired, like the
apostle, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" and like him she was
commanded to be a witness of what she had seen and heard. Believing she
had a commission given her to preach the Gospel, she began to warn the
sinful and licentious, that they must crucify the man of sin, or for
ever forego the hope of salvation.
This raised her a host of enemies, both white and colored; and she
underwent, many years, cruelty and persecution which could hardly
obtain credence. She bore about on her body the visible marks of her
faithful allegiance to the Lord Jesus; yet, while alluding to this,
tears filled her eyes, and she said with emotion, "I am thankful that I
have been found worthy to suffer for my blessed Saviour."
Although living in great poverty, and subsisting at times on casual
charity, with health impaired by the sufferings through which she had
passed, yet neither promises of protection, accompanied with the offer
of the good things of this life, on the one hand, nor the dreadful
persecution she endured on the other, could make her relinquish the
office of a minister of the Gospel.
This office she continued to exercise, holding meetings regularly
on the first day of the week, at her own little habitation, where a
greater number at times assembled than could be accommodated in the
house. It may be interesting to add some particulars relative to the
trial of her faith and the persecution she suffered.
One individual in whose neighborhood she lived, who was much annoyed by
hearing her sing and pray, offered, if she would desist, to provide her
with a home and the comforts of life; but she replied, she had received
a commission to preach the Gospel, and she would preach it as long as
she had breath. Several ill-intentioned persons one night surrounded
her house, and commanded her to come out to them. This she refused to
do. After threatening her for some time, they forced open the door, and
having seized their victim, they beat her cruelly, so that her head was
deeply indented with the blows she received.
At another time she was so much injured that she was left nearly
lifeless on the open road, whither she had fled to escape from them;
but her unsuccessful efforts increased the rage of her pursuers, and
after treating her with the utmost barbarity, they left her. She was
found after some time, but so exhausted by the loss of blood that she
was unable to walk, and from the effects of that cruelty she did not
recover for years. But it may be said of her, that she joyfully bore
persecution for Christ's sake.
A man who lived in the same village, being much incensed at the
undaunted manner in which she stood forth as a minister of the meek
and crucified Saviour, swore that he would beat her severely if ever
he found an opportunity. One evening, as she was walking home on a
solitary road, she saw this person riding towards her. She knew his
intentions, and from his character she did not doubt that he would
execute them.
She trembled from head to foot, escape seemed impracticable, and prayer
was her only refuge. As he advanced, she observed that his handkerchief
fell and was wafted by the wind to a little distance. She picked it up,
he stopped his horse, and she handed it to him in a submissive manner;
he looked at her fiercely for a moment, when his countenance softened;
he took it, saying, "Well, Clarinda," and passed on.
She was not able to read a word till her sixty-sixth year, but she was
in the practice of getting persons to read the Holy Scriptures to her,
much of which she retained in her memory with remarkable accuracy. By
dint of application, she was at length able to read them herself; and
those who visited her in advanced life, found her knowledge of the
Scriptures, as well as her growth in grace, very surprising.
When she was one hundred years old, and very feeble, she would, if able
to get out of bed, on the Sabbath morning, discharge what she thought
to be her duty, by conversing with and exhorting both the white and
colored people who came to her house, often standing for half an hour
at a time. Her zeal was indeed great, and her faith steadfast.
She said she often wished she could write, that she might in this way
also express her anxiety for the good of souls. Then she would have
described more of the exercises of her mind upon the depravity of man
by nature and by practice, with the unbounded and redeeming love and
mercy of God through Jesus Christ.
The person who gives the account of Clarinda's death, says, "I was
prevented from seeing her often in her last moments; when I did see
her she was always the same--her one theme the love of God to poor
sinners, which was always her style of speaking. One day, as I sat by
her bedside, she said to me, 'Do you think I am a Christian?' 'Yes,'
I answered, 'I do believe you are a Christian.' 'I have tried to be,'
she replied, 'but now that I suffer in my body, when I think what an
unprofitable servant I have been, I am distressed.' She then wept.
'You know,' I said, 'it is not how _much_ we can do, but what we do
_sincerely_ for the love of Christ, that is acceptable.' She seemed
comforted, and talked as usual.
"She showed me much affection when I left her, saying, 'I shall not
live long, my dear ----,' and, adding a few other words, blessed me,
and bid me pray for her. She had frequently expressed her fears of the
bodily sufferings of death, but not accompanied with a dread of eternal
death. I asked her, when she was ill, if she _now_ feared to die. She
said 'No; this fear was taken away some time previous to my illness.'"
She requested that her people, as she called them, might continue to
meet at her house, but this was not allowed. I am told they sometimes
meet elsewhere, and are called "Clarinda's People." When dying, she
told those near her to follow her _only_ as she had followed Christ.
Her death occurred in 1832. "Those that be planted in the house of the
Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall bring forth
fruit in old age."
While perusing this remarkable account of "a brand plucked from the
burning," let those who from their earliest years have enjoyed the
inestimable privilege of access to the sacred volume, and various other
religious means, seriously consider the blessed Saviour's words: "Unto
whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required."