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ended the victim of their cruel contention. To this torturing precaution he was doubtless indebted for the use of this arm for a considerable time after the other had become totally helpless."

Bodily pains were not the only sufferings of which Mr. Ryder was the victim. While enduring the tortures above alluded to, he was naturally led often to ask, "Why am I thus afflicted?" Here the enemy took advantage of him, and pressed him sorely with the temptation that he had never been called to the work of the ministry. His mental anguish under the influence of this temptation was at times almost insupportable, exceeding even his physical sufferings. The assurance he received from four members of the Troy Conference, that they traced their conversion and call to the ministry to his instrumentality, broke, in part, the power of this temptation. Still at times he was well nigh overwhelmed by it. The conference of 1836 was held at Pawlet, not far from the place where Mr. Ryder resided. He attended, and embraced the opportunity of making known his mental conflicts to his ministerial brethren, from whose sympathies and counsels he derived great consolation. In the fall of this year he visited Saratoga Springs, but those healing fountains, from which so many have derived help, had no power to relieve him. In the fall of 1837, a severe cold brought on an aggravation of his disease that deprived him ever after of the power of locomotion. His limbs cramped and stiffened, his fingers became dislocated, he lost the use of almost every muscle, and became the helpless victim of those excruciating agonies referred to in the beginning of this sketch.

For a while he lay upon a hydrostatic bed; subsequently a chair was made, so adapted to the angles of his stiffened body, and balanced upon an axle, that he

could recline at any angle from a sitting to a horizontal posture. This was mounted upon wheels so that he could be moved at pleasure. On this chair, or couch, he lay in utter helplessness for years. Before him was suspended a small frame on which a book was placed. Though unable to lift a hand, yet sufficient strength remained in the thumb and fingers of one hand to enable him to turn over the leaves by means of a slender stick, from which projected two short pieces of wire. In this way he read about three hundred volumes, thus beguiling his wearisome hours, and finding intellectual and moral aliment.

"During the last year of his life," writes Rev. G. G. Saxe," he seemed ripening for the grave; he gloried only in the cross of Christ, and talked exultingly of his approaching rest. The Bible was almost his only book. At the request of a friend, he read Macaulay's History of England, but said, as he finished it,This is a history of wickedness, bloodshed, and death; the rest of my reading must be in the Book of Life. A few days before his death, he said, 'I suppose this looks like dying to some, but I am just beginning to live—I am getting nearer the fountain.' When his pains seemed more than humanity could endure, he would whisper.

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On the day of his death, at about two o'clock, P. M., thinking that he had slept for some time, and being informed that he had not, he replied with a smile, 'Then this is death; I am almost home.' His beloved companion, who had watched over him like a ministering angel, and who had not known the luxury of a regular night's sleep, for fifteen years, in her patient watchfulness, now stood weeping by his side; observing which, he said, 'Don't weep, my dear, but rejoice, for I shall

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soon see Jesus without a veil.' His sufferings were intense, and yet he asked with a smile, 'Do you call this dying? He frequently whispered, Glory to God!' 'Jesus is precious! Among the last words that trembled upon his dying lips was, 'Jesus.' On the 20th of July, 1849, the conflict ended-the weary body slept sweetly in death, and the triumphant spirit returned to God, who gave it."

REV. DANIEL F. PAGE.

"In the modesty of fearful duty,

I read as much, as from the rattling tongue
Of saucy and audacious eloquence."

Justus Page was a native of Haverhill, Mass., from which place he removed to the town of Rupert, in Vermont, where his youngest child and only son, Daniel F. Page, was born in 1810. The most remarkable traits of character developed in Daniel's childhood, were amiability and benevolence; these were strongly marked.

At the age of eighteen, he was brought to repentance and the enjoyment of experimental religion, through the instrumentality of that distinguished revivalist, Rev. James Caughey. He united with the Methodist Episcopal Church, in the town of Dorset, Vt. His connection with the Troy Conference commenced in 1835. In due time, he graduated to orders in the Christian ministry, agreeably to the discipline and usages of the church of his choice; being ordained to the office of deacon by Bishop Hedding, in 1837, and to that of elder, by the same venerable prelate, in 1839.

As many of our readers may never have seen a copy

of the ordination credentials of our ministry, the following is inserted:

"KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, that I, Elijah Hedding, one of the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in the United States of America, under the protection of ALMIGHTY GOD, and with a single eye to his glory, by the imposition of my hands and prayer, have this day set apart Daniel F. Page for the office of a DEACON, in the Methodist Episcopal Church; a man, who, in the judgment of the Troy Annual Conference, is well qualified for that work; and he is hereby recommended to all whom it may concern, as a proper person to administer the ordinance of Baptism, Marriage, and the Burial of the Dead, in the absence of an elder, and to feed the flock of Christ, so long as his spirit and practice are such as become the gospel of Christ, and he continueth to hold fast the form of sound words, according to the established doctrines of the gospel.

IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this fourth day of June, in the year of [L. s] our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and thirty ELIJAH HEDDING.

seven.

Done at Troy, N. Y."

These credentials are printed on parchment; the names, dates and signatures, being filled out with a pen. The elders" parchments" are similar, differing only as the functions of the office differ, from those of a dea

con.

Mr. Page's appointments were as follows: 1835, Williamstown, Mass.; 1836, Hoosic and Bennington, Vt.: 1837-8, Stowe, Vt.; 1839, Albany, N. Y.; 1840, Whitehall, N. Y.; 1841, Brandon, Vt.; 1842-3, Whiting, Vt.; 1844, Fonda, N. Y.; 1845, Rensselaerville, N. Y.; 1846, Colchester and Winooski, Vt.; 1847, Whitehall, where his labors and life terminated, on the sixth day of November, 1847.

"The few weeks previous to his death," says Rev. J. E. Bowen," he was unusually engaged in religion, and exhibited a continual ripening for heaven. His last religious exercises were marked by uncommon depth of religious fervor, and holy communion with God. When conversed with on the subject of death, he expressed himself as being ready, whenever the Lord should call. During his sickness, his constant theme, when in his lucid moments, was religion; and about two days before his death, he sang,

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and thus passed to his home in the skies.

Unfortunately, like many others, whose labors and success in the ministry are worthy of record, Mr. Page left behind him no papers relative to his personal history; and the writer has been able to obtain but few historical details of his life. In the spring of 1842, he was united in marriage to Miss Eliza Hitchcock, of Pittsford, Vt., a lady of uncommmon intelligence, piety and worth. With the fading of the leaves of the ensuing autumn, he was called to see her fade away; and in a little over six short months from their nuptial day, he followed her remains to the silent tomb. "He was overwhelmed with grief; indeed, so great was his affliction, that at times he was almost bereft of reason; yet he was patient and submissive, bearing all without a murmur escaping his lips." He never again married.

Daniel F. Page was a good man; a sincere, conscientious and deeply devoted Christian. This impression was uniformly received on forming the slightest acquaintance with him, and as invariably confirmed by a thorough intimacy. "Do you think Mr. — is a very pious man?" said a person once to Whitefield. "How can I tell?" was the reply; "I never lived with him."

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