"A Tribute To A Good Woman"

I am adding my word to the many tributes being paid to a good woman. Sister Showalter was a woman of faith. She believed the Bible and followed its teaching. She was a true wife to her illustrious husband and the mother of a large family of children who occupy a useful place in society and the church. She loved her husband, her children, was sober-minded, chaste, kind and a worker at home. Her life reminds me of many things in the New Testament regarding the character of a good woman. She was intelligent and reverent and her adorning was "in the incorruptible apparel of a meek and a quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." She will surely have a place among the redeemed.

The Showalter and Wallace families have been close to each other. Brother Showalter and my father have been friends from the time of boyhood. They lived close together and worked together in the long ago. Sister Showalter and my mother were friends and neighbors when their children were small. They loved each other as two of a kind would. When my mother died many years ago, Brother Showalter and Brother Nichol paid touching tributes at that last sad service. I recall that it was with the greatest difficulty that they were able to control their emotions to complete the service. The reading included: "A worthy woman who can find? for her price is far above rubies." Sister Showalter was such a woman. She lived to see her children grown and knew the thrill of the embraces of grandchildren. She leaves them all a rich heritage of hope and the sweetest of memories.

As for Brother Showalter, his faith in the promises of God and his loyalty to the truth of the New Testament, will enable him to be far more grateful than regretful in the loneliness of bereavement. He has, we devoutly hope, some years of useful service ahead of him. The grave which lies somewhere ahead of him can be viewed with calm and confidence and taken in stride. In this connection I am reminded of some immortal lines from Robert Browning which he wrote after the death of his wife. I quote from memory as I do not have the volume at hand.

"Fear death? To feel the fog in my throat, the mist in my face, when the snows begin, and the blasts denote I am nearing the place;

Where he stands, the Arch-fear in a visible form; yet the strong man must go.

For the journey is done, and the summit's attained, and the barriers fall;

Though a battle's to fight ere the guerdon be gained, the reward of it all.

I was ever a fighter: so-one fight more, the best and the last;

I would hate that death bandaged my eyes and forbore, and bade me creep past;

No, let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers, the heroes of old,

Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears of pain, darkness and cold.

For sudden, the worst turns the best to the brave, the black minute's at end,

The element's rage, the fiend voices that rave shall dwindle, shall blend, shall change,

Shall become first a peace out of pair, then a light, then thy breast;

O, thou soul of my soul, I shall clasp thee again, And with God be the rest!"

-Cled E. Wallace