John Newton, preacher, writer and hymn maker (he wrote Amazing Grace and How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds), had two adopted daughters. One of his daughters, Eliza, had a terribly painful and tragic disease known at the time as consumption; now known as tuberculosis. Newton adopted her knowing she had this sickness and desired nothing but the best for her body and soul. In writing a letter to his newly adopted daughter’s sickly parents John Newton said, “My chief desire for her is that the Lord may speak to her heart, draw her to himself, and seal her for his own. And then whether she goes to heaven at the age of twelve or a hundred and twenty is no great matter.” He was a good daddy who discipled and loved his daughter as he taught her the Bible, sang hymns with her, and prayed with her on every occasion. She grew in her understanding and love for Jesus through the good pastoring of Daddy Newton.

A little later, after taking her home from a six-week visit to the coast for therapeutic sea-bathing and breathing in the fresh sea air, Eliza fell gravely sick.

Jon Aitken tells of the events that took place soon after:

“Newton kept a moving record of Eliza’s last days. They left a deep impression on him because of her peaceful serenity as death approached. Despite being in great pain, she repeatedly thanked her nurses and the Newton’s servants for all their kindness to her. She listened with smiles and nods to the prayers, passages of Scripture, and hymn verses that her adoptive father read out loud to her. When the doctor, on his final visit, asked her how she was, Eliza replied, “Truly happy; and if this be dying it is a pleasant thing to die.” She chose a text for her own funeral sermon – “Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord,” then prayed with a friend and a cousin, telling them, “See how comfortable the Lord can make a dying-bed.” Her last moments with Newton were poignantly described by him:
About 5 in the afternoon she desired me to pray with her once more. Surely I then prayed from my heart. When I had finished she said Amen. I said, “My dear child, have I expressed your meaning?” She answered, “Oh yes,” and then added, “I am ready to say, ‘Why are His chariot wheels so long in coming (alluding to the chariot that took Elijah to heaven)?’ But I hope He will enable me to wait his hour with patience.” These were the last words I heard her speak.

A few minutes later the fourteen year old Eliza breathed her last and went home and entered her Master’s glory. Later, in reflecting upon the death of his adopted daughter, Newton wrote:

The Lord has done great things for us since we came home. He sent a chariot of love for dear Eliza and we almost saw her mount it. The manner of her dismissal had a merciful effect on us so that, though it was in one view like pulling off a limb, yet upon the whole we felt that praises were much more suitable for us than complaints. I still weep for her more or less every day, but I thank the Lord, I have not dropped one tear of sorrow.(Jonathon Aitken, John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace, p. 282ff)

When I read this account of Eliza’s death I was cut to the heart. She was, to use today’s spectrum of education, barely out of Jr. High yet her words, her poise in the face of death, her comforting those around her death bed all sounded as if they had come from an old, seasoned saint. Praise God for the power of the gospel revealed in the death of this young woman. May we all marvel together by, “how comfortable the Lord can make a dying-bed” of even a middle schooler.

I hope and pray that the students God has given me the responsibility and privilege to serve may obtain such a view of Christ as Eliza’s. That, even in the face of death, they are found in peace because they are friends with the Prince of Peace. May we all take part in the lives of our youth to make them into the kind of Christians that face their death, and all the more their life, as Eliza did.