Imagine living in an 1860 world when slavery was a regrettable out of your control reality, how would you handle it?
A small crowd gathered one day in 1906 in front of the Lexington Presbyterian Church. They were watching as a piece of history was about to disappear. The memory of the church’s most famous deacon, Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, still lingered in the minds and hearts of many Lexingtonians. ...
The Rockbridge Bible Society, of which both Jackson and Robert E. Lee were members (Lee once serving as its president), had met on the first Saturday of every month at 11 a.m. in the building being demolished. But the structure, which sat next to the main church sanctuary and consisted of one large room, was best remembered for being the location of Jackson’s Sunday school for slaves and free blacks. ...
This building had stood as a constant reminder that Jackson was an enigma: a poor, uneducated orphan from the mountains of western Virginia who would graduate from West Point; a shy, backward young man who would become a competent debater and professor at Virginia Military Institute; a staunch Calvinist Presbyterian who questioned the doctrine of predestination; and a fearless Confederate Joshua who would teach slaves and free blacks the way of salvation. (Richard G. Williams Jr., The Washington Times - Friday, May 5, 2006)
ROANOKE, Va., July 29 -- A memorial window of Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson was unveiled in the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church today. The congregation is composed of negroes. The window was erected by the pastor, the Rev. L. L. Downing, the money for its purchase coming wholly from negroes.
The Exercises were largely attended by both races, the Confederate camps of Roanoke and Salem and the chapters of the Daughters of the Confederacy. There were addresses by white citizens of Roanoke.
Downing's father and mother were members of a Sunday school class of negro slaves taught by Jackson at Lexington before the war, and to-day's exercises marked the realization of an ambition Downing has had since boyhood, to pay fitting tribute to the Confederate commander.
The picture presented on the window is that of an army camping on the banks of a stream, the inscription underneath being Jackson's last words: "Let us cross over the river and rest in the shade of the trees." (The New York Times, July 30, 1906)
As he gradually grew worse, and his physicians and friends became alarmed about his condition, he was calm, resigned, even joyous, at the prospect.
Noticing the sadness of his loving wife, he said to her, tenderly: " I know you would gladly give your life for me, but I am perfectly resigned. Do not be sad. I hope I may yet recover. Pray for me, but always remember in your prayers to use the petition, 'Thy will be done.'"
When he saw the number of surgeons who were called in, he said to his medical director, Dr. Hunter McGuire: "I see from the number of physicians that you consider my condition dangerous, but I thank God that, if it is His will, I am ready to go."
When his wife informed him that the doctors thought his recovery very doubtful, he was silent for a moment, and then said: "It will be infinite gain to be translated to heaven." When later, on that beautiful Sabbath day, he was informed that he could scarcely live till night, he engaged for a moment in intense thought, and then replied: "Very good, very good; it is all right."
Dr. McGuire thus concludes a deeply interesting paper on the wounding and death of Jackson: " He tried to comfort his almost heart-broken wife, and told her he had a good deal to say to her, but he was too weak. Colonel Pendleton came into the room about I o'clock, and he asked him: 'Who is preaching at headquarters to-day? 'When told that the whole army was praying for him, he replied: 'Thank God—they are very kind.' He said, 'It is the Lord's day; my wish is fulfilled. I have always desired to die on Sunday.'
"His mind now began to fail and wander, and he frequently talked as if in command upon the field, giving orders in his old way; then the scene shifted, and he was at the mess-table in conversation with members of his staff; now with his wife and child; now at prayers with his military family. Occasionally intervals of return of his mind would appear, and during one of them I offered him some brandy and water; but he declined it, saying: 'It will only delay my departure and do no good ; I want to preserve my mind, if possible, to the last.' About halfpast one he was told that he had but two hours to live, and he answered again feebly, but firmly: 'Very good; it is all right'
"A few moments before he died he cried out, in his delirium: 'Order A. P Hill to prepare for action! Pass the infantry to the front rapidly! Tell Major Hawks'—then stopped, leaving the sentence unfinished. Presently a smile of ineffable sweetness spread over his pale face, and he said quietly, and with an expression as if of relief, ' Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees;' and then, without pain, or the the least struggle, his spirit passed from earth to the God who gave it." (Rev J William Jones, D. D., Christ in the Camp, 1904)
"The time of my departure is come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day; and not to me only, but also to all them that have loved his appearing" (cf. 2 Timothy 4:6-8).
Such is the legacy of the servant of God in all ages and in all dispensations.
1By Unknown - Derivative (crop) of: File:Photograph of General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson - NARA - 526067.tif, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4949147
