Notes on Sarah Jane Kent
(references cited on prevous page)
(from Ruth Snead papers)
This clipping was found in the family Bible of John T. Kent and Mildred Judson Sadler. This girl was their niece.
We give space to the following notice clipped from the Religious Herald, written by Dr. A. E. Dickinson, because the deceased was my aunt’s mother’s sister.
" Among the first recollections of childhood was my invalid aunt. Her trouble was spinal weakness, and while she could walk around some and ride in her buggy from place to place, her life was spent and her work done mainly in a reclining position. One of the pews in the old church at home (probably Antioch Church) was equipped with an inclined cushion in one end for her benefit. Here she taught a class of girls who gathered around her, and from this position she listened to the sermons from the pulpit and here she received, in a loving embrace, scores of young converts, many of whom had been impressed with her quiet, patient, and faithful life and influenced by her helpful words. How many lives were shaped and influenced by her sweet and gentle instruction, admonition and encouragement, we shall never know.
Died on February 3, 1898, Miss Sarah Jane Kent, at the home of her sister, Mrs. A.J. Trainman of Richmond, VA after a long and painful illness, extending through many ears. She was the daughter of Robert A. Kent and granddaughter of Elder Robert Lilly, both of Fluvanna Co. The deceased had been from her childhood a burning and shining light. Christ and the salvation which He alone cane give were the all-absorbing theme of her conversation. Her beautiful patience and resignation during the long years in which she was for the most part confined to her bed were an object lesson richly illustrating how blessed are those who fully give themselves to the Lord. When asked a few days before her death, "What will you leave as your last testimony concerning the way in which God has led you?" She replied, "After twenty years of more of suffering, I have this to say. Everyday I see more clearly the hand of the Lord in his keeping me all these years in the school of affliction, and everyday I praise Him for it all. He has lead me in the best possible way. I have only this to reproach myself for—I am too impatient for the great change. I ought to be willing to bide His time and I am praying for grace to wait patiently for his call." That is the way she lived, and that is the way she died. May many of God’s afflicted saints who will read these lines, have the same grace given to them. A.E.D."
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