DIED, At Dalton, on Thursday last, Madam DOROTHY WILLIAMS, relict of the late Hon. Wm. Williams, of that place, in the 90th year of her age. Hundreds now living in this neighborhood will cheerful acquiesce in the declaration that the Church of Christ has lost by the death of this excellent lady one of its most valued members, and society in general one of its brightest ornaments. Very early in life she devoted herself to the service and glory of her Redeemer, and made a public profession of her belief in Him, and of her adherence to His cause, about the age of 13, and was distinguished for unwavering consistency of Christian conduct ever after, through a period of more than 70 years. Every thought and act of her life seemed to be founded on a sense of religious principle, and religious obligation. Endowed by nature with a remarkably clear and sound understanding, improved by care and cultivation, her knowledge, on all really important and relative concerns, was as extensive as her heart was enlarged and beneficent. She delighted in every holy exercise; and an uninterrupted holy cheerfulness of manner seemed to pronounce her in possession of a foretaste of the heavenly inheritance. Religion in her was so lovely and attractive, that all who observed it were constrained to become its admirers, and many were induced to seek to become its possessors. From a recent declaration made while on her death bed, it has been ascertained that from the age of twelve years, except accidentally, she never allowed a day to pass over without engaging in secret prayer to God. Late in the month of September last, disavowing her claim to Divine favor for any merits of her own, she exclaimed, "If all the good I have ever done should be cast out at the window, the wind would blow it all away." Justification by faith alone in the merits of her Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was the sole ground of her hopes and confidence -- humbly and steadily relying on this ground for pardon, and on the Grace of the Holy Spirit for sanctification, she had no terrors at the thought of encountering death -- on the contrary, she "longed to depart and be with Christ". She retained her mental faculties entire, to the last moment of her life. So rare an instance of exalted Christian character and conduct, combining the soundest faith with the holiest practice, remarkable alike for devotion to God and urbanity and benevolence towards man -- one so universally beloved -- ought not, it has been thought, to pass away from a Christian community unrecorded; but to be remembered, for the encouragement and imitation of that community, and the glory and praise of their common Lord and Saviour. Her remains were interred in the Burial Ground of this place on Monday last, and a very impressive discourse delivered on the occasion by the Rev. Dr. Hyde of Lee -- the Rev. Dr Shepard, the Rev Mr Jennings, and the Rev. Mr Ballard assisting in the other services. (The Pittsfield Sun, 31 Jan 1833, p3)
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