Troy Times

March 24, 1853 

MURRAY, HALBERT - On the 21st day of February, 1853, Halbert Murray, in the 84th year of his age.  He was a native of Pennsylvania--emigrated to Ohio 1814, since which time he has lived in Troy or the immediate vicinity.  He was of religious parents, and, at the early age of 17, consecrated himself to God, and realized the promise that "they that seek me early shall find me."  He did not, however, attach himself to the visible church until by patient continuance in well doing, he proved himself to be a living branch of the True Vine.  It was at the age of 22 he became a member of the Presbyterian Church, in which relation he remained until he for whose coming he patiently but anxiously waited, bade him "come up higher."  Though he lived to a good old age, yet he suffered many sore afflictions, some of them extraordinary, the patient endurance of which required patience closely allied to that of Job, yet he complained not a word.  His religion was from heaven.  The spirit of sectarianism had no place in his heart.--His humility was remarkable, and his veneration for all that is sacred, was a prominent feature of his character.  He feared God, rather than man, and followed the light of truth rather than the dictates of public opinion.  From the period that the Slavery question was first agitated, he openly took sides with the oppressed.  And when "Abolition" was so odious to the masses as to excite mob violence, the advocates of freedom always received a welcome to the protection and hospitalities of his house.  His sympathies and prayers and votes were always upon the same side--for freedom and against oppression.  To the latest period of his life he manifested a lively interest in the great contest between liberty and despotism in this country and throughout the world.  For the last eleven years, by the infirmities of age, he was shut out from the busy world.  In his quiet home, where there was always a kind hand to minister to his comfort, he was shut in with God, and had his conversation in heaven.  While his friends may yet drop the tear of sympathy at the recollections of the sufferings he endured, that tear is lighted with admiration and joy, by the thought, of his unvarying meekness and gentleness--his kindness and patience--his simplicity and childlike trust in the Savior.  The bitter tear of sorrow, at the departure of such a one, the strong ties of affection which bound him to his friends and kindred never having been broken by the weight of years or the usual accomplishments of old age, are changed for tears of joy, by the blessed assurance, that having quit his clay tenement, with its accumulated infirmities of more than four score years, his redeemed spirit has been conducted by a happy convoy of angels to his Father's house, where there, are many mansions--where his rejuvenated soul triumphs over its last sorrow, and in the untiring vigor of perpetual youth, amid the joys of an eternal spring, and in the society of the loved ones who went before him, with all the redeemed throng, and angelic intelligences for him associated, he will delight in Heaven as he did on Earth, is give glory to God in the highest--to ascribe endless praises in Him who washed him in his own blood, and to hold sweet communion with the Spirit of all Grace, whose gentle teaching on earth he followed so reverently.             F.