The Life And Testimony Of Ellen Tatley

Gospel Standard 1872:

Death. On Sept. 29th, 1871, aged 52, Ellen Tatley, of Chillicothe Peoria, Illinois, America. My dear wife died, triumphant in the faith of God’s elect.

From a child she was of a quiet and peaceable disposition, and was brought up by strictly honest and very “pious” parents, but they were Arminians. At an early age she had serious and solemn impressions of mind with reference to her never-dying soul and the realities of eternity. She became a member of the Wesleyan Methodists and a Sunday-school teacher, and adorned her profession by a consistent walk, which continued to the end. She felt and declared it all through life that God would have been just if he had banished her from his presence, and from the glory of his power, for ever; but God, who is rich in mercy, for the great love wherewith he loved her, and quickened her, and made her alive to a state of concern, mercifully attended to the work of his own hands, and blessed her with peace of conscience through the Lord Jesus Christ. In this she greatly rejoiced for some length of time, but when her joys began to abate she became confused. About this time we began to keep company together, and she would tell me, at times, the state she was in, how perplexed she was; that though she did all she could she could not attain to that which the members of the class she met with could speak of; and she was dark. I myself was ten times darker; and thus, until the set time to favour Zion was come, we were left to seek for justification in that way, whereby no flesh living could ever be justified. Since those days I have been fully satisfied that the breathings of her soul were those of the psalmist when he said, “My heart and my flesh crieth out for God, for the living God.” And now let me say, to the praise of the glory of God’s grace, wherein he hath made my dear wife accepted in the Beloved, that he was pleased to send out his light and truth, by which the hidden works of darkness were discovered. Free-will became a vanity, working for life emptiness and rottenness, and self-righteousness was laid in the dust.

About this time a volume of the “Gospel Standard” fell into our hands, and the living truths it contained sweetly found an echo in my wife’s quickened and living soul. This was about 1842; and from that time to the last she was a constant reader of that work, and a lover of it and of all those who love the truths contained therein. And now, to add to the divine blessings thus richly given, she was favoured to sit under that beloved minister of the gospel, Mr. Richard Marsh, who in those days preached at Hindley, near Wigan; and to hear him describe a work of grace on the soul, and set forth the redemption of the church by the God-Man, and herself join in singing those divinely-inspired hymns, and the blessed Spirit sealing his own work with power divine on her soul, it was an enjoyment not easily described. She was also favoured to hear Mr. Vaughan and two or three other God-taught ministers; and probably few hearers ever received the ingrafted word with more meekness and gratitude than she did. Such preaching laid her low in self-abasement, and she was always glad to have the crown placed on the right head. When returning home from preaching, about the first word she would sometimes say would be, “No Hottentot can be more dark in spiritual things than I was.” “Talk of works,” she would say; “they don’t know what they are talking about. We are no better than imps in and of ourselves.” Instead now of singing:

“A charge to keep I have,

A God to glorify,

A never-dying soul to save,

And fit it for the sky,”

she with heart and soul joined with Toplady:

“Not the labour of my hands

Can fulfil thy law’s demands,” &c.

As it was the Lord’s good pleasure to open the eyes of us both nearly about the same time, salvation by grace was our perpetual theme; but we read that God has set the day of adversity over against the day of prosperity; and so it proved to be; for in 1848 I left Aspull Moor, near Wigan, for the United States; and in 1849 my wife followed me, never more to hear a gospel sermon preached; nor have we ever read a gospel sermon but what has come in the “Gospel Standard,” and Mr. Philpot’s “Gospel Pulpit;” neither have we ever met with any person but one old black man who seemed to have any idea at all that there even should be any distinction between the law and the gospel. And although we were amongst the Old School Baptists for awhile, in Tazewell, and both of us baptized amongst them in 1857, yet we gave lasting offence by telling them, and sticking to it, that the truth was not preached among them, in true simplicity. We thought that we should soon find a place of truth; but at length we were forced to confess that vain thoughts lodged within us. It is now about 14 years since we separated ourselves from all professors, and my wife said she would not hear the preachers around us under any circumstances or pretence whatever; for she knew that to say “a confederacy” with such as trample upon the doctrines of grace was no better than to make a covenant with death, and an agreement with hell. Through grace and grace alone she was taught to take good heed to that most blessed caution: “Buy the truth, and sell it not;” and though, from first to last, we have had such vast numbers to stand against, she could, at times, say with the apostle John, as in 1 Jn. 5:19-21. The foundation of her hope was not shaken by every puff of wind. She was divinely taught to rest on nothing less than the spotless Son of God for her eternal salvation. For ever blessed be the name of the Three-One God for such a saving knowledge and such unmerited mercy! Notwithstanding all opposition from every quarter, through rich mercy she came forth of them all, and by the power of the Spirit was enabled to go from strength to strength, till she has appeared in Zion before God.

Though no public house of God to go to in company, we often took sweet counsel together, and our covenant-keeping God was pleased, at times, to open a portion of his word a little for our own private conversation and encouragement.

Many were the tossings up and down which she was the subject of, and, at times, in her feelings she was driven like a rolling thing before the whirlwind, and was often being sifted as corn is sifted in a sieve; but the Lord saw to it that the least grain did not fall to the ground. Often was she afraid of being cut down as a cumberer of the ground, and would say, at times, “I do wonder what my end will be, but I fear it will be a bad one;” and then again, at times, when the blessed Spirit was pleased to shine upon her mind, she could sing with firm confidence:

“Bold shall I stand in that great day;

For who aught to my charge shall lay?”

When the Lord laid his afflicting hand upon her for the last time she was on a visit at her sister’s, about 24 miles away, and she said to her sister she thought she was going to have something to contend with, as these words were brought to her mind: “Thy shoes shall be iron and brass,” &c. She told her sister she wanted to get home again, for then she should be satisfied, whether it was for life or death; “for,” said she, “goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” I got her home without delay, never thinking but she would be well again in a few days. We had the best doctors we could, but they were of no avail, any further than giving her a little ease, which was a great blessing; for she suffered very much, day and night, during her eleven weeks’ illness, yet not the slightest murmur escaped her lips. She said, “I am brought low; but the Lord helpeth me.” And then she said, “I would have liked, if it had been his blessed will, that he would have brightened my evidences a little more; but he has told me, as my day is, so shall my strength be, and that at eventide it will be light. How glad I am that his own arm hath wrought out the victory.” I afterwards asked her if she had any fear of death; when she lifted up her voice with more than usual force, and said, “O, no! I am quite composed, quite resigned. He cannot leave me. I know that my Redeemer liveth.” At times, I heard her say, “O! How I shall gaze and shout when I see him in the midst of the throne!” Being so mercifully kept by the power of God from the attacks of the devil, and enjoying such tranquillity of mind, it seemed to be too much for her, as though she did not see herself vile enough; so that, about two hours before she died she said, “I do hope he will make me know what a reptile I am before he takes me!” I said, “Why, Ellen; he has made you know all along what a reptile you are!” And she said, “Yes, so he has; that is so; my cup runs over with blessings.”

Just before she departed, when her eyes were set and her speech was entirely gone, I asked her if the Lord was present with her. She then smiled a few times, and breathed her redeemed soul into the hands of God who gave it.

John Tatley

Dec. 3, 1871