Tribute to Mary Freeze

Tribute to Mary Freeze BY SUSA YOUNG GATES

[Mary A. Burnham Freeze was born in Nauvoo, 111., October 12, 1845. She came to Utah in 1852, arriving in Salt Lake City, October 8. She married James P. Freeze, and was the true and loving mother of nine children. In M. I. A. work, she was not only a pioneer, but a faithful, earnest helper to the last. On October 3, 1898, she became a member of the General Board Y. L. M. I. A., which position she — magnified to the day of her death, January 21, 1912. Editors.]

The great pleasure of an intimate friendship with Mary Freeze, was mine from early girlhood. She was always a simple, genuine, humble soul, she who now lies before us under this tribute of fragrant flowers. She was, above all things, a gentle, true, faithful woman. If the measure of a woman's place in history is to be that she is loved and served by many, as she has loved and served many, then indeed is Sister Mary Burnham Freeze a great woman. For she laid the foundations of her character in sendee to mankind, and reared the superstructure in unseflish devotion to truth. She was a friend to be loved, a wife to be honored, a mother to be adored. She was strong in the vital force of her integrity, and powerful in the majestic quality of her fervid testimony of the divine mission of Jesus Christ, and of the courageous Martyr and Prophet, Joseph Smith. She loved and lived faithfully every revealed principle of the gospel. Without fulsome adulation, she was born to sit at the feet of her Master, and worship him in her daily duties. She revered the priesthood without envy, and honored those who honored it. She was glad that she was a woman, and by her loyalty she made her sex honorable. Without loss of womanly dignity and modesty, she loved her own sex, and rejoiced in every manifestation of their development. It is a mournful pleasure to recall the declaration she once made that when she died, she hoped her friends would ask a woman to speak at her funeral services, for a woman would understand her. In that plaintive declaration, Mary revealed one inner source of her strength and power. She respected and reverenced men of God, but she also loved and clung to good and great women. She sought her friendships among the gifted and noble of the priest-

TRIBUTE TO MARY FREEZE 416 hood, as well as among her own sex. She was the beloved protege of Eliza R. Snow, of Zina D. Young, and of Elmina S. Taylor ; yet also the true and admired friend of apostles and leaders of the present day. Her associations led her always upward from her own environments, if that were possible ; the frivolous and the flighty knew her not. One would not expect to find Mary in the circles of the rich and haughty, but in the assemblies of the Saints, and in the cloisters of his Holy House, Mary walked with unabated faith and charm. She was so tender in her appealing sympathies tliat one almost feared to find inherent weakness in the final probe. But out of the womanly softness of her soul arose the rich power of faith, to which she anchored her life. Mary was sincere. No empty baubles of fame or worldly goods ever held attraction or fascination for her. How she escaped superficiality and self-conceit, in a world where personal vanity and personal bombast is now hidden so deftly and subtly, by the flimsy rags of masquerading loyalty and sentimental, friendly devotion, only the angel of her presence could tell. But, to the last, she was her own chaste, pure-minded, serene, unspoiled self —sweet, plain, Mary Freeze. She was acquainted with grief, and walked often with sorrow as her teacher and guide. Pain was her mentor, and suffering was her adviser. Yet, so loyally did she entertain these heavenly even youth ceased its laughter to listen to disciplinarians, that her wisdom and whimpering infancy curled itself to sleep on her ;

motherly bosom, as love and peace stole out from her tender embrace. Mary's friends chose me to speak these few words over her bier, because I once looked through her eyes on the Angel of Death, and through our united faith and the blessings of the priesthood, we one time put Death quite to rout. Ah, that dread portal which stands so often ajar between the world of things as they are, and the world of things as they will be. Poor Mary's hands were weak and frail, and her strength was spent through trying to keep that portal closed between Life to Come and Life Here. She asked my poor help. For, out of the struggle which had kept my own feet hovering on that threshold for many cruel nights and years, she hoped that I had garnered some shreds of living faith which she might cling to. Oh! those frail hands of

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— my friend and O, how great was the burden, as we clasped the rod of trusting hope in God, to keep that portal closed for Mary, yet a little while. We dared no look beyond—except with eyes of faith — for over all that wide expanse beyond the gates, there hung the deadly pall of separation. And so we clung — close to each other and to God. And, bye and bye, the great gates clanged shut once more, and Mary lived to walk the ways of life for years. She could not quite forget nor I — But oftentimes, of late, my !

ears have caught, in secret meditations, the melodies of that great unseen Host which came before for Mary, but whose invitation we would not listen to, as we pushed the gates close shut, strengthened by our faith in God, and the priesthood's power to keep her yet a little while. How weak we are. How longingly we cling to life's most bitter scenes. And Oh how good our Father is to let us face !

this life with such brave, longing eyes. But if Mary's children, gathered here, could see their lovely angel mother, clad in her royal robes, her shining eyes, her matchless beauty, and her transcendent happiness — what sobs of loving praise would echo through this room for such a joy as theirs. We see this life through darkened glasses, but my Mary knows how glorious are the sunlit spaces of those heavenly courts. And when she leaves us as we lay her body in its friendly resting place, beneath the coming springtime sego lilies, who shall say that Mary is not ready now to walk in sweet sincerity within the sacred courts of heavenly temples, where shining spirits learn and receive those sacred keys and powers which will crown their whole eternity with happiness and peace divine? Nay, more; can we not see them all in turn walk tenderly by Mary's side, as she unfolds to them in simple phrase the limitless span of God's great plan to redeem a fallen world through his own laws and gospel? When Mary leaves us, I am sure she'll still wear her simple crown of saint-like peace and loving sympathy. For she was indeed that greatest gift of God to man —a woman greatly loved, and loving greatly. Gather about her, husbands, children, wives, and friends. Your tears will fall upon the fertile soil of that rich field which sorrow plows through the human heart, with furi rows where seeds of truth can be dropped, to bring forth harvests in the great eternalworlds to come! Our Mary's life has made the world a better place in which to live.