The Talladega Presbytery, at its last session, adopted the following report, viz.:

The Committee on Deceased Ministers report that death has again entered our ranks, and has taken from our midst our esteemed and venerable brother, Rev. Matthew Small, who fell asleep in Jesus at the residence of his son-in-law, J. W. Whitesides, Nov. 7, 1882, at the advanced age of eighty-three years.

Brother Small made a profession of religion about sixty years ago, and joined the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, in which he lived a most consistent member until the day of his death. He became a minister of the Church of his choice, and he was a good preacher for near forty years. His most effective preaching was his uniform Christian deportment, though his pulpit labors were good.

He was a great worker in the Sunday-school, and many are now living and in the Church, who remember well his kind admonitions, and who look upon him as their spiritual father.

Brother Small was liberal in his donations to the various enterprises of the Church, and especially he was liberal with his means to aid indigent young men preparing for the ministry. He loved his Church devotedly.

Some of your committee had the privilege of talking with him often for a year or more just preceding his death. He loved to talk of Jesus and his home in heaven, and his only regret was that he had not done more for Jesus. Brother Small expressed his full confidence in the Saviour, and in his hope in heaven to the last. "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his."

We recommend the adoption of the following resolutions:

Resolved, That you set apart a memorial pate in your presbyterial records, sacred to his memory.

2. That the Talledega Presbytery has lost a safe and wise counselor.

3. That we bow submissively to this dispensation of God's providence, and deeply sympathize with his aged companion, who survives him, in her deep affliction; that we also sympathize with the children of brother Small in their bereavement.

4. That the stated clerk send a copy of these resolutions to mother Small, and one to the CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN for publication.
                                               S. L. RUSSELL, S.C.

[Source: The Cumberland Presbyterian, July 5, 1883, page 1]