Whosoever believeth in me, though he were dead, yet will he live, and whoso liveth, believing in me, will never die.”

What is this wonderful life-giving faith, of which Jesus spake, by which the dead live again, and the living never die but pass from life to life? O friends, it is no cold and formal assent of the understanding to any verbal and formal propositions concerning the nature or offices of Christ. It is the faith of the heart, faith in all that is truthful and pure and honorable, so that when our friends who depart this life have given evidence of this heart-faith in their characters, we need not trouble ourselves about what may have been their opinions; the opinions of the wisest fall far short of the truth. We may rest assured that they have fallen asleep in that faith which is no act of the mortal body, but the inspiration of the

undying spirit which is the life of God in man and cannot perish.

We dwell in crumbling houses of

clay.

“Life and Thought have gone away,

Side by side,

Leaving door and windows wide;

Careless tenants they!

"All within is dark as night;
In the windows is no light;

And no murmur at the door,
So frequent on its hinge before.

"Close the door, the shutters close,

Or through the windows we shall see
The nakedness and vacancy
Of the dark, deserted house.

"Come away; no more of mirth

Is here, or merry-making sound.
The house was builded of the earth,
And shall fall again to ground.

"Come away; for Life and Thought
Here no longer dwell;

But in a city glorious

A great and distant city-have sought

A mansion incorruptible.

Would they could have stayed with us!"

The grave is always open; and those we know and love, the delights of our eyes, the idols of our hearts, vanish; their dear forms are laid in that cold and silent mansion. Our eyes will rest on We are left weeping

them no more.

Thou Eternal One, surrounds us forever. It is Thy power that is at this moment upholding every one of us in life. It is Thy Spirit that is now seeking to commune with our spirits through the event which has brought us together. In all our sorrows help us to turn with our whole hearts to Thee. Whom have we in heaven but Thee? There is nothing on earth to desire but Thy Love, O Thou Giver of life and consolation.

We cannot but feel our dependence on a Higher Power, now that we are here paying the last offices of respect and affection to the remains of one to whom some here present were bound by very tender and sacred ties, and to whom we were all united by a common nature and a common hope. O God most gracious, be present now in our inmost hearts, that we may see Thy Hand, that we may hear Thy Voice. We are prone to live as if we were our own makers and masters, as if all that we call ours, the friends Thou hast given us, were sent into the world for our sakes alone, and not to fulfil purposes of Thine of inconceivable greatness. We promise ourselves that to-morrow will be as today, and even more prosperous, that the mountain of our health and prosperity stands strong and cannot be shaken. But, by the departure of the near and

the dear, the inexorable conditions of this our mortal existence are brought home to us. The silent angels of the Sovereign Will, disease and death, enter our households, and the dearest are smitten, and their faces are changed, and they are called away. We shall follow them, but they will never return to us. Then are we made to feel how brief is our sojourn here on earth, and how frail are all human ties, all human supports. But then, too, we learn the unspeakable worth of the glorious gospel of light and love and immortal hope, under which it is our precious privilege to live, and which speaks to us not as creatures of the dust but as children of the Highest, into whom His inspiration has breathed a spirit which is destined to triumph over all outward changes, even over this last great mystery of death.

With one heart we pray that the ex