of sacred truth, whilst the lively concern they feel in the departure of a relative, a friend, or a fellow worshipper, disposes them to serious thought, and gives unusual weight to those instructions which are wisely adapted to teach them how to secure the great end of an existence so precarious and transitory. But circumstances sometimes occur which render such a service peculiarly distressing, and call for instruction of a peculiar nature. A numerous and rising family deprived of a father's support, and a father's authority: bereaved of a pious and intelligent mother, whose strong affection and whose hourly care are so important, so necessary to the formation of virtuous propensities in the youthful breast; a youth entering upon a scene of extensive usefulness and qualified to be an honour and a blessing to society, removed from the hopes of men, and prematurely brought down to those silent abodes where there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, are amongst those dispensations of providence, which the christian teacher will feel himself called upon, either to reconcile with the acknowledged benevolence of the government of God, or to employ

as the means of humility and devout resignation. And should the hoary head not found in the ways of wisdom, be laid in the silent grave; should the corrupter of those who had the misfortune to fall within his influence, the faithless husband, the profligate father, be brought to the house appointed for all the living; should the unhappy youth, whom no holy counsels could guide, no wise authority could controul, no parental tears could move, be snatched away in the midst of his crimes, and called to his account before he has seen half his days; these awful examples will furnish the judicious instructor with lessons of infinite importance from the delivery of which, however painful the duty, he will not recede.

You, my christian brethren, are no strangers to the impressive lessons which the house of mourning supplies, these were all faithfully pointed out to you, and during a ministry of nearly five and thirty years continuance, many have been the occasions of awakening your sympathy, of directing you, in some very dark and distressing scenes through which some of the families that compose this christian assembly have been lead, to place your pious confi

dence in God, of inciting you to a due neglect of the vanities of a world so changeful and transitory, and of exhorting you to set your affections upon that more durable state in which alone the real treasure of a rational creature will be found. During that period every house connected with this christian society, has been the house of mourning; and at different times each individual has been called upon to exercise submission to the divine will, and to consider the end of all things; but the instance of mortality which has now occurred almost equally affects you all ; you have to mourn a common loss, to learn in common, resignation to that providence which has unexpectedly removed from you, an able and zealous instructor, a faithful and judicious friend. On many occasions have you sympathized with each other, you all now claim sympathy with yourselves. Your claim is just, and cannot be disregarded. Widely as your late Pastor was known, will his loss be felt and his death lamented; and the friends of rational religion and of virtue, mingle their tears with yours, and deplore the stroke which has so suddenly brought down to the grave, one who was so bright an ornament

of our common faith, so valuable a member of society, so excellent a preacher of righteousness.

By your partiality, and that of the much esteemed relatives of my ever to be lamented friend, the duty of paying a public tribute to his memory, and of deducing from this mournful event, some useful instruction devolves upon myself. Had I consulted my own feelings I should have declined an office which I cannot discharge without the deepest sorrow; I should have committed the exhibition of so much worth and excellence to some one more able, (to no one more desirous and willing could it have been committed) to do it ample justice. Sixteen years ago, when I was scarcely half the age of your late revered pastor, he began to favor me with his friendship, and ever since that period it has been on both sides most sincere and steady, and to myself I must again own, productive of the most important advantages. To it have I been indebted for much judicious counsel, assistance in some cases of difficulty, and many hours of pure enjoyment. I flattered myself with possessing no small share of his confidence: he freely opened to me R

his heart, he shewed me his whole character, and the more I saw of it the higher rose my admiration and esteem. Some of its excellencies I delineated to you on that day, never to be forgotten by me; when I performed the mournful office of committing his remains to the earth; but neither the time allotted to the preparation of the service, nor that which it was proper to employ in its performance, were sufficient to enable me to discharge all the duty which I owe to justice and friendship, nor fully, I apprehend, to gratify your expectations. It will not therefore, I trust, be unsuitable to the occasion on which I again meet you, if I dwell more largely upon some of the leading features in the character of the friend who is removed from us; both to justify that remembrance of him which you are disposed to cherish, and also to incite you so to consider the end of his conversation, that you may be animated to the most strenuous endeavours to walk worthy of that gospel in which you have been so ably instructed, and thus prepare for renewed intercourse with all the good whom you have loved and honoured here, in a world of perfection and of joy.