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Fac-simile of the last entry in the Diary

12. Lords Day. A more stormy day than we have had this winter very few could attend public worship. Fore= noon, my family was collected in my study for read

none could

go

in

ing and prayer, for 。oul, Composed mind, & meditation_looking to the mercy of the Lord Jesus !

13 Mon Dr.

We add the following specimen of the hand writing of D. Stanford in August 1833

Admonitions, &e

Begin the Lord's - Day with God in prayer and thanksgiving; for the Lord Chist arose

arose early from the dead; and his

Disciples went early in the morning to seek him

JH ATTEFORD'S IITH NV

LETTER OF CONDOLENCE.

315

and hope. He has realized the accomplishment of the declaration:-" Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season."

When the departure of this devoted minister was announced, all seemed to feel that a great man in Israel had fallen, and citizens of all parties united in doing honour to his memory. He was buried on the 16th of January, and was followed by more than seventy clergymen of various religious denominations, and a numerous concourse of the most respectable inhabitants of New-York. About two hundred orphan children were placed in front of the long procession, which moved from his house in Lispenard-street, to the Baptist Church in Oliver-street, which was crowded by a vast congregation of more than two thousand persons. The public services were introduced by an appropriate prayer by the Rev. Dr. Brownlee, of the Dutch Church, the impressive and interesting funeral address was delivered by the Rev. Spencer H. Cone, and the Rev. Dr. Milnor, of the Episcopal Church, made the concluding prayer, and dismissed the deeply affected audience.

The following are from among the numerous letters of condolence which were sent to the bereaved children of Dr. Stanford.

From the Rev. George Upfold, D. D. Rector of Trinity Church, Pittsburgh, to T. N. Stanford.

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"It is with deep and unfeigned regret, that I have just learned the decease of your venerable father, my most esteemed friend; and I cannot refrain from expressing to you my sympathy in this severe bereavement. There is no person for whom I entertained a higher regard, both as a man and a Christian, and I

316

LETTER OF CONDOLENCE.

think I never heard of any one, who bore the increasing infirmities of old age with such uniform patience and cheerfulness, and such devout submission to the will of God. When I parted from him in May last, he intimated, with much feeling, what indeed seemed almost evident, that he should never see me more on this side of the grave. He spoke with calm composure of his probable early departure, and expressed himself ready for the summons, come when and how it might. Death was to him a familiar topic of thought and of consolation, and he anticipated it as a peaceful transition to a life of everlasting bliss. Amid your grief for his loss, you have the uspeakable consolation to believe that his anticipations are realized, and to contemplate him now as a happy inmate of the paradise of God. He has gone to his God and to his reward, as a shock of corn fully ripe. And if untiring efforts to do good to his fellow-men, will, as the scripture leaves us no room to doubt, swell the recompense of the man of God, your venerated father will meet a recompense which in fulness of glory, falls to the lot of few who pass from time into eternity. For a long period of years he has been the friend and spiritual counsellor of the poor, and the wretched, and the outcast. His labours have been carried on amid scenes of suffering and distress, which few are able to appreciate. It was my privilege, in years past, to be frequently with him in his visits of mercy to two of the public institutions of the city of New-York, which formed a part of his charge, and I can bear testimony to the fidelity with which he reproved the guilty, and the tenderness with which he soothed and comforted the mourner, and the boldness with which he preached the word of life, as well as to the uniform respect and attention with which his labours of love were received by the forlorn and miserable objects to whom he ministered. He has been preeminently useful among a class of beings, who but for

LETTER OF CONDOLENCE.

317

him would have had little or no opportunity of hearing the gospel of Christ; and in the great and final account, many wretched out-casts, brought through his affectionate admonitions to repentance and reformation, will appear as seals of his ministry, and rise up and call him blessed; and if they who turn many to righteousness, shall shine as stars for ever and ever, he who has been so devoted in the work, so peculiarly the friend of the friendless, and of those who had none to help, will shine as a star of the first magnitude, in that bright constellation of saints, which shall revolve around the throne of God and the Lamb..

66

My family unite with me in sympathy for the loss you have sustained, and in respect for him who is gone.

"Very affectionately and truly your friend,

"GEORGE UPFOLD."

Extract of a letter from Samuel Hope, Esq. of Liverpool, England, to the same, dated,

MY DEAR SIR,

"May 20th, 1834.

"I did not receive your letter of the 23d of January, announcing the long apprehended removal of your excellent father from the scene of his active and useful labours, till about a fortnight or three weeks since. When it arrived, I was in South-Wales, in pursuit of health, having suffered so severely from the effects of overstrained attention to public and private business, as to occasion the greatest anxiety to my friends, and to render my immediate retirement from the bustle of business indispensably necessary; and my wife being also unwell, your letter had been mislaid.. I had, however, been informed, meanwhile, of this event, by our mutual and excellent friend, Mrs. Bethune, who also gave me several pleasing particulars of his feelings and doings during his last illness.. It is most gratifying to me, that in offering to yourself

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