their agency and their example. If others, in the midst of their days, are summoned to other scenes of duty, it is still not without a benevolent design. And when we consider, how,-in consequence of the very excellence which we are so pained to lose from among ourselves,-how solemn an impression has now been made upon thousands of minds,-how strongly this community has now felt itself admonished to be grateful to Providence, for the privilege of having the wise and good among them,-how vividly the worth of such qualities as made their possessor prized, has been revealed to many, being declared by the public voice, with such melancholy emphasis, would it seem less than presumption to affirm, that, with all the usefulness promised in the continuance of such a life, divine providence may not have had higher purposes yet to serve, through the sanctifying influences extensively spread in its premature termination?

Justified by the strong expression of the public sense of the worth of a faithful servant, called away, I have thus deviated, my friends, from the practice of this place, in distinctly inviting you to dwell upon his memory. God grant that a lesson, so dearly gained, be not of transient use to any of us! I attempt not here consolations for the great grief of hearts lacerated by the so awfully sudden rupture of closely binding ties. It is much to suffer such bereavement ;-it is much too, to have such a memory to cherish, and have a right to enshrine it

in the heart, as its own peculiar treasure. Our earnest prayers ascend to the widow's God, for rich communications of that peace which he is able to impart. The orphaned children are of that parentage, which the Psalmist said he never saw forsaken; and we doubt not that, seeking to render the due and the best honor to the memory of the departed, by walking in that path in which he is not spared to lead them, a kind providence will fulfil for them the pledge of favor which it gave, in committing them, for their earliest years, to such a care. May the "Friend that cleaveth closer than a brother," be nigh, with all consolations of his spirit, to them who mourn the broken bond of a true fraternal friendship! Let all of us, my hearers, who honored the departed, resolve to testify our sense of his worth, by walking stedfastly in his steps, as far as we saw them to be steps of usefulness and duty. And let those of us who loved him, cherish, for our solace, and our excitement, the hope that our friendship may not now have been dissolved for ever.

There is a strong and a salutary power in that hope, and I would fain believe, that the scriptures in no way discourage us from indulging it, on the ground that any, whom we lament, appear fitted for a higher sphere in bliss, than can be the object of our humble expectations. Between the righteous and the wicked, I know that "there is a great gulf fixed," and we must expect to be banished from the

intercourse of the good servants of God hereafter, if, here, we have formed nothing of their character. But I no where see it asserted, nor do I find any cause to believe, that, in a future world, friends who have walked in the same paths of wisdom here, are to be separated, because they have not attained all to an equal eminence. The analogy of this life would lead me to hope for a different adjustment. Here, while they who are essentially animated by the same spirit, are naturally thrown into each other's society, it is not they, who have attained a precisely equal eminence, who are found associated together. But the more advanced find a benevolent pleasure in exciting and helping them who are aiming at attainments like their own, and the less so, find a grateful pleasure in being objects of such regard and aid; their happiness, meantime, not being equalized by a condition, which,in some respects the same to both,-links them together in combinations of mutual service, but continuing to be proportioned, in each, to the spiritual progress which each has made, and the greatness of the services he renders. Is there not satisfaction in thinking, that something corresponding to this may exist in the happy society of the future world; -that the good friends, in whose spirit we may hope, in some inferior degree, to have participated, may be made there, as here, in some way, our associates, benefactors, and guides; they still animating us by the communications and the exam

ple of their goodness, and we requiting them most acceptably, by a right use of these for our own advantage?

But I forbear from meditations, too adventurous, perhaps, though every heart can say, how grateful. Be it enough for our encouragement and joy, that the purity, and devotion, and love, which here make the genuine, though imperfect happiness of the good and faithful servants" of God, are to make their growing happiness for ever; and that such eternal life assuredly awaits all who, "by patient continuance in well-doing," look for the appropriate "glory, honor, and immortality" of a spiritual

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nature.