it, or thinking hard of it, there are many considerations that might be urged to alleviate our grief; so many, indeed, that under the heaviest afflictions of the present state we may well weep as though we wept not.

In this instance, we may not only comfort ourselves with the consideration that it is the common lot of men, the greatest and the best as well as others, and therefore no more than might be expected; but with what affords infinitely greater satisfaction, that this lot is a real and substantial advantage tour deceased brother. There is a pleasure even in the very pain that we feel for those who die in the Lord. Our Redeemer has walked the road before us; and by so doing has abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light. Where the sting of death is extracted, there is little else but the name, the shadow of death, to encounter; and the prospect of a glorious resurrection to eternal life, more than annihilates even that. Your husband, your father, your pastor, is not dead, but sleepeth; and his Redeemer will come ere long that be may awake him.

Nor is this all; he lives already among the spirits of the just made perfect. Though the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved, yet the inhabitant is not turned out, as it were, naked and destitute; but has a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. It was that which reduced the apostle to a strait betwixt two, having a desire on the one hand to be profitable to the church of God, and on the other to depart and be with Christ, which, so far as concerned himself, was far better. Could we but be governed by faith instead of sense, we should rejoice even while we mourned. What our Lord said to his apostles, might be said by his faithful followers to their surviving friends, If ye loved me ye would rejoice, because I said I go to the Father; and the reason which he alleged, for my Father is greater than I—that is, the glory and happiness which my Father possesses, and which I go to possess with him, is greater than any thing I can here enjoywould also apply to them. To be with our Father above, is much greater and better than to be here.

Such considerations as the e may moderate our grief, and reconcile us to the will of God: but this is not all, there are other

things that require our attention. As the aged and the honourastage, there is the more to be done by us God has said to this his servant, as he said

ble are called off the who are left behind, to the prophet Daniel, Go thou thy way; let another, as if he had said, come and take thy place, and acquit himself as well as thou hast done! Our venerable deceased father had embarked for life, and so have we; he has finished his course, but we have yet to finish ours. We are apt to feel discouraged at the loss of eminent men, and to think the interests of religion, in their particular connexions, must needs suffer, and it may be so; but it may be of use to consider that when Moses died the Israelites were not to stand still, but were commanded to go forward; and it is no small consolation that God's cause is still in his own hands, The government is upon his shoulder.

One thing more deserves our serious attention-Though the relations before-mentioned are now extinct, yet what has taken place in those relations is not. A great part of the actions of the present life are either those of parents to their children, or children to their parents, of husbands to their wives, or wives to their husbands, of pastors to their people, or people to their pastors; and these are matters that must all come over again. In this point of view, relationship, though of but a few years duration, is of the utmost importance; it sows as I may say, the seeds of eternity, and stamps an impression that will never be effaced!

Consider, dear friends, the events of that relationship which is now dissolved. The various labours of your worthy pastor will not be lost, not even his more private instructions, prayers, and counsels in your families, or his own; they will not return void, but accomplish the end whereunto they were sent. The great question with you is, Does that end include your salvation? Can you look back and bless God for the life which is now finished, as having been a blessing to you? Can you remember the sermon, the visit, the reproof, the warning, the counsel, the free conversation, from whence you began to cry, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth? Or has this valuable life, which thousands have acknowledged as a public blessing, been nothing to you? You have heard him, and have talked with him, and have witnessed

the general tenor of his life, how holily, how justly, and how unblamably he behaved himself among you; and is all of no account? Is the harvest past, and the summer ended, and are you not saved? Alas! if this should be the case with any of you in this congregation, (and it is well if it is not,) you may never have such opportunities again; and if you should perish at last, the loss of your souls will be greater, and attended with more aggravating circumstances, than that of many others. Those of Bethsaida and Chorazin, who rejected or neglected the gospel, were in a worse situation than even the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. When the books come to be opened at the great day, they will contain a long and dark list of slighted opportunities, abused mercies, despised counsels, and forgotten warnings!

Dear friends, call to remembrance the labours of your minister, and pray to the Lord that none of these things may come upon you. If any of you have been deaf to the various calls of God during his life, yet hear this one which is addressed to you by his death! If the seed, which this dear servant of God has been sowing for nearly forty years among you, should yet spring up; if to a future and happy pastor of this church, it should be said, in the language of Christ to his apostles, Another has laboured, and you have entered into his labours; it would afford us no small pleasure, pleasure that would serve to counterbalance the painful providence with which at this time we are afflicted.

TO THE MEMORY OF MY DEAR AND VENERABLE FRIEND,

THE REV. ROBERT HALL,

Who died in the 63d year of his age, on March 13, 1791.

AND is my much-respected friend no more?
How painful are the tidings to my heart!
And is that light extinguish'd which so long
Has burn'd with brightest lustre, and diffused
Through all his loved connexions round about,
Pure rays of evangelic light and joy?

Is all that stock of true substantial worth
Become as water spilt upon the ground?-
That universal knowledge, which embraced
A compass wide and large, of men and things!
That well-known solid wisdom, which, improved
By long experience, made his face to shine?--
That uprightness of character, by which

He lived down slander, and of foes made friends?——
That ardent and affectionate concern
For truth, for righteousness, for Zion's good,
Which, with a social kindness, long endear'd
His name, and renders him a public loss?-
That grace that ruled and season'd all his soul,
And as with sacred unction fill'd his lips,

In which as life declined he ripen'd fast,

And shone still more and more to perfect day?

That tender sympathy, that often soothed

The sorrowing heart, and wiped the mourner's tear?

That sweet humility, and self-abasement,

With which we heard him oft invoke his God;

Which ne'er assumed, though first in counsel skill'd,
The lordly look, or proud dictator's chair?--

That guiltless pleasantry, that brighten❜d up
Each countenance, and cheer'd the social hour?

(If he were there, it seem'd that all were there;
If he were missing, none could fill his place.)
That store of excellence, in short, to which
(As to a ship well fraught) one might repair,
And be enrich'd with treasures new and old ?-
Is ALL, as by a kind of fatal wreck,

Destroy'd, and sunk at once to rise no more?

Dear friend! (for still I fain would talk to thee)
Shall I discern thy cheering face no more?
And must thy glad'ning voice no more be heard?
And when I visit thy much-loved abode,
Shall I not find thee there as heretofore?
Nor sit, nor walk, as erst with pleasure wont,
Nor mingle souls beneath the friendly bower?
No... this is past nor ought seems left for me,
Except to walk, and sigh upon thy stone!

Dear friend! I saw thee burden'd, years ago,
With heavy loads of complicated grief;

And grief more complicate, though less intense,
I'm told thou didst in earlier days endure;

But tribulation patience in thee wrought,

And such a stock of rich experience this,

That few like thee could reach the mourner's case,
Or ease the burdens of the lab'ring heart.

We saw thee ripen in thy later years,

As when rich-laden autumn droops her head :

That theme on which thy thoughts of late were penn'd,*
None knew like thee, nor could have touch'd so well;

It seem'd thy element, the native air

Thy holy soul had long been used to breathe.

Such things we saw with sacred pleasure; yet

'Twas pleasure tinged with painful fear, lest these
{As fruit when ripe is quickly gather'd in)
Should only prove portentious of thy end.

O thou great Arbiter of life and death!
Thy ways are just, and true, and wise, and good;
Though clouds and darkness compass thee around,
Justice and judgment still support thy throne.

Had it been left to us, he still had liv'd,

* Communion with God, the subject of the Circular Letter for 1789, which was Mr. Hall's last printed performance.