the fulness of life everlasting. Heavenly Spirit, help us; for all our sufficiency is of thee.

The first point to which I would call your attention is this: that our Lord's address is not to be taken for any thing like reproof of the grief evinced by the mourners around him. Their sorrow may have been intemperate; it may have been mingled with feelings which piety disclaims-feelings of impatience and anger under this providential visitation. But such a conclusion cannot fairly be drawn from our Lord's words, the meaning of which is to be sought in the sentence immediately following: "She is not dead, but sleepeth." He does not, you will take notice, reproach the mourners with culpable sorrow, but he cheers them that its cause is on the point of being removed. Yes, truly, the blessed Jesus was a man of like passions with ourselves, except that sin never mingled with them; and on more than one occasion, he allowed himself to discover the tenderest sensibilities for the benevolent purpose of consolation, and thus proving to his people, that it was not required of them to smother their affections, and violently to force the anguish from their hearts. There is scarcely a verse in the New Testament which has brought more relief to the hearts of mourners than the shortest in the volume: "Jesus wept." He wept over the grave of his friend Lazarus; he wept on witnessing the agony of the two desolate sisters: affection for this once happy family was, I doubt not, the principal, if not the sole cause, of the Redeemer's groans and tears and I am content to look no further; I view with no complacency the ingenuity that is sometimes exerted to detect more subtle, and, what are termed, more spiritual reasons, for this beautiful effusion of tenderness. O no; our Redeemer was a man like ourselves, and he felt and acted accordingly. It is natural to weep over the breathless remains of beloved connexions: it is natural to feel a pang when the dearest ties, strengthened by many a tender association, are for ever snapped asunder: it is natural to sit down and weep when the eye that used to beam kindness and love upon us, is closed in death; when the hand which has a hundred times pressed ours in warm friendship, is cold and stiff, and makes no return to the kindest grasp; and when that heart is motionless which has long beat in perfect unison with ours. If this is natural, brethren, then it cannot be wrong in the abstract; and, we are sure, that it is a pure impulse of our nature, because, had it been a sinful infirmity, it could never have appeared in Christ Jesus. Your tears and sorrows, when they flow from natural grief, will not displease your heavenly Father, and will be healthful to yourselves, provided they are sanctified with the spirit of our great Master, who, in giving vent to the pangs which almost tore his heart in sunder, still exclaimed

with the purest dovotion, "Abba, Father; not my will, but thine, be done."

I observe, next, that sorrow, especially that which springs from family bereavements, is one of our Lord's approved instruments for our sanctification. Thus he visited Abraham, the father of the faithful, and Jacob, and Job, and David, and many other of his saints. It is certain, I think, that nearly all whom God proposes to carry to a high point of sanctity and spiritual efficiency, are passed through this troubled furnace, heated seven times more than common. Instead, therefore, of wrapping ourselves up in stoical apathy, or striving to drown sorrow by drowning thought and reflection, we should meet the blow, and endeavour to realize its gracious intention. Have you, my dear hearers, been thus chastened? Has the desire of your tears been taken away with a stroke? Has the lonely grave closed upon your sight your friend, your brother, your sister, the wife of your bosom, the child of your old age? Then God by that affliction has called upon you to weep. O, lament: look sorrow in the face; regard it as an angel sent to admonish you (there is nothing really magnanimous in braving it), to induce you to ascertain its design and purport, and to co-operate with God. Accordingly, this is the aim of true Christian philosophy; and if it be your aim, the wisdom that is from above will help you. То pursue another course were neither dutiful nor wise. When God smites, he means that we should feel. Should you therefore succeed, once or more, in eluding the smart, which for some good purpose the scourge was intended to produce, God may judge it right to smite you again more heavily, unless he should decide on the dreadful alternative of leaving you to that obduracy which defies correction. "They have made their faces harder then a rock; they have refused to return :" "why should they be stricken any more?" On the principle, then, that a foolish heart often learns in the house of mourning, is there freed from earthly vanities, and cleansed from base affections, and made to see that Jesus Christ is the only God; on this principle, I would dissuade you from being in haste to draw from the sorrow which is felt more than the legitimate fruit of divine chastisement. No; rather keep it in your memory, not to brood over it in sullen despondency, but as a salutary, though bitter medicine, a sharp, but a monitory thorn. Detain it till it hath, by God's blessing, accomplished its proper end, of impressing you with more spiritual views of man's sinfulness and misery, and of drawing your souls from temporal things to things eternal.

Once more: we are justified in weeping when eminent servants of God are removed. It was a heavy charge against the Jews in

Isaiah's days, that when " the righteous were taken away, no man laid it to heart." To see with unconcern those who are the spiritual salt of the earth, the extinction of those lights by which the Lord is glorified, and his children advantaged, would argue a sad want of devout sensibility in ourselves. And, surely, honour is due from us to those whom God has honoured. It is on record, that the children of Israel wept for Moses, on the plains of Moab, forty days. The same people united in lamenting over Samuel. And in 2 Chronicles, after the statement, that all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah, it is expressly added, that Jeremiah lamented for him. A holy prophet is deeply affected, and testifies his grief, when a gracious king, a friend to religion and the state, is cut off.

I am aware that it is the prerogative of almighty wisdom to deduce good eventually from the stroke which deprives the church of some noble pillar or some beautiful ornament. That stroke, however, is not the less a calamity in itself, and sometimes is a sign of God's special wrath against a people who have not appreciated the blessing. Have none of us reason to reflect upon ourselves'for having turned to little account the converse and example of some excellent Christian who was long permitted to go before us like a guiding star? Have we not slighted that guidance, and turned our faces from that brightness, because error was more to our taste than truth, and darkness more convenient than light? O, the bitterness of that compunction which pierces the hearts of wayward children like a two-edged sword, when the pious parent, the guide of their youth, whose wings have been long spread over them, is snatched from their side before his tried and favoured tenderness has met with any regard! And how sharp the remorse of many individuals, in a Christian congregation, when deprived of the minister who had poured out his very soul for them in the awful dispensation of the Gospel, while they continued hard and impenitent! Surely, such recollections may well provoke tears, and sobs, and wringing of hands. The fountain that God opened for your refreshment has ceased to flow before you have filled your vessels with its water: and to make up the advantages which you have so deservedly forfeited, may not accord with the wise arrangements of a God most just, most holy.

But I forbear reaping the useful lessons suggested by our text; and I turn to the sad event that has covered the parish with mourning. I know the consolations with which that event is encompassed: still I must call it sad; for when has a death occurred in our neighbourhood which has been felt as a greater disaster, or drawn forth more genuine sorrow? Most truly can it be affirmed, not with respect to the members of one family only, but to a vast population, that all wept and bewailed her. I well remember when

our beloved friend, at the close of the last and the beginning of the present year, was in the crisis of a malady that was hourly expected to prove fatal-I well remember how deep a sympathy for her family, and how acute a sensibility to your own threatened loss, were universally displayed. It seemed as if there was a temporary suspension of all ordinary interests, a pause in the common business and bustle of life: while every one waited in breathless anxiety to see which way the wavering balance would ultimately turn. But no, it was not a breathless anxiety, for thousands of prayers were incessantly breathed up to the throne of grace; and they did obtain a respite, which to some of you will hardly appear a mercy, but which I know has been an unspeakable mercy, and to have answered important ends. To this assertion, the individual who can best pronounce on its truth, is he on whom this dispensation has fallen with its keenest edge, and for whom you must earnestly pray without ceasing that he may be strengthened and sanctified under it. To this assertion, your honoured minister, my beloved and valued friend, will emphatically set his seal.

But to render this affliction a source of religious benefit, I must remind you of the qualities and conduct which draw down on our departed sister so extraordinary a measure of respect and affection. And in doing this I shall be forced to attempt the language of eulogy: be it far from me to bestow upon the portrait a single line or hue not taken from the life; but who can delineate an eminent Christian, without exhibiting a form of singular beauty? It is impossible, since the Christian's character is the impress of God's own Spirit, and a likeness-faint and defective, indeed, yet a real likeness-of Jesus Christ. For those who are rich in spiritual gifts to think humbly of themselves, is seemly and right; but it becomes those amidst their pious conversation to glorify God even then. It is, moreover, incumbent on ministers of religion, to reflect on a dark, ungodly world, the rays of such spiritual luminaries as have just sunk below the horizon: and this will be most generally useful when the departed one has filled a private station, and was not, in the scale of worldly estimation, an extraordinary person. When the effects of pure and undefiled religion on such persons are displayed, a model is set up, which numbers may try to imitate with benefit. Many of you, my dear hearers, might form yourselves, to a considerable extent, by the pattern of her whom we have lost there is nothing, I mean in externals, to make it impracticable.

I advert, in the first place, to the humility of this admirable woman, for that lay at the root of, and richly nourished, all her other graces. Her self-abasement before God can be known to God only; but its

counterpart (or shall I rather say its fruit?) in that lowliness of mind which gives its tone to the whole social life, and makes us really to esteem others better than ourselves, in her was exceedingly conspicuous. We meet sometimes with a feigned humility, which is illfavoured at other times we meet with a humility, sincere, it may be presumed, yet sustained with so much labour and effort, that it can hardly be termed lovely. But when it sits upon a person quite naturally, as if it actually corresponded with the inward frame and secret movements of the soul, O then it is indeed a rich adorning!

Of our dear sister's original temper I know little, and I have not forgotten that pride is born with us, and adheres tenaciously to our faulty nature but this I can safely affirm, that for many years humility had been so wrought into her soul by the Holy Ghost, that it had all the agreeable bearing of a native quality. The rare simplicity of her character struck every one on the slightest acquaintance; and I recollect to have said of her, after our first interview, many years ago, "Truly this is an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile:" and the impression was confirmed by every subsequent communication. There was a transparent candour in all her proceedings, which made it impossible to suspect her of any thing that wore in her heart a disguise: there was not a tinge of falsehood in her composition.

Perhaps I speak too strongly: I may be reminded how much of deceit there is in the human heart at best; and therefore some modi

fication of my statement may be called for.

But I do believe that hers

was a mind exempt, in no ordinary degree, from obliquity of motive; and going straight forward in its objects in the fear of the Lord. I do believe that, as far as is compatible with human perfection, she was a model of ingenuousness and truth. Where such simplicity of character exists, there can hardly be much selfishness; and those most thoroughly intimate with our deceased friend, and who stood in the most convenient position for detecting this master vice, have declared that no one less under this sin ever came within their observation. Her dearest connexion said to me, that were he called on to name the virtue by which she was chiefly characterized, he would do it in these words: "She pleased not herself.”

Some affecting instances that have come to my knowledge, of her utter disregard of self-indulgence, I would here have gladly introduced, were I not withheld by the reverence due to domestic privacy. No sacrifice appeared too great—I had almost said, appeared any sacrifice at all—if recommended and imperatively prescribed by duty and conscience. Her benevolent and assiduous attentions to the poor and afflicted were unremitting; to their bodies and to their souls she acted the part of a tender mother. On this feature of her