get that your father died not for himself, but for you, if, instructed by his example, you should have the happiness to die in the faith of Jesus. My hearers, you have come up hither to listen to the praises of the dead; I have gained my purpose, if you retire with the conviction, how empty are the praises of a mortal. The ear is deaf which once heard me; the tongue of the orator is motionless; the lips cold and rigid on which persuasion hung; and the hand, which held the pen, and bore the sword and staff of office, fast clenched in death. And, having seen all this, can you go away, and think of anything but God? Can you forget, in an instant, the inexpressible vanity of this world's honors ? They have only dressed up another victim for the tomb. We have bestowed upon the departed all that man had to bestow; the pomp of procession, the spectacle of numbers, the solemn knell of departed dignity, the noise of military honors, the pageant of a funeral, tears, prayers, condolence, the decorated coffin, the long inviolated tomb, — all, all was to be found, but him on whom these honors were bestowed. Every eye and ear were sensible to this respect, but his to whom it was paid. And now the noise of the crowd has ceased, the pageant ry of office has vanished, and the tomb is still; is there nothing left of the loftiest officer of a commonwealth? Nothing, my friends, of all his honors, but the services which he has rendered to society. What he did for himself is no longer heard of; what he did for others can only enbalm him. The Governor is forgotten, the show of public respect has vanished; but the least remembrance of real usefulness and piety is eternally fresh. "Be wise now, O ye rulers; be instructed, ye judges of the earth." You see what remains of the common objects of human ambition; a public funeral, and a quiet grave! and even these are left for your insensible remains. Live, then, for God, and for society, while you live; for God and goodness only are eternal. When I look back upon the successive generations of men, and see how painfully they have been climbing to the heights of temporal grandeur; when I examine the empty decorations of mortal greatness, and observe the little brief authority, the parting ambition, the pitiable pride, the wreaths withered as soon as plucked, and the grave opening under the very chair of supreme authority, I am ready to cry, God have mercy upon the great, and forgive the pride of shortlived man, in that hour, when the naked spirit shall stand trembling in thy presence, and it is no longer remembered, whether it expired on a scaffold, or on a throne ! I think, when you have been standing around the open tombs of the eminent, you must have asked yourselves, Is this dust of their coffins all that remains of the dignity we remember? In such moments, surely, you cannot have found the gospel as barren of all truth and consolation, as the splendor, you have witnessed, is barren of all real satisfaction. You cannot have turned your eyes away from the glory which breaks from the region beyond the grave, to let them rest again on the shadows, the retreating shadows, of this unsubstantial world. Oh no! hearers, friends, mourners, Christians let me call you! If, when you surrounded the grave of the departed, a ray reached your mind from the seat of eternal day, O let it never be extinguished! "For the hour is coming, in the which all, that are in the graves, shall hear the voice of the Son of Man and shall come forth; they, that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they, that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. — And I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write: Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord!-for they rest from their labors, and their works do follow them." Amen. - 27* DISCOURSE. [Delivered at the Interment of the Rev. William Emerson, May, 1811.] THE circumstances, in which we assemble here, to pay our last respects to this departed servant of God, are too mournful and extraordinary not to be distinctly remarked. Within a very few weeks,* a greater number of ministers have been called away from their mortal service in the churches of New-England, than was, perhaps, ever known before, in the same interval of time. In this town, there still vibrates on the ear the funeral bell of one of our beloved brethren. The earth has not yet settled on his remains; the footsteps of the mourners have hardly turned back from his grave, ere another waits for admission, and the bereaved meet and mingle their lamentations. In the meanwhile, it is not to us, nor was it to him, whose remains are before us, merely a fanciful satisfaction, to think that the beloved Dr. Eckley will hardly have left these * Within the last two months, there have departed this life, the Rev. Dr. Hemmenway, of Wells, a man of extraordinary learning, of apostolical simplicity, and venerable worth; the Rev. Dr. Barnes, of Scituate, the Rev. Mr. Parker, of Provincetown, and some other ministers, whose deaths have been mentioned in the newspapers. Dr. Eckley, senior pastor of the Old South Church, in Boston, was buried on the 3d of May, nine days before the decease of the Rev. Mr. Emerson, whose dissolution was then daily expected by himself and his friends. regions of mortality, these confines of his former existence, ere this kindred spirit, long waiting to be dismissed, will follow in the still lingering light of his upward track, with the hope, if God so please, of being reunited with him forever. For those, who have so long been seeking "a better country," even a heavenly, " to depart and be with Christ "to is far better." But, though we weep not for them who have finished their course with joy, we may weep for ourselves, who are left to keep the faith, and contend in the trials of this uncertain life, with fewer friends, counsellors, and companions. HELP, LORD, FOR THE GODLY MAN CEASETH; FOR THE FAITHFUL FAIL FROM AMONG THE CHILDREN OF MEN! These words are to be found in the twelfth Psalm, at the first verse. They have presented themselves to my mind, not as a topic for discourse, but as a faithful expression of the feelings of every good man among us, upon hearing that he shall behold our departed brother Emerson no more with the inhabitants of this world. Help us now, Lord, to lay his death to heart, and to keep him always in worthy remembrance ! Though one of the most common, it is still one of the sweetest rewards of acknowledged and respected virtue, to leave the minds of survivors turning involuntarily toward the contemplation of that worth which they are no longer to enjoy. Then the excellences of the departed take full possession of our imaginations; and we find ourselves engaged in calling up their merits, which, because we had |