the great Missionary cause? Is there not treasured up, in the futurity of appointed duty, some further resolve and action of yet unconceived moment? Let us assume the remotest possibility that can be taken into the estimate, that it is the duty of but one out of your whole number to preach the gospel to the heathen. Suppose, that it were communicated to you while together, that there was an unfailing certainty that one among you should leave home and country for CHRIST's sake and the Gospel's. How would the message be received? Every Christian heart, (and such are all, I trust,) would at once respond to the possibility, and ask, 'Lord, is it I?' nor would he cease to pray, and read, and meditate, until he could speak out from the darkness of uncertainty, 'Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.' But in the name and presence of Almighty God, in view of our destiny for eternity, as we expect to stand before the judgment-seat of CHRIST, does any one believe, that the Saviour, the LORD of missions and salvation, requires but one missionary from your whole number? Does any one believe, that the whole heathen world, with its hundreds of millions, claims but one Missionary from the Protestant Episcopal Church? Do not disguise the fact. You know, that, if they go not from our seminaries, they will never go; these are the only probable sources of supply.

"In reply to the above questions, in the confidence of truth, I answer, No. To every one, then, I would say, 'It may, or it may not, be your duty to go abroad. If it is not, you should be prepared to go wherever your Divine Master may be pleased to send you. If it should be your duty, (I tremble at the possibilities of the case,) under what awful responsibilities do you lie! You stand in the relation of one, who turns away from the path that GOD points out to him, and chooses one for himself.' There is no one present but would revolt at such a thought.

"Let me in conclusion add a few more particular remarks.

There is very great danger of erring in the decision, by drawing up a long list of qualifications on the authority perhaps of some writer, and excusing ourselves thus on several grounds entirely insufficient. There are necessary qualifications; but we should pray much before we excuse ourselves for any single reason.

66

Again. It is clear that no man can say, previous to an investigation, that it is out of the question that he should go. Of course I here except domestic necessities. But there are many to whom the thought is so entirely new and almost chimerical, that they dismiss it without a thought. Refined education, or talent, or expectations, stand for ever between them and faithfulness to their souls.

"Farewell, my dear Christian brethren! I feel like one who sees his brothers on the brink of a precipice, where he himself found out dangers at which the heart may tremble. But let not your heart be troubled.' I have all along presupposed that the HOLY SPIRIT would be afforded abundantly, and in the use of God's appointed means, in his appointed way. You cannot, as surely as God is true, you cannot fail of his approbation.

"Once more, farewell! and that the God of all mercy may guide you all in your investigations, is the earnest prayer of "Your fellow-member and brother in CHRist,

"A. F. LYDE."

It is unnecessary to add any words in approbation of this epistle. It speaks for itself most eloquently. Nor is it necessary to enlarge upon the personal character of its writer. And we would not trespass upon the office of a biographer. It seems, however, while we are collecting here the chief documents which relate to our brother, to be right, as well as agreeable to his friends, to annex in this place a few poetical pieces produced soon after his decease.

"LINES*

" OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH OF THE REV. AUGUSTUS F. LYDE.

"WHY now so sad the halls, where late were heard His admonitions to proclaim the word

To heathen nations, to a drowsy world?

Why now are pitying eyes with tears impearled?
And why does each, with anxious, heaving breast,
Emotions tell, by language unexpressed?

Lyde is no more! - The star, which was to beam
Through China's mists, and break the sluggish dream
Of Pagan hopes, no longer yields its light;-
Lyde is no more! - o'er China still is night.
Weep ye, who late were by his counsels led;
Ye, who the cause for which your Saviour bled
Loved more because he loved it, o'er the bier
Of holy friendship drop the hallowed tear.
Weep, heaven-devoted, dedicated band,
Who know no other charm nor potent wand,
Than Christian fellowship in hopes and fears;
Your loved companion now no longer rears
The sacred standard high for distant climes;
Lyde is no more! - so speak his muffled chimes.

"Weep thou, for whom the richest robe of white,
The shining mantle of pure Gospel light,
The Son of God provided, honored bride,

The Saviour's glory and the Saviour's pride,

Yes, Church of GoD, thy tears should freely flow,
Another soldier of the Cross lies low;

Another min'ster from thy altar riven,

Has quit thy service to be heir in heaven ;

* From "The Churchman" of December 6th, 1834.

Mourn for thyself, and for thy children mourn!
The graces for thee gathered, upward borne,
No more are used for thee, but for thy son
Secure an access to Messiah's throne ;-

Mourn for thyself, thy champion is no more!
He, who thy glory in his wishes bore,

Has left the world's cold scorn and chilling frown,
To wear in heaven a celestial crown.

"But more, much more shouldst thou, O China, sun
Of heathen systems, mourn! else had he won
For thee of Christian life and Christian hope the prize,
The blessed Gospel, passport to the skies;

His manly voice no more for thee employs
Its deepest strains to gain eternal joys:
For thy fond children, sharers of the soil
Which cost the Saviour's trouble and his toil,
The Saviour's passion and the Saviour's breath,
He pleaded while in life, he pleads in death!

C. R. A."

"LINES*

"UPON THE DEATH OF THE REV. A. F. LYDE.

""Tis done; the weary struggle 's past,

*From "The Churchman" of December 13th, 1834.

"We would not mourn thy parting hence,
But hail thy happy flight

From the low trammellings of sense,
And sin's debasing might:

We would not, but that o'er the world
The clouds of death brood all unfurled,
And souls are hurrying wave on wave,
And breaking on life's shore, the grave;
And when to this sad scene we turn,
"T is not for thee, but them, we mourn!

"For thy touched spirit was on fire
With an heroic zeal;

GOD's glory was thy soul's desire,
And man's immortal weal;

Thy loins were girt, thy staff in hand,
And in thy heart thy Lord's command,
And thou wert burning to depart,
And light and life and joy impart ;
To open in the waste a spring,
And make dark China's deserts sing!

"Yes,

now I see thee in our midst,

As our grieved bosoms swell,

Shivering with feeling as thou bidd'st

Thy brethren all farewell!

Again I hear that solemn tone,

Which told the struggles thou hadst known;

"Quench not the SPIRIT!' was the word,

Which, 'mid thy gushing tears, we heard,
Marking, in thy then fervent breath,
The hollowness of coming death! *

* An allusion to the incidents of the last meeting of the Missionary Society of the General Theological Seminary, of which he was the Presi