A FUNERAL SERMON.

HONORED LEGISLATORS,

You are assembled to deplore the loss, and to consecrate the memory, of your late associates in the services and honors of the State. It has pleased the ALMIGHTY to remove them from the busy scenes of life, and to consign them to the quiet house of death. This awful dispensation of Divine Providence announces to us the precarious tenure of life, and the alarming fragility of all its hopes, its labors, and its honors. Let us hear the warning voice of God! Let us learn our own destiny in the example of others! In the late afflictive visitation, you behold several members of this honorable Legislature, whose hopes were as strong, and whose prospects were as bright as your own; who shared with you the labors of the State; who equally with you enjoyed the public confidence and esteem; suddenly arrested in their course, and removed into the eternal world. While we magnify that divine forbearance which has spared us; and gratefully recognize that Divine Providence which has encircled us with blessings; let us adore that righteous and mysterious Sovereignty which disposes of all things on the earth and in the heavens; let us bow to that tremendous Majesty, But before whom all human grandeur shrinks into nothing. while we tremble before the great and everliving God, let us hope and rejoice; remembering that his goodness is as bound

less as his power; that whatever he creates he blesses; and that he does "not willingly grieve or afflict the children of men." -Though he has subjected us to death; yet he has rendered this, to all who embrace and obey the gospel, the means of increased felicity and glory. With only the light of nature for our guide, we can trace the progress of man no farther than the grave. Here he appears fallen and forever lost. But aided by revelation, we can follow him into a future world, and behold him surviving the stroke of death, and triumphing in immorta] existence.

The sun of righteousness has poured his rays into the gloomy valley and brightened the region of disembodied spirits. He has abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light. It is the distinguishing attribute of Christianity, that it dispels the doubts of its votaries, and inspires them with confidence and hope. So strong and lively is this hope in the breast of the Christian, that the scripture describes it "as an anchor to the soul both sure and steadfast." To all who regard their future welfare, it becomes an object of the deepest interest to ascertain the grounds on which a Christian builds his hope of existence and happiness beyond the grave. That we may view this subject in the light of divine truth, permit me to call your attention to those words of the apostle Paul, recorded in 2 Cor. v. 6. "Therefore, we are always confident, knowing, that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.”

The uncertainty in which we are involved with regard to futurity, is the principal circumstance which renders death an object of terror. Were our destiny after the present life fully unfolded, our happiness or our misery would be greatly augmented. God, no doubt, has furnished us with as much knowledge as is suitable to our state; and in a great degree, has wisely concealed from our view, the glories and terrors of a future world. Between these and our present state, the difference is so great, the contrast so tremendous and disproportionate, that a complete disclosure would overwhelm us with astonishment, suspend our powers, and totally disqualify us for the businesses and enjoyments of life. Though we see through a glass darkly, yet we see enough to excite our hopes and our fears; enough to