ciency. When a pastor, the cause of Missions held a large place in his thoughts. Several of those who joined the church under his ministry became Foreign Missionaries.

In his employment as Secretary of the American Board, he was eminently faithful, industrious, and zealous. No man loved the quiet of home more than he, nor sighed more for rest from incessant change; but after parting with the Rev. Messrs. Spaulding and Scudder, on their return to the heathen, he said, "I prefer to live and die in this work." His earnest desire was to awaken Christians to prayer and effort for a dying world. He has been known to go into the office of one of the religious papers to look over the exchange papers in search for intelligence of revivals of religion, knowing that love for the heathen and contributions to the cause of Missions are generally in proportion to the increase of piety in the churches.

His zeal for the heathen grew out of his love for his fellow men, which showed itself in more ways than one. When in Virginia,

he was deeply interested in the slaves, and exerted himself much for their benefit, and in efforts for the peaceable abolition of slavery. His well known zeal in this cause nearly cost him his life. He was once waylaid by two men who were opposed to his views and feelings on the subject of slavery, and received from one of them a gash through his hat, with a large sharp weapon.

But I love to think and speak of him as a man. Aside from our respect and love for him in his official relations, the hearts of all of us flowed forth to him as a good man. He impressed different friends, of course, by different qualities; but one thing in him was peculiar and obvious to all who knew him,-the union of intense feeling with mildness of demeanor. I have seen him, in public speaking, roused to an energy of feeling which has made me think how well it was that such strength of emotion was controlled by religious principles; in private, however, his constant smile, and his gentle, humble, conciliating manner, was like beautiful waters over volcanic places, imaging the heavens above them, but concealing the depths beneath. The impression has been made on my own mind by my intercourse with him, that he must naturally have had much to contend with in the strength of his passions; but this impression has been made only by the strength of his religious emotions, and by some instances of great control over his feelings, which it was evident could have been gained only by one who had found occasion for, and had practised, vigorous selfdiscipline. He was a lovely and pleasant man. He made you feel that he loved you; and you involuntarily loved him. He was the delight and joy of his family circle. The last Sabbath evening of his life he spent in hearing his children recite portions of Scripture and the Assembly's Catechism. It seems to have been the mysterious impression in that family circle that their rich blessing in him was not long to continue.

I will not analyze his character. I cannot make a cool and

critical estimate of his several talents. He stands before me as a holy, humble, self-denying, meek, ardent, affectionate man. He has taken his place in our hearts, and will always keep it, as one who deserves and has secured our best affections, our deepest respect, and our most tender and endearing recollections.

And is he gone! We sat with him in the Committee meeting the Tuesday afternoon before his death, when more than once he awakened a pleasant smile by his quiet humor and happy illustrations; and the next Tuesday evening I found myself, by appointment of the Committee, meditating his funeral sermon ! Dear associate, brother, friend! thy path to heaven has been so suddenly made, and is yet so radiant with glory, that we do not, we cannot, feel that the connection between thee and us is severed. May we never feel that it is severed. We cannot think of thee as dead! Thou, rather, art the living, and among the living; and we are among the dead.

As members of the Committee and officers of the Board we will cherish the memory of thy zeal, thy fervent spirit, thine exemplary faith and patience, thy amiable disposition and conduct, which made thee a pleasant associate and fellow-laborer. We desire to fulfil the duties of our office in a manner which we think would receive thy present commendation and thy future congratulation.

Brethren in the ministry; friends in important places of trust; parents and fellow Christians! There is an admonition to you in this event, peculiarly impressive. You see in the removal of this friend and brother that no usefulness, no supposed importance in your life to the cause of Christ or to the happiness of others, obtains exemption from death. Office, high and important duties, usefulness, are no security against a sudden removal from the world. God is dependent on no man's talents or help. Here is a family, consisting of a wife, and five children between the ages of six months and eighteen years. O death! relent, and spare that husband and the father of such a family! The inexorable stroke descends. God of our life! we own thy sovereign control over us. "We are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled." In the language of the common law, "a man's house is his castle." We see that it is no defence against the mandates of Him who "openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth."

I would remark to my reverend fathers and brethren in the ministry, that there seems to have been a divine recognition of the pastoral office and labors of our deceased friend in his last hours, though he had not been for many years a pastor. But while a pastor, he was pre-eminently faithful. He loved his work, he loved the souls of men, and preached with direct reference to their conversion. When he is about to die, God seems to remember with what peculiar zeal he thus served him, and how he seemed

to say, on leaving the pastoral office for the missionary work, "As for me I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee;"—and accordingly the last act of his life is permitted to be a direct effort to save souls. He begins his exhortation in the cabin, when, lo! his voice catches the ear of one at a distance, who recognizes in it the voice of the pastor of his youth! It seems as though it were a testimony of remembrance with God of past faithfulness. That pastor's voice brought with it, to the mind of that esteemed survivor of the wreck, a throng of recollections respecting his early and subsequent life. Members of Christian congregations, young and old! if you should accidentally hear your pastor's voice amid the scenes of judgment, will the effect of it be joy or grief with you? That voice would recall scenes and impressions that would thrill you with pleasure, or make almost superfluous your dreadful sentence from your Judge.

He has gone to that great cloud of witnesses, who are above us and round about us. He has realized the anticipation of one of his predecessors, Mr. Evarts,-expressed in that most striking exclamation upon his dying bed, "Oh, the face of God!" He has seen Christ, whom not having seen he loved. He has seen the multitude which no man can number, out of every nation and kindred and tongue and people. He has been welcomed by his predecessors in office, two of whom at least died like him, away from home, in the discharge of their official duties; Worcester among the Cherokees, and Cornelius at Hartford, Connecticut." This work of missions fills up, in the bodies of those who enter fully into its active labors among the churches at home, "that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ." Perils in the wilderness, and perils in the city, and perils in the sea, to say no more, must be the lot of those to whom is intrusted the work of inciting us to do our duty to the heathen.

But with our departed brother, all is rest, and peace, and reward. Among the redeemed I fancy that he looks with peculiar interest on the converts from heathenism. There are the bondmen of Africa, kings and priests unto God. In more than "barbaric pearl and gold" is the poor dweller by the Ganges and the Burrampooter. There the American Indian adores Him who is "more glorious and excellent than the mountain of prey." Kings' daughters, from the Sandwich Islands and Tahiti, are among the "honorable women." At Christ's right hand is that Madagascar queen. The oppressed mountaineer of Lebanon, the persecuted Armenian, are where" the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest." The Persian worships a brighter Sun than that which rises on flowery Ispahan. The men of Burmah

*Mr. Evarts was, at the time of his death, in Charleston, South Carolina, having been for some time out of health.

and Siam wonder for ever at the grace which raised them from their native debasement. Our brother felt himself a debtor to the Jew and the Greek; he sees them both there; and a sweeter savor to God than that "o'er Ceylon's isle,"is he by whose efforts, in part, salvation has been flowing forth to the Tamil people. The old Nestorian church has brought forth fruit in old age, some of which is gathered unto eternal life. The Chinese sees his wall of separation exchanged for a wall within' which he walks with "the nations of them that are saved." To look on such a sight for one hour, is an ample recompense for the toil and suffering by which that glory and bliss have been prepared. What, then, must eternity in heaven be!

When I think that he has seen our King, and "the meat of his table, and the attendance of his ministers and their apparel, and the ascent by which they go up to the presence of the Lord," there is no more spirit in me, not only at the thought of what he has seen, but of our nearness to it, and our sure inheritance with him, ere long, of that unutterable glory and joy!

Courage, then, ye dear, faithful missionaries of the cross; beloved fellow-laborers, everywhere, in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ; associates in the labors and cares of this work! One of our number has just been parted from us, and taken up into heaven. We have followed him with our voices and tears of mingled sadness and love; we have followed him to heaven. Let us return, like the disciples, to our labor, and may I not add, "with great joy."

Just before the dreadful crisis on board the Atlantic, it is said that the passengers shook hands with each other; and thus they parted, for the terrible and solitary contest which every one of them was about to have for his life. As we separate here, first for the work of Christ, and then to meet in heaven, let us pledge our hearts and hands to one another, and to all the beloved missionaries round the globe, and to "all who, in every place, call on the name of the Lord Jesus, both theirs and ours." Let us feel that

we are all embarked in the same ship, with a common peril; that we must all be cast into the waves of death; that the world, and all that is therein, must be destroyed, and that our proper business is to save our own souls and the souls of others.

Welcome, then, toil and peril, for Christ's sake, and for the souls of men, for a little season. Farewell, for a little season, dear brother, and we will meet you where there is no more sea. "Precious in the sight of the Lord," and precious to his people has been thy death! Till, with our work finished, we are summoned home; till, with songs and everlasting joy upon our heads we, with the ransomed, come to Zion; till we meet and mingle with thee in the worship and the friendships, the recollections and the anticipations, of heaven, farewell, dear brother and friend, farewell!

PASTOR OF THE BRAINERD PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NEW YORK.

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WITHDRAWAL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT DEPRECATED.

And take not thy Holy Spirit from me.-PSALM LI., 11.

THIS was the prayer of David, after Nathan's reproof had awakened him to a sense of his great sin. He had lost communion with God. The grieved Spirit had in a measure departed from him, and he feared might be wholly withdrawn. That, it seemed to him, would be a terrible calamity-more terrible than all his predicted temporal chastisements. "If it must be so," the spirit of his prayer is, "let the child that is born unto me die, my prayers, and tears, and fastings for him availing not. Let evil, dimly shadowed forth by the prophet, be raised up against me out of mine own house. As to all earthly blessings, do with me as seemeth good in thy sight; but take not thy Holy Spirit from me."

Is not the prayer of the text, my brethren, appropriate to our case? Have not our sins provoked the Holy One of Israel? Has not the Spirit been in a measure grieved away from us; and may we not fear the more entire cessation of his gracious influences? I propose, then, to show, as we dwell on the text, wHY and How we should deprecate His withdrawal.

I. WHY should we deprecate the withdrawal of the Holy Spirit ? Generally, because he is the source of all spiritual life. Man, by nature, is "dead in trespasses and sins ;" and even as renewed, we are not "sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves." We are "born of the Spirit." By the Spirit we are "washed," "sanctified," "sealed," "led," " guided into all truth," "built ," "our infirmities are helped," we are "strengthened with might." We" live in the Spirit," we "walk in the Spirit," we "obey the truth through the Spirit," we "pray in the Holy Ghost." The Holy Spirit "dwelleth in us, "bears witness with our spirit," gives us "liberty," "sheds abroad in our hearts the love of God," is "the earnest of our inheritance." We are the "epistle of Christ, written with the Spirit,"

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