The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1870-05-10 00:00:00

ewes if there should be' legltimeta
P. Happily, there is no nu&l ,eiit hers.
" No further seek bis merits to dlecloso.
Or draw his traitries front their hut .b 06.
• When they Mike in trembling 1191,0
lii ____•,,Pre.
The bov en of Father 1.0 C.•
both spoken of, and it
He who Is gone "HI" ne'.4" have
but my object is
has fallen to my hit te 1, ;wen, to ma, an
so has been, not, as it de„ta, god pro-
idol of him, W set him on a Pe
amines a fulsome and onmeaning- en one over him ;
bet rather to commend him to
top your 6r
Motioas se a ; sal by means . thelt"al re
onatatai°l.
further on in that
feel-
ings lead you, •if ins. be. one s
nonia have
heiteenwar posh in which be bi tr
vrihed you led. tears shed be
Amoy, I know, and heartfelt, were the, ,
em sure
that ah sno a
~ (allows bon to hie ..... ;a
many a
that patine grief and sorrow C1,.611. heart
of
one here present. These. of weer. are
_rna_ltara___
peescnial feeling and intimacy, and ny_e°M,ernefaansaae
he was less kimers thee by others. Hitt f
thee theinseltriss best know who they itS, his memory
▪ ho dear. Ths grey.. gives an alsa Upsetne.ol
thins., and is • great solemnis t
es ) and hi
311.
were perhaps not much notioed llre. aro tlia I
of and tremared afterwards
Awl if there are amongst as, even now, linl !hoes
hearts are touohel et the readleotion of their kindly
interwar.e with him who is gone; any whom
by
en.leav 'or-"l to helm either by sesotten .4 or b•
- in b.half of the so
ir welfare il their
exertions
scheme. of life or by the kind sod •rninatbisiog wort
in tiroes of Mutton, or by f dthfol re,woof and ex ...rte.
tion ; if there are any hers whom he in private earomtfy
remonstrated with on their wicked course of We, whom
he AvOtieleffelf ifeffeated tO remember their Creator
in the days of their youth and their health and atreagth.
and to honour their G,ad aNd 8....i0ta by econiog more
frequently to His house and to His table; if their are
any who recollect suoh words as them, and •hoie eon-
stemma smites them that they took no heel, and who
now sorrowfully retest that they shell never heat the
sottod tiis voice ti.st is gone any to ire ;if there ere
any snob, let me earnestly implore them to pay him a
more thoepteble tribute of regard and sorrow than
mere sighs and leers; le them be perenaded at last to
follow his neglect!.l exhortations, mid if hey corned a
deaf ear. to him in fife. to listen to the votee which
speaks to them from thot dust to which he hair-aeons...l,
" earth to caret), ashes to ashes, dust to dust."
Well do I roe illert the sermon that he preached from
this oleos ten years two. and [they of you, my brethren,
probably reoollert it also, on the sudden and ,
untimely death of Prices Albert, salea you well know, ,
he addo seal you frequently on euott subjects. And :
only at the ohm of last year he prescimi about it tutot
solemnly, rneotioning, among other things, the number
of his fellow-clergyman in this diocese who had died
during that year. and dwelling upon the extreme pie-
cariousness of homes life, end human plans and
provaate Hew strikingly his words are now enforced
by his own instance In • moment, as it were, be has
shooed away from the ray with which we would fain
have held him ; vanish d irresoverably out of our eight
with something of tbe hopeless sudden'se with which a
man sinks into the sea, and disappears.
IMD say without exaggeration, that of all the Mame
experiences whiab I have had of death, and they have
been many, othing has so profoundly impressed m•
with the Nadine of the changeableness and mortality
and littlems of 'this Me. Witness the appetrancie of
this church, this universal gathering together of those
who loved or respected him in lire; the authoritieg of his
town ; those fellow comrades°, the Volunteer Bide CorPli.
whom he used xi effectively to eddress ; a very whinn
and unusual penitent for tab plain. To make It sompiew,
it wants but him to preach to yon, as was his wont; but
ha cannot, for the owesson Is his own funeral. His vo‘tie
silent, and another, for the moment occupies his
place. One &Sten sod the other left. Who would have
ventured to anticipate, or even imagine all this only a
few short Months ago? Thee, with as little apparent
likelihood of death se any one of ad here present, full of
Ids, hope, eheerfulnees, energy, schemes and plans for
the future, .pd rightly so. for God ordains no to play
an wire pert in this world ; now, all rudely and pre-
maturely broken off in • moment. abrupt and unfinished,
he sleeps "In the dust of the earth," (Daniel 12 2.) " a
peristual sleep" from which he shah "not awake"
(Jeremiah 51 57.) "His breath goeth forth, he returneth
to his e.rth ; in thee very day his thoughts perish ;
(P-aim 146 4.) "Be, man Beth down, and risetb not:
till the heavens be no more, they shell not awake, Doi
he relent out of their sleep," (Job 14 12.)
Such topics as these, as we well remember, housed to
urge upon its with great fires and impregaiveness ; but
now he appeals to us with an eloquent,e that belongs to
no living tongue. Being dead, tie yet speaks. That
sodden grave in yonder cemetery speaks to us with
power whi h none —3o at least let as hope—can alto-
gether resist. lilt, words, while in life, were perhaps
regarded by some as the mere isontinooplaries of the
pulpit ; but let at last his premature Mid usexpeoted
death have for us some Iterioulinese and reality.
It is wise to maim the most of this worm while we
are in It ; to work In it, to make our livelihood or our
fortunes jolt. as the case may be. and to enjoy, as God
wool-1 have us enjoy, the blessing, and happi-
ness which be sends us. Thee are the insolei
of rear on ...I common sense; and the came of religion
never rely gains by common ssnse and beans
Mooted. It is save and reasonable, in the just sense of
,he live for this world while we ale in it, to
make the most of It, and enjoy it. But while the
preacher mak., this' nonesssion to reascio, let the
children of this worll make theirs also. To all reason-
ablenes., let the calm dispassionate survey of replan
be extended over • elder field of view.
Surely, as Christians, not to my even as philosophers,
we believe that man has a nobler ant tarter mode
of ithistenos than this preseot ose ; that his destiny
reaches on to an unending life after this present
short troubled Ills (doom In ilea:news Is it wise then.
is it worthy rd reasonable beings, and of the manhood
and intellect on which we pride ourselves, is it wise to
stele all them vast sod we may truly call them times.
dons ioreie•ts upon tbe precaricrue chasm. •od en)
meets of this present ono...tido life? Huse uncertain,
toil solemn occasion which brines us together, loudly
, proclaim. to QS. No. it is not wise' and lam sure, toy
, brethren, that the conwienee of each one of on at this
moment clearly tells en that it is not. •
And the tiewiedon of it to still further en? oro el by
the., other words of the text, "The -pint shall return
, sato God who gays it," or. as we may amplify the
phrase by the worts of the New Testament, •• We Meat
all appear before the judgment mato? Christ, that every
'one ney redeye the things dons in his body amordiog
, to that be bath done, whether it be good or bad (2 ,
Covinthiens v., 10, gooledastes xii., 14) That immortal
I spirit, which 0.4 originally created in His own likeness,
, and upon which he looked with complacency because
, it reflected His image, who is the sr.olllll and sum of ell
beauty and perfeetioo -for there is a divinity about
• man's nature (J•tnes iii., 9. 2 Peter I. 4,) that spirit,
, which, corrupt end imperfect as it is in its present
state, has been redeeme I by the blood of Christ, and
destined to more even then its original beauty and glory
and perfection, that spirit shell return unto the God
, who gave it, when the pool frail dust returns to the
earth es it was.
; But tow shall it return Shall It return, s tamed
, ruinously irrecoverably stained with all the vices and
impurities and unworthy and degrading thonghta and
, habits which it has contr.oted in this transitory life
booth.e we have mistaken our happiness, and lived with
. the blind devotioa to sense of mere animals, instead of
, the godlike faith and reason which alone are worthy M
us? Shall it return Arm to the God oho gave it t
, May that slum God Himself, of flu. infinite merely.
, forbid and prevent. May Ilia Blamed Spirit cause that
this most striking instates of frail mortality shall not
; ,fade away from our recollections, but that from this
„ time we may have the wisdom and the gram to lead
, oar lives with 'stereo°e to that distant, it may be, but
; °emir lime, when (Den. ail 2.) "They that sleep in
the dart of the earth shall awake; some to everlasting
life, and some to everlasting shame and weiteropt."
" I am tb• Resurrection and the Life," mith the
, Lord ; (John xL $6,2&) "he that balieveth in Me,
ihouh he were deed, yet shell he live' and whosoever
ling sad belleviat In Ms shall never die."