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

Ebe Late ileb. James 'Lahr.

On Sudsy morning there was a crowded contralti-
tin, st thia church, am it was understood the sermon
would have specie! referencia to the death of the
lemeehel Rector of the perish. The res4ing desk,
pulpit, and communion table were draped in bleak sloth,
over whieh were festoons of crepe; the fronts of the
galleries on either side and at the west end wereeowsred
in a similar meaner, and the hangings in front of the
chine tiweented the gams foner.al appearanee. In the
Corporation pew were—The Mayor (J. L. Hodges Rag)
alderman Halpin, Councillor J Itisho.. 0. J. G.
Gregory, F. Bennett, and W. slide, with the
Town Ckrk lee 8r to .odi, loo.), Or. Aldridge
was &leo pelmet. The rid sorts &Hen led the service.
Capt. Coomb. mu in sommend and 'here wan also
preseet--Lientroant Hodges, Hon. Assistant-Surgeon
&noon, Battalion Quarter•Maeter Newman, Sergeants
Cross, Durden, Bumsey and Cheering, 46 rank
and file, and the bend. As the oongregation
were assembling. Mr, Boyton Smith played
he Dead Merck in Sam/ mo.t effectively
on the org.n. The prayer. Wore reed by the Bev T.
A. Falkorr, curate. Toe hymns olnincenveng " (hippy,
cost, thy day• •r• ended," .nd "Bre' life is here oar
portion. were sting. Many of the oongregation were
in mourning.
h. Bev. T. A. Perinatal preached the sermon.
eelecting. for his teat lieeleonsates id. 7, Th,42 shall
the duet return to the earth vs It Wad, sad the spirit
shall return unto God Who gave it.. . . . .

How 'rely do the-e solerna-wor is harmoaise with the
aspeet of tie &larch in 'shish wg are assembled, and
with the thought which is, doubtless, predominant in
the mind of risch ono of a.; the thought. I say, and the
sorrowful regard end love and remollsoi.ion of one who
55i0 lately amongst a-, but whom *a sball see again
no more for ever in this world. These feelinr are
uppermost in our minds at this moment And is there
obi me in the? This chureh.ew doubt, ial3aVa.hoom, dedi-
(mud to His worship, where He ought to be ninnies, and
whose', ewer/thing of this world that cannot be blended
with the thought of HUD 011g,i to be rigidly eselude I.
Butt. declared (Matthew 9,13) that' He will have
mercy end not sserillos." Ho does not bast upon a
harsh and rigid service. Nay, rather, He looks with
intalgence and favour upon the nttural mitten's which
Ile Himself has implanted in the breuta of us mortal
creatures of His hand. on I grads..s them not, if only He
Himself is not left out ; If only three feelings help really
to lead to Hint

When that group of mourners stood by the grave of
Lazarus, may be, that, in ',riot propriety, their hearts
•n 4 thoughts ought to have been so fu'l of the Saviour,
Who was among them, as to leave no room for the dead
whom they had lately buried. But no such hardness, no
inieh envy oi jealousy, bad place in Him ;He was too
full of tenderne.e. Tnough they were in Hie presence,
tliou.h li. had the first and paramount claim on their
thought., yet Ile suffered them to he pre•occiipied with
their own sorrow, and grudged it not, nor blamed, if
only at Luit it might Iced them all the m ire truly and
eff.ctuslly to Him.
And so, I make bold to sty, it Is now. He is in the
midst of this onnsregation of mourners now, as He was
ne that grave 1800 years ago; and He envies not that
our thoughts should for a while be fall of the sorrows
of this world, and the regrets of human friendship, if
only at hut it has the blessed effect of making him
reign in our hearts more supremely than before.
This ought to be the re-suit of all our meetings
together Us this place and bow mush more then of such
a solemn meeting as this. And this, lam sure, would
have been the heart's desire of him whom we ars cow
lamenting. Touched and gratified as be would have
been by our tribute of respect and offection to himself,
he would have been pained and shocked could be have
thought that that was all ; that our lerlinp went no
further than himself • and he would have cried out from
the very bottom of hi. soul, "Nape bat Christ, non.
but Christ."

8o thee, my brethren, if you have any farrow for
him, say loving regard for his memory, I beseech you
to give the truest proof of it, by doing that which if he
could speak out of hi, pave, he would still persuade you
to do; to be led seriously, solemnly, effectually, now,
to that Saviour of the world, whom, too late eerbspe,
you will be compelled to thick of, whin your last hoer,
too, shall coma
If you here any sorrow for him." It seems like an
unkind doubt, for I am sure you have; we all have.
Why inoull I aggravate that sorrow by attempting to
rei trent the sad events of the lest few months? bow the
first note of alarm we. sounded by his miser. with
hresthlemiess on that Saudis' evening In this 'err
pulpit ; bow, on mediml advice being called in. he wed
told thin kiwi. • dying mac—s solininannooneement
I, the midst of the 1.111(4. of life, and after what mislit
still seem to be only • slight end temporary ailment;
how, notwithstanding, and meet properly, for we
are bound to use every means for the preserve.
lion of that precious life which God hes
given us, bow the utmoet exertions were used, if
peradmatsre it might still plasm God to reverse the
sentence ; how it was all in ••in ; how the deadly
Comm °unto.), utterly unmans/m.lde by human skill;
bow at last, disesee of body produced disease of mind;
how, not wi thstend ing, amidst unconscious wanderings
and ravinp, he woali fancy himself to be engaged with
you in the public, worship of this church that he loved
so mach, and broken sentences of Scripture, or of the
services of the Church would be frequently beard from
his lips—a most cartels and ooeselstory indication, my
brethren, that hie heart bad Inltitually been in the
, right dirretion—uiw even soeh gleams of in,elligenoe as
them were mourded by the stupor of entire insensi.
bitty; and thus life slowly ebbed gamy, and he sank
filially into the slumber that knows no within.
And so, he,. gone. Never spin shall we meet his
pleasant smile and cheerful (sortie' /. It is sli so
sudden, so unexpected, 'het it is diffloult to believe It
real ; and it almost seems as if, in turning a corner of
the street, we might still edeounter oee with whom
this plea is so identified. Ales, it is not so, to far
as this life is contented, he is perished for ever (Job ex.
7,8, 9.); "They which have seen him shall say where
is he?" lieus fled away "as a dream, and shall not
be found; yea, he" is " clissed awey as a vinpn of the
night. The eye also which saw him shall see tim so
more; neither shall his plain any more behold
But though he himself has vsnished from our eight,
his nursery is not gin., nor is likely to go. I allude
not now so much to the public institutions of the town,
if we may mention from this place, for insignias, mob
APPerecitll sectibu things as the Infante' School, and
the Pearly Bank, both of which owed their origin
exclusively to bias, by which he conferred very great
benefits npoe his poorer fellow-townsmen, and with
which ht. name will always be aseociated. In thou and
similar instances he %wifely occupied • positioc which
hi.sseseeeer, whoever ha may be, will find It not an
easy task to fill.

I dwell not, however, [MOO each things as these, nor,
again, is this eernion intends,' u an indiscriminate
eulogy upon hie worth, or as a critical estimate of hie
merit. and de-merits as a public chareater, or as a
minister of Christ. This is not the place or osossioa,
and least of all ern I the person, for such an attempt.
"Who art thou that indsest soother mates servant?
to hie own muter he sundeth or fallath" Mow ii. 4):
To pronoun.. praise which shall be perfectly diserimin.
Ms siol Jost, requires the knowledge of the Otanissient;
and the adequate apportioomut of it mast be reserved
for that day when " every man" shall "hey. praise of
God* (L Oar. iv. 5). And as for shorten s, if such
there were, who would wish, or venture without
moon or oosasioa, to dwell upon 'them? I trust, ray
breams, that we are sash no. of us so Ailed with
soosaioasous of our d»plorslsis !salts and shortoorroOlre
IS GA's sLrbt, as toreador is mi. most *Mal of all
bah to hits to utisoadvegi epos the faalts of mother.