The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1881-02-08 00:00:00

FUNERAL OF A TRADESMAN.

On Saturday last the remains of our much respected
tradesman, Mr. R. Brown, watch and clockonskpf,
whose death was reported in our last, were interred
the Swanage Cemetery. Toe body was borne to
pie
grave by six teachers of the Sunday School, of w ch
the deceased wss the beloved superintendent for
upwards of four years. The senior scholars walked in
frsnt. The chief mourners were the father of the
deceased, and his eldest sun, brother, and brother-in-
law, G. Burt, Esq., ex-Sheriff of Loudon. The shops
along the route were partly closed. The body having
been laid into its last ratting plane, the hymn, of which
each verse CilMell with the refrain,
. -

" There is sweet rest in Heaven,"
was sung. On Sunday the Rector, the Rev. D.
Travers, alluded the sad loss which the family and the
town had sustained by the death of deceased.

FunSIAL SWION.

On Sunday morning • funeral sermon was preached in
the Congregetional Church by the Psalm, the Rev. Thomas
R. Steer, from the text, "Not my will, but Thine be done."
Luke, zed. 42 The preacher first directed the thoughts
of his congregation to the Lord Jeans °mist as the man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief, the token of •
11 ly Father seynapethy with the grief which wounds
human hearts because of sin. The place called Gethsemane
was the scans of • struggle and • triumph, by which the
deliverance of human souls from sin and sorrow wee
assured. We are taught, said the speaker, that Christ
acquired by his obedience the power to comfort sorrowing
hearts, and assist struggling souls, until for the sorrowful
there shall be no more pain, and such as struggle towards
light and holiness shall triumph over sin, and be restored
to the liberty of wads at one with God.
With such thoughts in their minds, he bide his hearers
stand beside the aaaaa in which they had deposited the
remains of the friend who had been called trona their
midst, and while their hearts were awed and sadly dis-
turbed, perhaps rebellion', at the mysterious and hard
blow which had deprived • wife of her support, • young
family of a father's guidance, a weak church of • strong
arm, and the Sunday Scho 4 of its trusted bead, they must
remember that he who had been nailed home, was asleep
in Jsaus, whom he had simply loved and trusted, whose
preciousness he bad realised in suffering, and would yet
more fully realise in his soul's resting-place. Though,
therefore, the blow was severe, though he had been when
when they could, apparently, boat spare him, would most
miss him, though the blank in home, church, and school,
was wide and dark, yet they most not stand by the newly-
made grave in t error or distrust, 'I he light of the resurrection
life beamed into the darkness, for the Prince of Life had
called him house. Re had departed to be with Jesus.
Faith had • resting-place in the revelation of God's love,
in the protons", all of them, yea and amen in Christ Jesus,
given to re-sssure and sustain humanity in the suffering
and sorrow, which for awhile must needs be. Lit the
revelation or the life beyond the grave, the heavenly home,
the glory awaiting the redeemed children of God—let them
truths guide their thoughts, strengthen their trust, and
perfect their submission. remembering that, while they
recorded a lose in family and church histories, the annals
of redemption recorded another victory over sin and death.
Gazing by faith lot ) the eternal morrow, following the
brief to-day, they would be assured that God, who knew
the end from the beginning and was shaping their desti-
nies, had, at the right moment, led His &lid from this
world into the next.
Applying the event to their own circumstances and
needs, the preacher urged the remaining members of church
and congregation to renewed faith and devotion, so that
the blanks left by death might be filled up. They were
called upon to lift up, a. with one voice, the cry " Let Thy
Kingdom coma, and Thy will be done in uses • church
and people."
Prot eased Christians should be led by such &dispensation
hi serious examination as tithe character ot the disciple-
ship. Was it such that it the call had come to them
instead of their brother they would have left behind
evidences of faithful 'Greta, foe their Lord, so that
mourners by the grave-side would aye heard • voice from
saying of them "From henceforth, blamed are the
dead which die in the Lord; even so saith the Spirit, for
they rest from their labours."
Turnips to the scholars of the Sunday School, who had
indeed lost a friend, the preacher referred to his unable
character and patient disposition, the admirable qualities
in their Superintendent, whom kindly void wee stilled,
and whom genial presence would smile no more on
teacher or scholar. He had ardently loved his work—his
soul was in it, and rrrrr ly did he yawn for signs of spiritual
bleodhg. His ministry of love had been blessed to some
of them, who would revere his memory, as of the friend
who had led them to the Saviour. Let him, being dead,
yet speak. Let them recall his admonitions and invite-
time Let hie desth be an influence leading more of them
to the Corist so precious to himself, and whose precious-
nem he had so lovingly desired them to share.
To old and young there had COOlll again the voice of
counsel and warning, bidding them prepare to inset their
God. Every death was • reminder that they were left
but for awhile. Soon would death enter another home.
Soon another grave be dug. A few more fleeting years,
and this world would retain but fading memories of their
lives. But the meaning of life, yea, life itself would
remain. Red they discovered that meaning, the blessed
messing revealed by Christ of • resurrection from the
death of sin into • life of holiness, robbing death of terror,
and bringing him but as the messenger to open the
portals of the immortal life, painless and holy. Or was the
grave all dark to some of them, because the vision of the
glory was unseen, and the truth of Salvation from sin was
huts powerless dogma instead of • quickening reality.
Oh I let them turn their faces Godward, with a faith ready
to receive, and assuredly there woukt be given to them
such a revelation of God's loving will as should enable
them to understand the preciousness of Christ to a believer's
souL
So then their prayer to the Gad of the living and the
living dead should be "Thy will be Dons.' The widow of
the fatherless they would commend to the loving and wise
will of the God of husband and father. For saints and
sinners left here for a space, they would so Pray. that
Gods renewing and perfecting will might be done in them,
and if it must needs be that storm and fire should rend
and burn, still let His will be done, so that sin might be
destroyed In them, and death come as, withal, a gracious
visitor to take them to their rest in the home of Christ,
the heaven of the Father God who loved them.

cal LDltileS 81.111101.

In the afternoon a Wickens serrioe was held in the
Schoolroom. and attended by many of the friends of the
scholars. Snort address were given by several of the
teachers and the pastor. The earneet demeanour of the
children generally. and the visible emotion of some of the
senior scholars evidenced the esteem in which the late
superintendent had been held. and the deep impression
made by his death.

PaATIM MERINO.

A numerously attended prayer meeting, held alter the
evening vervice, also betokened the prevailing Ireslialircif
sadnesssod solemnity with which the death ii
of one whose memory is respected, and whoa* is
deplored hy all who knew him,