Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1825-09-15

sells ofmy late venerable friend, l owe,
under God, my preservation from ma
ny dangers to which l was exposed,
and the enjoyment of many sources OF
happiness of the existence Of which |
had possibly remained in ignorance.
But alas! as the youth rises to ma
turity, the hoary headed servant OF
Christ, who set his feet in 'the way OF
peace descends to the grave. Thus
was il with my venerable friend; he has
long since left a world of sorrows, and
entered those celestial regions. where
the visits of grief are unknown
Where many ofhis children in the faith
had gone before him, and where many
more of them are still travelling. Oh!
there is something calculated to give
us comfort under u present trials,
and to smooth our dying pillow at the
last, to think Of meeting in heaven with
these whom we loved and honoured on
earth. l often dwell on the thought
with pleasure bordering upon rapture,
that in that happy state shall meet
with some n who | trust, by my fee
bic instrumentality, were conducted
there; and that | shall see and enjoy
the company of those holy men, by
whose valuable labours l have profited,
and with whom.
I'D spend long eternity
In pleasure and i'll praise
As | had occasion a year or two ago,
to travel through the town where the
Wondering ashes of my friend repose
till the morning of the resurrection, |
resolved, ifpossible, to visit his grave;
and finding that the stage which was to
convey me to the place of my destina-
ton, would not start for two hours al
ter my arrival, | walked with feelings
ofmelancholy pleasure towards the spot
consecrated by the bodies of many OF
those whom God regards as his jewels,
over whose remains the Saviour watch
ed with peculiar care, and where a
thousand little hilerks remind the prs
senger of his mortality. l looked at
many tomb-stones, and read their va
rious expressed mementoes on the
shortness and uncertainty of life, and
thought Of hat after-state to which
both my reader and myself are rapidly
fastening, and in which we shall be
soon found happy or miserable forever.
While thus strolling about, almost
forgetting in the multitude of my re-
Aections the precise object l came to
seek, my eye caught the stone, on
which was inscribed a short memorial
of the virtues, the piety, and the use
fulness of my honest friend. Il am
glad l said TO myself, that this stone
is placed here to mark the spot where
his bones rest, but they need not, my
departed minister, have cut in stone
| the remembrance of thy virtues! 1t
had been enough that the monument
| should have marked the spot where
thou lest. 'Thy record is on high
on the pillars that shall exist in the
temple Of my God to eternity, showing
the honor which thy great Master put
upon thee, in allowing thee to conduct
many pilgrims to the celestial city.
What my feelings might have been,
had / been left to myself, know not,
but they suffered an interruption by the
appearance of an elderly female, with
whom / was totally unacquainted.-
| She walked several times round the
grave, and then laying her hand on the
stone, she placed her mead upon it and
wept. 'Have you. my good woman,' l
asked, 'lost a friend?' 'No SIR she re-
Piled, Il have not lost him, he has gone
before me, and hope to see him again
in the world of blessedness All! thou
dear saint she continued, looking on
the tomb, 'Ah! thou dear saint, thou
hast gone to heaven; thou has triumph
ed over all thy enemies-arrived at the
end of thy sufferings--hast finished
thy work-and gone to receive thy re-
ward 'And did you know asked,
sthe good man who lies here??' 'Know
him! yes Sir, 1 ula. ana 1 io'ea MIN,
and you would have loved him too, If
YOU had known him. That witness,
thought I, is true; it was impossible to
have known him without giving him
your esteem. 'How long did you know
him" Twenty years, sir, was he the
pastor and the friend of my family; FIVE
of my children have hailed his entrance
into the heavenly world, for they were
led by him to the throne of Cod
They have all been dead for several
years; he is now gone, and through
grace l hope to follow them all: But
it is hard work, sir, to part with friends
that we love, though they go to a bet
ter place; l always hoped that should
die first sIt matters %little,'I remark
ed, who among the crowd steps first
into the mansions of peace, since each
of the people of God shall occupy his
own place, and spend an eternity in the
presence Of his Father 'Ah, sir she