Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1850-03-30
ELOQUENCE OF mr.. CHALMERS.

iDe ioloWlDg description OF sermon Oh
the death of friend ard cNmpeer of DR.
Chalmers, is extracted from his memoir b,
Rev. VIM. Kenna. The illness of his frienC
had been contracted by his humane exertion
10 some shipwrecked sailors from threatened
destruction.
IA hum in the crowd, and melancholy
tolling of the bell announced the approach o
the preacher, who seated himself for minute
or two in an old elbow chair took the Psalm
book from little table before him, TUNED
hastily over few of the leaves, and ther
rose in the most awkward and even heples:
manner. Before he read the lines which
were TO be sung, his large and apparently
leaden eyes were turned towards the recent
grave, and witha lock wildly pathetic, fraught
with intense and ndescribable passion. The
psalm was read with no very promising elo-
cution; and while the whole mass of the
people were singing it, he sunk into the chair
turned, seemingly, into monumental statue
of the coldest stone, so deadly pale was his
! large broad face and forehead. The text was
read Deut. xxi. 90, Othat they were wise
that they understood this; that they would
consider their latter end -
"The doctrihal truth which he meant TO
| lncuIcate, being established OH the basis of
reasoning so firm that doubt could not move,
or sophistry shake it, he bounded at once the
structure which he had reared and by that
Unborn and unteachable power of the Spirit,
which nature has reserved for the chosen of
her sons, and which shakes on all the disad-
vantages and membranes of figure and voice
and language as easily as the steed shakes
| the thislle-down from his side, carried the
hearts and the passions of all who heard him
with irresistible and even tremendous SWAY.
at strikes me-" said the preacher-and as
The words were spoken there was a silence
among the living almost as deep as that which
reigned among the dead which lay beneath
1t strike me as the most impressive Of all
sentiments, that it will be all the same a hun
dred years after this. Ii is often uttered in
| the form of a proverb, and with the levity of
, 2 mind that is not aware of its importance.
"'A hundred years after this Good hea.
! >ns' with what speed and with what GER
''niy will those hundred years come 10 their
, tenination
: This day will draw to a close, and num-
. oehf days makes up one revolution of the
= seams. Year follows year, and number
: o' yWs makes upa century. These little
lnletds OF time accumulate and fill up that
%sa SPACE wheh aqbR75geaFs 81 TO the fancy so
f will co,e and they will see out the wreck of
? whole onera,ions. Every living thing that
ro,,. ,,,o.,s ~, ,r,, re of the earth will dis
, ~" IT, The infant that now hangs
'f MS n''oers bosom, will only live in ,hc
rememorace of his grandchildren ,he
< sce"e Vi '''fnd OF intelligence -.'a' 10 now
=. before me VI be changed INTO the dark and
e loathsome to,s of corruption The people
a who now hea'le will cease TO be spoken OF ;
their memory Ill perish from the face OF
e the country; thr flesh will be devoured by
:, worms; the darand creeping things that
q i've in the holes the earth will feed upon
q q their bodies; thecofiins will have moulder-
- ed away, and thei5enes be thrown up in
the newmade gray And is this the con-
If summation of all thgs? Is this the final
4 end and issue of ma Is this the up-sho,
v of his busy history?s there nothing be-
of yond time and the ave TO alleviate the
er gloomy picture, 10 cha away these dismal
n images! Must we slefor ever in the dust
III and bid an eternal adie'o the light of hea
ld Ven2
eSs' al have seem adds ounformant, many
Is Is scenes, and have heard nay eloquent men
~ but this have never seen ualled, or evel
"a "a initiated. 1t was not learni, it was not art
;r- it was the untaught and uninmbered iucan
is. taton of genius, the mighst engine {
M which the world can boast.'n