The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-08-21


sion Of his intellectual and moral powers COM
menced his career Of progress in knowledge, use
funess, and blessedness; soaring higher and still
higher. nearer and yet nearer to God, the Centre
of spiritual attraction and aspiration.
"My friends, the event which has called us
here, though no uncommon one, since death is the
lot of men, is none the less trying to our feelings
it has made painful breach in our fraternal cir
cle The deceased was one Of the little band who
commenced the labors of the Institution, now
nearly eight years ago, during which time be has
taken an active part with us in our daily laoors,
in our nightly councils, In our social meals, and
in the reciprocity of kind Offices incident to our
intimate life but his weIl-kno voice is hushed
and we hear his footsteps in our halls no more
"Snce death is inevitable it is the part of wis
dom 30 to familiarze the subject to our thoughts,
that its approach shall not take us BY surprise or
cause as any alarm. To this end 1t is indispen-
sable that We acquire and cherish an enlightened
confidence in the projections Of God our Heavenly
Father. He holds our destiny in his hands, and
if he is good, We are safe If not no efforts OF ours
can make us so. Trust in the unlimited Power,
Wisdom, and Goodness of that Being who rules
the Universe, will prepare US to meet all the vi
cissitudes Of life, and death also, with composure
"But how shall We acquire this confdence2 God
has spread out for our investigation the great
volume Of nature, and He has given US the reVe-
lations Of the Gospel Let both be studied with
an ardent desire to know and practice truth and
righteousness: for obedience to the Divine laws
will expand, purify, and elevate our religious and
MORAL natures and in these natures, thus purified
and elevated, we find the highest type Of Divine
nature; for, man is the image Of God But vain
and worse than vain are all religious ceremonies
and all professions of love to God, unless coupled
with earnest efforts for the emancipation and ele
walton Of the human race. The man who loves
not his fellow man cannot love God Not more
surely does the law of gravitation, while binding
these sands to the earth unite them to each other
than does the same great law in its spiritual
ifestations, while raising the soul in highest and
hottest aspirations to God, the source and centre
of spiritual attraction bend man to man in the
strongest bands of frsternal love.
Do Attractions indeed correspond to desti-
MES OF this, | think, there can be no rational
'aouur anu this admitted, how plainsss 4 K
are the prophecies contained in the long aoknowl-
edged, though but little understood, laws Of at
traction; how clearly does it point to q glorious
and happy Immortality as our certain destiny!
"My friends, If you do not clearly perceive the
conclusiveness of this appeal to the deepest laws
of nature in proof of the immortal happiness Of
the human race, then turn your thoughts inward,
and note what are the most central desires, the
hungerings and thirstings-in plain, the attrac-
tions of your souls. Do they not seize, with the
utmost esgerness, the hopes of immortal bliss and
feast on thoughts of everlasting progression in
knowledge and usefulness and love the three
elements Of blissl IT, then, attractions correspond
to destinies, who can doubt to what goal we tend
II not-for what purpose does this great law Of
attraction pervade the UNIVERSE
"When our bosoms swell with these emotions,
how it dispels the gloom that hangs over the
grave And with what eagerness we seek to en-
body the emotions thus developed in our daily
life, establish humanitary institutions by which
the morality of the gospel be wrought into the
daily life and all the relations Of men now and
heren
At the close Of Mr. French's address, the
beautiful Christian Coronnch Of Bishop Heber
was sung by the whole assembly.
Thou gone the gravs-but will depore Ii
| Though sorrow and darkness encompass the tomb,
The Saviour has passed through its portals before thee
And the lamp Of ais ous Is thy guide through the gloom
rbou "a >-s,,s.
But the vide srms Of mercy spread sufod thee
And sinners may hOpe-for the snless has died
Thou art gone to the gavebut twere wrong to depor,
| thee,
When God was thy ransom, thy guardian and guide;
He thee and took thee and will thee
Where death hath sting since the Saviour hath died.
At the conclusion Of the hymn, Mr.. Scar,
thanked the friends present for performing the
last offices to the body of departed brother ant
associate, and remarked as follows:
"If our eyes were unsealed, II our spiritual
vision were unfolded, 80 that we could see the
continuous life Of the SOUL we should no longer
regard the dissolution of the body as an inter
ruption Of life, but only as link in the chain Of
being-the link of transition which unites one
phase Of life with another phase Of life.
awe have deemed it important, on this occasion
to introduce into our ceremonial Of burial, signi
cant symbols Of our life.
Ceremonial symbolism, on important occasions
has been 30 general might say so universal
that We conclude it springs from some great in.
ward fact of our nature" and hence has important
uses in our life
Obstructive war has hitherto been dominant
pursuits principal road to honors, to distinc-
tions to weslth-snd the psgeantry Of military
funerals has been most pompous. The chieftains
Of war, the great manslayers Of the world, have
had their bodies exposed in state and the nipple
ments of their trade have been most conspicuous
ly exhibited in their ceremonials of burial
ave recognise the force and significance of these
emblems but We also recognise the fact, that war
no longer holds the place in the public regard
that it once did. Within the lifetime of the
present active generation, public sentiment on
this subject has greatly changed and the world
is at this hour paying homsge,-public, ostensibls
homags-in the Crystal Palace to creative in
dustry.
"Clsiming, tn, - distinctive object OF ou'
! life, and pdpd X our institutions, to abolish
not merely the IL Of warSbpt the causes Of war
Of the public national "a nd the private an
tsgonisms among mcn-ciaiding to recognise the
worth and true dignity Of productive industry
and to institute the means Of life for ALL 1t il
fitting that In - osSeroni.ls Of our new order
Of society we shoul symboli1s the means Of life
rather than followthe custom of symboliri.s.she
means Of death, so prevalent, and so appropriate
in the old orde Of society,"
III have given this ceremonial In considerable
detail under o conviction that every word and