Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1869-03-19
Hymn ESQ, of the Additional Hymns.
{ Published by request Of the Vestyy.]

In the last twenty-five years, have in my
official capacity, made occasional visits to this
church, but, with one exception, they have al
ways been on joyous occasions; to meet with
my brethren Of the clergy, and to hold social
intercourse with them, and with them to unite
in ministering to you the word Of life. These
visits l have in years past often, in thought
lightful christian intercourse have here enjoy
ed and have always carried away with me
the feeling that these associations had been to
me and my clerical brethren, and to the pious
among you, seasons of holy JOY and spiritual
frefreshment This chrSs<l,hasn4
been associated in my thoughts with pleasant
memories Alas it will not be so in the flu
tqre. How changed is the aspect Of all l see
| to-day. This chancel, how lonely and desert
ed does it seem to my eye in the absence OF thai
venerable and familiar form. That dwelling,
once so bright and cheerful the scenery around
the face of this congregation-on every OBJ
iect, to my eye now, are thrown the shadows
of the tomb. And this change does indeed
chime in with the feelings at my heart. came
here to-day to weep with them that weep. NC
ordinary event has brought us together. Death
has sped his arrow, and Israel is now in mourn
! ing for one of her chiefs. No common man
has fallen. He was known and h0nored, far
and wide, for his long and faithful and effici-
ent services in the church of Maryland. He
had outlived all but one who were at work in
| the ministry of this Diocese when he commenc-
ed his labors. He came among you in the vigor
of his first manhood; and the force ana energy
of character which he threw into his work soon
tspread his name. It was from the lips of school
boys, echoing the praises of older lips, that his
name was first made known to me. was then
pupil at Charlotte Hall. The church in this
country had not recovered from the GOODNESS
and practical infidelity into which she had been
thrown by our revolutionary struggle. Her
affairs, with exceptions few and far apart, were
tended by ministers who seemed to think the
card table and the race turf no way inconsis-
tent with their holy calling. The Oldest broth
er of our venerable friend, returning from a
Virginia Convention and in allusion to the
state of the church in that Diocese, responding
ly exclaimed, "All is lost" The same apathy
and Indifference, in spiritual things, rested like
an incubus on the piety and energies OF the
church in Maryland. In this state OF things
our pulpits gave FORTH it may be, no uncertain
sound, but it had not the genuine ring of the
Gospel. The fundamental truths of christian.
ity were not, it may be, imprisoned in the Ii.
braries of ministers but for any good purpose
they served, they had almost as well have been
for when the pulpit keeps back these truths
the people will stop reading their Bibles and
their prayer books-or, if they read at all, It'll
without understanding and profit. Such was
the state of things. when our brother put or
the Gospel harness, and went to battle for hi
Master. In the first part of his ministry hi!
zeal spent itself in proclaiming the peculiar
truths of the Gospel-the holiness of God, ant
the exceeding sinfulness Of sin-the depravity
of man-the necessity of new heart-justifi
cation by faith only, and watching unto prayer
for grace and strength to walk in the holy foot
steps of the great Exemplar. These were thu
things, as you all so well know, with which
the pulpits of this parish have from your ear
liest memory resounded from Sabbath to Sab
bath. In his zeal for these great truths HI
may in his early ministry have moderated thu
externals of christianity; but, in his latel
years, while none the less urgent in the en-
forcement of Evangelical truth, he was more
observant of what is rightly due to christianity
in it's outward forms. For forty-seven years
he has faithfully and laboriously cultivated this
vineyard, with almost the same burning yea
and energy in his last years that shone sc
brightly in his early ministry. God had bless
nature, and his zeal carried him into labors
more onerous than even his sturdy frame could
endure; holding services and preaching thrice
on the same day. and riding twenty-five OF
thirty miles. This was his routine of Sabbath
labors through many years. And yet he has
been spared to good old age; and now, in
his seventy-fifth year, he has honorably and
noblv fallen with his harness on. The very
day on which he was seized with his last sick
ness he read the service and preached twice,
administered the Holy Communion and rode
twenty miles. "Well done, good and faithful
servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. y
| To his persevering zeal and pious iberallty
this beautiful temple will be an enduring mon