The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-10-27

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OF Gods command sounded above all other
voices and silenced them. When the sea is agi
tated with storms, the winds and the waves make
a great tumult, but when the voice of the thun
der comes rolling across the storm, then all the
din of the waves is hushed by that miobtier
voice In such an attitude of unquestioning
obedience he held himself. mine eve seetb
thee !! Speak, Lord, thy servant hearethl'
Those that he planted in the house of the
Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.
Their leaf shall not wither, their fruit shall hot
fail In DR.. Plumers history we have beauti
full exemplifcation of an old age hallowed bv
plous activity and usefulness to the end
+, Let us adore the goodness of God in sparing
him so long-in giving him so rich an experi9
ence of the power of divine grace to strengthen
Tor duty and to cheer in adversity-in permit
ting him to see during his own life the wonder
full progress of Christs kingdom in the world
Instead of being snatched away with his plans
| yet immature, and his hopes and aims unattained
he was spared until he had filled up the mea-
sure OF symmetrical life full of useful labors
and crowned with abundant honors.
| Age had cast its frost upon his head but had
not chilled the warmth of his heart Time had
furrowed his brow, but the eyes dimmed with
so many tears never lost their light nor had the
chastened spirit which beamed through them
| ever lost its love.
He was often heard to say that when the
parting hour came if his physical sufferings
should be extreme, he trusted he might not muir
muir under them; that nothing should tempt
MIN to selt-rlghteousness or to despair; that he
might then be filled with supporting and victo-
rlous grace, and that he might obtain one
glimpse OF the heavenly glory before his depar-
ture from earth. God graciously fulfilled these
desires. AT times his physical pains were al
most intolerable but in the midst of his greatest
anguish he would say: 4" 1t is all right Not
my will, but thine be done"-"One night in
the bosom of Jesus is worth all this" BY de-
/ CYrnac thn
death stepped noiselessly into his chamber and
his heart grew still with the touch of an angel
of mercy. To him death was indeed translation
He did not cease to live, but only ceased to live
here. He ceased to walk with God on earth
only that he might walk with him in heaven
lie ceased to serve God in his church below that
he might enter upon the nObler services of the
upper sanctuary.
We cannot say of such man that he is gone.
He lives in his descendants whom he MIGHT
have addressed, in the parting hour, in the words
OF the old patriarch: Behold 1 die but God
shall be with you" What more could he wish
for them than the guidance, the protection and
blessing OF the angel of the covenant He lives
In the truths he preached and in the examples
OF his long and laborious life. He lives in the
writings which have fortified the faith and COM |
forted the sorrows of countless readers He lives
In the labors of more than FIVE hundred young
ministers who were his pupils in the Theological
Semlnarles IN which he taught, and who are now |
scattered all over the world-some of them in
these States, some among the Indian tribes of
the West IN Brazil, SIAM Japan, India and
China. He lives in the souls of those converted
by these varied instrumentalites "They that
be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firm
ament, and they that turn many to righteousness
as the stars forever and ever"
do not wonder that he desired only joyful
and triumphant hymns to be sung at his fu-
neral. In the last letter he ever wrote me. af
ter speaking of some perplexities and trials then
casting their shadows on his path, he added a
postscript, and the postscript was this: Hal
lel1ia the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth !"
Precious IN the sight of the Lord is the death
of his saints. Precious, also in the SIGHT of the
Lord is the dust of his saints.
Farewell, then, to these mortal remains
Peaceful shall be their slumber, and sure and
certain their resurrection from the tomb. for the
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a
shout, with voice of the archangel and the
trump OF God, and then shall we who are alive
and remain be caught up together with them to
meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we he
forever with one another and with the Lord
! 30, as we make ready to take up this pre-
clous dust and bear it to the grave, through our
very tears, hope looks beyond the bounds of
time and sees the morning of the day which
shall have respondent noon, but no evening
and no night; in the midst of our grief we rejoice
that the ties which bind us to those who die in
the Lord are not severed by the stroke of death
but that these hallowed Friendships, cemented
by the love of Christ shall have a resurrection
beyond the grave, and spring up and flourish
beautiful and immortal in the paradise of God
and so we may sing, though it be with voices
made tremulous by many commingled emotions
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to
the Holy Ghost as it was in the beginning. is
now, and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen
Remarks of DR.. Curry.
Rev. DR.. ]. L. M. Curry also addressed the con.
gregatlon. He said that the Presbyterian Church
sits to-day as the chief public Inourner at the
funeral of this man of God When this tempo
raj affection shall have passed away when the
differences OF creed shall be oblterated we shall
rejoice IN common Saviour and a common Fa-
ther and after the songs of the Harvest Home
1T will be found that these eminent servants of
the Master, though gathering their sheaves in
different parts of the field it will be all for the
same cause. He then spoke of Dr. Plumer as a
great man physically, mentally, and morally.
once the speaker saw Daniel Webster in an as
sembly OF thirty thousand people. His special
admirers were wont to call him god-likeLtbat
he was representative of Natures nobility.
Truly 1T was so prominently with DR.. Plumer
with his stately step, eagle eye, massive brow
erect stature graceful carriage, snowy locks, and
flowing beard
He did not remind him of Moses. but he al.
ways associated him with Abraham. The bea.
then would have worshipped him and deifed