The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1882-05-03
ADDRESS

| aOOItIlJO
At the funeral services of DR.
Theodore Fl. studdiford, in the Pres
byterian Church, Lambertvlle, N. j.,
April IS, 1882, by Rev. w. D. Roberts.
| By the body of our departed friend
am called upon to lift my voice in words
appropriate to this sad occasion, and YET
no words, however delicate, judicious,
tender, can give utterance to the emotions
which, in this sacred presence, stir oui
breasts with the unanimity of common
unutterable grief Language is at best
the crudely inadequate veh icle of thought,
and lily enough does it perform its duty
But when thought is kindled to the glow
of deep emotion, language sinks into alb
ject helplessness, and soul speaks to SOU
by the finer spirit language of sympathy
We are gathered here rather to show by
the mute, yet eloquent speech of oui
presence and our tears, that we, as com.
munity, mourn with those who mourn.
Mourn with them the loss of friend and
benefactor. Mourn for them that they
are so deeply ehastened. Would that
your mouthpiece, the speaker, had the
| delicacy and wisdom to take the q conso-
lations of our Cod" and apply them as
the Balm of Giead to the crushed and
weeping hearts before him, with the
hope to say something which shall help
the Christian faith of these sufferers to
surnount the forces OF anguish which are
marshalled against them. To this end
would attract your attention to glorious
truth which this event so impressively
teaches. A truth, which rightly appro
priated, will enable us to overcome the
essential bitterness of the event itself
| refer to the apostle Paul's words to the
Christian church at Philippi: For oun
CITIZENSHIP Is IN HEAVEN. lPhilippi.
ans iii, part Goth verse) Notice first,
this is eery eUideHt:, That our citizensAiE
is not upon tie eITM. II there be such a
thing as citizenship, with all the abiding
stability which that word implies, 1t is
surely not here. Our scjoura is here, but
if our citizenship is, then that word is an
unsatisfying delusion and cruel mockery.
If our transitory stay upon the earth is
life, in the full sense in which God in
tended to bestow it, then His attempt at
life giving, in any true and high sense, is
failure, and the Infinite One, be assured,
makes no such failures. This vanishing
career upon the earth is not all the On
nipotent One has In store for those to
whom He has undertaken to give life.
Take single concrete illustration. Last
week stood in the doorway of large
mercantile house. There tottered out the
door the senior partner, with the shadow
of creeping death on every feature. His
life here is sinking to the western horizon
He is Fastening to the eternal beyond.
The little span of human existence which
SO often has vanished away, il vanishing
once again. The old, old story. Boy
hood, youth, aspiration, strength. stsug.
gle, achievement. Thirty or forty years
in business. Money made character
established reputation gained life work
accomplished ready to settle down and
enjoy it. But no going hence, and that
soon The habitation which dreamed it.
self house established on foundations
immutable, is only tent. The cords are
swapping. The canvas is rising from
the ground. Soon all shall have vanished
away, as the tent of the pilgrim Arab
from the face of the wind-swept trackless
Sahara. This dying merchant may be a
citizen somewhere. He surely is, since
within the tent Of every mans earthly
body there is an immortal soul But it is
surely not here. lie is only sojourner
here, as are we all, and as were our
fathers before US, and are not the facts
proving it so? / confess, that upon the
surface the busy activities by which we
are surrounded seem very much like life
citizenship and permanent abiding, as
from some serene height you gaze upon
some great metropolis, into the swarming
struggling multitudes absorbed in the
ceaseless activities of commercial strife.
But place your great bee hive of throb-
bling humanity in range with hundred
and eighty generations, which makes the
earth's crust one universal sepulchre, and
constitutes the past, as the future shall
be, ono universal dying day, and the busy
metropolis Is hushed into silence, and
death seems to prevail over ALL. The
fathers, where are they The statesmen,
scholars and soldiers, whose intense ac-
tivities and great achievements seemed
for the hour to battle that old tyrant,
Time. The great men whom Nation s
recent peril brought to the front, the
Chases, the Summers, the Lincolns, the
Burnsides aud the Garfields, who were
active upon the floor Of legislation, and
heroic upon the field Of battle, in that war
which was SO little time ago that its
heart wounds still are bleeding, where
are they {? They who planned, and
toiled, and struggled, when you and mid
dle-aged men of business were young
Where are they? The faces of the ma.
tured men of commerce and of the pro-
LESSONS ter years ago Where are they ?