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BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME
FROM THE
SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND
THE GIFT OF
SHenyg SNL
.................-..............
3513-1VALEDLCTORY,
DELIVERED BY
MR. STANSBURY,
ON LEAVINGA
VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE,
DELIVERED BY
THE REV. ARTHUR J. STANSBURY,
AT
GRAHAM'S CHURCH,
IN THE
COUNTY OF ORANGE, AND STATE OF NEW-YORK;
ON SABBATH, THE 18TH OF AUGUST, 1816, ON RESIGNING THE
PASTORAL CHARGE OF THAT CHURCH.
PRINTED FOR THE USE OF THE CONGREGATION.
PRINTED BY GEORGE E. HOPKINS, NO. *72 "WILLXAM-STREET.
1816A VALEDICTORY DISCOURSE*
I CoRIN. XiH. 11.
THE assembly which I behold around me—the
circumstances under which we meet—the place
where 1 stand—all unite to call up a crowd of
emotions which it is difficult to express. I can
scarcely realize what I see and know. The hour
is indeed come; the ties which bound us are sun-
dered; I am your pastor, you are my dock, no
more. It seems but as yesterday when I entered
this pulpit for the first time, and now I fill it for the
last. The period of my ministry has passed, like
a watch in the night. It is gone : gone with those
irrecoverable ages which rolled away before the
Hood, and it has carried its record and its results
into the eternal world.
At such a moment it is impossible not to pause;
to turn back the retrospective eye; to ponder the
transient nature of human things; and to realize
that we have completed one of those measured
distances which mark our nearness to the grave.
We meet to-day, as we shall meet in the last and
^reat day of account Our connexion as pastor6
and people, is summed up and closed : neither of
us can alter the past, cad take one from the long
number of its sins, can add one righteous deed to
the scanty fist its limits have comprised. From
this pface, and this hour, we go to the bar; we
part, expecting our next meeting before angels and
the incarnate God. Suffer me, then, briefly to re-
view the period of our late relation, and glance at
the manner in which our respective duties have been
performed; and if, in doing this, it is indispensa-
ble that I speak of myself and of you, I hope you
will not charge me in the one case with egotism, or
suspect me in the other of personality.
It is now six years since you addressed to me
these words:—"We do hereby heartily invite, call,
and entreat you to undertake the office of Pastor
among us, and the charge of our souls."—Solemn
words ! Never can I forget how they thrilled every
fibre of my frame. They came, indeed, through
the lips of men, but I feft them to be the voice of
my God. It summoned me to the highest of human
honours ; but to the most responsible of human em-
ployments. It associated me with men of whom the
worfd was not worthy; but it was only to humble
me by the distance and the contrast. It called me
to minister in the immediate presence of God; but
it required me, first, to offer a living sacrifice. I
knew the splendid gift to be encompassed with
cares and dangers : but my heart loved it, my in-7
most auctions longed after it, [ assented to ail its
concomitants and consequences, and I received ac-
cordingly through the hands of the Presbytery,
met on this spot, the most awful trust that can be
committed to man. Brethren, my heart trembles
when I consider my choice : yet, if a man can know
any thing of what governs him, I think that my mo-
tives were upright and pure. From that day it be-
came my task to watch for your souls as one that
must give an account. I may truly say your souls
were very precious in my eyes. Often were they
brought in my arms, and spread out with strong
crying and tears before the throne of God^s mercy.
Many resolutions did I make of being a diligent and
faithful Pastor, I had no bye ends; I sought not
yours, but you: and I was filled with a cheering
hope of the success of my ministry. It was my
duty in the first place, to take heed to the doctrine
I delivered. I felt my obligation to declare the
whole counsel of God; and you will bear me wit-
ness, brethren, that in public and in private it has
been declared without disguise. I never told you
that you possessed by nature any goodness of heart,
any righteous dispositions, any thing that you could
cultivate or modify into holiness; but, on the con-
trary, have uniformly testified that you are univer-
sally and totally depraved; that the prominent cha-
racteristic of your fallen nature, its predominant
temper, is enmity against God. I never represent-
ed this your natural state as simply a misfortune,8
involving no guilt on your part; but, on the con-
trary, have always taught you that you are parties
to Adam's sin, and so tar from being in a probation-
ary state, are already in a state of complete and
righteous condemnation, so that nothing can save
you from heil but the direct interposition of God
himself Y ou have been continually warned of the
necessity of regeneration ; not such as may be had
at the baptismal font, but that which reaches and
transforms the inner man, and makes the blessed
subject of it a " new creature in Christ Jesus." I
called you to repent: but I never insinuated that
repentance has any efhcacy in atoning for the sin
over which it mourns: to the blood of Jesus alone,
even that blood which stained the accursed tree
when he laid down his life for his sheep; to this t
have directed your hope as having virtue to satisfy
the justice of God, and take away sin. You have
always heard from this pulpit that there is no
righteousness which can justify a sinner but that
which Christ wrought out by his own personal obe-
dience to the divine law; and that there is no way
in which this can ever be received and enjoyed but
through a lively faith, which Has God himself for its
author, the testimony of his word for its object/
and good works as its necessary and proper fruit.
Hence I have ever enforced the obligation of the
law as a rule of life, testifying that without holiness
no man shall see the Lord : yet I have taught you
after having done all to count yourselves unprohta-9
Me servants, and to ascribe any difference between
yourseives and the most prodigate of mankind
alone to sovereign, electing, preventing, efficacious
grace. I have warned you against self-deception;
against resting in the outward forms of Christianity
while destitute of its spirit; of trusting to doctrine
while neglecting duty, or resting in duty uncon-
nected with truth. These things I have endeavour-
ed to testify and to exhort, warning every man,
and teaching every man, that I might present every
man perfect in Christ Jesus. None can accuse me
of having used ambiguous language touching the
true and proper divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ,
or of having refused divine honours to the Holy
Spirit of God, or of having left any doubt as to the
eternity of hell's torments and heavenly joys.
With respect to the Sacraments, I have aimed at
being equalty explicit, and at conforming my prac-
tice to what I taught. I have always insisted that
persons claiming baptism for themselves or their
children, are bound to produce the very same evi-
dence of Christian character as when presenting
themselves candidates for the Lord's Supper : that
those who have a right to the one, have a right to
the other; and that all professing Christians are
bound by their own profession to observe both.
Baptism has therefore been refused to persons who
were not members of the church in full communion,
or who did not profess their present intention to be-
210
come such; to persons who, having had several
children baptized, still persisted in refusing to come
to the Lord's table; and, generally, to ali such as
were openly reprehensible in their life and conver-
sation. The Lord's Supper I have administered
regularly, and with as much frequency as the cir-
cumstances of the Congregation would permit.
To this holy feast all have been invited whom the
scriptures did not authorize me to exclude ^members
of good standing in our sister communions, as well
as in our own. I was warranted to invite them by
the standards of our Church; f was urged to do it
by my own solemn convictions of duty. I had no
authority from my Master to withhold his bread
and his wine from men who give the same visible
evidence of being his children as the members of
our own denomination give, namely, the profession
of the self same faith, accompanied by a walk and
conversation equally pure. And it is this day to
me a source of cordial satisfaction that I have borne
aloft a standard for that great scriptural truth, the
Church's unity, in opposition to a sectarian bigotry
that is cutting the sinews of the Church's strength,
and hewing the body of Christ limb from limb. I
hope in God that this spirit may die speedily, and
for ever; and I stand ready, and shall ever rejoice,
to help it to its end.
hi relation to Psalmody, though by no means sa-
tisfied of the exclusive claim of the book of Psalms11
to be used in the present praises of the Church;
and still less of that particular version of them
which has long been in use among us; I neverthe-
less so far conformed to the opinions and feelings of
good men among my people as to use no other, ei-
ther in my pulpit or my family: but when supplying
in other Congregations, 1 have without scruple em-
ployed the Psa!ms and Hymns ordinariiy used by
them ; always first satisfying myself that the portion
used contained no false doctrine. But there is an-
other part of my public duty in which some have
found their chief objection to my ministry, viz. the
occasional discourses which have been delivered on
days of national fast and thanksgiving. These
have been objected to as being of a political cast
On this objection I have three remarks to make.
In the first place, a minister of the gospel has at all
times a right to discuss in the pulpit such national
concerns as involve religion. His people have pub-
lic as well as private duties to perform, and may as
lawfully be instructed in the one as the other. But,
in the second place, on occasions such as those re-
ferred to, it is no longer left to his choice; it is a
plain, obvious, imperative duty. Is the nation call-
ed to fast for sin ? Why do you call your minister
into the pulpit on that day, or why do you your-
selves come into the church, if he is not to mention
the sins for which you mourn? The command to
him from the temple is, " Lift up thy voice, and
spare not: show to Jacob his transgression and to12
Israel his sin." What is he to do ? If called to
make his election between the frown of God and of
men, which shall he fear? But, in the third place,
I do not find that any of these objections are made
when the political sentiments of the preacher hap-
pen to coincide with those of his hearers. In that
case he may discuss politics as long as he pleases;
he may be as personal, and as rude, and as bitter
as he will, no man's ears are pained, no man's con-
science wounded. Brethren, the plain truth is,
that the heats and quarrels so often occasioned by
fast-day sermons are not excited by the minister's
preaching politics, but his preaching politics which
the people do not like to hear. It is, however,
freely granted, that these discussions should never
be introduced but when required by obvious neces-
sity ; that they should be conducted with temper
and dignity; and that all irritating language, all le-
vity and sarcasm, especially all personalities, should
be carefully avoided. By these principles I am will-
ing to be judged: if I have transgressed them, I
am to blame, and acknowledge my fault; if not, I
regard all the censure that has been heaped upon
me as the idle wind.
But I owed to you much more than the public ser-
vices of the sanctuary. All these I might have per-
formed, and yet remained a stranger in the midst of
my own dock; have had the tribute of your respect,
but no place in your heart. I was called of God13
not to be your teacher only. When the Lord as-
cended, he gave to his Church an order of men
who were to he pasto:s as well as teachers. He
put the sheep and the iambs under their care, and
commanded them to take the oversight of the dock.
The spirit of this command brought me to your
doors, cahed me to your fire-side, placed me by
your bed. The voice of one of his most distinguish-
ed servants had warned me that " the personal at-
tentions of a minister to his people admit of no sub-
stitute : that there is nothing which men resent more
promptly, forgive more reluctantly, or forget more
slowly, than neglect."^ I had just heard the elo-
quent lips of my preceptor declare that " the pre-
sence of a faithful pastor refreshes the sou! of la-
bour, and sweetens the crust of poverty; his voice
smoothes the bed of sickness, and mitigates the ri-
gours of death." The words were engraven indeli-
bly upon my heart, and every added year has but
deepened the impression. I came to you, therefore,
futly .impressed with the importance of this part of
my duty. But I soon perceived that it opened a
vast field of labour, and the prospect often forced
from me the cry of the Apostle, " Who is sufficient
for these things ?" Upon this all-essential but most
didicult department of ministerial emptoyment, I
entered with ditigence, and my conscience tells me,
laboured in it with a sincere desire for your good :
* See Dr. Mason's speech delivered before Presbytery on de*
mining his charge in 1810.14
but I am also conscious of many, very many short
comings, and I fear the result has proved that my
fond anticipations of usefulness were but the dream
of the morning, as false as it is fair. The sick t
have never refused to visit. I have approached
their bed when pestilence rendered it noisome, and
have caught their faint and dying words, when the
breath which uttered them threatened poison to my
own frame. I have risen at midnight when their
extremity has called me. In feuds and family dis-
putes I have aimed at becoming a peace-maker;
and, I thank my God, have been blessed in some
instances happily and completely to succeed. To
the youth of my charge I owed much. Myself
young, many of them might be called my com-
panions : I endeavoured to treat them as more, as
my brothers and my sisters; and some of them have
fully requited my love. To instruct this interest-
ing part of my flock in the doctrines and duties of
Christianity, 1 established a catechetical exercise,
which I sought to make as fruitful as I could to their
understanding, by various queries and illustrations
familiarly adapted to their capacities and progress :
and the success of these efforts has been one of the
most pleasing circumstances attending my ministry.
The Lord vouchsafed to me the exquisite satisfac-
tion of leading some affectionate pupils from the
catechism class to the communion table. The la-
bours were pleasant, the reward most sweet. I
have been charged with neglecting the smaller chit-35
dren. It is indeed true that these were not so much
attended to; because I have ever considered the
instiHing of the first fruits of religion into the minds
of very young children to be the province of the
parent, and not of the minister. The parent can
do it best; most easily, most effectually. The mo-
ther of such children should be their catechist: at
her knee the little child should be trained and fitted
for the hands of its pastor. Where this has been
done, my instructions were not above their capa-
city, but were calculated to carry them on to a more
extensive and thorough knowledge of scriptural
truth.
I have one subject of regret. My course of fa-
mily visitation has not been so frequent nor so re-
gular as I could wish it had. Some families who
live remote may consider themselves as having been
slighted; but I am unconscious of having wilfully
neglected any ; and I must, in justice, also say that
I have often been discouraged in the attempt by what
had at least the appearance of intentional absence.
On these occasions I have tried to be as honest and
explicit, and to deal as plainly with all, as my duty
demanded. This has rendered the task in some
cases heavy, and may have occasioned me the more
readily to postpone it, or to suffer the season insen-
sibly to elapse in which it ought to have been at-
tended to.16
I established a society for conference and pray-
er; but after it was begun the members gradually
shrunk from taking their part in it; the whole ex-
ercise at length devolved upon myself, and became,
in time, a regular evening lecture. I am happy,
however, that the original plan has since been re-
vived among yourselves, and is still continued with
mutual edification.
I have endeavoured constantly to cultivate a
friendly social intercourse with all my Hock, and to
promote to the utmost of my power, the same in-
tercourse between themselves. Some of my friends
have apprehended that I went too far in this en-
deavour; while others who call themselves my
friends have accused me of partiality; and a few
have called me proud. As to the first objection, I
am settled in the opinion that a minister cannot be
loo much among his people. He should know them
every one personally, and be known of them. " I
beseech you, brethren, says Christ's servant, to
know them which labour among you, and are over
you in the Lord, and admonish you." It is by per-
sonal intercourse alone that they can know them.
As to partiality, no charge is more easily made, or
in general more readily listened to. A thousand
principles of human nature unite their force in ren-
dering the members of a congregation alive to such
a suggestion. But, brethren, is it reasonable to
debar a Christian minister from that sweetest balm17
of life, personal friendship ? Because he is a pub-
lic person, does he cease to be a man, constructed
like other men ? And has any one of you fifty or a
hundred bosom friends ? No, it is not in your na-
ture. You all have your chosen intimates, you all
claim the right to choose them: why has not your
minister the same ? Yes, 1 have had my friend-
ships ; and the memory of them will be dear so long
as this heart continues to beat. Oceans may rolL
between—the grave may demand and may receive
its deposit—but neither distance of place, nor lapse
of time, nor revolutions of fortune, nor death, the
stern divider, can break the tie that grapples heart
to heart, where human affections have been conse-
crated by divine. Christian friendships are for
eternity. To those who call me proud, I answer,
my heart is indeed by nature a proud one: it rises
at the apprehension of purposed insult or injury; it
spurns the mean, the sordid,the deceitful man: but
it has been much tamed by suffering, and God
knows how to^ bring it into the,dust. There I would
place it, underneath my Saviour's feet; and, for his
sake, would lay it down at the feet of his people
also. And here, this day, if any of them have a
complaint to urge, if any have felt themsetves un-
kindly treated, slighted without cause, repulsed
when they ought to have been cherished, wounded
when they had done no wrong, I humbly entreat
them to pardon my infirmity.
318
And now, brethren, having briefly reviewed the
outline of my ministry among you, and thus looked
atone side of our mutual relation, I proceed in the
next place to consider the other.
And how can I remember, without a mixture of
various but tender emotions, the circumstances
which made this pulpit mine ? Can t ever forget
that, before I had been three months licensed, this
people, without one dissenting voice, determined
to put their best and dearest interests under my in-
spection and care ? that they prosecuted their pur-
pose with zeal, and voluntarily assumed a burden
of unusual expense and personal exertion to carry
it into effect ? While I remained in lodgings with
my family, which of you did not bring his free-will
offering to increase my comfort and theirs ? When
afterwards a spot was fixed on for my dwelling,
how much labour did you cheerfully undertake in
assisting to rear it ? ! mention these things not on
account of their intrinsic value, but as containing
the outward indication of that inward treasure, the
chief earthly treasure of a gospel minister, his peo-
ple's love. This love was a cementing bond which
seemed for some time to promise a long continu-
ance of our connexion with each other; but the
purpose of God had determined otherwise, and his
providence soon began to put that purpose into ex-
ecution. One of the most able and generous sup-
porters of this Church found it necessary to re-19
move into a distant yartof the United States. The
pecuniary pressure, great before, greater now, was
still farther increased by the removal of many other
families : the infliction of just and necessary disci-
pline alienated more : my stipend fell into arrears :
I was perplexed, distressed, irritated: and you
had at length to give up a part of my time. Yet
the very delicate, tender, and affectionate manner
in which this necessity was intimated to me, remains
faithfully laid up in my memory, and contributes its
share to those many recollections which fill this
interview with pain, f will not heighten that pain
by tracing the detail of subsequent circumstances.
Did I pursue it a little farther, I should have to
pass a grave : a grave into which descended as
much fatherly goodness, as much simplicity of heart,
as much reverence for religion, as generous a love
for its public servants, as it has ever been my privi-
lege to witness or my lot to mourn. Brethren, we
may weep together over his ashes, he was your fa-
ther and mine. But he is taken from the evil to
come, and 1 am glad he has been spared the an-
guish of the present scene. Over the causes which
have led to it, 1 willingly draw a veil. Not that my
view of those transactions has undergone the slight-
est possible change; but 1 have entirely forgiven,
and 1 hasten to forget them.
Let me therefore close this retrospect by render-
mg public thanks : first, to this Church in its col20
lective Capacity for having fixed its choice upon me
to break to it the bread of life. For this honour I
am your debtor, and I hope never to forget the ob-
ligation. In the next place to my brethren of the
Session; brethren with whom I have spent some of
my most pieaging and profitable hours; who have
shared the burden of my cares, alleviated the su&
fe rings incident to an arduous public station by their
personal friendship and their official support, and
who have never, in a single instance, differed from
me in judgment or opposed me in practice, in mat-
ters pertaining to the discipline of the Church.
Blessed be Christ, her King, for so wise an insti-
tution as that of the Eldership ; an institution which
gives to his ministry counsellors in difficulty, in
danger a shield. I have found my Session both,
and I here return them the tribute of my public ac-
knowledgments. To the people of my charge in-
dividually, I also tender my gratitude for all the
personal kindness they have shown me; for their
prayers and good wishes; for their countenance
and support; for their hospitality; for their gifts
whether small or great; and for the kind manner
in which some of them have advocated my charac-
ter and defended my reputation, when assailed by
calumny. In a word, for every degree and every
instance of love, whether public or private, shown
to me or to mine, by any or by al) of my people,
1 here return them humble and hearty thanks.21
And now, beloved, my ministry among you being
closed, permit me to ask, (for the question will one
day be put by a greater than I,) what has it done for
you ? For six successive years, (to say nothing of
the ten years labour of one whose testimony is in
the conscience of every man among you,) for six
years you have had in your possession that gospel
which is the great means of all spiritual good. Re-
flecting that if this fails of edect, there is no other
mean more promising ; that this is God's establish^
ed mode of gathering his people; that it has hi§
special promise; and actually has converted all
who have been turned to God; let me look round
this Church and ask far its fruits.—Brethren, where
are they ?—When the great Proprietor asks me for
the fruit of this vineyard, what shall I answer ?
Whom may I address in the words of Paul, as
" my dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and
crown ?" What prospect have I that I shall " re-*
joiceinthe day of Christ, that I have not run in
vain, and laboured in vain Twenty-fve persons
have indeed been added to this Church since I was
prdained its pastor: but oh! can I assure myself
that each of these has been - added to the Lord ?
While feeding and instructing this Congregation,
have I been training up heirs for the kingdom of
Heaven—or hypocrites, whose Christian name is the
loud laugh of hell ? You know what a Christian is;
are you Christians ? Oh God ! wilt thou own these
men as followers of thy Son ? Wilt thou say that22
these persons are pHgrims and strangers upon the
earth? Oh brethren! could an answer break
through the sky, which of you has reason to tremble
at the sound ? If he who wafked among the
Churches of Asia were once more to utter his
voice, would it say to this Church, " Be watchful
and strengthen the things which remain, that are
ready to die, tor I have not found thy works perfect
before God: Remember therefore, how thou hast
received, and heard, and hold fast and repent ?"
That Heavenly witness walks among the Churches
of America : those " eyes of fire" are this hour
fastened upon you: the Lord the judge "knows
your works." Every sermon you have heard, every
vow you have uttered, stands recorded in the ever-
lasting tablets of his memory, and can neither be
altered nor effaced. Your privileges have been
measured out to you in weight and number; im-
proved or not improved, they will all enter into the
final award.
Perhaps when I came to you, some were halting
between two opinions; urged by truth and con-
science to embrace the gospel, held back by unbe-
lief and the love of sin. Have you chosen ? or are
you still deliberating whether you will be damned
or saved?—Perhaps, (alas that it were no more
than a peradventure !) some were resting in a bar-
ren profession of Christianity, their hearts wholly
devoted to lucre, fully occupied by the world. And23
have you not yet found out that there is no magic
about the communion tab!e to save men that live in
their sins ? Will your approbation of the doctrine
of election prove that you are elect ? Will your
^bitterness in reprobating your unsound neighbours,
demonstrate that you are not yourselves reprobate
silver ? Oh sirs, it is one thing to have the truths
of Christianity on the tongue, and quite another to
have their divine influence transfused into the heart.
Your noise about orthodoxy will be lost in the thun-
ders of the last day: your tinsel will melt in the
crucible of judgment: and when all masks are fall-
ing, and all secrets divulging, and all graves emp-
tying, and all wicked hearts trembling ; when hell
opens, and time departs—you shall find, that
though it has been your permitted liberty to mock
God, to deceive or to resist him is beyond your
power.
Are there any who were babes in this little fami-
ly who have since grown up into "young men in
Christ?" May I, dare I hope that there are any
who within this period have been born in our Zion,
and to whom I might be permitted to say, " though
ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, ye
have not many fathers ?" The thought makes my
bowels to yearn, and, could I believe it, would re-
pay my labours and my tears a thousand fold. Fa-
thers, are you any more ripe for heaven? We
have often looked together into the grave ; are you34
any better reconciled to the ghastly countenance of
him who waits there for your ffesh ? Has Christ's
victory been set before you in vain? or have I led
you round death's dismantled fortress till you have
almost ceased to dread his power ? Does light re-
turn into your faded eye while you sing, "Now is
our salvation nearer than when we believed, the
night is far spent, the day is at hand?" Have the
mourners been comforted ? It is the prerogative of
Christianity effectually to comfort them : she alone
holds in her hands the oil of joy; and to dispense
it among the children of sighing and tears, is one
of the most loved of all those labours of love with
which she intrusts her favoured sons. Have the
backsliders been restored ? To seek his lost sheep
the great shepherd himself did not despise. His
command to his servants is, " Let not that which is
lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be
healed." To such lost wanderers a frequent and
an affectionate invitation has been given. They
have heard many messages of mercy: they have
had many solemn warnings of their danger. They
tvill not say they have been treated with harshness;
they dare not say they have been flattered in their
sin. Has all been in vain ? Are you " of such as
draw back unto perdition ?"
My last inquiry is addressed to such as I found
destitute of all religion and all religious profession,
and who still remain, to all appearance, without25
God in the world. Dear fellow-sinners, capable of
enjoying eternal blessedness, but in the high road to
endless wo, what think you of the gospel ? or
what is to be thought of your conduct ? Have you
deliberately made up your mind to live and die
without a Saviour ? Are you indeed prepared to
say, " God, we want not thy mercy: and thou
Christ, we desire no part in thy blood: depart from
us, Holy Ghost, and let ustlie in our sins ?" Your
hair rises at this language :—alas it is yours ! This
is what you are now saying, and have been saying
for at least six years. Your conduct says it; it
proclaims it as with a trumpet towards Heaven.
And yet why so desperately resolved upon perdi-
tion ? Are you prepared to show that this book is
false ? if not, how can you stand out against such
language as your Maker addresses to you ? How
strong must be your love of sin, when sooner than
part with it, you will consent to leap the gulf of
death with all the threatenings of the Bible against
you! Under what a deep deception do you lie !
You hope for impunity : t warn you to-day, tor the
last time, that hope is false. Continue to reject the
gospel; go on as you have begun; let the future,
only be like the past—and you will be damned as
certainly as there is a God to judge you. That
breast which I have so often besieged in vain, to
which neither the thunders of the law nor the
soothing accents of the gospel could And access—
that strong hold of delusion where sin has Axed its
426
throne, and where pride mocks alike at duty and
danger, will prove but a weak rampart against the
driving ruin of the !ast day : the storm of God's
fury will speak in other sounds than your mortal
ears have ever heard: and while hell opens her
immeasurable gulf^ all doubt and cavil, all counsel
and might, all pride and contest, all help and hope,
shah perish in the wrath of the Lamb. Yet, once
more I will refresh soul by crying in your ears,
ho ! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the wa-
ters ! to-day, to-day, if ye will hear his voice, har-
den not your hearts.
Now it only remains that I bid you all a long, to
some of you, perhaps, a last adieu. Farewell!
friends of my bosom, who have felt for me in trou-
ble, cleaved to me through reproach, fed me when
1 was in want, prayed lor me when 1 was tempted.
To you my thoughts will often turn when 1 am far
away : upon your love and all its proofs, they will
delight to dwell; and, in the evening of life's stormy
day, to you they will look back even from the bor-
ders of the grave, and the prospect of Heaven it-
self will be more welcome, from the hope that you
will be there. F are well my enemies! if any still
retain that character, I forgive you every wrong,
and pray God to do you only good.
Farewell my little flock ! may God send you a
better pastor ! Under his ministry may you yet see27
good days, and be filled with the blessing of the
Lord. Here may he make the horn of David to
bud, and ordain a lamp lor his anointed. Beloved,
live in peace : so that whether I come to see you,
or else being absent may hear of your aflairs, that
ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving
together for the faith of ihe gospel. Beware of di-
vision. Avoid all contention about the past. Do
not forsake the assembling of yourselves together,
but give yourselves to frequent prayer. I beseech
you not to delay another settlement. Be not con-
tent with an empty sanctuary; but unite all your
strength, join with your brethren, and make the
most generous sacrifices to obtain a stated ministry.
And may God send you dew from Heaven, keep
you, multiply you, stablish you, and make you a
large, a holy, and a happy Church.
Elders of this Congregation—my companions
through this short and variable hour, with whom I
have shared its darkest clouds and its more pleasant
moments, I now bid you a last adieu ! Stand firm at
your post. Guide the little bark which has been
committed to you with calmness and courage. Fear
no man's frown. Be seduced by no man's flattery.
Preserve the discipline of the house of God through
all hazards, and at every expense. Never surren-
der your Master's glory to friend or brother—sa-
crifice it not to expediency or policy. And if the
Church perishes in consequence of such a line of28
conduct, let it perish. Better that Christ's spouse
should die pure than live poliuted.
Youth of my charge ! brothers! sisters ! my sons!
my daughters! one that loved you very truly bids
you a tender farewell. You, my beloved, you are
the Church's hope : she turns her eyes trom you to
her God, and from her God to you. Will you for-
sake the religion of your fathers ? Some of them
have exchanged the pilgrim's staff for the palm of
victory; but you were in their latest thoughts; their
last earthly anxieties lingered around you. Will
you disappoint their dying prayer ? forget their
death-bed ? dishonour their ashes ? I speak not to
you all: some of you have feasted my eyes with
that most welcome sight, the sons of my hope, and
of my prayers, at the table of my Saviour and my
King. The wortd does not bold for me a more
grateful spectacle. Fulfil ye my joy: go on as
you have begun : cultivate every Christian grace:
submit yourselves to your elders : be filed with mo-
desty : adorn your profession, and strive to win
over, by the loveliness of your example, your linger-
ing brothers and your hesitating friends.
Farewell courts of the Lord! where first 1 came,
an anxious stranger, with all my future lot unknown :
where these trembling lips made their earliest es-
says in the Church's service, and where those vows
were uttered which bound me to a painful glory!29
Courts, where his own presence has often shined;
where I have prayed and wept with his people ;
where I have a)so sung loud tor joy, and triumphed
with his inheritance. I leave you to solitude, I
hope not to desolation.
But it is time to close, and the moment is come
in which 1 must utter the last adieu. I leave you,
my hearers, and the next messenger from God that
addresses you may be death, the king of terrors.
Should I visit this spot again, some of you will be
lying under those trees. As I walk pensively among
their shade, I shall stoop down and read your name
upon the stone : then it will be too late to persuade.
And is it so, that but a few short years shall glide,
and all this assembly shall be sought in vain among
the haunts of the living ? Oh ! could I put the
whole gospel into one piercing word, and would
God lend me, but for this hour, the power of per-
suasion, how should that word penetrate every
breast, and reach like anarrow to every heart. You
are dying, you are dying, and the judge standeth at
the door: it is but a step, and we shall all be be-
fore him: the veil is ready to depart, and Christ
shall be revealed. I see him seated on the clouds;
the dead burst the ground; the trumpet rends the
skies ; the heavens depart; the earth is consumed;
but truth remains ; the law has lost not a jot or a
tittle; its curse rings through all ears, and there is
no escape but by the gospel. The cross of Christ,30
always great in God's eyes, is now exalted before
the view of all. The damned look at it as Adam
looked back at the tree of Hie, and they gnaw their
tongues tor anguish. Sins unheard of, unsuspect-
ed, come forth from the dark womb of conscience in
agony. HeH roars beneath, and sends forth its
smoke like a pestiience: the universe trembles;
and God speaks. Oh brethren, are you ready for
this ? You shali see it! you shall see it! and when
I depart from this pulpit, it is to meet you there.