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" '3it Best roitli tlie £orir." 
 
 THE REV. e7 P. ROGERS, D.D. 
 
 Pastor of the South Reformed Church, 
 
 Fifth Avenue and Twenty-first St., 
 
 New York. 
 
 "They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever." 
 
 Daniel, xii. 4. 
 
 PRIVATELY PRINTED. 
 
 1882 
 
A NOBLE, a beautiful, a useful life has finished its 
 earthly work. Fruition has already crowned it. Eternal 
 glory has enveloped it. Of the promise which it always 
 gave in the past of such a joyful present, all who knew 
 and loved it bear record. Kindly, reverent, tender and 
 sorrowful hands have woven many a memorial wreath 
 for it. 
 
 For those whose life-blood sprang from this fountain ; 
 for those whose hearts are ploughed with grief's deepest 
 furrows ; for those whose opening lives may be guided 
 and stimulated by so pure an example, these laurels have 
 been gathered together ; that so long as memory stirs the 
 heart and the lineage shall live, all may cherish the life 
 of this man, greatly beloved ; thanking their God daily 
 for every remembrance of him. 
 
BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Ebenezer Platt Rogers was the son of Edmund J. 
 and Rebecca Rogers, and was born in the City of New 
 York, December iSth, 1817. His father was the son of 
 Jeremiah Rogers, and was born at Southampton, L. I. 
 His mother was the daughter of Ebenezer Platt, formerly 
 of Huntington, L. I., and afterward of New York City- 
 At the time of their marriage, both Mr. and Mrs. Rogers 
 were resident in New York, where Mr. R. was actively 
 engaged in mercantile business. All of their nine chil- 
 dren, save the youngest, were born there. Of the five 
 who grew to maturity Ebenezer was the eldest. The 
 others still live to mourn the loss of their beloved and 
 honored brother. 
 
 The home in which he was nurtured was a Christian 
 home. Both his parents were sincere believers ; and Mrs. 
 Rogers was an example of all that is excellent and 
 lovely in a Christian wife and mother. Her son never 
 failed in after years to acknowledge with the warmest 
 gratitude his obligations to her influence and example. 
 
6 
 
 The family resided in New York until 1831, when 
 Ebenezer was thirteen years of age. They then removed 
 to Fairfield, Conn., where Mr. Rogers had purchased a 
 country residence, still continuing his business in New 
 York. His son, after completing his preparatory studies, 
 partly in the Fairfield Academy, and partly at Pittsfield, 
 Mass., entered Yale College in 1833, becoming a member 
 of the " Class of 1837," embracing so many names which 
 have since risen to eminence. It was during a season of 
 special religious interest in the college, while he was a 
 student there, that he was led, with many others, to em- 
 brace Christ as his personal Saviour, and to form the pur- 
 pose of becoming His servant as a minister of the Gospel. 
 The circumstances of his conversion formed the ground- 
 work of a narrative from his pen, published by the Amer- 
 ican Sunday School Union in 1857, in a small volume 
 entitled " The Classmates." 
 
 The sudden death of his father in June, 1835, at the 
 early age of forty-seven, led to the breaking up, for a 
 time, of the family home at Fairfield, and to the inter- 
 ruption of his college course before completion. He, 
 however, pursued his studies, and ultimately received 
 his Bachelor's degree from Yale, though not in regular 
 course. His name appears in the class of 1837 •" the 
 college catalogue, and to the end of his life he cherished 
 
a warm regard for his classmates, and never failed, when 
 circumstances permitted, to attend their occasional re- 
 unions. 
 
 In 1837 he entered the Princeton Theological Semin- 
 ary, but after a year spent there was compelled by an 
 affection of the eyes to suspend his studies. At this time 
 it seemed that his cherished purpose to enter the minis- 
 try would have to be abandoned. 
 
 But two years of active life in the country (chiefly 
 spent at Fairfield, which had again become the family 
 home), restored his eye-sight, and enabled him to resume 
 his theological studies. These he prosecuted at first with 
 Rev. Lyman H. Atwater, then pastor of the Fairfield 
 Church, and afterwards with Rev. Joel Hawes, D.D., of 
 Hartford. During this interval occurred his marriage, 
 on the 26th of Feb., 1839, ^'^ Elizabeth, daughter of the 
 late John Caldwell, Esq., of Hartford, who, after a union 
 of forty-two years, survives her departed husband. Ten 
 children were born to them, eight of whom (three sons 
 and five daughters) are living, all grown to maturity. 
 
 In 1840, Mr. Rogers, having been first licensed to preach 
 the gospel by the Litchfield South Association of Conn., 
 accepted a call to the pastorate of the Congregational 
 Church of Chicopee Falls, Mass., and was ordained as a 
 minister at the time of his settlement. In this his first 
 
field he labored with much acceptance and usefulness 
 until 1843, when he accepted a call to the Edwards Con- 
 gregational Church of Northampton, Mass. His ministry 
 here continued until December, 1846, when he resigned 
 his charge and went on a Southern journey with a view 
 to the improvement of his health, which had suffered 
 from the New England climate. While at the South he 
 was invited to supply temporarily the pulpit of the Pres- 
 byterian Church of Augusta, Georgia, then vacant. His 
 preaching proved so acceptable to the congregation that 
 he was called to the pastorate of the church, and was 
 settled there in the year 1847. In this charge he re- 
 mained for six years, laboring with great usefulness, and 
 constantly increasing reputation as a preacher and pastor_ 
 During this period he received the degree of D.D. from 
 Oglethorpe University, Georgia. Here also death first 
 entered his household, taking away his sixth child, 
 Charles Jenkins, a lovely boy of four years. This oc- 
 curred on the 30th day of August, 1853 ; and a few days 
 afterward (Sept. 8th, 1853), Dr. Rogers' beloved mother, 
 whose bedside he had left on learning of his boy's dan- 
 gerous sickness, died in her distant home in New Eng- 
 land. 
 
 In 1854, Dr. Rogers removed to Philadelphia, becom- 
 ing pastor of the Seventh Presbyterian Church of that 
 
city. In 1856, he was called to the North Reformed Dutch 
 Church, of Albany, N. Y., and was installed as its pastor 
 in November of that year. After six years' labor here^ 
 with acceptance and usefulness, he removed to New 
 York, his native city, to become pastor of the South Re- 
 formed Dutch Church, his last and longest pastorate. 
 
 Just after their removal to New York, Dr. Rogers 
 and his family were called to suffer a crushing blow, in 
 the death, in battle, of his first-born child, Theodore 
 Caldwell Rogers, aged twenty-three years ; a young man 
 of noble Christian character, and of the brightest prom- 
 ise. At the outbreak of the war of the rebellion, he gave 
 up his flattering business prospects at Albany, to enlist 
 in the service of his country, and joined the Army. of the 
 Potomac as first lieutenant of Company H., i8th N. Y. 
 Volunteers. Having passed safely through the bitter ex- 
 periences of the first battle of Bull Run, in 1861, and the 
 long period of inactivity which followed — having, mean- 
 time, been promoted to a captaincy, and united in mar- 
 riage to the lady to whom he had been for some time 
 engaged — he fell in the bloody action at Gaines' Mill on 
 the 27th June, 1862, while gallantly leading on his com- 
 pany to the charge. 
 
 No nobler young life was offered up on the altar of 
 patriotism, during those four years of conflict ; nor did 
 
lO 
 
 any fall, more tenderly beloved, or more deeply la- 
 mented. 
 
 The remainder of Dr. Rogers' life, except the few 
 months preceding his decease, was spent in the discharge 
 of the laborious and unremitting duties of his pastorate 
 in New York. To this field he brought his fully ripened 
 powers, and the fruits of his abundant experience in 
 more than twenty years of pastoral service ; and all his 
 powers and resources, during the eighteen years of his 
 labor here, were given without stint or measure to his 
 church and people. 
 
 Of the character and quality of these arduous labors, 
 as well as of their results, others, more competent to 
 speak on such a theme, will tell. During these years, 
 he and his beloved wife saw their children, one after an- 
 other, grow to maturity, and settle in life near them. 
 In his summer seasons of rest and recreation, Dr. Rogers 
 made several short European tours, accompanied by his 
 wife, or other members of his family, and sometimes by 
 other friends. These, his companions in travel, will never 
 forget his untiring care for the comfort and enjoyment of 
 every member of the party, nor the charm which his ge- 
 nial companionship imparted to every scene and inci- 
 dent. 
 
II 
 
 For the last three or four years of his life his health 
 and strength were evidently declining. The wear and 
 tear of nerve and brain under the toils of a city pastorate, 
 told upon him more and more, and his seasons of rest in 
 the summer vacation no longer restored his wonted vigor. 
 In 1876 he was suddenly deprived permanently of the 
 use of one of his eyes, by the rupture of a small blood- 
 vessel. He continued, however, to toil on, with such en- 
 ergy and cheerfulness as would have deceived those who 
 did not know him intimately. The spring of 1880 found 
 him so exhausted by the winter's work that a kind friend 
 and member of Consistory urged him to rest in foreign 
 lands, and his loving people sent him beyond the sea. 
 Alas ! he was even then slowly fading from earth, and the 
 journey was of but little help. He returned to follow 
 dear friends and helpers in the church to their graves, and 
 grew daily weaker under his burden of sorrow and pain. 
 His kindred urged him to rest from his labors, but with 
 earnest conscientiousness he only said he must spend and 
 be spent in his Master's service. During three months 
 he was assisted most kindly and efficiently by the Rev. 
 Roderick Terry, whose tender and generous ministrations 
 he appreciated with warm fraternal regard. 
 
 In January, 1881, however, he felt that the time for him 
 to put off the harness had come. He preached with the 
 
12 
 
 solemnity and earnestness as of a dying man, on Sabbath 
 morning, January 23d, to a large and attentive congrega- 
 tion, from Zachariah, 14th chapter, 6th and 7th verses: 
 " And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light 
 shall not be clear nor dark. But it shall be one day that 
 shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night, but it 
 shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light." 
 
 None knew that these strangely fitting words were 
 the last he would ever speak from that sacred desk ; but a 
 few days after he sent to the Consistory his resignation 
 as the pastor of the South Reformed Church. 
 
 It was accepted with sincere grief, his salary was con- 
 tinued until the first of the following May, and from then 
 an annuity was given to him. , But rest had been too long 
 delayed; for on the 21st day of February, 1881, the day 
 after a letter of loving farewell had been read from the 
 pulpit to his sorrowing people, he was prostrated by a 
 stroke of paralysis, from the effects of which he never 
 recovered. This occurred at the house of his son-in- 
 law, in High Bridge, New Jersey, where he and Mrs. 
 Rogers were spending a short time. After a few weeks 
 he improved sufficiently to be brought with great care 
 to his New York home, where he was able to enjoy 
 somewhat the kind words and visits of people and friends. 
 
 Believing that he would gain more rapidly in country 
 
13 
 
 air, a home was prepared for him in Montclair, New- 
 Jersey, adjoining the residence of one of his daughters, 
 and there the last months of his life were spent in free- 
 dom from acute suffering ; and, retaining his mental facul- 
 ties, he enjoyed the society and loving ministrations of 
 his family and friends. His greatest sorrow was the 
 growing consciousness that he could speak no more for 
 the Saviour. It was an unmixed joy to him to know that 
 the church had called the Rev. Roderick Terry to fill 
 the vacant pulpit, for he had often said that in no man's 
 hands would he rather leave his work ; and by a strange 
 coincidence the Sabbath of the installation of the Rev. 
 Roderick Terry was the Rev. Dr. Rogers' first Sabbath 
 in his heavenly home. 
 
 The end came suddenly, but peacefully, after a week 
 of apparent improvement and special enjoyment of the 
 beautiful autumn days. In the evening of Saturday, 
 October 22d, after a day of pleasant family experiences, 
 he became conscious of great difficulty in breathing. 
 This increased so rapidly that almost immediately after 
 the danger became known to his sorrowing household, he 
 calmly fell asleep and was at rest with the Lord. 
 
 His brethren who knew and loved him well tell 
 what he was as a pastor, a preacher, a friend and a Chris- 
 tian. To speak of what he was in the circle of home to 
 
14 
 
 those bound to him in the nearer relations of life, is an 
 office which none can undertake. All loved, and all 
 mourn him. Words seem inadequate to express the 
 wealth of affection and tenderness, the unwearied care 
 and self-sacrifice which he found his happiness in lavish- 
 ing on all who were dear to him. Never, surely, has it 
 fallen to the lot of man to be more sadly missed or 
 deeply lamented as a husband, a father, a brother or a 
 friend. 
 
 " While memory bids us weep thee, 
 Nor thought nor words are free ; 
 The grief is fixed too deeply, 
 That mourns a man like thee." 
 
 The printed writings of the Rev. Dr. Rogers were various, beginning 
 with a funeral sermon preached in Augusta, Ga., in 1848, on Death, the 
 Christian's Gain, followed by 
 
 Three Discourses on the Doctrine of Election. 
 
 Earnest Words to Young Men. 
 
 Orations before Oglethorpe University. 
 
 Relations of Christianity to Law. 
 
 A Pious Mother. 
 
 The Christian Traveler. 
 
 On Daniel AVebster. 
 
 The Worth of a Good Character. 
 
 In Philadelphia, 1S55. 
 The Dangers and Duties of Men of Business. 
 How Much Owest Thou ? 
 The Classmates. 
 
15 
 
 In Albany, 1857. 
 The Dignity of Teacliing. 
 The Sovereignty of God in Calamity. 
 Historical Discourse on the North Dutch Church. 
 Sermon before City Missionary Society of New York. 
 Everything in Christ. 
 The Strong Staff Broken. 
 The Syrian Leper. 
 Religion in Public Life. 
 Funeral Sermon for Mrs. Talcott. 
 
 In New York, 1862. 
 
 The Prodigal Son. 
 
 Lessons from our National Calamity. 
 
 The Great Conference and its Lessons. 
 
 The Glory of New York. 
 
 Jehovah Jireh. 
 
 Magnetism of the Cross. 
 
 The Precious Things of St. Peter. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Rogers was a frequent contributor to the New York Observer 
 and the Christian Intelligencer. To the former he contributed during the 
 last years of his life the Tieekly papers on the International Sunday School 
 Lessons, which received much commendation, and are believed to have been 
 extremely useful. These were still in progress when he finally ceased from 
 his labors. 
 
REV. DR. ROGERS' FAREWELL LETTER. 
 
 Read by the Rev. Roderick Terry, 
 
 To THE Congregation of the South Reformed 
 Church, Sunday, February 2oth, i88i. 
 
 Beloved Brethren and Friends : — It has become 
 my painful duty to inform you that I have tendered to 
 the Consistory my resignation of my pastoral charge, 
 and that they, with many expressions of sympathy, 
 affection, and regret, have signified their acceptance of 
 the same. 
 
 It is due to you, between whom and myself those 
 solemn and tender ties have existed now almost nineteen 
 years, that you should be made fully acquainted with the 
 reasons which have obliged me, most reluctantly, to ask 
 now that they may be severed. These reasons do not lie 
 in any diminution of mutual affection or confidence 
 between you and myself. The years of our long and 
 intimate connection have been always full of the most 
 ample manifestations of kindness and love on your part, 
 and I think I may say of entire and loving reciprocation 
 
17 
 
 on my own. Since the day when I came among you as 
 your pastor, I have never from word, look, or action had 
 any reason to doubt that I enjoyed your entire confidence, 
 respect, and love. No pastor could receive more con- 
 stant and convincing proofs of the regard of his people. 
 These nineteen years have been the happiest, as they 
 have been the best and most useful, of my life. Although 
 now that my work among you is finished, I am too 
 acutely conscious that it might have been more faithfully 
 done, yet the remembrance of my connection with you 
 and your families, will go with me to my grave as among 
 the brightest and happiest memories of my life. 
 
 But God in His infinitely wise and inscrutable provi- 
 dence, has clearly shown that I must cease from those 
 pleasant and sacred labors as your pastor, to which He 
 called me. 
 
 Five years since, as you remember, I received a stroke 
 from His fatherly hand, in the sudden rupture of a blood- 
 vessel, which seriously affected my capacity for labor, by 
 depriving me, almost entirely, of the use of one eye, and 
 inflicting a shock upon my nervous system from which I 
 have never fully recovered. After a brief period of rest 
 at that time, I resumed my labors, but for the past five 
 years they have been prosecuted under constant embar- 
 rassment and distress, due to imperfect vision. About 
 
one year ago the strain became intolerable and demanded 
 a renewed season of relief. At the suggestion of an 
 esteemed friend and member of the Consistory, whose 
 wise and thoughtful consideration has for many years 
 been generously extended in my behalf, and with the 
 ready and kind co-operation of the whole Consistory and 
 maqy of the congregation, I was led to seek rest and 
 recuperation in foreign travel, which has always proved 
 beneficial, and was absent during the summer season, 
 hoping to return in the autumn with renewed health and 
 energies to resume my work among you. That hope was 
 not realized, and the work which I have attempted since 
 my return has been but partially and imperfectly done, 
 yet at a greater cost of suffering than ever; so that it 
 has become clear to myself, as it had already become 
 clear to my medical advisers, that my only hope of health, 
 perhaps of life, depended upon an instant and entire 
 release from the duties and responsibilities of a pastoral 
 charge. This conclusion has been hastened by the extra- 
 ordinary strain which, during the last few months, has 
 been laid upon my sympathies and affections as a pastor 
 and friend, by the loss of so many valuable friends and 
 helpers who have been taken from among us, and whose 
 memory, like that of very many who have preceded them, 
 will always be so precious to this church and to me. 
 
1.19 
 
 This, dear brethren and friends, is the simple history 
 of the reasons which have influenced me in the step which 
 I have taken, after much sad and solemn thought and 
 earnest prayer. Beyond this history, which it was your 
 right to hear, I can scarcely trust myself to go in this 
 communication. You can all understand now the impera- 
 tive character of my act. Deprived, as I am, of adequate 
 vision, of the power of continued intellectual labor, of 
 the physical ability even of caring for the scattered fam- 
 ilies of a city parish, what avails it that I have still the 
 same loving heart for you and yours which I have carried 
 through all these years, when I can no longer work for 
 your instruction and consolation as I have so long tried 
 to do? 
 
 No, dear brethren. He who sent me to you and has for 
 many years so kindly permitted me to think, and speak, 
 and labor, and pray for the best good of you and your 
 children, tells me that my work is done, and that I have 
 only to say one closing word which is full of sadness, and 
 that word is farewell. 
 
 Yet no words of mine can adequately express the sense 
 of painful and reluctant sacrifice with which I speak that 
 word. The memory of all these happy years rushes over 
 me with overwhelming power. 
 
 The hours we have spent together in this holy and 
 
20 
 
 beautiful house in the worship of our common God and 
 Saviour ; where I have sprinkled the baptismal water 
 upon the brows of so many of your children ; where I 
 have welcomed so many of you to the Lord's table ; where 
 I have invoked the blessing of God on bridal vows ; and 
 where I have tried to speak words of consolation over 
 your sainted dead ; the hours I have spent in your homes 
 with you and your children in scenes of joy and sorrow, 
 light or shade ; all of these come back to me now, crowded 
 with the most fragrant memories, and the tenderest asso- 
 ciations, and I must sorrow most of all because in those 
 sacred and delightful scenes I shall see your faces no 
 more, as your pastor and your servant for Jesus' sake. 
 
 There are some of you who are drawing nearer and 
 nearer to the heavenly home. I had hoped to be able to 
 go with you on the rest of your journey. There are some 
 of you with whom I have often pleaded that you would 
 be the friends of Jesus, and I had hoped to be permitted 
 to lead you at last to His cross and heart. But God's 
 Providence has ordered otherwise, and God's will be done ! 
 
 Let me thank you, beloved friends, for the constant kind- 
 ness which I have received at your hands, which has made 
 my long ministry among you so pleasant to remember. 
 
 Think of me as one who loved you and yours, and tried 
 to do you good. Who, though conscious of great imper- 
 
21 
 
 fection in his ministry, thanks God devoutly that he was 
 privileged to exercise it so long and happily among you, 
 and who now lays it down in the prayer, that with all its 
 faults and weaknesses, it may not have been without 
 some blessed fruits of glory to Christ, and hope and sal- 
 vation to you and your children. 
 
 " And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I 
 have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my 
 face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day 
 that I am free from the blood of all men. For I have 
 not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. 
 And now brethren, I commend you to God, and to 
 .the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and 
 to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanc- 
 tified. I thank my God upon every remembrance of 
 you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making 
 request with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from 
 the first day until now ; only let your conversation be as 
 it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come 
 and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your af- 
 fairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind 
 striving together for the faith of the gospel." 
 
 The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His. 
 face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you. The 
 Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace! 
 
INTRODUCTION TO FUNERAL SER- 
 VICES. 
 
 On Thursday, October 27th, 1881, the funeral services 
 of the Rev. Dr. Rogers were held in the church of which 
 he had been so lately the pastor. A mourning multitude 
 stood with reverence as the long procession of his rela- 
 tives, the officers of the church, and brethren in the min-. 
 istry followed him from the room of prayer, down the fa- 
 miliar aisle, and laid him before the pulpit which he had 
 so much loved. The 
 
 Rev. Dr. Hitchcock, ' Rev. Dr. Vermilye, 
 
 Rev. Dr. Hastings, Rev. Dr. Ormiston, 
 
 Rev. Dr. Prentice, Rev. Dr. Crosby, 
 
 Rev. Dr. Vincent, Rev. Dr. White, 
 
 sat beside him, and with other brethren beloved, gave 
 gracious words to his blessed memory. 
 
FUNERAL SERVICE. 
 
 OF 
 
 REV. E. P. ROGERS, D.D., 
 
 IN THE 
 
 south reformed church, 
 Thursday, October 27, 1881. 
 Opening Prayer. 
 
 Rev. Roderick Terry : Let us invoke the presence 
 of God. 
 
 Almighty God, our heavenly Father, unto whom we 
 look in all times of trouble and suffering, from whom 
 alone cometh our consolation and our hope, grant us, we 
 beseech Thee, while we are together to-day, the presence 
 of the Holy Comforter, to speak words of peace and of 
 restfulness to our hearts, that we may be able from the 
 midst of earthly clouds and troubles to see Thy fatherly 
 and loving face, and believe that Thou only doest that 
 which is best. Grant us, we pray Thee, in every heart the 
 
24 
 
 presence of this Holy Spirit, that we may commune with 
 Thee, and in communion forget all the troubles of the 
 world in contemplating Thy blessed love toward us and 
 the peace and joy that remaineth for the people of God. 
 Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. 
 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is 
 in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread ; and for- 
 give us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead 
 us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For 
 Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for- 
 ever. Amen. 
 
 SCRIPTURE SELECTION. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Vermilye read part of the fifteenth chapter 
 of the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, commenc- 
 ing at the thirty-fifth verse: "But some man will say. 
 How are the dead raised up? etc., to the 58th verse. 
 
 Prayer by Rev. Roswell D. HITCHCOCK, D.D., 
 President Union Theological Seminary, N. Y. 
 
 Almighty and most merciful God, our heavenly Father, 
 the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 
 for whom we thank Thee in our human weakness, timid- 
 ity and sin, whose promise is our only cheer, we come to 
 Thee in this hour of our bereavement and loss. Trouble 
 
25 
 
 Cometh not out of the ground. We lift our eyes to the 
 heavens whence our trouble comes by divine appoint- 
 ment, for each one of us. And we rejoice in the 
 assurance that Thou dost not willingly afflict nor grieve 
 Thy children here upon the earth, but Thou doest for them 
 and with them what they understand not now, but shall 
 know hereafter. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken 
 away ; blessed be the name of the Lord. 
 
 We thank Thee for another memory without a stain or 
 shadow. We thank Thee for another life of honorable 
 service, rounded and finished. We thank Thee for another 
 victor crowned and jubilant before Thy throne with all the 
 martyrs and the saints that have gone before, treading the 
 same path, passing through the same conflicts, crowned by 
 the same blessed hand. We thank Thee for these precious 
 memories to us who have known Thy servant so long, loved 
 him so tenderly, and trusted him so confidently. And 
 we pray Thee that Thou wilt come now very close to us, 
 to each one of us, as we are gathered in these Thy courts, 
 within these walls still ringing with the echoes of the 
 voice that shall be heard no more. We offer up our 
 earnest and fervent prayer for those more keenly suffer- 
 ing than we ; for her over whom hangs the blessed 
 promise, that Thou wilt be the husband of the widow ; 
 for them over whom hangs the blessed promise. Thou 
 
26 
 
 wilt be the father of the fatherless ; for children and 
 for children's children. Into this inner grief, so pro- 
 found, so great, we enter not ; standing with heads 
 bowed and hearts bleeding in sympathy, may our prayer 
 be that the Hand which touches with sorrow may touch 
 gently with consolation. The hearts which Thou hast 
 bruised and wounded Thou canst bind up and heal, and 
 every grief, however subtle, however keen, Thou canst 
 mitigate and carry. We leave this family to Thee, pray- 
 ing Thee that they may be comforted in all the years 
 that remain, as the days, and the nights, and the weeks, 
 and the months, and the years may come and go, with 
 the remembrance of what he was who will walk with 
 them no more in this earthly journey. 
 
 We pray also for the larger family, the spiritual family, 
 weeping now around this bier; the many, many souls 
 comforted by Thy servant in kindred griefs, led by his 
 kind hand to the Saviour's cross, instructed by his kind 
 voice in the way of life day by day and hour by hour. 
 May the words he spoke while yet with them be sacredly 
 cherished in all the years to come ; and so long as life 
 endures may thig ministry endure to each one of them. 
 
 Bless Thy young servant, called in thy providence to 
 assume the mantle which has fallen from the sky. We 
 pray Thee that he may be instructed by Thy Spirit, that 
 
27 
 
 he may be made wise with a wisdom above himself and 
 above all earthly teaching, and that he may follow him 
 who has gone before him even as he followed Christ, 
 and may his ministry also be fruitful of spiritual results 
 to the souls of men. 
 
 Command Thy blessing upon all who were associated 
 with our brother in this high ministry of the word : all 
 these Thy servants, gathered out of the many churches 
 of this favored city, stricken now with a common grief 
 and gladdened by a common memory of a beneficent and 
 gracious life. 
 
 Grant unto each one of us grace to profit by this afflic- 
 tion, and be reminded that our turn must come, and to 
 be stimulated by what is said so justly of our brother 
 here to-day, to aspire to merit for ourselves, each in his 
 turn, an honest commemoration. May we covet for our- 
 selves the good will, the good opinion, and the good 
 words of those who have known us in the walk and in 
 the warfare of life. And grant, we entreat Thee, Thy 
 benediction upon this city where we dwell, where- so 
 many earnest and honest voices are lifted up for the 
 Gospel of Jesus Christ. We thank Thee for this Gospel : 
 for all it requires of us in our daily service ; for all the 
 benediction it showers upon us in our griefs ; for the 
 light with which it floods the day ; for that bright path 
 
28 
 
 up and along which we may go with buoyant feet. Com- 
 mand Thy blessing upon us all in the service in which we 
 are engaged. May we find that it is good for us to be 
 here ; that the house of mourning is better for us than 
 the house of feasting. So may we be prepared for our 
 earthly work, for all our earthly conflict, and for the final 
 triumph through riches of grace in Christ our Redeemer. 
 Amen. 
 
 ADDRESS OF REV. PHILLIP SCHAFF, D.D., 
 
 Prof. Union Theological Seminary, N. Y. 
 
 We are met here from different churches to pay our 
 united tribute to a pastor, a husband, a father, a friend, 
 and a brother respected and beloved by all, now safely at 
 home in the mansions of glory and of peace. He is 
 separated from us but a short season, but we trust we 
 shall join him there by and by in singing the praises of 
 the God of power and of grace. Death was but the be- 
 ginning of life eternal. This is the thought of that beau- 
 tiful hymn which the family have selected. It was 
 written forty years ago by a distinguished Swiss Minister 
 in the City of Geneva, on the banks of Lake Geneva. 
 It was translated, or rather freely reproduced, by the late 
 Dr. Bethune, once a shining light in the Reformed Church 
 
29 
 
 of this city, and a dearly beloved friend of our departed 
 brother. I will read the first two and the last two stanzas 
 of hymn 744. 
 
 It is not death to die, — 
 
 To leave this weary road, 
 And, midst the brotherhood on high. 
 
 To be at home with God. 
 
 It is not death to close 
 
 The eye long dimmed by tears, 
 
 And wake, in glorious repose 
 To spend eternal years. 
 
 It is not death to fling 
 
 Aside this sinful dust, 
 And rise on strong, exulting wing, 
 
 To live among the just. 
 
 Jesus, thou Prince of Life, 
 
 Thy chosen cannot die ! 
 Like Him they conquer in the strife. 
 
 To reign with Him on high. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Schaff : On this mournful, yet joyful, be. 
 cause hopeful occasion, let us join in singing this hymn. 
 
30 
 
 ADDRESS OF REV. S. IRENAEUS PRIME, D.D. 
 
 We are all mourners here. Each one of us would 
 choose to sit in silence and weep with them that weep. 
 Friend after friend departs, and who has not lost a friend 
 to-day ? 
 
 " All ye that are about him bemoan him : and all ye 
 that know his name say, ' How is the strong staff broken 
 and the beautiful rod ? ' " 
 
 After a sketch of his life. Dr. Prime added : 
 
 In all these fields of labor, varied as they were in the 
 habits and pursuits of the people, he showed himself 
 approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be 
 ashamed; winning the hearts of the people to himself 
 and their souls to Christ. 
 
 As a preacher of the Gospel he was able, lucid, tender, 
 earnest, affectionate, scriptural and practical : declaring 
 the whole counsel of God, with no fear of man, but 
 always under a deep, abiding sense of his accountability 
 to Him who called him to the ministry. The souls of 
 men were a burden on his soul. Perhaps he was too 
 ■much oppressed thereby, for he was weighed down often 
 beyond his ability to bear. He pleaded with tears. 
 
 As a pastor, ye are his witnesses to-day how he went 
 in and out before his people; how he watched day and 
 
31 
 
 night with anxious care. In the presence of his people 
 and a great multitude of ministers of the word, I am 
 not afraid to say he was a model pastor. 
 
 In the charmed circle of home and social life, there are 
 no words to fill up the memories of this beloved man. 
 Gentle, refined, the incarnation of truth and honor, and 
 every manly Christian grace, his heart was a well-spring 
 of love and genial humor, overflowing to the refresh- 
 ment and delight of those who enjoyed the sunshine of 
 his sm.iles and the cheer of his conversation. His 
 presence was joy, his society a perpetual charm. We 
 read of some such men in books. We very rarely meet 
 them in the walks of life. But they who were nearest to 
 him in daily or occasional intercourse, cherish the grate- 
 fullest recollections of his intense earnestness in Christian 
 thought and work, his glow and fervor of holy, happy 
 love, that knew no change or decay. 
 
 It was a heart-breaking trial to retire from this pulpit, 
 which he loved more than any other place this side of 
 heaven. Eighteen years he made this pulpit and this 
 church a landmark and a lighthouse in the city. You 
 know how he dragged himself hither when his great in- 
 firmities made every step an anguish, every jar a pang. 
 But he came, and would let no one come in his place so 
 long as he could ascend these stairs and speak the word 
 
32 
 
 of a dying man. And greater than all the pains he suffered 
 in climbing to this place was the agony of sorrow that 
 he could preach no more. Ah ! he speaks : being dead 
 he saith unto the church, " Remember the words I spake 
 unto you." 
 
 The last time I rode out with him he said that his pa- 
 ternal ancestors, for several generations, died before they 
 were sixty, and he saw the end of his own life near. 
 And then we spoke of this service and of our mutual 
 wishes if one survived the other. In him there was no 
 fear in death. His life was hid with Christ in God. And 
 during long weeks and months of exile from pulpit 
 and friends, his soul conversed with heaven. He sent 
 and received messages of love, for he was borne upon 
 our hearts in all his suffering. And though we knew the 
 end was coming, we would not yield to the sad convic- 
 tion, but pfayed on, hoped on. Only last Saturday even- 
 ing, while he was dying, we were hearing a sweet, loving 
 message from him, a comfort to our hearts. Even then 
 his wings were moving ; angels waited at the door. 
 
 He has left precious memories with us. We are glad 
 we had him, knetv him, loved him, lield him long and 
 closely to our hearts. What he was to his heart-broken 
 family, to his faithful Consistory, to his loving people, no 
 tongue can tell. We and they still hold in holy memory 
 
33 
 
 the manly form, the loving smile, the friendly pressure 
 of that hand now cold, the beating heart now still. He 
 is part of us and ours. O brother Rogers ! dear sainted 
 Rogers 1 brother, friend ! we are coming soon. Where 
 thou art with Christ we will be with thee also. 
 
 ADDRESS OF REV. WILLIAM M. TAYLOR, D.D. 
 
 It seems so strange to me to-day to stand in this pul- 
 pit without having Dr. Rogers at my side. I have been 
 often here before ; never without him, save once, and that 
 once he was for the moment in my own pulpit. And so 
 it'is with deep emotion that I find myself here to-day. I 
 have not known him so long as the brethren who are now 
 around me, but I have known him well. When I came 
 to this city, now nearly ten years ago, I felt no stranger 
 with him, for he showed me his heart and it was that of 
 a Christian brother. From that time to this we have 
 grown into each other's confidence and love. We have 
 consulted with each other ; we have sympathized with 
 each other ; we have helped to strengthen each other ; 
 and were I to consult my own feelings, I should be 
 among the mourners to-day. In the spirit of the poet's 
 words : 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 " With silence only as their benediction, 
 God's angels come ; 
 When in the shadow of a great affliction. 
 The soul sits dumb." 
 
 If I were required to write an epitaph of my departed 
 friend, I think I should do it in the words of the angel to 
 Daniel, " O man, greatly beloved." And when we seek 
 to analyze his character, we shall, I think, discover good 
 ground for his being regarded by us all with such affec- 
 tion. He had a loving heart, and he was loved by so 
 many just because he loved so many; but when grace 
 came into that heart, it wrought in the line of nature and 
 made him a very tender and affectionate Christian. 
 
 First and before all things there was loyalty to the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. When he was converted he gave 
 himself entirely to Christ, and he never revoked that gift. 
 The word of his Master was the warrant of his faith. The 
 will of his Master was the rule of his life, and his knowl- 
 edge of the fact that his Master's providence was over 
 and in all, was at once the explanation to him of every 
 mystery, and the stay to him in every trial. And this 
 loyalty of his to the Lord Jesus Christ gave him a singu- 
 lar devotedness of heart toward God as well as a strong, 
 manly independence toward those by whom he was sur- 
 rounded. It gave h.im reverence toward God ; for when- 
 
35 
 
 ever he conducted us in prayer to the mercy-seat we felt 
 that his petitions were the genuine utterances of his 
 heart, and so they came into ours and herewith them the 
 burdens they found there up to the Lord. He got very 
 near the mercy-seat, and because we felt that he was so 
 devout and reverent, he took us all near to it along with 
 him. 
 
 Then there was connected with his loyalty to Christ 
 manliness and independence of spirit among those by 
 whom he was surrounded. He had drank very deeply 
 into the meaning of the words of Paul, " Ye are bought 
 with a price : be not ye the servants of men." 
 
 His intellectual gifts did not dispose him to meddle 
 with the primary questions of speculation. He did not 
 care for originality, yet his views and methods always 
 were his own, and he did not shrink from upholding them 
 when it seemed to him that he was called to their de- 
 fence. And because he was independent himself he was 
 always willing to concede the same independence to 
 others ; and when he differed from others, he differed 
 from them with a great deal of love. 
 
 He was a delightful companion. Conversation with 
 him was not a monologue, but while he was ready to 
 listen to those who were beside him, he had always 
 something of his own to contribute ; and the wit of his 
 
36 
 
 contribution was equalled only by its wisdom. There was 
 a playful humor continually about him, and he had a fund 
 of pleasant anecdote which was a joy to all his friends 
 who came into contact with him ; and though he was, as 
 it were, bubbling over with amusement, there was nothing 
 in it in the least degree unbecoming his profession as a 
 Christian or his position as a minister of the Gospel. He 
 never suffered it to wound another, least of all did he 
 suffer it to dishonor the cause of the Master whom he 
 loved and served ; but it was always there, irradiating his 
 conversation, his conduct, his life "lighting it up as sum- 
 mer lightning does the evening sky. 
 
 His piety was not a morose and gloomy thing ; it was 
 cheerful, and in the fervor of his Christianity he had not 
 forgotten that he was a man. 
 
 He was a true friend. The hearts of his brethren in 
 the ministry did safely trust him. He never violated a 
 confidence. His counsel was always wanted ; his sym- 
 pathy was never withheld. Moreover, there was in him 
 a fine instinctive sense of propriety combined with ad- 
 mirable common sense, which not only kept him from 
 making blunders himself, but qualified him greatly for 
 guiding others, when they were in perplexity. He was 
 always true to the brotherhood, and that not of his own 
 denomination alone, but of the entire church of Christ; 
 
37 
 
 and I question if there are many pastors in the city who 
 lived more in the love of their brethren's hearts, and who 
 had more of the confidence of those who stood side by 
 side with him in the service of the gospel than Brother 
 Rogers. 
 
 He was, as ye are witnesses, a faithful pastoi;. To the 
 very last his pulpit preparation was faithfully and satis- 
 factorily made.. His themes were evangelical, treated 
 with an eye to the present conditions and necessities of 
 his fellow-men. He carried his people continually upon 
 his heart, and in these closing years of his life his sym- 
 pathy for the sorrows of others was so intense and so fre- 
 quently called upon, that I do verily believe that it had 
 much to do with the coming on of the attack which com- 
 pelled him to retire from the ministry. We have missed 
 him much in these months since he left this pulpit, but 
 we shall miss him more in the months and years that 
 may be yet before us. We shall miss his voice, leading 
 us during the week of prayer, in supplication, in gather- 
 ings for prayer; we shall miss the sparkle and the genial- 
 ity of his wit in our social gatherings ; and, most of all, 
 we shall miss his companionship in that which was the 
 loved labor of his life, the ministry of the gospel in this 
 city of which he was a native and of which he was so 
 proud. 
 
38 
 
 But under this sorrow there are many sources of con- 
 solation. I think it was a happy thing for our brother 
 that he did not long survive his active ministry. The 
 Sabbaths of his period of retirement were the days whose 
 recurrence he most dreaded, because, as we have been 
 hearing from Dr. Prime, he so enjoyed the preaching of 
 the Gospel and so felt the privation of being unable to 
 engage in the work which had been the gladness of his 
 life. 
 
 Then, again, there was something comforting in the 
 manner of his going. He had suffered much agony dur- 
 ing his life. Few men that I have known have suffered 
 more intense physical pain than I?rother Rogers. Then 
 when even-time came he fell asleep on the Saturday 
 evening to awake in the blessed Sabbath of eternal 
 rest. 
 
 Moreover, we have for our consolation the prospect 
 of reunion ; but a brief season and we shall be with 
 him at home with Christ. When Dr. Cunningham, 
 the famous Scottish theologian lay dying. Dr. Bucha- 
 nan, one of his colleagues in the Professorship, came 
 to visit him. On leaving him as he had reached the 
 door of the chamber, he turned royind, said, " Good-bye, 
 Cunningham," and waved his hand to him, repeating the 
 lines. 
 
39 
 
 " A few short years of evil past, 
 We reach the happy shore, 
 Where death-divided friends at last 
 Shall meet to part no more." 
 
 That is our comfort now in the sorrow of this dispen- 
 sation. It will not be long. Our brother has gone home 
 to Christ, and we by-and-by are to follow him. Mean- 
 while the presence of Christ is with his Church and with 
 us. God lives, no matter who is taken away. This is 
 the consolation of all Christians, in the removal of a 
 pastor especially, from this earthly scene. God buries 
 the workmen, but he carries on the work. 
 
 When you take up the Bible itself and read it carefully 
 through, you are struck with the number of different 
 names that come up before you in the course of its pe- 
 rusal. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, 
 Samuel, the prophets, and then in the New Testament 
 the evangelists and apostles. One comes, disappears, 
 and then another takes his place. Yes, but in all and 
 over all there is God, giving the book its unity and 
 rounding it out in that circle whose material circumfer- 
 ence sweeps from paradise to paradise. In like manner 
 in human life, men come and men go, but the LORD 
 lives. The consolation of Moses, when he saw his com- 
 panions carried from his side to burial in the wilderness. 
 
40 
 
 is still the consolation of the people of God. " Thou 
 hast been our dwelling-place in all generations. Before 
 the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst 
 formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to 
 everlasting Thou art God." While, then, we take to our- 
 selves these special consolations, let us heed also the ad- 
 monitions of this dispensation. To those of us in the 
 ministry of the Gospel there comes a loud call to earnest- 
 ness and a new consecration. During this past two or 
 three years how many of those prominent in the pulpits 
 of this city at one time have been taken away ! Hut- 
 ton, Adams, Washburne, and now Rogers, and we, 
 a younger generation, are being pushed into the front. 
 Brethren in the ministry, is there not a call to you and 
 me to more earnest fidelity in our ways, bidding us work 
 while it is called to-day, seeing that " the night cometh 
 when no man can work." 
 
 Brethren of this congregation, there is a loud call here 
 to yoU, and I would voice it in the words of the apostle 
 John to one of his correspondents: " Look to yourselves 
 that ye lose not that which he hath wrought, but that he 
 receive a full reward." 
 
 Hearers of the Gospel generallj'', there is here to you 
 also a loud admonition. Let me put it into the words of 
 the author of the epistle to the Hebrews : " Remember 
 
41 
 
 them which have the rule over you, who have spoken 
 unto you the words of life, whose faith follow, consider- 
 ing the end of their conversation." Now, what more can 
 I say? Let me conclude as I began, by numbering my- 
 self among the chief mourners in this sorrowful assem- 
 blage. Let me take to myself the consolation and ad- 
 monition I have been trying to give you. Farewell, thou 
 fast friend and true heart ! Brother, farewell ! May we 
 meet where twilight has become unending day ! 
 
 ADDRESS OF REV. DR. CHAMBERS. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Chambers said : I have been asked to add 
 a word or two to what has been said, as belonging to the 
 same denomination with our departed brother, and dur- 
 ing his whole residence in this city a member of the 
 same ecclesiastical body. Our brother was not a learned 
 and practised exegete, as he often told me. When he 
 was in the seminary an affection of his eyes utterly pro- 
 hibited him from prosecuting the study of the sacred lan- 
 guages. For much the same reason he was not a pro- 
 found theologian. The great problems of human thought 
 did not much attract him. Nor was he particularly 
 versed in the history of the Church in ancient or in mod- 
 ern time. What, then, was he ? Far more than all these 
 
42 
 
 put together I An able and faithful minister of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ ! He preached the Gospel with a tender and 
 persuasive eloquence, and he taught the truth as it is in 
 Jesus fully, simply, and without any admixture of human 
 speculation. But his chief forte was in the pastoral work ; 
 here he was preeminent. His knowledge of the Scrip- 
 tures, his experience of divine grace, his familiarity with 
 forms of suffering, his experimental acquaintance with 
 physical pain, and his deep and tender sympathies, fitted 
 him to minister as few other men have been qualified to 
 do. I have often said during his period of health and 
 vigor that if I were a layman in this city with a family of 
 children, I would put myself under his spiritual direction 
 in preference to the occupant of any other pulpit in this 
 metropolis. He knew the way to the hearts of parents 
 and of children, and he used that knowledge for their 
 good. The testimony of his brethren, as you have heard 
 it rehearsed to you, shows what they thought of his sin- 
 cerity, of his manliness, of his loj-alty to Christ, of his 
 tender interest in the welfare of souls. And so he prose- 
 cuted his work, giving himself wholly to it. 
 
 He published a number of discourses in the various 
 charges that he served. Two of these took the form of 
 volumes, and the very names indicate the character of 
 the themes upon which he loved to linger. One of them 
 
43 
 
 was, " Everything in Christ," and I remember to this day 
 the pleased and grateful expression that played over his 
 face when I had the pleasure of telling him that that book 
 had led one of my own parishioners out of the dark into 
 the light. Another one was, " The Precious Things of 
 St. Peter ; Precious Blood, Precious Faith." Oh, it was 
 the gospel in its simplicity, in its fullness, in its richness, 
 in its adaptation to all human needs which occupied his 
 thought, which guided him, and which made him so ex- 
 tremely, so widely, so permanently useful wherever he 
 was called to minister. Allusion has been made to his 
 suffering. Luther said that prayer and temptation and 
 trials were necessary to make a minister. Our brother 
 had the trials. As has been said, doubtless no one in the 
 ministry in this city had so much, so frequent, so severe 
 physical anguish as he was called to endure. It 
 ripened him. My acquaintance with him began twenty- 
 seven years ago when he was the pastor of my youngest 
 sister in the city of Philadelphia ; and I think from that 
 time on, regularly from year to year, he ripened in grace, 
 in consecration and in success, as he did in years. He 
 was happy in his home — that sweet domestic circle which 
 was never darkened by a cloud, which was never dis- 
 turbed by a jar in the long course of years — a blessing of 
 which he spoke to me more than once with tears in his 
 
44 
 
 eyes and with thanks to God, who, in this respect, had cast 
 the lines unto him in very pleasant places. And now he 
 is gone. Let me before I sit down remind you that the 
 echoes of that winning voice linger in the arches of this 
 building and they will meet you — you, his people — in the 
 day when you shall give an account to the Judge of quick 
 and dead. Whatever you may have thought, it is the 
 testimony, unanimous and hearty, of all his brethren, that 
 this was a true minister of Christ, and that his one desire 
 was for your salvation and the glory of Christ in the work 
 that he did. When, then, you recollect what you have 
 heard in the years that are gone by, unite with it the rec- 
 ollection of your own knowledge of his person and char- 
 acter, as sustained and fortified by the testimony of all 
 his brethren. And I may add to what has been said in 
 that respect that not only was he a model in kindness to 
 his ministerial brethren in their presence, in his disposi- 
 tion to render service as far as possible, but in their ab- 
 sence their reputation was as dear to him as his own. It 
 has been said, sometimes, that the ministerial profes- 
 sion, like the musical, is unusually subject to the hell- 
 born temptation of envy and jealousy. If it be so, 
 God enabled him to rise above it as no other man of 
 his generation. It is pleasant to say these words over 
 his remains with the assurance that there does not 
 
45 
 
 live a human being who can contradict or question their 
 truth. 
 
 Now, then, it remains for me only to say, in the name 
 of all my brethren, that we sympathize deeply and ten- 
 derly with this large circle of which he was the centre, 
 and the head, and the life ; and in which he was so 
 happy, and the members of which are so saddened by 
 his removal. We sympathize with you, but we bid you 
 rejoice with us in his finished work — in his blessed mem- 
 ory — in his unfading crown. 
 
 CLOSING PRAYER. 
 
 Rev. Wm. Taylor, D.D. : Let us unite in prayer. 
 
 O God, our heavenly Father, let Thy blessing accom- 
 pany this service, and may the words spoken produce 
 good fruit in all our lives. We thank Thee that though 
 sorrowing to-day, we are also yet rejoicing. We give 
 Thee praise for what our brother was, for Thou didst 
 make him what he was, and by the grace of God he 
 was what he was. We thank Thee for what Thou 
 didst enable him to do in the ministry of the gospel, and 
 for all the joy he shed so radiantly around him in his 
 home, in the companionship of his brethren, and in his 
 
46 
 
 visiting with the people from house to house. While 
 we bless Thee for what he was ; we know, too, where he 
 is. For inasmuch as it was, as we knew full well, to him 
 to live, Christ, we have the firm assurance that having 
 departed from us, he is now with Christ, which is far bet- 
 ter. We bless Thee that we know he is at home with 
 the Lord, and in that we would have our greatest conso- 
 lation. We pray that Thou wouldst hear the supplica- 
 tions which have been offered to Thee for those whom 
 Thou hast most severely stricken in this dispensation. 
 Bless the widow. Thou knowest the loneliness of her 
 heart. Come near to her and say, " I will never leave 
 thee nor forsake thee ; " so that she may be able to tes- 
 tify to those around her, " I am not alone, for the Father 
 is with me." 
 
 Bless those from whom Thou hast taken a loving 
 father — a faithful friend as well as father. We cast them 
 upon Thy fatherhood to-day. We pray that they may 
 realize more than ever that Thou art near them, and as 
 their props on earth are stricken from beneath them, 
 may they learn to cling more than ever to the hand above 
 them. 
 
 We pray for the people here statedly worshiping within 
 these walls, from whom Thou hast taken one who, for 
 many years, went in and out among them, breaking the 
 
47 
 
 bread of life. O God ! may they heed the admonition 
 of Thy providence in this ; and may they be enabled to 
 follow his path, considering the end of his conversation. 
 
 We pray for our young brother upon whom the mantle 
 of the departed has fallen. O God ! as Thou hast been 
 with our friend and brother who has gone, so be Thou 
 with him. Strengthen, stablish, settle him ; and may he 
 see the pleasure of the Lord prosper in his hand. Be 
 with the brotherhood of the ministry here to-day. We 
 thank Thee for the work thus committed to our hands, 
 for the joy of it — and for that Thou dost see Thy work 
 prosper. We pray Thee, to-day, that we may go hence 
 with quickened conscience and with united consecration, 
 determined to be nobler ministers of Thy word, and be 
 better shepherds of our flocks. And so may this service 
 be to all of us a means of grace. Listen to this, our im- 
 perfect prayer. Hear us not according to our poor pe- 
 titions, but according to Thy precious promise, for Jesus 
 Christ's sake. Amen. 
 
 Rev. R. Terry: In closing these services, let us turn 
 our minds away from our sorrow to his entrance into the 
 everlasting joy, and let us remember the glorious band of 
 whom he is now a member. Let us sing the 785th 
 hymn. 
 
48 
 
 Who are these in bright array, 
 
 This innumerable throng, 
 Round the altar night and day. 
 Hymning one triumphant song? 
 " Worthy is the Lamb, once slain. 
 Blessing, honor, glory, power. 
 Wisdom, riches to obtain, 
 New dominion every hour. 
 
 These through fiery trials trod ; 
 
 These from great affliction came : 
 Now, before the throne of God, 
 
 Sealed with His almighty name. 
 Clad in raiment pure and white, 
 
 Victor-palms in every hand. 
 Through their dear Redeemer's might. 
 
 More than conquerors they stand. 
 
 Hunger, thirst, disease unknown. 
 
 On immortal fruits they feed ; 
 Them, the Lamb, amid the throne, 
 
 Shall to living fountains lead : 
 Joy and gladness banish sighs. 
 
 Perfect love dispel all fears ; 
 And forever from their eyes, 
 
 God shall wipe away the tears. 
 
RESOLUTIONS OF CONSISTORY. 
 
 At a meeting of the Consistory, held Tuesday 
 evening, November 22d, 1881, the following nminute, pre- 
 pared for consistorial meeting on the occasion of Rev. 
 Dr. Rogers' funeral, was unanimously adopted: 
 
 In view of the death of our late pastor and of the 
 solemn services of this day, it is resolved that this Con- 
 sistory place upon their minutes an appropriate expres- 
 sion of their deep sorrow. 
 
 This day severs the bond of all earthly relationship 
 with him, and we pay our adieu to his mortal remains as 
 to those of a near personal friend, as well as to the teacher 
 of the precious Gospel of Christ. 
 
 Dr. Rogers labored in the ministry of this church for 
 nearly nineteen years. 
 
 While he ever held the pen of a ready and a graceful 
 writer, his preaching was characterized with much variety 
 of subject, and proclaimed among us for that long period 
 with great joy to his own soul, the fullness of the love of 
 God, and the doctrine of a free salvation to sinners through 
 4 
 
50 
 
 the cross of Christ only. He preached with much ac- 
 ceptance to large audiences ; but perhaps the best com- 
 mentary on his work here is found in the fact that under 
 his care this church grew from a state of feebleness to 
 strength, and became one of the largest churches in our 
 denomination, whose influence he made to be increas- 
 ingly felt in the field of charitable and Christian effort; 
 and that he maintained them to the end, a united and 
 harmonious congregation, whose Christian order, progress 
 and peace were very dear to his heart. 
 
 He terminated with us his long ministry of forty years 
 in the service of his Lord and master, declaring the truth 
 at the last in much physical infirmity, which touched 
 deeply the sympathies of his hearers. 
 
 It was obvious that his work on earth was nearly done ; 
 smitten with a mortal blow, he could hardly bear to lay 
 aside the weapons he had so long wielded, and retire from 
 the field ; to human view it would have been better for 
 him to have done so at a much earlier period. 
 
 Dr. Rogers' retirement from the ministry of this church 
 left in the hearts of many of its members very precious 
 and tender memories. He was a faithful Pastor. He 
 was often in the house of mourning and death, and his 
 ministration in these trying scenes, while they caused 
 many and deep wounds to his own heart, opened the 
 
SI 
 
 springs of Christian sympathy, and united him in a com- 
 mon suffering with the bereaved. Many will remember 
 how sweet and comforting he was in the grace of Christ, 
 and the consolation of a personal affection, in those hours 
 when the human soul needs them most. 
 
 To those qualities of a tenderer nature so often called 
 for in the relations of his high office were united, for the 
 larger part of his life, those that pertained in a degree to 
 an organization and a temperament somewhat sanguine, 
 animated and buoyant ; he felt with the ancient preacher, 
 " how pleasant a thing it is for the eyes to behold the 
 sun," the strong sense^ and joy of life itself, the glory and 
 beauty of the visible universe, and all that the Father has 
 given us here so richly to enjoy were for him, and he 
 took his portion with gladness and thanksgiving. 
 
 With this genial and hearty nature, he was also the 
 courteous and graceful gentleman, striving to be without 
 offense in the love and fellowship of the gospel, and will 
 be long remembered in the circle he adorned. 
 
 He was called to be*ar his share of life's burthens. We 
 trust he has laid them all down at the feet of Him who 
 bore our griefs, and carried our sorrows, and that among 
 the ransomed of the Lord he is forever free, both from 
 sorrow and from sin, and forever is made partaker through 
 riches of infinite grace of all the fullness of Christ. 
 
52 
 
 Resolved, that a copy of this minute be sent to the 
 family of the deceased, and that a copy be published in 
 the " Intelligencer," and the " Observer." 
 
 It was also resolved, that the Treasurer be authorized 
 to pay the expenses of the funeral of Dn Rogers, and 
 that he pay to Mrs. Rogers the salary due, and which 
 would have become due to her husband up to May.i, 
 1882. Also, that the family be requested to continue the 
 occupation of their pew as long as they may desire to do 
 so. 
 
 F. C. White, 
 
 Clerk of Consistory. 
 
MEETING OF THE CLERGY AND RESOLU- 
 TIONS. 
 
 THE LATE REV. E. P. ROGERS, D.D. 
 At a meeting of the clergy of the city of New York, 
 held in the chapel of the South Reformed Church, Oct. 
 27, 1881, the Rev. Roswell D. Hitchcock, D.D., President 
 of the New York Union Theological Seminary, was 
 called to the chair, and Rev. Roderick Terry was made 
 Secretary. Remarks were made by the chairman and 
 many ministers present, on the life and character of Dr. 
 Rogers, whose death was the occasion of the assembly. 
 The undersigned, appointed a committee to express the 
 sentiment of the meeting, present the following paper: — 
 
 The death of Dr. Rogers is a personal and public loss 
 to the ministers and members of the various branches of 
 the Church in the city of New York. His social and 
 ministerial intercourse with his brethren, in the direction 
 of our benevolent institutions and in every department 
 of Christian work, was a source of unalloyed comfort and 
 pleasure to his associates, and to those who had the near- 
 
54 
 
 est and most frequent relations with him he was the most 
 endeared. As he was distinguished by the largest Chris- 
 tian charity, and was an example of diligence and devotion 
 in every department of the pastoral office, we, his breth- 
 ren, cherish the most delightful recollections of his genial 
 Christian conversation, his pure and beautiful life, his 
 constant kindness and brotherly love; making his memory 
 a precious treasure in the heart of the Church. 
 
 Touched deeply by the solemn Providence which has 
 called him to his rest in the midst of his usefulness, we 
 would heed the admonition to be faithful and diligent, 
 and so much the more as we see the day approaching. 
 
 We desire to share the sorrow of those who loved him 
 as husband and father, and to assure them of our tender- 
 est sympathies, while our prayer shall be made that God 
 the Father may be their God and guard from this time 
 forth forever more. 
 
 It was resolved that a copy of this minute be sent to 
 the bereaved family of our lamented brother, and also 
 given to the press for publication. 
 
 S. Iren^us Prime. 
 
 Thomas E. Vermilye. 
 
 Thomas Armitage. 
 
 Albert S. Hunt. 
 
 John Cotton Smith. 
 
NEWSPAPER NOTICES. 
 
 From the Hartford Courant, Oct. 24, 1881. 
 
 THE REV. EBENEZER P. ROGERS, D.D. 
 
 The death of the Rev. Ebenezer P. Rogers, D.D., at 
 Montclair, N. J., on Saturday evening, though not wholly 
 unexpected of late by his family, will be a sad surprise to 
 his many friends and acquaintances in this city. Over 
 forty years ago Dr. Rogers resided in Hartford, and 
 married here the youngest daughter of the late John 
 Caldwell, Esq. Here he studied for the Congregational 
 ministry, and frequently preached in Hartford and vicin- 
 ity till his early settlement in Chicopee and then in 
 Northampton. Subsequently he removed to Augusta, 
 Ga., but on the restoration of his health, he was settled 
 successively in Philadelphia and Albany. In 1862 he be- 
 came pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church on Fifth 
 avenue and Twenty-first street, New York, where he 
 labored successfully and most acceptably until last Febru- 
 ary, when his active life was closed by a paralytic attack 
 from which he never fully recovered. 
 
56 
 
 Dr. Rogers was a fluent and graceful speaker and an 
 earnest preacher. Though making no claim to profound 
 scholarship, his industry and activity were shown by con- 
 stant literary work outside his pulpit. Numerous occa- 
 sional addresses, newspaper contributions, historical and 
 biographical sketches, tracts, and modest volumes of 
 lectures and sermons, of essay and doctrine, remain as 
 proofs of his ready and skillful pen. But probably his 
 greatest success was as a pastor. Prompt, genial, witty, 
 affectionate, sympathetic, sincere, manly — he was equally 
 welcome and equally at home in scenes of joy or of 
 mourning ; in humble cottages and elegant mansions. 
 
 The oldest son of Dr. Rogers, one of the first volunteers 
 of the war, was killed near Gaines' Mill, in the battles 
 before Richmond. Eight other children survive, all living 
 in or near New York. 
 
 From The Christian Intelligencer, Oct. 26th, 1881. 
 Rev. Dr. Rogers combined to an unusual degree the 
 qualities of a Christian minister. He was an able and 
 pleasing preacher, a faithful and beloved pastor, a cul- 
 tured and courted gentleman in society, a wise leader in 
 his own church and in the councils of the denomination^ 
 a helper in every good cause. His untiring activity, his 
 absorption in the work given him to do, and his con- 
 
57 
 
 scientiousness in the minutest details of his duties 
 probably hastened the decline of his health. The one 
 burden of his lament during these last days was the feel- 
 ing that he was "useless." He was greatly and widely 
 beloved, because he was so genial and kindly to all. He 
 prized, as the best compliment ever paid him, the remark 
 of one in whose presence his name was mentioned : " Dr. 
 Rogers ! Yes, that is the man who comforts everybody." 
 It was doubtless a double measure of the Divine Com- 
 forter that made him such. And we can testify that 
 these same comforts, which he shed on so many broken 
 hearts and darkened homes, are now returned in showers 
 of peace and consolation on his own greatly afflicted 
 household. 
 
 Dr. Rogers was favored in having about him an unu- 
 sually valuable band of Elders, such as Thomas C. Dore- 
 mus, Erastus C. Benedict, Judge Slosson, James Morrison, 
 and Matthew Bird, many of whom preceded him to their 
 reward and will welcome him into the joy of their Lord. 
 He was not " useless," as he deemed, even when unused 
 for active duty ; — only the worn-out weapon had to lie 
 passive for a little while under the fiery blows which 
 were fashioning it for a higher service. 
 
 The Reformed Church will mourn and miss him. A 
 conspicuous and beloved figure has passed from her 
 
58 
 
 scenes and service. But she thanks the great Head of 
 the Church, that He sent to her and continued to her so 
 long such a loyal and zealous, such an able and useful 
 son as Ebenezer P. Rogers. 
 
 From The New York Observer, Oct. zyth, 1881. 
 Dr. E. p. Rogers' Death. 
 
 Alas ! that we must maj'ce the sad record, but he is 
 dead. Our friend and brother, in whom we have long 
 delighted, in whom our readers have delighted, in whom 
 the Church has taken great delight, is dead. 
 
 Nineteen years ago he was settled over the South Re- 
 formed Dutch Church in the City of New York, where he 
 has labored with fidelity, enthusiasm, and great success, 
 until he was constrained by the failure of his health to 
 resign his charge in the early part of this year, 1881. 
 
 Besides the pulpit, the press has been largely used by 
 Dr. Rogers. He has published several sermons and 
 volumes, and for many years has been one of the most 
 valued and popular writers in the New York Observer. 
 His expositions in this paper of the Sabbath-school les- 
 sons have been extensively read and immensely useful, 
 repeated requests being made for their preservation in 
 a volume. 
 
59 
 
 No pastor in New York was more diligent, devoted 
 and faithful. He bore his people on his heart. Every 
 family and every child of his charge was his personal 
 friend, and he won them to himself by his genial, kindly, 
 tender nature ; being in sympathy with them in every 
 time of sorrow and of joy. His house was open as his 
 heart, and with a charming family around him, the social 
 and domestic circle was attractive to his people, who were 
 always welcome. Thus the young were fond of him. He 
 was their brother as well as their pastor ; he won them to 
 himself and led them to Christ and Christian work. 
 Surrounded by an able and faithful body of elders to 
 hold up his hands, he was a power in the city. No 
 pastor was more generally beloved in his own and other 
 congregations : no one was more frequently called to 
 take part in public meetings, and no one was more ac- 
 ceptable and successful on such occasions. 
 
 In the social circle he was a shining light in whom all 
 rejoiced. Full of anecdote, overflowing with good hu- 
 mor and innocent pleasantry, he was beyond all doubt 
 the most popular minister in the midst of his ministerial 
 brethren and friends. To know him there, was to love 
 him. 
 
 About four years ago he had a premonition of evil in 
 the breaking a blood-vessel behind the eye and the sudden 
 
6o 
 
 loss of its sight. But it did not prevent the performance 
 of his usual labors, and he often said that one eye an- 
 swered all the purposes of two. But his health has been 
 gradually giving way. He sought rest in foreign travel 
 and returned without much improvement. His devotion 
 to his pulpit was heroic. When he was altogether unfit 
 for public labor he would drag himself to his place, and 
 with the earnestness of a dying man proclaim the Word. 
 What unction and tenderness, what pathos and power, 
 now were revealed in his words ! His own heart was 
 filled with love for souls, and he felt that the time was 
 short. He preached while he could, and longer than his 
 friends thought that he should. At last he laid down his 
 charge and retired broken-hearted, sorrowing most of all 
 that he could preach the Gospel no more. 
 
 In the early spring he was moved to Montclair, N. J., 
 for the benefit of rural surroundings, and there he has 
 passed the summer with his family and in the midst of 
 friends. Cheerful and patient under the will of God, 
 sending messages of love and hope to his brethren who 
 were anxious to hear of his state, he has been waiting for 
 the end. Last Saturday afternoon he walked out as 
 usual, but on his return appeared to be more feeble, and 
 a little before nine o'clock in the evening he rested from 
 all his labors and sufferings in the joy of the Lord. 
 
6i 
 
 From the New York Observer, November 3, 1881. 
 THE BURIAL OF DR. ROGERS. 
 
 Concourse of Clergymen : Words of Affection : The Great Congregation : 
 Touching Tributes to His Memory. 
 
 In forty years and more of life in New York city, I 
 have never seen so many clergymen assembled at the 
 funeral of one of their number as were present Thursday 
 (October 27) at the services in memory of the late Eben- 
 ezer Piatt Rogers, D.D. They were held in the South Re- 
 formed Church, of which he was, through eighteen happy 
 years, the honored and beloved pastor. 
 
 An hour before the public services, his brethren of the 
 clergy met in the chapel. The assembly was very re- 
 markable for numbers and character, all the evangelical 
 denominations being largely represented by many of their 
 most distinguished ministers. The Rev. Dr. Hitchcock, 
 President of the Theological Seminary, was called to the 
 chair, and the Rev. Dr. Armitage led in a tender and 
 appropriate prayer. When a committee had been ap- 
 pointed to embody the sentiment of the brethren in reso- 
 lutions of respect and affection, they went on to speak 
 freely of him, one after another, in terms of admiration 
 and love. It was not surprising that all loved him, but 
 
62 
 
 it was strange to hear that all loved him so much. And 
 their memories of him were the pleasantest. His warm, 
 genial nature, his welcome to those who sought him in 
 his home and his study, his readiness to deny himself to 
 do a favor, his deep personal piety, impressing every one 
 with a sense of his nearness to God, and longing for the 
 souls of men — these features of his character were dwelt 
 upon by several speakers with fondness. Others de- 
 lighted to recur to his playful humor, his flashing wit, so 
 bright and yet always so kind, never wounding, always 
 pleasing ; making him the life of every social circle, the 
 light and joy of every house which enjoyed his presence. 
 
 At this point one of the ministers produced a letter 
 received that day from a distant friend, relating an inci- 
 dent in the city life of Dr. Rogers, which was recognized 
 as exceedingly characteristic. 
 
 " Through a delightful social intercourse of many 
 years, I have had occasion, again and again, to mark his 
 generous nature, as well as his genial soul. With a 
 sparkling wit, accompanied always with a most benevo- 
 lent purpose, and a desire both to amuse and instruct, 
 his conversation delighted every circle in which he 
 moved. One day he had an amusing interview with 
 a friend whom he met in one of the public conveyances 
 of the city. Dr. R. said to him : 
 
63 
 
 " ' My friend, I am glad to meet you. I want to ask 
 you to give three hundred dollars to an object in which 
 I am much interested, and in which I hope you will 
 be.' 
 
 " The Doctor then stated to his friend the object for 
 which he was soliciting contributions. After first a refu- 
 sal, and then a reconsideration of the sudden appeal, the 
 gentleman replied : 
 
 " ' Dr. Rogers, I will give you the sum you ask on one 
 condition ; that you will allow me to put upon your tomb- 
 stone this inscription : " And it came to pass that the 
 beggar died." ' 
 
 "The Doctor, with his characteristic quickness in rep- 
 artee, said at once: ' Certainly I will, if you will add the 
 remainder of the verse, " and was carried by the angels 
 into Abraham s bosom." 
 
 Other speakers went back to their recollections of him 
 when he wa,s a boy at the village school, and freely said 
 that many of the fine and beautiful traits of character 
 that adorned his ministerial walk and conversation, were 
 visible in the days of his early youth. One venerable 
 man said, " I have been in the ministry near him in every 
 place, but one, in which he has been settled, and he has 
 everywhere and always been the same delightful, charm- 
 
64 
 
 ing friend, the same devout man of God, winning all 
 hearts to himself, and leading souls to Christ." The 
 words, love, lovely, loving, were more frequently than 
 any others on the lips of the speakers. No other words 
 seemed to meet the heart-wants of those who were try- 
 ing to express their feelings now that he was gone. 
 
 There was no time to pursue these remarks, which fol- 
 lowed one another in rapid succession, for the hour had 
 come when we must take up the precious body of our 
 brother and bear it into the house of God, where the great 
 congregation was waiting. Devout men carried Stephen 
 to his burial, and a more goodly company than ours sel- 
 dom, if ever, attended a saint on his way to the grave. 
 The elders of his church, who had stood by him so long 
 and so lovingly, and his people and friends from other 
 churches, and men of business, senators and secretaries, 
 learned and eloquent professors and presidents, pastors 
 and authors of wide fame, and men of business and wealth, 
 and the poor whom he had befriended, joined in the pro- 
 cession, as we walked with the remains of our friend and 
 laid them reverently in front of the pulpit which had been 
 the throne and seat of his power. The house was heavily 
 draped with the symbols of mourning, but there was no 
 need of them, for sorrow sat on every face and pressed 
 heavily on every heart. We listened to the triumphant 
 
6s 
 
 words of Paul, and rejoiced in the hope of that day when 
 this mortal shall put on immortality. We sang hymns 
 that the dead, while yet living, had been fond of singing ; 
 for to all his other gifts he added yet this also, that he 
 could lead the songs of the saints in the sanctuary, and 
 often did, to the praise of Christ and the joy of his people. 
 Then we prayed for the stricken household and the smitten 
 church, and tried to put our hands into those of Him 
 whom we call our Elder Brother; one born for adversity, 
 and who wept with them who mourned a brother dead. 
 
 The three addresses which were made were full of pre- 
 cious memories of the departed, warm eulogies, that must 
 have seemed extravagant to those, if any such were in 
 the house, who did not know him of whom they were 
 spoken. But when Dr. Taylor and Dr. Chambers de- 
 clared there was no pastor in the city more nearly perfect 
 as a model of all that is to be desired in a pastor, they 
 were free to challenge denial and to assert it in the hear- 
 ing of that great throng of men who held the same high 
 office. I thought it the finest eulogy by one pastor of 
 another, when Dr. Chambers said : " I have often thought 
 if I were a layman coming into the city with a family of 
 children. Dr. Rogers would be my choice for a pastor, 
 before all others." And when he had laid these honest 
 words upon his memory, and shed warmer tears, the great 
 5 
 
66 
 
 assembly came forward and looked in sadness and silence 
 upon the face of the dead. What a procession of mourn- 
 ers ! It was a long procession of friends sorrowing that 
 they should see his placid face no more. 
 
 Iren^US. 
 
 From the Cazenovia Republican. 
 ■ DEATH OF REV. DR. E. P. ROGERS. 
 
 Our community have received the intelligence of the 
 death of Rev. Dr. E. P. Rogers with feelings of profound 
 sorrow. 
 
 The Doctor was well known to all our people, having 
 passed a number of his summer vacations among us, in 
 our healthful and beautiful village. 
 
 Here he rested from the labors of the year, and by 
 such rest and the invigorating climate of this region, laid 
 up a stock of health for the year to come. 
 
 But the Doctor, while resting, was not idle ; he went 
 about doing good. He was known and welcomed at the 
 bedside of the sick and in the home of the poor ; and by 
 his kind deeds and loving words he became the warm 
 friend of all he met. The older people loved him for his 
 words of sympathy and comfort ; the middle-aged loved 
 
67 
 
 him for his wise counsels and words of encouragement ; 
 tho children loved him for his genial and happy spirit. 
 
 Our Church loved him for the faithful and eloquent 
 way in which he so openly proclaimed to us the truth of 
 his Divine Lord. 
 
 We shall all miss him, but he has left an influence for 
 good among us which will be enduring. 
 
 W. 
 
 Article by Rev. Dr. Van Santvoord, 
 
 In the " Christian Intelligencer^^ November '^oth, l88i. 
 
 THE LATE REV. DR. E. P. ROGERS. 
 
 Mr. Editor: Many of your readers knew and loved the 
 late Dr. Rogers so well, and valued his many Christian 
 virtues so highly, that they feel in his death a sense of 
 personal bereavement. A Christian life so earnest and 
 consistent in its consecration to a single high object, so 
 symmetrical in its parts, so fruitful in its results, teaches 
 lessons fitted to impress and improve us all. 
 
 Dr. Rogers' ministry in the Ref. Dutch Church began 
 in 1856, and continued for a quarter of a century. He 
 had served both the Congregational and Presbyterian 
 
68 
 
 churches previously — the latter Church having enjoyed 
 his labors from 1843 to the time of his entering on the 
 pastorate of the First Reformed Church of Albany, N.Y. 
 Though not much known at that time to the ministers of 
 our communion, his name soon became familiar through- 
 out the churches of our order. A few months after his 
 settlement at Albany he attended the General Synod at 
 Ithaca, in 1857. He was known personally to but few of 
 the delegates, and some curiosity was felt as to the gifts 
 of the new man who had come from a sister denomina- 
 tion to take charge of one of the strongest and most in- 
 fluential of our churches. The impression could not well 
 have been more favorable. His frankness, his cordial 
 manners, his genial spirit, his readiness and pertinence as 
 a debater without a particle of assumption, the interest 
 he took in the business of the Synod and the tact he 
 showed in carrying it forward, his earnestness and fervor 
 in matters touching the interests of the Church, with his 
 uniform courtesy and gentleness, won for him a warm 
 place in the regards of the brethren. That Synod, over 
 which the writer happened to preside, was memorable as 
 the one which decided to sever the connection which had 
 hitherto subsisted between the Ref. Dutch Church and 
 the American Board of Foreign Missions, and establish a 
 separate For. Miss. Board. The discussion was prolonged 
 
69 
 
 and animated, and I well remember how heartily Dr. 
 Rogers espoused this project — as presenting fresh motives 
 to the Church to labor and give, and rise to a higher con- 
 secration ; and how those who were timid and hesitating 
 found in his glowing arguments courage to go forward, 
 leaving difficulties to vanish, as he declared they must, 
 before the might of faith, prayer, and labor. The influ- 
 ence of his persuasive words was marked, and helped to 
 secure a well-nigh unanimous vote in favor of the 
 measure. 
 
 On the Sunday during the meeting of the Synod, Dr. 
 Rogers preached in the Reformed Church where the 
 sessions were held. His text was: "If any man 
 sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ 
 the righteous." The sermon was preached without notes, 
 thus enhancing its effect — his musical intonations impart- 
 ing tenderness and pathos to the accents that "besought 
 men in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God." He 
 showed how fully he understood the power of preaching 
 "Christ crucified," and how adapted such preaching is to 
 every man's needs. Certainly the impression was very 
 happy. 
 
 Though Dr. Rogers had come to the Synod a stranger, 
 he returned well known, esteemed by all, and on terms 
 of warm friendliness with many,^-who, as they came to 
 
70 
 
 know him longer, learned to honor and love him more. 
 He seemed to us — so heartily did he adapt himself to 
 his new home and surroundings — never to have been an 
 alien, but always to have lived among us. He was 
 through and through a loyal servant and supporter of his 
 adopted Church — not in any sectarian spirit, indeed, for 
 all churches, so they were true Christians, were dear to 
 him — but he placed himself in heartiest accord with the 
 body of Christians where his lot was cast, upholding its 
 institutions, promoting its charities, giving aid and com- 
 fort to its Boards, and doing earnestly, gladly and persist- 
 ently whatever his hand found to do to add to its 
 strength and prosperity. The heart of the Church 
 warmed to him, and the place of trust and honor given 
 him in her Boards and Councils detracted nothing from 
 the high estimate in which he was held by Christians of 
 other names. Every field which Providence assigned 
 him he cultivated with' his best diligence as beneath the 
 Master's eye, and every position he occupied at the bid- 
 ding of the Church he filled well, performing its duties 
 with conscientious fidelity. Did space allow, I would 
 like to speak of his six years' pastorate in Albany, where 
 his Christian enterprise and activity, his pastoral assidui- 
 ty, his fervid preaching, his genial, loving and catholic 
 temper, his unwearied labors in behalf of the Church and 
 
71 
 
 man's best interests, impressed the people as few pastors 
 succeed in doing. 
 
 I may not dwell upon this, nor upon his eighteen years' 
 fruitful labors in his last charge in New York, where the 
 rare qualities he possessed drew people to his ministry, 
 and kept his church full during all his pastorate there. We 
 mingle our lamentations with those who were wont to 
 hear his voice and who weep because they shall see his 
 face no more. But He, who in His wisdom has put this 
 " lover and friend far from us," consoles us with the 
 assurance that, following him as he followed Christ, we 
 shall greet him in 'due time among the "innumerable 
 company " of " the saints in light," — where it will be 
 given us to see eye to eye, and learn the full meaning of 
 the Inspired Word, when it says, " They that be wise 
 shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they 
 that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and 
 ever." 
 
RESOLUTIONS FROM VARIOUS SOCIETIES. 
 
 University of the City of New York. 
 Washington Square. 
 
 New York, December ist, 1881. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council, held at the council room, 
 on the first day of December, 1881, Rev. A. R. Thomp- 
 son, D.D., and S. O. Vanderpoel, M.D., LL.D., the 
 committee appointed to prepare a minute on the death of 
 the Rev. E. P. Rogers, D.D., a member of the Council, 
 reported the following, which was unanimously adopted 
 by the Council : 
 
 The committee to whom was referred the duty of pre- 
 paring a memorial of the late Rev. Dr. Rogers, respect- 
 fully report the following : 
 
 Through a long and useful life, Rev. Dr. Ebenezer P. 
 Rogers maintained the integrity of a high-toned Christian 
 character. Naturally he was characterized by great amia- 
 bility. He had the advantage of fine culture. He was hab- 
 itually industrious, and with a clear sense of duty and re- 
 
n 
 
 sponsibility, and with entire devotion fulfilled his worlc to 
 the end. Out of this grew a life of great sweetness, kindli- 
 ness, genial winsomeness, and indefatigable usefulness. 
 No man could be a more delightful companion, nor a 
 more faithful friend. It pleased God to keep him in po- 
 sitions of large responsibility and wide influence, where a 
 man of his eminent fidelity could fulfil a grand measure 
 of usefulness ; and such usefulness was his great charac- 
 teristic. In his own denomination and church he was 
 greatly beloved, and all his intercourse with us, as a mem- 
 ber of this Council, was bright with genial kindness, and 
 marked with faithful devotion to the interests of the Uni- 
 versity. 
 
 Sadly, but not without thankfulness for the delightful 
 memories of him, the Council do hereby direct this min- 
 ute to be entered on its records, and to be communicated 
 to his church and to his family. 
 
 Extract from the minutes. 
 
 Wm. R. Martin, 
 
 Secretary. 
 
 John Taylor Johnston, President. 
 
 Rev. John Hall, D.D., Chancellor ad interim. 
 
 Wm. R. Martin, Secretary. 
 
 Wm. a. Wheelock, Treasurer. 
 
74 
 
 American Tract Societv, ) 
 
 150 Nassau St., N. Y. V 
 
 December, 9, 1881. ) 
 
 Dear Mrs. Rogers: I enclose a copy of a minute 
 adopted by our Executive Committee at its last meeting, 
 which I hope may give you and your family a little com- 
 fort, as one of a thousand testimonies how much your 
 dear husband was trusted and beloved. I do not know 
 when a city pastor has been so universally a favorite 
 among his brethren. We went somewhat out of our 
 course in passing this minute, inasmuch as he was not at 
 the time a member of our committee. 
 
 With sincere condolence, 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 W. W. Rand. 
 
 From the Minutes of the Executive Committee. 
 
 At a meeting of the Committee held November 21st, 
 1881, the following minute was adopted : 
 
 " The Committee cannot forbear to place upon its 
 records some brief tribute of esteem and affection in 
 memory of Rev. E. P. Rogers, D.D., who has recently 
 gone to his reward, October 22d, in his 64th year. At 
 the last Anniversary, Dr. Rogers had been ten years a 
 member of this Committee, and the Publishing Com- 
 mittee, but was then reluctantly compelled to withdraw 
 
75 
 
 by his increasing ill health. The Committee mourn him 
 as a brother beloved, a genial companion, a wise counsel-, 
 or, a model pastor, a graceful and effective preacher, an 
 associate in this and many other forms of Christian work, 
 remarkably ready, prompt and able. He loved the ser- 
 vice of Christ, and when called by Providence to lay it 
 down, his own deep and sore regrets were only equaled 
 by the profound sorrow of his co-laborers." 
 
 A true copy. 
 
 W. W. Rand, 
 
 Secretary. 
 
 American Bible Society. ) 
 
 New York, Nov. nth, 1881. j 
 Mrs. Rogers : 
 
 My dear Madam — -It affords me great satisfaction to 
 transmit to you, under instructions from the Board of 
 Managers of the American Bible Society, the enclosed 
 paper concerning their sense of loss, in the removal of 
 your highly esteemed husband. 
 
 He has found rest in the home above, but the doctrine 
 of the Book he loved so well assures us that " We still 
 are one, despite of change and time." 
 I am 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 A. S. Hunt, 
 
 Cor. Sec'y. 
 
76 
 
 American Bible Society, | 
 
 Bible House, Astor Place, v 
 
 New York, Nov. 9th, 1881.) 
 
 At the stated meeting of the Board of Managers ot the 
 American Bible Society, held at the Bible House, Nov. 
 3d, 1 88 1, the following minute was unanimously adopted: 
 
 The earthly life of the Rev. Ebenezer P. Rogers, D.D., 
 recently pastor of the South Reformed Church in this 
 city, terminated on the 22d day of October last. His 
 interest in the work of the American Bible Society has 
 ever been decided, and he was unanimously elected in 
 May, 1880, to fill the vacancy in the Standing Committee 
 on Anniversaries, occasioned by the death of the lamented 
 Dr. Hutton. 
 
 This Committee had occasion to meet more frequently 
 than usual shortly after he became a member of it, in 
 order to make arrangements for the Wyckliffe Semi- 
 millennial Celebration, and his associates had therefore 
 good opportunity to learn how wise he was in counsel, 
 and how kindly and genial in his bearing. 
 
 The Board of Managers place upon their minutes a 
 sincere expression of their sorrow in being so soon 
 deprived of the valued services of Dr. Rogers as a mem- 
 ber of the Committee on Anniversaries, while they 
 recognize in his removal an impressive lesson concerning 
 
71 
 
 the necessity of the most prompt and faithful service in 
 
 the Master's cause, " for the night cometh when no man 
 
 can work." The Secretaries are hereby instructed to 
 
 transmit a copy of this minute to the family of Dr. 
 
 Rogers, and to publish the same in the Bible Society 
 
 Record. 
 
 (From the minutes.) 
 
 Caleb T. Rowe, 
 
 Recg. Secy. 
 
EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS OF FRIENDS. 
 
 One of his dearly-loved brethren in the ministry- 
 writes : " A note apprised me of the home-going of my 
 much loved friend. Considering whither he has gone I 
 cannot say I am sorry that he has gone as he did ; the 
 gentle falling asleep on the Saturday night, to awake in 
 heaven's own Eternal Sabbath Morning, is very sweet to 
 my heart. He has not outlived his work, and while the 
 circle on earth is broken for a season, we must not for- 
 get that, on the other side, there has been reunion, and 
 there is especially the ' being at home with the Lord.' 
 
 " I feel ■ myself bereaved. I loved him tenderly and 
 truly. I always knew where to find him. He was closer 
 to me than any other brother in the ministry ; our inti- 
 macy was of the tenderest sort. I had learned to lean 
 upon his friendship, and I feel as if I had lost one of my 
 most reliable companions. So, perhaps more than most, 
 I am sorrowing, ' sorrowing, yet rejoicing,' for we know 
 that he has gone to his reward, and heaven is more 
 attractive from his presence there." 
 
 Another well-known clergyman, regretting his un- 
 
79 
 
 avoidable absence from the funeral services, says : " I have 
 known Dr. Rogers for almost forty years, and in propor- 
 tion as my acquaintance with him has become more 
 intimate, I have held him in higher and more affectionate 
 esteem. It is a real grief to me to feel that I am not 
 again to meet him on earth." 
 
 One of his special friends, also a minister, writes: 
 "Among all my associates, none so tender and clinging 
 as he. He was scarcely any older than I, yet he seemed 
 so much stronger and larger in the comprehensiveness 
 and breadth of his wisdom and love, that an element of 
 filial deference was always present in my feelings toward 
 him. I admired and honored as much as I loved him. 
 
 " Nobody can take his place toward his family or to- 
 ward the rest of us. Nobody can be so quick to see all 
 wants except his own, or so blind to all mistakes and 
 shortcomings except his own — so genial, so cheering, so 
 helpful, so large-hearted and generous and tender as he." 
 
 Again, a clergyman writes : " Let us rejoice that his 
 threescore and four years were filled with the works of a 
 faithful ministry, works that shall follow him, and rejoice 
 too in the hope of soon being reunited to him whose 
 genial, bright, social disposition may make even the 
 heavenly communion of saints more delightful, as it 
 always did the communion of saints on earth." 
 
8o 
 
 One who once had charge of a church near him, says : 
 " Our dear brother, Dr. Rogers, has been translated ! He 
 has always had a warm place in my heart. We have held 
 pleasant intercourse in many ways. The little meetings 
 for prayer in his study, his genial spirit and ready co- 
 operation in everything good ; in short everything about 
 him, I have loved to remember. When I came to New 
 York he met me with the same glow of friendship, and 
 though we have been able to see each other only oc- 
 casionally, it has always been a satisfaction to know that 
 he was near me, and I have truly loved and honored him. 
 The memory of what he was, of his eminently useful and 
 honoi-able life, cannot but be a source of the richest 
 present satisfaction and of enduring joy." 
 
 A clergyman of another denomination speaks of an 
 acquaintance with Dr. Rogers of thirty years, of inti- 
 mate and cordial relations when they were contemporary 
 pastors, and of religious conversations, when he always 
 claimed to be but " a poor sinner clinging to the Cross, 
 looking unto Jesus for everything." 
 
 A brother clergyman, who knew him only during the 
 last summer of his life, writes: " My regret is that I did 
 not know more of the Doctor ; love him more I could 
 not." 
 
 A neighboring clergyman says of him : " My kind, 
 
true, and ever-faithful friend for twenty years ! How we 
 shall miss him in Chi Alpha ! No one more beloved in 
 that circle of brethren than he! No one who leaves a 
 sweeter, purer or more gracious memory. For many 
 years I have counted Dr. Rogers to be the model pastor 
 of New York. His heart-power was prodigious, and his 
 idea of the minister was ' to heal the broken-hearted.' 
 
 " Such a man lives in the memories of his flock long 
 after all intellectual exploits are forgotten." 
 
 Still another brother in the ministry writes : " I want 
 to gratify my own heart by saying how very much I 
 loved beloved Dr. Rogers, now at rest in God, and how 
 tenderly I shall cherish his memory. I count his friend- 
 ship among my precious things, and hope to renew it in a 
 better world." 
 
 An intimate clerical friend says : " Every one feels that 
 he was taken away before his place could afford to spare 
 him. Just because his health failed with such apparent 
 suddenness, and he passed from his graceful manly vigor 
 into infirmity and then to death, the most affectionate 
 regard is attracted to him. 
 
 " I have been greatly pleased to notice the large and 
 
 hearty terms in which the brethren have spoken of his 
 
 character and work. Few men would be more missed. 
 
 Few men have more available ability ; and fewer still 
 6 
 
82 
 
 equal him in those invaluable qualities which win men 
 and cheer them. He was a comfort to all his brethren." 
 
 From a pulpit where he had often preached during his 
 summer vacations, came this tribute : " One honored and 
 beloved among you has passed away to the things unseen. 
 Dr. Rogers, great in heart, great in conscience, who loved 
 God, and loved his fellow-men ; whose life, so pure in its 
 simplicity, will live forever in your hearts, has gone from 
 us ; but such a life death cannot end. 
 
 " It was long and useful, one of arduous and unremit- 
 ting toil. With disease encroaching upon a strong man- 
 hood, he did double work for Christ. His days of rest 
 never found him idle. A single spot in yonder lecture- 
 room is hallowed by his memory ; the groves and parks 
 around us are places where he often preached the Gospel, 
 and all bear witness to his ceaseless efforts to spread 
 abroad the Master's kingdom. Hearts have been warmed 
 to a deeper Christian love, the graces of character called 
 out to a richer life, by his love and words of kind en- 
 couragement. Many souls called from death unto life 
 are better monuments than marble. There is triumph 
 in such a life ! " 
 
 A friend who united with the second church which 
 Dr. Rogers had under his charge in his early ministry, 
 writes : " I have special occasion to remember the departed 
 
83 
 
 very tenderly, but to-night at our church prayer meeting 
 we have recalled the story of the past and the life of the 
 sainted one. We remember the sermons that he preached 
 here, the sweet savor of his life, his sunny spirit, his 
 earnest words, his fervent prayers, and have thanked God 
 for his influence over us. During the years since he left 
 us, we have followed him from place to place, rejoicing 
 in his success, in the good work done, in the wide circle 
 of noble and true friends gained ; and now he is with the 
 Christ whom he loved to preach, and sees Him, the cruci- 
 fied one. His sermon, preached here from the words, ' I 
 am determined to know,' etc., and the emphasis placed 
 on the words, 'and Him crucified,^ gave a new meaning 
 to the text." 
 
 Another says : " His work was done, and well done. His 
 sermons always comforted me, and I never heard him 
 without wishing I could do so more frequently." 
 
 Again : " I can only tell how much I loved and respected 
 Dr. Rogers. His noble character Won my admiration 
 years ago, and time has only increased it. His devoted 
 attention to my dear mother during her long illness 
 attached him to all the members of our family, and I am 
 sure his gracious presence will live in our memories as 
 long as life shall last." 
 
 And still one writes: " I must send you what I cannot 
 
84 
 
 repress. Dear Dr. Rogers has been so much to us. 
 When our mother was taken, he came right to us; when 
 our father went home, he sat and wept with us as if he 
 were our own by ties of kindred as well as of affection, 
 and so it has always been time out of mind ; now, what 
 blessed revelations, what blessed recognitions are his!" 
 
 A friend of many years says : " May I venture to tell 
 you how darkly the shadow of your deep sorrow has fall- 
 en on our hearts? We held him in full appreciation, and 
 I have no words worthy to do him honor. Lovingly will 
 we revere his memory, sorrowing most of all that we shall 
 see his face no more." 
 
 One writes : " How the absence of his weakened body 
 in the presence of his glorified Lord, must be to him 
 peace and serene happiness. His affection was always 
 very sweet and comforting, for he has been so much more 
 than even most good men are to his family and his 
 friends." 
 
 And another: " Such men do not fall asleep every day. 
 God needs them when they do. His talks, so full of 
 Christian comfort, and his warm love for the cause to 
 which he had given his life, are impressed upon my heart 
 and can never be forgotten." 
 
 A friend says : " We are shocked and grieved to the 
 very soul ; yet how happy is that weary soul to-day, his 
 
85 
 
 first Sabbath in Paradise ! May we all emulate his holy 
 life, so gentle, so noble, so sweet and pure." 
 
 Another: " Dear Dr. Rogers has reached that heaven 
 he so vividly portrayed in his beautiful sermons a few 
 years ago." 
 
 Expressing sincere sympathy with those bereaved, one 
 says : " From many years of intercourse with dear Dr. 
 Rogers, I had come to cherish for him a sincere regard 
 and affection, and his death was to me the loss of a friend. 
 His last visit at my house is fresh in my memory." 
 
 One of the kindred writes: "How many pleasures I 
 have owed to him, and what comfort in all times of our 
 affliction ! His brightness and readiness, his tender sym- 
 pathy, his excellent taste and judgment and varied 
 abilities are not only models but precious treasures in 
 remembrance." 
 
 Again : " What a precious legacy his memory is ! He 
 always made religion so attractive to young and old, 
 that by his very manner, as well as words, he could win 
 souls to Christ. In his own words of sympathy to me, 
 ' Tears are for us who linger here, not for those who are 
 now forever with the Lord.' " 
 
 One of the many to whom he had ministered speaks of 
 " the brave spirit and useful life we so loved and honored. 
 Beyond, peradventure, he has been taken to the higher 
 
86 
 
 life for which he was so fitted. How well I remember 
 when he said to me, ' For Christians, sudden death is 
 sudden benediction ! ' " 
 
 A clergyman of another denomination writes : " It 
 was a joy to me to hear the tender, appreciative words 
 which were spoken at the funeral of Dr. Rogers, and to 
 know that they carried with them the assent of all those 
 who knew with what a loving, earnest, and generous 
 spirit he had accomplished his ministry. 
 
 " In the less public service which was held in the chapel, 
 it was evident from what was said by his brethren, that 
 his friendship had been a source of great gladness and 
 help to them, and that his loss was regarded by each as 
 a personal bereavement. The testimony was unstudied, 
 sincere and impressive, and as I reflect on it, I must con- 
 gratulate you that his name is associated with so much of 
 honor and love, and the work of his life has been so nobly 
 done. 
 
 "The end of such a life must be blessed, but the extent 
 of the blessedness who of us can imagine ? " 
 
 One who had been his parishioner for some years 
 says : " Every feeling of resignation, every good deed> 
 thought, and impulse that I possess, I owe to beloved 
 Dr. Rogers. His perfect life and example, his gentle 
 words, and ever ready sympathy, his unwavering Christian 
 
87 
 
 faith, and all his perfect ways and works, will ever be 
 remembered by us all, but most sincerely and earnestly 
 by myself. I can think of nothing but his loveliness, his 
 gentleness, his goodness, and his perfect life as our exam- 
 ple. He told us, after our dear aunt's death, that ' we 
 had nothing but pleasant memories of her.' Surely, 
 those words are most fitting for him, for no pastor could 
 have been more tenderly loved, and of none could it be 
 more truly said, there are naught but pleasant memories." 
 
 A friend writes : " Among my earliest recollections of 
 men who commanded my admiration and respect, is a 
 very well defined memory of Dr. Rogers, as he was in his 
 early middle life ; and now he stands in my thoughts as 
 one for whom my regard never diminished, but rather 
 increased. When I reflect that the number of those of 
 whom I can think in that way is very limited, I am sure 
 there is reason to say of him, ' He was a great man.' " 
 
 One Sabbath morning, during his settlement in Augusta, 
 Ga., Daniel Webster took his seat among the hearers. 
 He listened with marked attention, and, after the service 
 was ended, said that he "liked that young minister; he 
 preached like a converted man I " 
 
LETTER FROM X. A. TO REV. DR. ROGERS. 
 
 Dear Bro. Rogers: We, of X. A., missed the warm 
 grasp of your hand and your hearty words of greeting 
 when we reassembled after vacation ; and almost the first 
 word, on the announcement of "miscellaneous business," 
 was, " Has any one heard from Brother Rogers f " 
 
 As the tidings came in, one was reminded of the circle 
 which surrounded ^neas, when he began the story of 
 Troy, in Dido's banqueting hall — 
 
 " Conticuere omnes intentique ora tenebant : " 
 
 and the issue of it all is that I am honored by my breth- 
 ren with the pleasant commission of conveying to you Chi 
 Alpha's greetings. 
 
 " We thank God upon every remembrance of you, for 
 your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day even 
 until now ; being confident that He who hath begun a 
 good work in you, will perfect it until the day of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 If our wishes and prayers could concentrate upon you 
 all the restful and bracing influences which have come 
 
89 
 
 to X. A. from the mountains, the sea, and the healing 
 springs, you would be strong indeed, and your place 
 among us would not long remain empty; yet, better than 
 the mountains which " bring peace," is the presence with 
 you of the God of the mountains, who also is the " God 
 of peace," and who is "round about His people as the 
 mountains are round about Jerusalem. He will not suf- 
 fer thy foot to be moved. He shall preserve thee from 
 all evil. He shall preserve thy soul." 
 
 You will be glad to learn that our brethren return to 
 their work in good health and with brave hearts. * * * * 
 
 Thus we are again together, only the poorer by the 
 lack of your genial face and familiar voice. Yet we shall 
 instruct Bro. Spaulding always to mark you "present," for 
 we know where the best part of you — your heart — always 
 is on Saturday evening. 
 
 Accept, dear brother, the renewed assurance of our 
 love and sympathy. What better can we ask for you as 
 you tarry in your tent, than that "the peace of God may 
 guard your heart in Christ Jesus "? 
 
 On behalf of X. A., I am 
 
 Very sincerely and affectionately yours, 
 
 Marvin R. Vincent. 
 
 Oct. 8, 1881. 
 
X. A. TRIBUTE. 
 
 X. A. 
 
 our brother, 
 
 Rev. E. p. Rogers, D.D. 
 
 Died October 22, 1881. 
 
 [This paper was read Nov. 5, 1881, before X. A., by Rev. S. Irenseus 
 Prime, D.D., and printed by order of the Circle.] 
 
 When Dr. Adams left us we knew that the father of 
 this band of brethren was gone. It stirs no latent jeal- 
 ousy in any breast to say that he held the highest place 
 in our hearts, and no one would or could be more deeply 
 mourned. 
 
 Dr. Rogers held us by other but not less powerful and 
 perhaps more tender ties. At any moment in the last 
 ten or fifteen years we would have unanimously chosen 
 him as the most universally beloved of this Circle. 
 
 He was for many years the Secretary of X. A. ; his re- 
 tirement, resisted as long as it was right to resist, was 
 
91 
 
 finally submitted to as a positive calamity. We then 
 procured a handsome album, and each member of the 
 Circle in turn took it home, wrote a page in it, and signed 
 his name. We all remember with what emotion he ac- 
 cepted this extraordinary testimonial, and how he de- 
 clared on this floor that he valued that book above any 
 other thing in his possession ; that he should preserve it 
 with grateful pride, and transmit it to his children. 
 
 His admiration and Jove for this Circle were chivalric 
 and sublime. Others may have equal affection and esteem 
 for it ; none have given such marked and forcible expres- 
 sion of the sentiment. 
 
 To portray the character, to catalogue the virtues, or 
 to define the attributes of this lovely and loving brother 
 in the sole hearing of the Circle in which he was " the 
 observed of all observers," is a work which I am not so 
 weak as to think of attempting. Cut down to the heart 
 of each one of us and you will find the portrait of Rogers. 
 Call up the successive evenings, the " noctes ambro- 
 sianae," we have enjoyed with him, and each night is 
 lighted with a joyous or a pathetic memory of something 
 Rogers said. No one remembers a sharp or querulous 
 word ; his were words of grace seasoned with salt — Attic 
 salt sometimes, that never loses its savor ; his playful 
 speech half unuttered, as if he were ashamed to disturb 
 
92 
 
 the gravity of a Circle of such dignity ; his frequent an- 
 ecdote, so pertinent and brief that it hit and told,-and 
 was lost in the applause that it drew ; how he suppressed 
 his own laugh as though it had cost him an effort to re- 
 strain the story, and the rest could have the pleasure of 
 it ! I think no one will question the remark that he was 
 the most entertaining member of the company. And 
 this I have put first, because it is the least of all that is 
 to be said of him. His wit and humor were merely the 
 efflorescence of his bright and sparkling genius ; the rich, 
 ripe fruitage of his mind and heart had other exhibition. 
 And therefore his brilliant flashes and sudden repartees 
 never wounded ; and, what is more to be admired, never 
 shone mal a propos ; never disturbed the serenity of an 
 hour or moment when higher and better things than even 
 innocent amusement were before us. It is much to know 
 when to indulge in humor, and we who have no tempta- 
 tion that way, ought to be very charitable to our more 
 vivacious brethren who are so overcharged they cannot 
 hold it well in hand. 
 
 Dr. South was one of these men of exuberant wit. Dr. 
 Sherlock remonstrated with him on its too free indul- 
 gence ; but Dr. South, turning on him, said : " Dear Dr. 
 Sherlock, had it pleased the Lord to make you a wit, 
 what would you have done?" 
 
93 
 
 " Thin partitions divide the cells" in which smiles and 
 tears are held. By some strange economy of infinite 
 skill, natures like that of our dear Rogers have the ele- 
 ments of the gay and the grave, the lively and the pa- 
 thetic, in such harmony and proportions as to produce 
 the most charming and the most useful character. When 
 Dr. Rogers preached the Gospel, when he addressed the 
 great assembly from the platform, when he discussed the 
 subject for the evening in this presence, he was uniformly 
 and intensely serious. He was often sad to a remarkable 
 degree. I recall the evening when we were discussing 
 the future state of the finally impenitent. He told us, 
 with quivering lips and tearful eyes, of the awful emo- 
 tions awakened in his soul by the contemplation of the 
 theme, and he solemnly declared he accepted the revela- 
 tion of God as truth, but he could not talk about it. 
 
 His discourses were full of rich, religious, solemn, 
 and momentous truth. Every Christian hearer would be 
 instructed, edified, and gratified. It was a privilege to 
 sit at his feet. He loved to preach. He would rarely 
 let anybody preach for him if he could help it. 
 
 There may be in this city other preachers more at- 
 tractive than Dr. Rogers was, but there are none whose 
 sermons are more highly charged with all the constit- 
 uent elements of the Gospel of Christ. 
 
94 
 
 The secret of his usefulness was revealed in his work 
 as a pastor. Here he was primus inter pares. From 
 house to house, like Paul, he preached. He was the good 
 shepherd. He knew the lambs by name. No higher 
 praise could be given by one pastor to another, than the 
 tribute by Dr. Chambers to our brother at his funeral 
 when he said : " I have often thought if I were a layman 
 coming into the city with a family of children. Dr. Rogers 
 would be my choice for a pastor, before all others." 
 
 What a joy it was to be led by him in holy song ! Here 
 in our devotions, or in the house of God when we held 
 our union meetings for prayer, how his strong, sweet 
 voice was followed by the great congregation ! I never 
 heard any man's singing that seemed more like the heart- 
 utterance of one in converse with heaven. 
 
 " When one that holds communion with the skies 
 Has filled his urn where these pure waters rise. 
 And once more mingles with us meaner things, 
 'Tis e'en as if an angel shook his wings ; 
 Immortal fragrance fills the circuit wide, 
 That tells us whence his treasures are supplied." 
 
 Few of US knew how much physical pain he endured. 
 Long years ago, before he came to New York, I knew 
 the fierce agonies that sometimes seemed more than mor- 
 tal could suffer and yet survive. And in the midst of 
 
95 
 
 this Circle he has told those near him often, that his an- 
 guish was inexpressible. But in this great fight of af- 
 fliction, endured as seeing the invisible, he made pastoral 
 visits, he climbed his pulpit stairs, he preached the Word, 
 though every movement was a protracted pang. 
 
 Happy are we to have lived and been X. A. with dear 
 Rogers. His memory is fragrant as roses. It is almost 
 impossible to be sad in thinking of him, even as one who 
 is forever gone from the Circle, thoughts of him are so 
 delightful. " Very pleasant hast thou been unto us," we 
 keep on saying; and his wonderful loveliness appears the 
 more as we think it is hereafter to be only a memory. 
 
 A few years ago a blood-vessel broke behind one of his 
 eyes, and the suffusion extinguished its sight. He was 
 able to see quite as well with one eye as with two ; but 
 he knew that the rupture indicated tendency to apoplexy, 
 and that if the discharge had been upon the brain, it 
 would have been fatal. It is not strange that he felt 
 himself now peculiarly liable to a stroke of death.* He 
 had apprehensions that settled into convictions, that his 
 life was not to be long continued. 
 
 When too feeble to conduct the worship in his family. 
 
 * His father died of apoplexy at the age of forty-seven, and none of his 
 ancestors had passed sixty-four years. 
 
96 
 
 and another led the devotions, he added to the daily 
 prayer these words : " God be merciful to me a sinner." 
 
 He rode out almost daily with one of the family. He 
 had been so weak during the summer, and his speech was 
 so much impeded by the paralysis affecting his mouth, 
 that he could not have the society of his friends ; but he 
 did enjoy the autumn scenery. As he rode in the midst 
 of it, he spoke often of its beauty and of his joy in God, 
 who was now the strength of his heart. On the last day 
 of his life, two weeks ago to-day, he walked out with his 
 daughter, and as they returned toward evening, he com- 
 plained of being more feeble; a gentle stroke — the hand 
 of death was very gentle — and at'a quarter before nine 
 o'clock, P. M., Saturday, October 22, 1881, he quietly fell 
 on sleep, and awoke with the Lord. 
 
 His remains were brought from Montclair to this city, 
 and to the church of his eighteen years' pastoral love and 
 care. 
 
 In forty years and more of life in New York City, I 
 have never seen so many clergymen assembled at the 
 funeral of one of their number as were present (October 
 27) at the services in his memory. 
 
 An hour before the public services, his brethren of the 
 clergy met in the chapel. The assembly was very re- 
 markable for numbers and character, all the evangelical 
 
97 
 
 denominations being largely represented by many of their 
 most distinguished ministers. The Rev. Dr. Hitchcock, 
 President of the Theological Seminary, was called to the 
 chair, and the Rev. Dr. Armitage led in a tender and ap- 
 propriate prayer. When a committee had been appointed 
 to embody the sentiment of the brethren in resolutions 
 of respect and affection, they went on to speak freely of 
 him, one after another, in terms of admiration and love. 
 It was not surprising that all loved him, but it was 
 strange to hear that all loved him so much. And their 
 memories of him were the pleasantest. His warm, genial 
 nature, his welcome to those who sought him in his home 
 and in his study, his readiness to deny himself to do a 
 favor, his deep personal piety, impressing every one with 
 a sense of his nearness to God, and longing for the souls 
 of men — these features of his character were dwelt upon 
 by several speakers with fondness. Others delighted to 
 recur to his playful humor, his flashing wit, so bright and 
 yet so kind, never wounding, always pleasing ; making 
 him the life of every social circle, the light and joy of 
 every house which enjoyed his presence. 
 
 The funeral services were conducted by members of 
 this Circle, addresses being made by three of our num- 
 ber, and then the great assembly came forward and looked 
 in sadness and silence upon the face of the dead. 
 7 
 
98 
 
 Next morning we went with the remains to Fairfield, 
 Conn., and laid him by the side of his parents in the rural 
 cemetery there. It was a lovely October day when we 
 went out of town into the country to find a grave for our 
 brother. Autumn leaves were falling all about us. The 
 " melancholy days, the saddest of the year," had come. 
 But beyond the autumn and the winter, beyond the cold- 
 ness and the darkness of the tomb, the light of a brighter 
 morn than this was breaking on our weeping eyes. 
 
 And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, " Thy brother 
 shall rise again." 
 
LAST SERMON. 
 
 Jan. 23, 1881. 
 
 " And it shall come to pass in that day that the light shall not be clea 
 nor dark : but it shall be one day that shall be known to the Lord, not day 
 nor night : but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light." 
 — Zachariah xiv. 6, 7. 
 
 The prophet Zachariah and the prophet Hagg'ai flour- 
 ished and prophesied about the same period, or eighteen 
 years after the return of the Jews from their captivity in 
 Babylon, though Zachariah continued longer in the pro- 
 phetic office than Haggai. They were both greatly in- 
 terested in the building of the second temple, and did 
 much for the restoration of Jerusalem to something like 
 its former prosperity. Zachariah did not begin to pro- 
 phesy quite as early as his colleague, but he continued 
 longer, and his prophetic writings are rather in a loftier 
 strain, and are more especially concerned with the com- 
 ing of the Messiah, and the glories of that auspicious 
 period. He was a bold and fearless public teacher, as in- 
 deed most of the old Hebrew prophets were, for they 
 were an extraordinary body of men, rebuking with un- 
 
lOO 
 
 sparing severity the people for sin, pointing them to the 
 fierce judgments of God ; calling them to repentance, 
 and assuring them of forgiveness and mercy, whenever 
 they would repent and return to the Lord ; and bearing 
 all their plain, stern, uncompromising utterances, whether 
 of rebuke or of promise, on the simple authority of the 
 divine word. You will find that very commonly their 
 prophecies are introduced in this language : the " word 
 of the Lord came to Zachariah," or "the burden of the 
 word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi." It was always 
 the word of the Lord, and armed with that, these com- 
 missioned religious teachers of the ancient Hebrews felt 
 that they could use the plainest language, and deal with 
 their hearers in the most uncompromising manner; even 
 at the risk of incurring the disapprobation, the opposi- 
 tion, and even the persecution of the people. It has 
 been said that the part which the prophets played in 
 ancient Israel might be compared to that which belongs 
 to the free and independent press in modern days. 
 
 The prophet tells us his name ; Zachariah the son of 
 Barachiah, the son of Iddo. And some critics are of the 
 opinion that he is referred to by our Lord, Matt, xxiii. 35, 
 as that Zachariah, the son of Barachiah, who was slain 
 between the temple and the altar. There are some things 
 said in this prophecy concerning the Messiah being smit- 
 
lOI 
 
 ten and being wounded in the house of his friends, which 
 favor the idea, and also that Zachariah was truly a type 
 of Christ himself, and that being assaulted by his perse- 
 cutors, he took refuge in the court of the priests, being 
 himself a priest, and so " was slain between the porch 
 and the altar." 
 
 The time when the word of the Lord came to Zacha- 
 riah is said to be in the second year of Darius. This 
 shows that it must have been after the captivity, for had 
 it been before that sad era, the chronology would have 
 dated in the reign of either of the kings of Judah or of 
 Israel, whichever it might have been ; but now all that 
 was changed, and things were dated by the reign of the 
 kings of Persia, to whom the Hebrews were subject, 
 so that the very date of the prophet's message shows us 
 that was in the dark age of Israel, and the period of their 
 bitter degradation. 
 
 It is not according to our purpose to consider this 
 prophecy at all in detail. This only can be said, that 
 while the prophet does not spare the Jewish people in 
 reproving them for sin on sin, threatening God's wrath 
 upon such as did not repent under his warnings, yet the 
 general strain of his prophecy is encouraging and hope- 
 ful, and they who feared God and trusted in Him had 
 good reason to hope that the future had in it abundance 
 
I02 
 
 of mercy, connected with the coming of the Messiah and 
 the setting up of His kingdom in the world. Under the 
 figure, which is often repeated, of a day, a day of the Lord, 
 which was not to be all cloudy, nor light, but of a mixed 
 and blended character, the time which was to elapse be- 
 fore the final coming of the Messiah is described as a time 
 which should be of a mixed character, not all darkness, 
 neither all light, but now with dark days and now with 
 bright ones ; while yet the course of God's providence 
 would go steadily on toward the end of the dispensation, 
 and then the light of the latter day would dawn, and the 
 day of trial and discipline, and mingled light and shade, 
 and alternations of hope and fear, sorrow and joy, antici- 
 pation and disappointment, would give place to the full- 
 orbed and permanent brightness of the evening, or the 
 final close of the dispensation. " And it shall come to 
 pass in that day that the light shall not be clear nor dark : 
 but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, 
 not day, nor night : but it shall come to pass, that at even- 
 ing time it shall be light." 
 
 From this sketch of the character of the day especially 
 referred to in this prophetic utterance, we may learn a 
 lesson as to the method of God's providence in His deal- 
 ings with individuals or with His Church, so long as they 
 are concerned with the present dispensation. 
 
I03 
 
 We learn, then, from the language of the text, that life 
 for all of us, in this world, is under the superintendence of 
 the providence of God. It is a day, one day, appointed 
 by God, sustained by God, watched over by God, and 
 subject to such laws of God's appointing, as He sees to 
 be consistent with His own wise, just, and good purposes 
 for all His creatures, whether as nations, communities or 
 individuals. 
 
 One of the most marked and universal of these divine 
 laws is, that which arranges the mixed and average char- 
 acter of our day of life. The prophet says, " It shall come 
 to pass in that day that the light shall not be clear nor 
 dark: but it shall be one day which shall be known to the 
 Lord, not day, nor night : but it shall come to pass, that at 
 evening time it shall be light." So it is of the great day 
 of human life. With none of us is it a time of unmingled 
 brightness, nor yet of deep and gloomy shadows, but of 
 alternate light and shade. No man's life is one of per- 
 petual sunshine, or of unrelieved darkness. The child 
 may fancy that it will be always summer with its genial 
 warmth, its beauteous flowers, and its luscious fruits, but 
 he soon learns that after the summer zephyrs, come " chill 
 November's surly blasts," the biting frosts, the blinding 
 snows, and the bitter cold and rigor of winter ; that each 
 season has its average amount of cold and heat, of storm 
 
I04 
 
 and sunshine, of days when the sky is gold and purple, 
 and hours when it is lead-colored and sad, and that to ex- 
 pect either constant summer or perpetual winter, would 
 alike be unnatural, unreasonable, and on the whole unde- 
 sirable. And so it is with life, as it is with the weather. 
 It is not always January, nor is it always June. Days of 
 trouble alternate with days of joy ; times of prosperity 
 with times of disaster ; sickness with health ; gratification 
 with disappointment ; gain with loss. Now and then an 
 exuberant and sanguine spirit may paint life in rosy 
 hues, or a determined hypochondriac may see nothing 
 but subdued and sober gray, often deepening into fu- 
 nereal black ; but neither of these is a wholesome or 
 normal mental condition ; and both physical, social, and 
 spiritual life in this world, according to the general expe- 
 rience of mankind, is but represented by a day, the light 
 of which shall not be " clear nor dark," not " day nor 
 night," so that we need not cherish exaggerated expec- 
 tations of good, nor indulge in extraordinary forebodings 
 of evil, both of which will inevitably unfit us for the whole- 
 some and important duties and responsibilities of life. 
 God's providence has arranged the plan of life for us in 
 infinite wisdom, so that the same set of muscles shall not 
 be always in action, or the same sensibilities always on a 
 strain, but that s.easo.ns of toil shall be relieved by seasons 
 
I05 
 
 of rest; times of depression shall be compensated by 
 times of exhilaration, and episodes of trial be counterbal- 
 anced by episodes of joy. This is a wise and benignant 
 arrangement, and one which should awaken a thoroughly 
 appreciative gratitude in our hearts. 
 
 It is in accordance with this providential law that one of 
 the wisest of men offered what I have, as you may remem- 
 ber, characterized as a wonderful prayer, " Give me neither 
 poverty nor riches." That is the happiest life, and prob- 
 ably the most useful and fruitful, which is not marked by 
 great extremes, but which is characterized by a reasona- 
 ble and happy mediocrity. And the wholesome and 
 rational view of life which enabled Agur to offer such a 
 prayer, justifies us in the opinion that he was probably a 
 happy and useful man. 
 
 It will be, my friends, a wise thing for us to accustom 
 ourselves to take moderate, and rational, and Christian 
 views of life. Regarding it first of all as marked out for us 
 by a wise and benevolent God, who knows what is best 
 for us, and is inclined " to make all things work together 
 for our good," let us accept the conditions which He has 
 arranged for us, and expect our day not clear, nor dark ; 
 not all brightness, of which we should tire ; nor all dark- 
 ness, by which we should be discouraged ; not day, rrot 
 night, but a blending of the two, in fair proportions, and 
 
io6 
 
 in reasonable measure ; in which we may do our work, 
 bear our burdens, meet our responsibilities, and enjoy our 
 comforts ; and daily grow and ripen under the blended 
 discipline of God's providence and grace for the perfect, 
 satisfying, and unchanging life to come. 
 
 But another of the laws which characterizes God's prov- 
 idence, is one to which we have no parallel in the natural 
 day, while yet it is one of the most precious and blessed 
 of all the conditions of the Christian life. It is that re- 
 vealed in the latter clause of this prophecy, " But it shall 
 come to pass that at evening-time it shall be light." 
 
 This is a very remarkable declaration, and, as we have 
 said, it is not warranted by any laws of analogy with the 
 natural day. We look for light in the morning, or at 
 noon, but evening is the season when daylight fades, and 
 the curtains of the night are drawn, and the landscape is 
 draped in gloom, which soon deepens in darkness. It is 
 the withdrawal of the light which makes the evening, and 
 nothing would surprise us more if we should see the ad- 
 vancing twilight suddenly glow with the purple and gold 
 of the noon-day, and the thickening shadows be arrested 
 by a grand outburst of light. But that which is never 
 literally true of the natural day, is often true of the prov- 
 idential day, " that at the evening time it shall be light." 
 It is true of our spiritual days, of the Christian's day, 
 
10/ 
 
 which begins when he first enters on the Christian life. 
 The dawn of that day, the day of our earlier and imma- 
 ture Christian experience, may be overcast with the 
 clouds of ignorance, with the shadows of despondency and 
 doubt, with the troubles of a reproying conscience, with 
 a growing sense of sin, and a feeling of unworthiness 
 which gives us many dark and sorrowful hours. But as 
 the day wears on and the noontide passes, many an aged 
 Christian can testify that brighter and more cheering and 
 comforting light came as the hours grew less ; and while 
 the approach of evening to the natural day brought the 
 darkening shadows, yet to the spiritual day it brought 
 increasing light. Increased knowledge of God's word 
 brought to light exceeding great and precious promises; 
 an enlarged sense of sin made him better acquainted with 
 the love of Christ and the preciousness of His atonement, 
 and protracted and sometimes bitter struggles with temp- 
 tation only made increasingly valuable the help of the 
 Holy Spirit in his infirmities, and those supplies of divine 
 strength which were perfected in his human weakness. 
 And this is in accordance with all God's promises to His 
 people ; one of these is that " the righteous shall hold on 
 his way, and he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger 
 and stronger." This is not true of our natural life ; as 
 that advances, our strength of muscle and our elasticity of 
 
io8 
 
 sinew relaxes and grows weaker, and the grasshopper be- 
 comes a burden, and the eyes grow dim, and the sky is 
 shaded or sombre. But the spiritual strength maybe re- 
 newed and the vision of the soul be quickened, the sky 
 grow clearer and brighter, and the " path of the just be as 
 a shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect 
 day." And so the Christian's last days may be his best 
 days, and though his day of spiritual life, like the day of 
 his natural, may have been "not clear, nor dark," but a 
 blending of both, yet, unlike that, at " evening time " it 
 may be calm and bright and radiant light. 
 
 And if we consider the close of day as but another term 
 to describe the close of life, and death but as the evening 
 time whose shadows must sooner or later envelop us all, 
 then there is a precious and certain truth in this language 
 applied to the close of the good man's life. " At the 
 evening time it shall be light." No matter how clouded 
 may have been the morning, how shaded even the noon- 
 day, to a true Christian the light will come with the going 
 down of the sun. There are many reasons why the best 
 we can expect of life is that it shall be a day " not clear 
 nor dark ; " a life of average comfort and hope, not always 
 bright, not always dark, but with blended light and shade, 
 sorrow and joy, hope and fear ; so that no wise man cher- 
 ishes over-strained expectations of prosperity or excep- 
 
109 
 
 tional seasons of joy, but indulges in moderate views, and 
 is contented with the average course of God's providence, 
 thankful for all the good, patient and resigned to all the 
 evil, and learning in whatever state he may be, therewith 
 to be content. But we may be certain that all clouds 
 will vanish from the Christian's sky when the sun at last 
 goes down, and " at the evening time it shall be light." 
 The western horizon shall be all aflame with purple and 
 gold ; the Sun of Righteousness will break through the 
 clouds, and all will be light. Many pious Christians,, like 
 Cowper, in gloom and despondency, have groped their 
 way to the banks of the dark river, and feaifed that the 
 valley of the shadow of death would close around them 
 to the last with its densest gloom, and have found them- 
 selves gloriously mistaken at the end. Dr. Payson, in his 
 last sickness, wrote thus to a friend : "Were I to adopt 
 the figurative language of Bunyan, I might date this 
 letter from the land of Beulah, of which I have been 
 for some weeks a happy inhabitant. The celestial city is 
 full in my view. Its glories have been upon me, its 
 breezes fan me, its odors are wafted to me, its sounds 
 strike upon my ears, and its spirit is breathed into my 
 heart. Nothing separates me frorri it but the river of 
 death, which now appears but an insignificant rill, that 
 may be crossed at a single step whenever God shall give 
 
no 
 
 me permission. The Sun of Righteousness has been 
 gradually drawing nearer and nearer, appearing larger 
 and brighter as He approached, and now He fills the whole 
 hemisphere, pouring forth a flood of glory, in which I 
 seem to float like an insect in the beams -of the sun, yet 
 almost trembling while I gaze on this excessive bright- 
 ness, and wondering with unutterable wonder why God 
 should deign thus to shine upon a sinful worm." 
 
 This indeed may not be the experience of all Chris- 
 tians. There are some, perhaps many, whose dying are 
 like their living hours, " not clear, nor dark," not day, 
 nor night, but a blending of the two ; some beams of 
 hope, yet mingled with some clouds of doubt or fear ; yet 
 nevertheless, the assurance shall be fulfilled that at " the 
 evening time it shall be light," when the sun of a Chris- 
 tian's life actually goes down. 
 
 " It sets, as sets the morning star, 
 Which goes not down behind the darkened west ; 
 Nor sinks obscured amid the tempests of the sky, 
 But melts away into the light of Heaven." 
 
 This subject has a special appropriateness to some of 
 us to-day. 
 
 The providence of God has come very near to an unu- 
 sual number of these beloved households during the last 
 
Ill 
 
 few weeks. No less than six bereaved families in this 
 church are in special sorrow, two during the last week. 
 Now it would not be strange if some of these were 
 tempted to think that the course of God's providence 
 toward them had been exceptional, and that in the blended 
 colors of the day through which they have been pass- 
 ing, there had been far more of the sombre than the 
 bright ; far more of shadow than of light. But, let me 
 remind you, dear friends, that you should take one day 
 with another, and set the light of one over against the 
 gloom of another. As you look back upon the whole of 
 the journey through which you have traveled, has not 
 the light been "not clear nor dark f " hSiS not the day 
 been not indeed of unclouded brightness, but neither of 
 despairing darkness ? Has not your path been as often 
 at least in the sunshine as in the darkness? Yea, far 
 more so ; and if you have sometimes been obliged to 
 sing the dirges of judgment, have you not also been priv- 
 ileged to chant the joyful hymns of mercy? Your life, 
 after all, has not been an exceptional life. The average 
 course of God's providence has marked its history — the 
 day has not been "clear nor dark," but blended light and 
 shade, sunshine and showers. And this is all that we 
 have any right or reason to expect ; and certainly it is 
 enough to be grateful for, even in the midst of shadows 
 
112 
 
 and sorrows. It is true that just now your day is cloudy, 
 even tempestuous, and some of your most precious 
 things have been laid low ; but how many hours of life's 
 day have been bright and happy, and what sweet and 
 blessed memories of these are left which are now un- 
 changeable and immortal ? Ah, dear friends ! it is better 
 as it is. Better that our times are in God's hand ; that 
 our day is a day which is known to the Lord, and ordered 
 by His wise and holy will ; that we cannot take it out of 
 His hands, even if we would, and that we ought not 
 even if we could. Let the day roll on, neither bright 
 nor dark, neither exuberant with joy, nor depressing nor 
 heart-breaking with sadness, but bringing us calmly and 
 hopefully to the evening time, when it shall be all and 
 always light. 
 
 And let us not forget that so it has already been with 
 the venerated and beloved ones who have gone before us. 
 
 " They have all gone unto the world of light, 
 The' we, alas 1 sit lingering here ; 
 Their very memory is fair and bright, 
 And our sad thoughts doth cheer." 
 
 When the evening came it was light for them ! For 
 the evening of the earthly was the morning of the heav- 
 
113 
 
 enly day. And to that morning no shady evening, no, 
 gray or sombre night shall ever come. 
 
 He that has found some fledged bird's nest may know 
 
 At first sight if the bird be flown ; 
 But what fair field or grove he sings in now — 
 
 That is to him unknown. 
 
 And yet as angels, in some brighter dreams, 
 
 Speak to the soul when the man doth sleep, 
 So some strange thoughts transcend oar wonted themes, 
 
 And into glory peep. 
 
 Dear, beauteous death ! the jewel of the just. 
 
 Shining nowhere but in the dark ; 
 What mysteries do lie beyond thy dust, 
 
 Could man outlook that mark !