FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
 REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON. D. D. 
 
 BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO 
 
 THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 

Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 http://archive.org/details/jameswOOharr 
 

1» I 
 
 *♦ 
 
 
 James -Wallace Weir, 
 
 Born, ^ugust 9, 1805, 
 Died, JVLarch 14, 1878. 
 
DEDICATION 
 
 To John A. Weir. 
 
 The pages which follow contain some 
 simple testimonials to the singular worth of your departed 
 brother. There is no attempt to give a full record of his 
 life and character; it is only a spontaneous tribute of the 
 general reverence and affection in which he was held, and 
 the fruit of a widely expressed wish to possess some re- 
 minder of the goodness that blessed the earth so long ere 
 it went to its home in the skies. It is the voice of a living 
 sorrow that cannot let his memory die; and as we, the 
 officers and teachers of the Sabbath School, where for so 
 many years he was the wise and beloved leader, gather 
 these testimonials of respect and love, that we may lay 
 them as flowers upon his tomb, we would tenderly connect 
 with them, your name, who knew him longer, and loved 
 him more deeply than any other of the thonsands who 
 weep with you at his grave. For more than three-score 
 years and ten, through childhood, youth and the ripened 
 years of age, you were his constant companion, entering 
 most closely into his sympathies, sharing his joys and 
 sorrows, bearing with him common burdens and common 
 honors in the family, the community and the church. It 
 gives an added pleasure to this tribute of our veneration 
 and love for him, that we may blend your honored name 
 with his. and in so doing, soften for you the grief of his 
 removal. We invoke upon you the blessing of his God 
 and ours, and assure you that the Church in whose com- 
 munion you have spent your whole life, will surround 
 your declining years with love and prayer. 
 
 We now lay before you a record of the various services 
 held to his memory, by the Sabbath School of the Church, 
 and of the tributes of respect and love paid by his friends. 
 
THE TEACHERS' MEETING. 
 
 On Friday evening, March 15, 1878, a meeting of the 
 teachers of the Sunday School was held at the residence 
 of Mrs. Isabella S. Kerr. The occasion was marked by 
 sorrow too deep for utterance. A sense of the great loss 
 which had fallen so suddenly upon the School and Church, 
 possessed the thoughts and added poignancy to the feel- 
 ing of personal bereavement experienced by every one 
 present. It was like the first meeting of a family after 
 the decease of its honored head. Few words were spoken. 
 Hon. David Fleming, the oldest in service of the teachers, 
 was called to act as Chairman, and Mr. G. M. McCauley, 
 as Secretary. Committees were appointed to purchase a 
 crayon portrait of Mr. Weir for the Sunday School room, 
 to drape the room with emblems of mourning, and to 
 prepare resolutions expressive of the sentiments of the 
 teachers. 
 
 After singing and prayer, they adjourned to meet at 
 the close of school on the following Sabbath. 
 
 THE SESSION OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 
 
 On March 17, 1878, was most impressive. The Superin- 
 tendent's chair was vacant, his desk unoccupied. Both, 
 together with the arch above, were heavily draped. On 
 the opposite wall hung (the gift of the teachers,) an excel- 
 lent life-like portrait of the honored Superintendent, 
 whose earthly life had just " faded away into the light 
 of heaven." Although the room was crowded, the rest- 
 lessness of youth was stilled, and undisturbed quiet 
 
6 
 
 reigned. The whole School was over-shadowed with the 
 . great sorrow which had fallen upon it. The thoughts of 
 all turned sadly to the stricken home across the avenue, 
 where the loved form of the absent Superintendent lay, 
 waiting for the resurrection morn. The silence was op- 
 pressive. The Assistant Superintendent, standing at the 
 end of the platform, proceeded with the opening exercises, 
 speaking in a voice almost choked with emotion, substan- 
 tially as follows : " You miss the tap of the school-bell 
 to-day because the hand so long accustomed to call forth 
 its clear tones, has forgotten its cunning, and is still in 
 death. You miss the music of our opening song because 
 the ear of him, who so much loved to listen to your sing- 
 ing, is closed to all earthly sounds, and hears only the 
 " sweet celestial strains which float along the painless, 
 peaceful shores of heaven." I need not tell you the 
 meaning of this vacant chair, I need not tell you the 
 significance of these habiliments of mourning seen for 
 the first time in this room to-day. You understand 
 them all too well. Our honored Superintendent, after 
 forty-four years of loving, faithful service, has gone 
 home to his Father's house of many mansions. He is 
 happy to-day in the "rest which remaineth for the people 
 of God." He loved this School. This room was perhaps 
 to him the dearest spot on earth, outside his home. If it 
 be true, as some think, that the departed are permitted to 
 revisit the scenes of earth, and look in upon those dear to 
 them here, we may feel assured that at this hour our 
 honored Superintendent, from out the walls of the heav- 
 enly city, is in the spirit looking down upon this his 
 beloved School. We miss his personal presence. We 
 miss his voice. He cannot join us in the reading of the 
 lesson, as was his wont Let us then read silently without 
 
the utterance of a word, the verses of the lesson which 
 he would have read had he been here, and I will lead you 
 in the reading of the other verses, as has been my custom." 
 
 The School then read the lesson of the day, (2 Chron. 
 12 : 9-21,) in the manner indicated ; reading the first verse 
 in perfect silence, then joining with the Assistant Super- 
 intendent in reading the next verse audibly, and thus 
 silently and audibly by turns throughout the lesson. The 
 silent reading of the Superintendent's verse was broken 
 by many a bitter sob, and when the reading of the lesson 
 was ended there was scarcely a dry eye in the room. 
 The Assistant Superintendent then read from the 103rd 
 Psalm, and other Scripture selections showing the cer- 
 tainty of eternal happiness to the Christian, and the glories 
 of the home prepared for the people of God. 
 
 The School choir then sang Hymn No. 00, of Gospel 
 Hymns, Xo 2. 
 
 "Give me the wings of faith to rise 
 
 Within the vail, and see 
 The saints ahove, how fresh their joy9, 
 
 How bright their glories be." 
 
 Chorus. — Many are the friends who are waiting to-day 7 
 
 Happy on the golden strand, 
 
 Many are the voices calling us away, 
 
 To join their glorious hand : 
 
 |: Calling us away, calling us away, 
 
 Calling to the better land.:|| 
 
 Prayer was offered by the Assistant Superintendent, 
 after which a few minutes were devoted to the lesson of 
 the day. 
 
 Dr. Robinson, accompanied by the teachers of the 
 Infant School, soon entered the room, and the remainder 
 of the session was conducted as a memorial service. 
 
The Assistant Superintendent, said: 
 " It seems to me that no one in this city would have 
 been missed so much as our honored Superintendent. 
 Who here has not lost a friend in him? I cannot think 
 of a person, or a class of persons in this community, not 
 bereaved by his death. It is a singular coincidence that 
 he should have put that text upon the black-board : 
 " Leaving us an example, that, ye should follow His 
 steps." He placed it there one week ago to-day*— the 
 last of his earthly Sabbaths — for the purpose of directing 
 our thoughts to the Saviour of the world, as the perfect 
 pattern by which our daily lives should be fashioned and 
 moulded. Now the same text, points our thoughts to his 
 own long Christian life, to his own signal devotion to 
 Christ and His cause. He has indeed left us an example 
 which we should all seek to imitate. While all have been 
 bereft, this Church and this School have been most sig- 
 nally bereaved. This School has lost its best earthly 
 friend. He loved it and cared for it and watched over it 
 for nearly half a century, as tenderly and affectionately as 
 parent over a beloved child. My recollections of him will 
 always cluster around this Church and School. It was 
 here that I first met him, and here I last saw him when 
 he was able to recognize me. He was a most faithful 
 servant of the Master, and to-day we know that our loss 
 is his great gain. To-day he rests from his labors in the 
 eternal home of which he had so often told us, and to- 
 ward which he long had looked with joyous anticipation. 
 To-day he greets the dear ones of his own family who 
 preceeded him to that blessed land, and with them rejoices 
 in the presence of that Saviour whose service was his 
 chief delight We remain to serve a little longer upon 
 the earth. Let us imitate the example he has left us. 
 
9 
 
 Let us devote ourselves more faithfully to the Master's 
 work, so that when to each of us the summons comes, it 
 may be, as it was to him, only a joyous longed for home 
 bringing. Mr. Weir had long been identfied with the 
 Sunday School work, and took delight in it as being 
 designed especially to draw the young to the Saviour. 
 He has left an excellent collection of Sunday School 
 Hymns compiled by himself and published by the Amer- 
 ican Sunday School Union, a book used here for many 
 years, and distributed through the School to-day, so that 
 in these hours of affliction it may recall to our minds 
 more fully the one we have lost. Many of these hymns 
 are his own composition, one of which, (Xo. 181,) we 
 will now join in singing." 
 
 The School then sang, as best they could under their 
 grief stricken circumstances, the following hymn : 
 
 "The voice is hushed — the gentle voice, 
 That told us of a Saviour's love ; 
 And made your youthful hearts rejoice, 
 In hope of heaven, the home above." 
 
 " But in the land beyond the grave, 
 
 That voice shall swell in rapturous tone, 
 The song of Him, who died to save, 
 And bring the weary traveler home." 
 
 "That brow shall wear its glittering crown, 
 When sun and stars no more shall shine ; 
 When death shall lay his scepter down, — 
 The grave her empire shall resign." 
 
 " Then let us weep, as Jesus wept ; 
 
 Hallowed by love each gentle sigh ; 
 Since in the grave our Saviour slept, 
 The Christian need not fear to die." 
 
 After prayer by Mr. Purvis; touching, simple, humble 
 and accompanied by burning tears of grief from hundreds 
 
10 
 
 of eyes at the irreparable loss to their school, Rev. Dr. 
 Robinson, upon invitation of the Acting Superintendent 
 feelingly responded as follows: 
 
 "Through nearly the whole of the last twenty-three 
 years, I have been honored with the place of a teacher 
 among you, and as a teacher as well as pastor and friend, 
 I share to-day in this common grief. My heart feels more 
 deeply to-day the great loss that is upon me, upon this 
 School and this Church, than it did the hour in which our 
 beloved Superintendent breathed his last. I learn that 
 for others also this loss is. growing weightier and larger 
 every day. We are beginning to realize his departure. 
 For months to come the sense of it will enlarge, become 
 greater and harder to bear Yet teachers and brethren, 
 God is not dead, and His Spirit has not gone from us. 
 The Saviour, whom Mr. Weir loved when he lived among 
 us, is with us still. 
 
 It may be a sad pleasure to most of you, who where 
 not permitted to be in his sick room, to learn of what 
 transpired in the last sacred hours of his life He was 
 struck with paralysis on Tuesday afternoon, and until he 
 died, was within its power, having only the use of his 
 right side. The paralysis affected also his powers of 
 speech and to some extent the brain, so that it became 
 difficult for him to articulate any words, or to control the 
 wanderings of the mind. During much of the time he 
 was in a state of semi-unconsciousness, and at no time 
 fully realized the disaster that had come upon him. 
 During the last hour of his life, unconscious of the fact, 
 that he was drawing so near to the eternal world, arid to 
 his heavenly home, his mind turned anew to the Church 
 and Sunday School that had been the objects of life-long 
 love. Reaching out his right hand, and while his eyes 
 
11 
 
 were closed, feeling about for it, he said: "Give me my 
 cane, I must go," I said to him: "You are too weak 
 Mr. Weir to go out, the Lord lias laid you upon this bed 
 of sickness and suffering, and you must serve Him here. 1 ' 
 Again breaking- in and eagerly feeling after the cane 
 and trying to rise, be said: "Wist ye not that I must be 
 about my Father's business?" quoting the words of the 
 dear Redeemer, and then adding some broken words 
 about the Sunday School that could not be caught. There 
 followed in low, imperfect utterance some sentences of 
 which we could only distinguish "the Sunday School," 
 "meeting together," "though the world fadeth away." 
 It was easy from the words, to know the train of thought 
 that was passing through the enfe bled mind. His heart 
 and thoughts were upon the Church and Sunday School. 
 How appropriate that we should now and always, remem- 
 ber him whose last thoughts were of us, and whose last 
 earthly wishes were to be in his place among us. 
 
 Years ago I was struck with an incident of his life 
 narrated to me by himself, and which had also deeply 
 impressed him. In one of his dreams, he heard voices in 
 heaven, the sweet and touching voices of children, ringing 
 down through the skies as clear as the tones of purest 
 bells; they were the voices of Sunday School children, 
 and he recognized the tones of some of them. They had 
 gone up yonder from this School, and were now talking 
 of him, and calling on each other, "Come, let us go and 
 meet Mr. Weir." 
 
 How many were there waiting to welcome him ? The 
 beloved wife, dear friends and companions of his in the 
 Church and Sunday School who had gone on while he 
 remained. How many in the new and happy life, were 
 talking of him, and waiting to greet him at his coming. 
 
L2 
 
 God grant that day by day, henceforth, his voice from 
 heaven may be ringing in our ears ; in the ears of 
 these young men who have not yet come to Jesus, and in 
 the ears of all these scholars who have not yet set their 
 feet in the upward way of life. God grant that day after 
 day, and week after week we may hear him bidding us, 
 "Come up higher." Let us get ready for the journey. 
 Let us prepare to see him again. Let us put our feet in 
 the right path and keep them there. Surely every one of 
 us would see at last that goodly, heavenly land. Surely 
 we all desire again to hear the tender and loving voice of 
 him who filled this vacant seat. Young men who have 
 not yet come to Christ, do not his gentle appeals come 
 home to you to-day ? Who of you will turn to Jesus ? 
 Who of you will come to the Saviour ? Bid His Spirit 
 welcome to your hearts to-day, and at length you too 
 will be of the number welcomed into the heavenly home 
 by our absent and beloved friend and Superintendent." 
 
 Mr. William S. Shaffer, said : 
 
 " It was twenty -two years last fall when I left Philadel- 
 phia to make my home in Harrisburg. I brought with 
 me letters of introduction to Mr. Weir and some others. 
 I well recollect the interview which took place between 
 us. He read the letters and grasped my hand, saying : 
 " You are a Presbyterian, cast your lot in with us, we 
 have a place for you." I have been working in this Sun- 
 day School ever since, and I have always found him a 
 gentleman, a Christian, and full of Godly charity. He 
 was always ready to help, ready to succor the needy and 
 relieve those in distress. 
 
 Now he has left upon the black-board words which have 
 sunk deep into every mind and heart, and in pondering 
 those words, we should also remember that Mr. Weir has 
 
13 
 
 set us an example that we may follow his footsteps. 
 Who present doubts that Mr. Weir is not in a better 
 place ? Who doubts that he has not cast off the natural 
 life to put on spiritual life ? Then why not trust the God 
 that he trusted in ? 
 
 These things should impress us deeply. We should 
 not allow them to pass away as the wind, nor should we 
 east them from us. We have so many in our School upon 
 whom the Gospel has not yet impressed its seal, so many 
 in whose hearts God's love has never entered. At this 
 time, under these circumstances, may we net say with 
 double emphasis. " now ts the accepted time !"' " To-day 
 is the day of salvation !" '• To-day if ye will hear my 
 voice, harden not your hearts ! May God help you and 
 us. that we -hall all enter into the eternal city." 
 
 Hon. David Fleming, then said: 
 
 " Perhaps I am one of the oldest of the teachers who have 
 been attending this School. I think it was in 1835, now 
 over forty years ago. when I came first to this city. I was 
 then introduced to Mr. Weir, and his was among the first 
 acquaintances I formed here. I have been more or less 
 intimately associated with him ever since, and I owe him 
 a large debt of gratitude for his many kindnesses. I have 
 not only met him in the Sunday School and in the Church, 
 but in the marts of business, where you find out who the 
 true men are ; and of Mr. Weir, it can truly be said, he 
 was a pure Christian and an honest man. Xo one that 
 knew him ever questioned his piety or the purity of his 
 entire moral character; and although he revered truth 
 and purity and could not endure deception or impurity in 
 any one. yet his large heart of charity and benevolence led 
 him to hail with favor, the first symptoms of reformation, 
 and no personal sacrifice was deemed by him too great, if 
 
14 
 
 thereby he could reclaim the erring. M my will rise up 
 and call him blessed for the helping- hand he has extended 
 to them in the time of their almost despair. 
 
 Mr. Weir's life presented Christianity in an attractive 
 form, not only to those with whom he came personally in 
 contact, where his presence and conversation were like 
 precious ointment, but it pervaded all his social and busi- 
 ness correspondence as well. It would be a most inter- 
 esting thing, if one could collect together his various 
 business as well as social correspondence, and cull from 
 them the glittering threads of cheerful pleasantry which 
 sparkle and beautify the whole web. I have seen him in 
 the midst of perplexing business, suffering at the same 
 time much bodily pain, writing a letter to a correspondent 
 on business, who when he received it, could not doubt 
 from its cheerful tone, but that the writer was in the hap- 
 piest mood, both mentally and physically ; and indeed 
 he was happy, .because he was good. He never com- 
 plained of his ills or his ails, nor put them on paper. It 
 was his peculiar faculty to mix something pleasant as well 
 as profitable in all his communications, and hence he was 
 ever a welcome correspondent, as well as a delightful 
 companion. 
 
 It is not the man who shuts himself up from the society 
 of the world around (however good he may be,) that 
 makes the most useful citizen, but he who for the good of 
 his fellows can mix with the world around and do it good 
 without suffering himself the slightest contamination ; and 
 such a man was our Mr. Weir. He was no recluse, but 
 mingled much in society as well as in the Church, and 
 wherever he went, he was a living epistle and embodiment 
 of the good Samaritan and Christian gentleman, He hacla 
 heart alive to the welfare of his race, and was ever among 
 
15 
 
 the foremost to give and labor in every good work. 
 
 But it is here in the Cburch and in this Sunday School 
 that we knew him best, and will mis- him most. King 
 David himself did not more earnestly desire the building 
 of the ancient Temple at Jerusalem, and the prosperity 
 of Zion, than did Mr. Weir the rearing- of this goodly 
 house and the welfare of this Church of God. We all 
 know how much his heart was set upon the enlargement 
 of this building and the prosperity of his beloved Sunday 
 School. But he is gone to his reward! Let us cherish 
 his memory and follow his footsteps." 
 
 Mr. James F. Purvis, said: 
 
 '"I have but little heart for public speech on this sad oc- 
 casion. Ever since the shock of this bereavement .-truck 
 my heart, I have felt rather disposed to retire apart and 
 nurse the wound in silence. I do not think that any one 
 out of the immediate circle of his family, can feel more 
 completely than I the void created by Mr. Weir's death. 
 For the last few years his life and mine have been closely 
 intertwined, and have blended in an almost constant com- 
 panionship. Our relations during the business hours of 
 the day, made us constant associates, and our common 
 church life especially, since my connection with the Ses- 
 sion, extended into the evening, the intercourse of the 
 day. I therefore felt when 1 realized that he must die, the 
 the shadow of a great personal calamity dropping sud- 
 denly upon my heart, and wrapping me in it's chilling 
 gloom. My heart is full to overflowing at this hour, with 
 tender reminiscenses of Mr. Weir. I do not believe that 
 any being owes him a larger debt of personal gratitude 
 than do I. Many years ago when my personal acquain- 
 tance with him was very slight, he had already won my 
 confidence and esteem. Upon occasional visits to Harris- 
 
16 
 
 burg, I would now and then drop into the Sunday School, 
 and carried back with me to my home in Baltimore, the 
 most admiring- impression of him as the "model superin- 
 tendent ;" and I proclaimed to my associates in the Sun- 
 day School work there, the excellence and success of his 
 method of management. A time came later in my his- 
 tory, when worldly distress overwhelmed me. I came to 
 Harrisburg, bringing with me, from the wreck of my 
 earthly fortune, nothing save energy and hope and a good 
 conscience. At this juncture he came upon the scene of 
 my distress and poverty a ministering angel of comfort 
 and relief. Since that time, I have lived in the privileged 
 atmosphere of his influence, and have felt my soul grow 
 stronger and purer from the sweet contagion of his ex- 
 ample. He was a remarkable man in the combination of 
 qualities which are natural opposites, and which rarely 
 blend into such shapely symmetry as they did in the char- 
 acter of Mr. Weir. He was one of the gentlest of men, 
 but was always one of the firmest, strongest characters I 
 ever knew. There is not a wavering line, not an obscure 
 feature in that picture of his character so deeply impressed 
 upon my memory. Every aspect of that character was 
 as clear cut and well defined as the facets of a diamond 
 wrought by the cunningest skill of the lapidary. But 
 amid these elements of massive strength played the soft 
 lights of a feminine tenderness and sympathy. Rarely 
 does nature's mould produce a character in which mascu- 
 line strength and womanly tenderness blend in such ripe 
 and exqiusite proportions. I never knew a man who with 
 a more fastidious purity, preserved his own garments from 
 moral defilement; and yet I never knew a man more ready 
 to stoop from the pinnacle of his own moral exaltation to 
 pluck a brother-man from degradations vilest depths. 
 
IT 
 
 Such strength of natural character leavened all through 
 by Divine grace, and moving under the constraint of such 
 yearning' out-reaching sympathies could not fail to make 
 any man a monumental figure in the religious and moral 
 life, and in the social progress of the community in which 
 he lives. Such was our departed friend ; and therefore 
 whichever way you turn you encounter the sepulchral 
 void left by him in the varied spheres of his living influ- 
 ence. Xo one of our minds to-day. carries a complete 
 knowledge of all the multiplied beneficences of this grand, 
 self-sacrificing life. I have detected him in many an act 
 of stealthy kindness and charity of which you have no 
 knowledge. You know of many such unobtrusive and 
 unheralded acts of noble generosity, which escaped my 
 observation. Not all of us together, but only God him- 
 self, knows the complete register of this life of •"living 
 sacrifice" to God and to man. 
 
 He has gone to his reward, and left as a legacy and a 
 solemn charge to us. that work in the Church, in the Sun- 
 day School and in the community, from which he has sud- 
 denly passed into the Excellent Glory. Friends of the 
 Church, friends of the Sunday School ! it will require 
 more than one of us to lift and bear onward this fallen 
 mantle of our ascended father in Israel. Ought we not, in 
 this solemn hour, to ask with special importunity the aid 
 of the Holy Ghost, that this service to the Church, to the 
 Sunday School, to the world beyond these walls, may not 
 languish in our hands. May God help and strengthen us 
 for our new duties and our enlarged responsibilities." 
 
 The hymn. 
 
 •• A.-l^ep in Je-us. bl^sr-ed sleep," 
 was then sung by the School, and after prayer by Dr. 
 Robinson, the saddest session ever held by the School in 
 
II 
 
 all its history was closed. The scholars retired, without 
 being- dismissed by classes in the usual way, in perfect 
 order and with impressive quietness. 
 
 The meeting of the teachers, adjourned from Friday 
 evening, was then held, when the following report of the 
 Committee on resolutions was unanimously adopted, viz : 
 
 Whereas, we have been called upon to mourn the sud- 
 den decease of our honored Superintendent, James W. 
 Weir, Esq., who for forty-four consecutive years presided 
 over, and cared for the interests of this School with a love 
 that knew no failing, and an efficiency that has never been 
 surpassed, therefore be it 
 
 Resolved, 1. That in his death, the Market Square 
 Presbyterian Sunday School has lost its best earthly 
 friend, and a leader, who by his intrinsic worth, cordial 
 friendship, untiring labors and bright Christian example, 
 has so endeared himself to both teachers and scholars, that 
 every recollection of him is sweet and pleasant, and that 
 his name will be cherished with grateful affection through- 
 out all the remainder of our lives. 
 
 2. That while we cannot understand why one " whom 
 we so much delighted to honor," and whose presence and 
 wise counsel seemed so essential in our work, should have 
 been so suddenly called from the service of earth to the 
 rest of heaven, we desire to bow submissively, but with 
 sorrowing hearts, to the infinite wisdom of our Heavenly 
 Father, who tenderly regarding the best interests of all 
 His children, has permitted another loved one, after a long 
 life filled with faithful service, to enter the eternal rest and 
 perfect happiness prepared for the people of God. 
 
 3. That although we feel that we have met with the 
 loss of one whose place cannot be filled, we would here 
 record our gratitude for his long spared life and the high 
 
19 
 
 example which he has left us, and express our earnest 
 purpose, relying upon Divine help, to be more faithful to 
 the work which he loved so well and which is now left us 
 to perform. 
 
 4. That these resolutions be entered upon the minutes 
 of our School, be published in the Harrisburg papers and 
 copies thereof furnished to John A. Weir, Esq., the es- 
 teemed brother of the deceased, and to Miss Anna C. 
 Weir, his niece. 
 
 THE YOUXG PEOPLES' MEETING, 
 
 was the only evening service upon this memorable Sab- 
 bath. It was very largely attended. The subject for the 
 evening was the good fight of faith and its reward. The 
 theme was singularly appropriate, and the prayers and ad- 
 dresses all told of the general sadness, and the strong- 
 hold which Mr, Weir had acquired upon the affections of 
 the people of the Church and School. There was scarcely 
 an eye in the whole assemblage that was not dimmed 
 with tears. 
 
 The benediction was pronounced by Dr. Robinson ; the 
 audience quietly and sadly dispersed ; and thus ended a 
 Sabbath which will ever remain memorable in the history 
 of Market Square Presbyterian Church. 
 
 THE FUXERAL SERVICES 
 
 were held on Monday, March 18th 1878, in the Church 
 at four p. m. The spacious audience chamber was filled 
 to its utmost caprcity. Many had come from a distance 
 to join in the last sad rites. The casket, surrounded by 
 
20 
 
 beautiful floral offerings, was placed in front of the pulpit. 
 The vast assemblage was pervaded by a feeling of deep 
 sadness, and the silence was solemn and impressive. 
 
 Rev. R. J. Keeling, D. D., of St. Stephen's Episcopal 
 Church, read the XCth Psalm. 
 
 Prayer was then offered by Rev. Conway P. Wing, D. D., 
 pastor emeritus of First Presbyterian Church of Carlisle. 
 
 The solo: 
 
 " I know that my Redeemer liveth." 
 was then impressively rendered by Miss Rachel Briggs. 
 
 Rev. W. H. H. Snyder, of Salem Reformed Church, 
 read from the X\th chapter of 1st Corinthians. 
 
 Rev. R. Hinkle, of Grace M. E. Church, then announced, 
 and the Choir sang the hymn, 
 
 "Forever with the Lord." 
 
 Rev. Thomas H. Robinson, D, D., the Pastor of the 
 Church, then delivered the following 
 
 MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 "We have been repeating to each other for the last few 
 days the utterances of bereaved friendship and love. 
 They are as old as the race; they are as new as this day, 
 which but a few hours ago had its birth. The human 
 heart will never cease to ache over its griefs. We cannot 
 renounce our nature. We must love, and then mourn 
 when the bonds of love are broken. That God who made 
 us in His image, and capable of communing with Him, 
 also made us in the images of each other, and capable of 
 communing with each other. It is a pleasant thing to 
 behold the sun, pleasant to look into the face of kindly 
 nature, to hear the music of birds, the hum of insects, 
 and the sound of rippling waters; but more pleasant 
 is it to behold the countenance of a friend, to be in 
 
21 
 
 the midst of those whom we love and who love us; to feel 
 the warm pressure of the hand of affection, to hear greet- 
 ings of welcome and voices of sympathy and kindness. 
 We were made for love, not hate; to be friends, not aliens, 
 to each other. "No man liveth unto himself, and no man 
 dieth unto himself. 1 ' The bands of a common humanity 
 enfold us all. God never intended that any man should 
 suffice for himself, hut rather that, as every star in the 
 depths of space holds its place by a mutual attraction and 
 inter-dependence with every other, so all human creatures 
 should dwell in a state of mutual attraction and sympathy. 
 "We are members one of another." It is sadly true that 
 this harmony has been disturbed by the entrance of sin. 
 There is now repulsion where there should be attraction. 
 Society no more now resembles what it should be than 
 the images of stars in troubled water resemble the calm 
 and quiet heavens above. Yet, with all that sin has done 
 to alienate man from man, the great bond of human sym- 
 pathy has not been broken. Though wars and discords 
 disfigure the earth, and make havoc of human happiness, 
 yet the old and true nature in man asserts itself; it binds 
 men into nationalities Slid with a common patriotism ; it 
 forms them into communities, it fosters neighborliness; 
 it creates the sacred bond of the family and the Church; 
 it makes friendship a grand reality; it diffuses "charity, 
 like the gentle rain from heaven;" it lightens the world 
 with love. 
 
 Sin has not made us utterly selfish. We still can love. 
 There are blessed relations of life, parent and child, broth- 
 er and sister, husband and wife, where love rules, where 
 souls flow together, and all interests blend into one. Nor 
 there alone. The utterances of bereaved friendship and 
 love which have broken from so many hearts among us, 
 
22 
 
 have not been caused by the sundering" of family tics alone. 
 They have had a far wider range. Beyond all the boun- 
 daries of family, of church, of profession, of social rank, 
 of wealth and poverty, of condition, have they risen, 
 showing how one link may hold us all; how we may all 
 be gathered around one common centre, and share a com- 
 mon love and a common grief. It is well for us, who are 
 prone to live in ourselves, and in our own households; 
 and to confine our interests to our own party, our own 
 church, and our own circle, that at times one stands 
 among us who seems made to be beloved by all men — to 
 be the friend of all; one who, breaking over all bound- 
 aries by which others hedge themselves in, becomes the 
 centre of all men's thought, and draws to himself every 
 man's regard. It is well for us that sometimes God places 
 among us a man so large-hearted, so universal in his sym- 
 pathies, that, as it were, the whole community becomes 
 one in him ; and all conditions, all ranks, all varieties of 
 life feel that in him their comman humanity finds a bond. 
 Standing to-day by the remains of one so long known 
 and loved and honored among us, no man, no church, no so- 
 ciety, may lay a special claim to the sorrow of the occa- 
 sion. It is no man's peculiar inheritance. Childhood 
 and age, poverty and wealth, learning and ignorance, the 
 professions and the trades, and the humblest toiler on the 
 street; religion, charity and education, may all come and 
 say, as they look into the calm, pale face of our common 
 friend, as David said over the body of Johnathan: "I am 
 distressed for thee, my brother." Probably few men 
 could be taken from our community whose death would 
 call forth more generally from the hearts of men the sen- 
 timent of this man of centuries ago, than he whose name 
 is to-day upon our lips. 
 
23 
 
 Let us, then, gratefully recognize His goodness "from 
 whom cometh every good and perfect gift," and humbly 
 bowing to His wisdom who gives and takes away, recall 
 a few of the facts in the life of our departed friend, and 
 then look at some of those traits of character which made 
 him so widely revered. 
 
 James Wallace Weir, the youngest son of Samuel 
 Weir and Mary Wallace, was horn in this city. August 
 9th, 1805, and was, therefore, at death, in the seventy- 
 third year of his age. His father. Samuel Weir, was one 
 of the distinguished triumvirate who formed the first 
 board of Ruling Elders at the organization of the Pres- 
 byterian Church in Harrisburg. in 17T>4. 
 
 The three fathers of the Session of this Church — Adam 
 Boyd, Moses Grilmore and Samuel Weir — were all of them 
 of that Scotch-Irish race that, from the time of John Knox 
 and the Reformation, has been noted for strong and un- 
 wavering attachment to Calvinism in theology, to Pres- 
 byterianism in the forms of Church goverment, and to 
 civil liberty in the State. 
 
 Mary Wallace, the mother, was of the same origin, and 
 both the grand-parents (Weir and Wallace) fought side 
 by side as valiant defenders of Deny, in the famous si - 
 by King James, lGsO-Tm, when almost incredible hard- 
 ships were endured iu the cause Protestanism. 
 
 Samuel Weir landed on these shores shortly after the 
 opening of the Revolutionary war, in 1TT5, and scarcely 
 a year elapsed before he was in the Army of the Revolu- 
 tion as a Lieutenant of infantry, and fighting as valiantly 
 for the civil liberties of his newly-adopted country, as an 
 hundred years before his ancestor's had fought for civil 
 and religious liberty on the walls of Perry. 
 
 From such an ancestry, men of industry and temperance, 
 
24 
 
 men of high integrity, of simple manners, of consciences 
 trained by Bible teachings — woman, too, eqnal to their 
 fathers and brothers, who could be martyrs for Christ and 
 truth, Mr Weir inherited a mind strong in natural facul- 
 ties, keen in its search for truth, and a will earnest and 
 positive. He was brought up on the Bible, and on the 
 Catechisms and Confessions which were brought over to 
 this country from the Scottish churches. The home of his 
 early childhood and youth was a home of prayer, of strict 
 religious training, of daily worship, and of Sabbath ob- 
 servance ; a home where serious religious earnestness 
 mingled with household love and care. It was an honest, 
 godly, incorrupt, virtuous home. While still a mere youth, 
 Mr. Weir showed the effect of family training, and of a 
 good, intelligent ancestry, in his mental powers, in his 
 rapid mastery of his studies, in his taste for the most 
 solid and substantial literature of the day — reading, with 
 great eagerness, works which generally only persons of 
 advanced age would care to read. 
 
 He excelled as a scholar, was ready in composition, 
 eager in the pursuit of the natural sciences ; before the age 
 of seventeen was a fluent writer for the press, and, while 
 yet young, indulged in the calculation r of eclipses, and 
 made astronomical drawings which evinced a high order 
 of talent. 
 
 In early life, and, and it is believed, before his conver- 
 tion to God, he seriously contemplated entering upon the 
 work of telling the story of the Cross in heathen lands, 
 after he should have become a Christian. But this w r as not 
 the Divine plan for his life. His taste for study and read- 
 ing drew him into the printing office of John S. Wiestling, 
 of this city,*the publisher of the Pennsylvania Intelli- 
 gencer and Farmers' and Mechanics' Journal, where he 
 
25 
 
 was both a journeyman printer and a contributor to the 
 columns of the paper. Subsequently he spent some time 
 in the printing-house of the Messrs. Johnson, in Phila- 
 delphia. 
 
 On the 26th of November, 1833, having been chosen 
 teller of the Harrisburg Bank, he accepted the position, 
 holding it until October 30, 1844, when he was chosen 
 cashier of the bank. When the institution became a Nat- 
 ional Bank, in 1874, he was unanimously elected its cash- 
 ier, which office he held until his death, having been 
 connected with the bank for over forty-four years ; and 
 though, through the whole period, a man of delicate health, 
 yet he survived several of the presidents of the bank, and 
 a large number of its directors. It is but just to say of 
 him, that as a bank officer and a financier, he gained an< 
 enviable distinction for his uniform courtesy, for unim- 
 peachable integrity, and for ability of the highest order. 
 Few bankers in the Commonwealth can present a record 
 equal to his, in years of service, in successful administra- 
 tion of affairs through financial trouble, and for such rigid 
 (I had almost said Divine) honesty. It is a joy, and a 
 tribute to humanity that, in days when our ears are so 
 often smitten by tales of defalcation and the betrayal of 
 trusts, we can point to men like Mr. Weir, who, for nearly 
 half a century, carried millions of others' moneys, and by 
 no single act of his ever stirred the faintest suspicion 
 against the purity of his dealings. It strengthens our 
 faith in human nature. 
 
 As a Man, men everywhere had perfect confidence in 
 Mr. Weir. To come into his presence was like coming 
 into a clear and healthy atmosphere, in which we are able 
 to see and enjoy all other objects. In our intercourse 
 with other men we may be conscious of no distrust ; but 
 
26 
 
 in all intercourse with Mr. Weir — as a friend, or in mat- 
 ters of business — there was a positive feeling of confidence 
 and security. There was no deception in him ; there were 
 no ugly concealments, no mere professions. Men all felt 
 that they knew him. He was transparent in the integ- 
 rity and purity of his heart and life. Men saw that in an 
 unusual degree for so public a man, he was not only hon- 
 est and well-meaning, able and kind, but that he was a 
 man in whom they could perfectly confide. They could 
 consult him on the most difficult and delicate matters. 
 He was free from ill-nature, and from selfishness; he 
 lived in an atmosphere of honesty and good-will. Hun- 
 dreds of men, who were in trouble, has he lifted up aiid 
 carried along, bearing their burdens until a calmer day 
 should dawn. 
 
 Socially, also, Mr. Weir was one of the most pleasant 
 of men. His home, for twenty-seven years presided over 
 by a woman of engaging manners and beautiful piety, was 
 the centre of happiness and hospitality. For thirty two 
 years that home continued to be the daily resort of charm- 
 ed friends, the open house for innumerable guests. Be- 
 cause of the elegance of his mind and the refinement of 
 his taste, and his wide familiarity with men and books, and 
 the events of his time ; because of that playful unbending 
 of his mind, when the toils of the day were over, there 
 was a charm in his society not often met in business men, 
 especially in these days of intense occupation and rail- 
 road speed. In all his feeling and associations and habits, 
 he was refined and gentlemanly. He was accessible to 
 all — courteous to the most persistent trespasser upon his 
 time, and the most inveterate beggar for his bounties. 
 He was peculiarly pleasant to his friends, because of his 
 genuine kindness of heart and sincere attachment to them. 
 
27 
 
 The civilites and polite attentions which sometimes r 
 under the name of good breeding, but which arc unmiti- 
 gated selfishness at heart, were utterly foreign to his 
 nature. In social as in business life, there was no sign of 
 deception about him. Acts of kindness were as natural 
 to him as to breathe. He waited not to be asked ; he was 
 ingenious and thoughtful in seeking the good and gratifi- 
 cation of others. This kindly social nature, moulded as 
 it was by Divine Grace, filled him with the love of his 
 kind, and made him one of the most prominent promoters 
 of all the reformatory, benevolent and religious movements 
 of his time. Nothing that could be done for the good of his 
 fellow-men was alien to his sympathies and his help. He 
 was the friend of the black man, and the antagonist of 
 slavery when yet a young man, and when nothing was 
 more unpopular in society, State and Church than that. 
 From the very dawn of the Temperance Reformation 
 until the hour of his death, he was among its foremost 
 advocates and tireless supporters. During this last year 
 of his life, when his wearied frame could scarce bear him 
 from his door, when he needed the repose of his couch 
 and the gentle ministrations of friends — when other men, 
 the prominent business and religious men of the city, men 
 of strong frames and unbroken health, have been enjoying 
 the quiet and comfort of their homes, this man, in his 
 feebleness of body, stirred by love and pity for tempted, 
 fallen, enslaved men, has gone forth through this city with 
 words of cheer and words of prayer, taking the drunkard 
 by the hand, helping him up to manliness and Christli- 
 ness, and letting every degraded and enchained man know 
 that he should have a friend and brother in him. Let a 
 thousand honors rain down upon the blessed memory of 
 such a man. 
 
28 
 
 Forgive me if, over the body of my best earthly friend 
 I seem to utter a reproof to the men of his high soeial and 
 religious standing who went not with him in these mis- 
 sions of salvation to wretched men and the more wretched 
 homes of our fair city. The words I utter never fell from 
 his own lips. Never by word or sign did he intimate 
 that you had " left your brother to serve alone." He was 
 no censor of other men ; he was never worried over other 
 men's duties. He was full only of his own mission — and 
 with a zeal and love of heart too great for flesh, he pur- 
 sued it until the cords of life suddenly snapped under the 
 tension ; and now the wearied body and the loving spirit 
 have found, at last, their rest. 
 
 From the memories and records of the long, active and 
 useful life which Mr. Weir lived among men, fillin in 
 social, business and religious circles, so prominent a place, 
 there might be gathered the materials for a lengthened 
 biography. 
 
 For many years a leading banker in his native city, 
 and bearing among the business men of the country, a 
 character untouched by the slightest blemish ; a Ruling 
 Elder in active and honorable service in his own Church 
 for nearly forty-four years ; a Superintendent of the Sab- 
 bath School for the same length of time, and known 
 throughout the land for his peculiar efficiency for the 
 office ; a Life Director in the American Board of Commis- 
 sioners for Foreign Missions for nearly twenty years, and 
 eagerly sought for his wise and prudent counsel ; a wel- 
 comed delegate in all the higher courts of the Church and 
 the Religious Conventions of his day ; a contributor to the 
 Religious press, and to the Theological Review of his 
 own Denomination ; a compiler and author of Sunday 
 School Hymns, and the author of two volumes of Prayers, 
 
29 
 
 one having already passed through several editions, and 
 the other, being now in the hands of a publisher ; a leader 
 in all the reformatory and benevolent enterprises of the 
 city, Mr. Weir won the regard which his fellow-men were 
 not unwilling to pay. 
 
 But the character of Mr. Weir found its completeness 
 in religion. He was a Christian. This was the great, 
 the main thing in him. The roots of his character were 
 imbedded in religion ; they drew their life from Christian- 
 ity, from its system of truth, from its mighty motives, 
 from its central Christ. There is no explaining such a 
 life and character as Mr. Weir's, without bringing in Christ 
 and Divine Grace, and a deep, personal experience of the 
 reality and power of religion. 
 
 He had been from earliest life under the influence of 
 religious teachings and examples. While never really 
 skeptical, his mind had become somewhat conversant with 
 errors, and was in a measure moved by them. It was not 
 until he reached his twenty-fifth year that he surrendered 
 mind, heart and will to the sway of the Gospel. His con- 
 version was a remarkable one. While on a journey of 
 business in one of the lumbering coaches of half a cen- 
 tury ago, Jesus met him as he met the young man Saul, 
 on the way to Damascus, and conquered him. For him, 
 too, " a brightness above that of the sun seemed to shine 
 about him and the men that journeyed with him." The 
 roof of the coach seemed to be lifted away, and the open- 
 ed heavens of Divine reconciliation shone upon him. He 
 was in a new world, and the glory of it appeared to fill 
 all the senses of the body. The forgiven soul could scarce 
 contain its rapture. The ends of life changed. He set 
 out on a new orbit. As soon as he returned to the city 
 he called upon his pastor, Dr. DeWitt, and surprised him 
 
30 
 
 with the story of his conversion, and upon the next day, 
 Juty 4th, 1830, he publicly confessed Christ, and united 
 with the Church. From that day through life, Mr. Weir 
 seems never to have doubted the reality of his conversion 
 to God and his eternal salvation. He entered immediately 
 upon Christian work, on the week following his profession 
 of religion going forth, gathering a class, and bringing it 
 into the Sunday School as its teacher. He at once became 
 prominent in Sunday School work. As early as 1832, at 
 the first National Sunday School Convention held in this 
 country, though one of the youngest men in the body, he 
 drew up a series of remarkable resolutions, which were 
 adopted by the Convention, and were a sort of prophetic 
 outline of the Sunday School work and progress of the 
 whole country from that day to the present. In 1834 he. 
 was chosen to the superin tendency of the Sunday School 
 of this Church, and continued to fill the office with ac- 
 knowledged and remarkable ability until his death — a 
 period of forty-four years. His work in the Sunday School 
 cannot be estimated in its value. Years ago he had won 
 the name of "model superintendent" — a name that he, 
 however, neither sought nor claimed. Others may have 
 excelled in later days; but it would be hard, searching the 
 world over, to find a man in the Church, who for an equal 
 length of time, has filled that office with a more signal 
 ability and thorough consecration. 
 
 In the same year (1834), on Sabbath morning, October 
 19, he, in connection with Alexander Sloan (who is still 
 spared to us) and Alexander Graydon, lately deceased at 
 Indianapolis, Ind., was ordained as a Ruling Elder of the 
 Church. During the forty-four years that have elapsed 
 since then, he has given this Church his toils and cares, 
 his counsels and his love. He has been its unwavering 
 
31 
 
 friend, through times of trials and of prosperity. His faith 
 has never failed, nor his love waned. His feet have turned 
 weekly to our places of prayer, and his voice has led us 
 unnumbered times at the Throne of Grace. His benefac- 
 tions have enriched us, and his hand has borne to us, and 
 to many of our precious dead, the bread and cup of our 
 Communions. He is inseparable from our history. Under 
 God, the power and influence of this man have moulded all 
 our lives. The touch of his vanished hand has been upon 
 us, and we shall bear prints of it forever. Christ did not 
 use him in vain. 
 
 The characteristics of his religious life w T ere marked. 
 He was a man who had a deep and pervading reverence 
 for God. He felt the awe of God upon his soul. In the 
 performance of religious duties, in the household or the 
 Church, there was no approach to levity or familiarity. 
 He lived in the sense that God was holy and man sinful, 
 and that there was no access to the Holy One but by the 
 blood of the Cross. He had no slavish fear of God, 
 There was no tincture of gloom in his religion. He was 
 no cringing, trembling worshipper. Conscious of his own 
 acceptance, through the Redeemer, he came to God as to a 
 Father reconciled, but a Father infinitely holy as well as 
 good. 
 
 Mr. Weir was a man who had a strong sense of his 
 unworthiness, and of the imperfections of his Christ ion 
 life. He did not doubt that he was a Christian. That 
 had passed forever beyond all doubt. He belonged to 
 Christ; he w r ould have no other Master. But his idea of 
 the Christian life was high, and he felt that he had never 
 attained it. Whilst others admired the steadiness and 
 strength of his Christian life, and envied the unfaltering 
 step of Christian principle in him, he was himself, at times, 
 
32 
 
 almost morbidly self-depreciating and condemnatory. 
 
 He was a man familiar as but few are with truth. 
 He was a student of the Bible. His prayers showed his 
 great familiarity with the Word of God. But lately had 
 he repeatedly spoken of the new and absorbing interest 
 with which he was daily reading some of the epistles of 
 Paul. 
 
 He was a man remarkable gifted in prayer. At all 
 times, even of his weariness or under the burdens of busi- 
 ness, his prayers were models in their rich quotations of 
 Scripture language, and in the compass of human wants 
 which he presented at the Throne of Grace, but especially 
 when the theme of some evening lecture had comforted or 
 quickened him, or when his soul was more than usually 
 stirred with Christian feeling, would he pour forth a prayer 
 that carried away the soul of the listener. 
 
 He was also remarkable for submission and patience 
 under suffering. For more than thirty years he had 
 scarcely ever been free from pains of body, often severe 
 and protracted. His life was preserved so long only by 
 such care as few men would have given. He spoke of his 
 infirmities, of the weaknesses that interfered with many a 
 plan ; but in all the close intimacy of nearly a quarter of 
 a century, I never heard him drop the wish that God had 
 given him a different lot. 
 
 He was not only submissive and patient under his suf- 
 ferings, but a man of remarkable cheerfulness, seldom 
 depressed, never gloomy, enlivening all around him by 
 his buoyant spirit. His very extensive correspondence 
 as a bank officer was relieved from the dull and dry for- 
 malities of business, by the overflow of his bright and 
 happy pleasantries, his unfailing good humor and ready 
 wit. And of the many hundreds who came to his desk 
 
33 
 
 seeking counsel and help under the perplexities and bur- 
 dens of business, but few failed of being better for coming 
 into his presence. 
 
 Mr. Weir was a man of uncommon beneficence. None 
 but God knew the extent of his charities. Seldom, if 
 ever, was any worthy appeal made to him in vain. His 
 gifts were incessant; to the Church and all its enterprises, 
 to benevolent organizations, to struggling congregations 
 of every denomination of Christians, to our common char- 
 ities, to young men starting in business, to numberless 
 borrowers who never repaid — to all, his heart was open. 
 His money was Christ's; his catholicy was as broad and 
 warm as the Gospel he loved, and for years more than 
 half his income — often much more — has been regularly 
 given to charity and religion. 
 
 Lastly, let me add to this unfinished record of his Christ- 
 ian virtues, that this community has seldom, if ever, had 
 in it a nobler example of the elevating power* of Christian 
 principle and religious faith than were presented in the 
 life and character of Mr. Weir. A man may look forward 
 for ten or twenty years, and plan for it and live for it. 
 But it is only Christian faith, and an elevated principle of 
 living, that help a man to look steadily and forever for- 
 ward till eternity becomes a real home to him, and that 
 makes things present — life here, the funeral and the 
 grave — not the great end of all, but only the things which 
 stand between him and the end. Years ago our departed 
 brother had, in Christ, conquered death, and the eternal 
 of Heaven had become for him a certainty. He had sur- 
 vived doubt. Some men have never believed enough to 
 raise a doubt in their narrow minds. Mr. Weir was a 
 large believer. He took in the whole field of revealed 
 truth — the solemn, magnificent, and sublime doctrines of 
 
34 
 
 of our Christian faith. He saw the mystery in some of 
 them ; bat he lived above all doubt. Religion was real. 
 The things not seen and eternal, were great certainties. 
 They were the landmarks of his journey. He walked by 
 them. Christ was real, living, personal, present, and by 
 his habit of abiding trust in Him, and affectionate obedi- 
 ence to God, all doubt was driven out of his life. It was 
 a steady, life-long, triumphant victory. He had a grasp 
 on things that other men are groping after, and only touch- 
 ing now and then. The, powers of the world to come 
 were so manifest to him as to leave no room for question. 
 He was only going at death to see the things that he had 
 long felt, for he had been living amid heavenly and spir- 
 itual things while yet among us. 
 
 It has been, perhaps, a disappointment to us that, by 
 reason of the paralysis which struck him down, his last 
 earthly hours were clouded. We wanted for him — we 
 expected for him — a death of triumphant hope, or at least, 
 of calm and solid peace. We wanted to hear and treas- 
 ure up the last and sacred words of the Christian friend 
 and warrior ; we wanted to see the glad light of Heaven 
 shining in his eyes before they were closed forever, and 
 to hear some Christly message from his lips as he passed 
 through the gates of death. 
 
 The last words of his Lord and ours were : " Father, 
 into Thy hands I commend My Spirit." Many a saint of 
 ancient and modern days has left the world amid raptures. 
 We look for assurances from the Christian's death-bed. 
 When Neander, by the aid of friendly hands, stretched 
 himself in bed for his last slumber, he whispered in tones of 
 inexpressible tenderness, that sent a strange thrill through 
 every heart : " Good night." But, after all, the broken 
 words of a dying man are no certain index of his real 
 
35 
 
 state before God. Christ's triumph may be in the heart 
 while not a word of victory falls from the lips. Every 
 day Christ's servants die, modestly and peacefully ; they 
 die, and the world hears nothing of them ; they draw 
 nigh death, and find in him no foe to fight ; they come to 
 the dark flood, and lo ! they calmly walk over dry shod. 
 The great triumph of the Christian is to live well, not to 
 die well. Our beloved friend and brother left us no words 
 of rapture from his dying bed. A few broken words about 
 the " Sunday jJSchool," about his " Father's business," 
 about " meeting together" somewhere, were all that he 
 said. We"need|no more. Nearly. half a century ago, in 
 a published prayer of his, he asked of God: "Lord train 
 me to such habits of obedience to Thy will, and trust in 
 Thy dealings, and faith in Thy promises, that while I look 
 upon the earthly house of this tabernacle as one that must 
 be dissolved, I may rejoice in the hope that I have a build- 
 ing of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the 
 heavens " That was the rejoicing hope of his entire 
 Christian life. It was no vain hope. Speak, from thy 
 rest, 0, disciple of Jesus, brother among the conquerors, 
 clothed in thy white robes, and with the palm of victory 
 in thy hand ! 
 
 From beyond the grave there comes to our listening 
 hearts and assured faith, the response : " Thanks be unto 
 God who hath given us the victory through our Lord 
 
 Jesus Christ." 
 
 1 
 The Rev. Dr. J. Swartz, of the First Lutheran Church, 
 
 offered a fervent prayer. 
 
 The following anthem, was then sung by the Choir: 
 
 Brother, thou art gone before us, 
 And thy saintly soul is flown, 
 
36 
 
 Where tears are wiped from every eye, 
 
 And sorrow is unknown ; 
 From the burden of the flesh, 
 
 And from care and sin released, 
 Where the wicked cease from troubling, 
 
 And the weary are at rest." 
 
 " The toilsome way, thou'st traveled o'er, 
 
 And borne the heavy load ; 
 But Christ hath taught thy languid feet 
 
 To reach his blest abode ; 
 Thou'rt sleeping now like Lazarus, 
 
 Upon his Father's breast, 
 Where the wicked cease from troubling, 
 
 And the weary are at rest." 
 
 " Sin can never taint thee now, 
 
 Nor doubt thy faith assail, 
 Nor thy meek trust in Jesus Christ 
 
 And the Holy Spirit fail ; 
 And there thou'rt sure to meet the good, 
 
 Whom on earth thou lovedst best, 
 Where the wicked cease from troubling, 
 
 And the weary are at rest." 
 
 The casket was taken in charge by the following- 
 gentlemen, officiating as pall-bearers: Alexander Sloan 
 and S. J. M. McCarrell, of the Church Session ; Chas. L. 
 Baily and W. 0. Hickok, of the Church Trustees; Jno. 
 J. Clyde, Sr. and Wm. Gorgas of the Bank Directors; 
 J. TThler and Jno. M. Sayford, Bank Clerks ; and Wm. 
 Buehler and Jacob F. Seiler, representatives of th'e Sun- 
 day School Superintendents of the city. As they passed 
 down the aisle with their precious burden, the stillness of 
 the place was broken by many manifestations of over- 
 whelming grief, while scarcely an eye was undimned by 
 tears. 
 
 The long funeral procession, embracing about sixty 
 
37 
 
 carriages, and delegations on foot from " The Temperance 
 Union," "The Young Men's Christian Association," and 
 u The Washington Hose Company,'' then moved from 
 Market Square out Market Street. Many of the Church 
 bells were solemnly tolled, while from the chimes of the 
 First Lutheran Church came the notes of the familiar 
 
 hymn 
 
 " I would not live always.*' 
 
 The sidewalks were filled with a quiet throng of citi- 
 zens and children, and all places of business were closed 
 while the procession passed. 
 
 At the cemetery the casket was sadly lowered into the 
 vault, and just as the last rays of the setting sun shone 
 out bright and clear, from a sky which through the after- 
 noon had been partially beclouded, the benediction was 
 pronounced by the Pastor and the solemn services were 
 ended. 
 
 Resolutions adopted by the Session of the Church. 
 
 Whereas, Our venerable associate and father in Christ, 
 James W. Weir, has suddenly been called to his rest, 
 leaving vacant that place in our body which he filled with 
 rare fidelity and abounding service from October 19th, 
 1834, to March 14th, 1878, when "he was not, for God 
 took him" — 
 
 Resolved, 1. That, as members of the Session of Mar- 
 ket Square Church, we record our solemn sense of the be- 
 reavement we suffer in losing from our counsels the guid- 
 ance of his mature experience and sober wisdom ; but 
 chiefly do we mourn the absence of that example which 
 
38 
 
 was the constant inspiration and stimulus of all our efforts 
 for the welfare of his beloved Zion. 
 
 2. That we record our thanksgiving to God for the 
 monument of Divine Grace given and so long perpetuated 
 to our Church in the character and life of our departed 
 colleague, for all that ministry of " word and work," whose 
 precious fruits have been garnered into the life of the 
 Church and of the community ; especially for the influ- 
 ence of "religion, pure and undented," which made all his 
 common life a " voice of one crying in the wilderness," a 
 savour of Godliness and of Christ to human souls in all 
 the wide intercourse of his long useful life ; for the virtue 
 of inwrought grace which went forth from him at every 
 point of his varied contact with his fellow-men. 
 
 3. That we accept as a sacred bequest the care of the 
 beloved Church whose welfare lay as a sweet but anxious 
 burden on his heart until he " ceased at once to work and 
 live ;" that we will humbly strive to emulate his pure 
 spirit of consecration to her service; and that, God help- 
 ing us, we will fill up as worthily as we may, that meas- 
 ure of labor, and sacrifice and devotion to which we are 
 summoned by his high example. 
 
 4. That we tender to his brother, our venerable asso- 
 ciate, John A. Weir, our condolence and fellowship in the 
 grief of that bereavement which has removed the prop 
 and stay of his infirm age, and commend him to that " rod 
 and staff" of which the Psalmist declares: " They com- 
 fort me." 
 
39 
 
 TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 3>w^c 
 
 Resulutions adopted by Board of Directors of The 
 Harrisburg National Bank. 
 
 Inasmuch as it has pleased God to remove from our midst our 
 worthy Cashier, James W. Weir, we, the President and Directors 
 of The Harrisburg National Bank, deem it proper to place upon 
 record our appreciation of his long-continued and invaluable ser- 
 vices to this Bank. 
 
 Whilst we bow with humble resignation to the will of Him in 
 whose hand all human destinies rest, we cannot but mourn an 
 event which has bereft us of one in whose counsels, wisdom and 
 safety were so uniformly found. 
 
 James W. Weir entered into the service of The Harrisburg Bank, 
 in 1833, as a Teller, which position he filled until 1844, when he 
 was elected Cashier ; he continued as such until the institution 
 became a National Bank in 1874, when he was unanimously chosen 
 to the same position, and held it until he was stricken by the 
 Angel of Death whilst seated at his desk, in the performance of 
 his duties, on the afternoon of the 12th instant. On the evening 
 of the 14th of March, 1878, he gently passed into his Father's 
 house above. 
 
 Seldom has it fallen to the lot of any man to serve for forty-five 
 years in a moneyed institution, with a personal record so pure and 
 stainless. Kindness and courtesy, firmness and integrity, finan- 
 cial skill and wonderful acquaintance with Banking laws, State 
 and National, acquired by his long experience, were all combined 
 in him in an eminent degree. Though an invalid during nearly 
 
40 
 
 the whole term of his service, he was equaled by few and excelled 
 by none in his watchful care for the interests of the Bank — and 
 the institution stands this day a noble monument of his fidelity. 
 
 But a void has been created not easy to be filled. It would be 
 difficult to name any cause, having for its object the welfare of 
 humanity, to which he was not either a public or private contrib- 
 utor. His pen and his purse, his talents and his time seemed 
 consecrated to the Lord. 
 
 In this city his name is a household word, and his example one 
 worthy of the imitation of all. Truly "he walked with God, and 
 was not, for God took him." 
 
 Resolved, 1. That we respectfully tender our deepest sympathy 
 to John A. Weir, Esq., the venerable brother of the deceased, 
 and to his family ; and especially to Miss Anna C. Weir, the niece of 
 the deceased, who, since his own sad bereavement, has so faith- 
 fully and lovingly ministered to all his wants. 
 
 2. That we, together with the employees of the Bank, will 
 attend the funeral of the deceased in a body on Monday afternoon, 
 18th inst., at 4 o'clock. 
 
 3. That a full copy of these minutes, signed by the President 
 of this Board, be sent to each, John A. Weir, Esq., and Miss Anna 
 C. Weir ; and a copy thereof also published in the newspapers of 
 this city. 
 
 Resolutions adopted by the Managers of The 
 Harrisburg Hospital. 
 
 Whereas, It has pleased God to remove our fellow-manager 
 James W. Weir, one of the founders of The Harrisburg Hospital, 
 and since its commencement the Treasurer of the institution, there- 
 by depriving us of the benefit of his valuable counsels and our 
 whole community of one of its brightest ornaments ; therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That we deem it but just to his memory thus to place 
 upon our minutes, this testimony of our high appreciation of that 
 noble Christian philanthropy which always marked his connec- 
 tion with this Hospital. 
 
 Resolved, That we bow in humble submission to Him whose 
 
41 
 
 hand has done this, knowing that our loss, though most keenly 
 felt by us, has been an infinite gain to our departed friend. 
 
 Resolved, That we respectfully tender our sympathies to his ven- 
 erable brother, John A. Weir, and the members of his family, and 
 that a copy of these proceedings be furnished them by the Secre- 
 tary of this Board. 
 
 Resolutions adopted by The Young Men's Christian 
 Association, of Harrisburg, Pa. 
 
 Whereas, Mr. James W. Weir, one of the founders of this 
 Association, for more than half a century actively and prominently 
 engaged in the promotion of every Christian work and benevolent 
 enterprise which has been begun in our city, has been called to 
 his reward ; therefore, be it resolved, 
 
 1. Tbat in his death, this Association has lost one of its oldest and 
 most honored members, as well as one of its most liberal supporters. 
 
 2. That in his long life, characterized as it was, by untiring 
 industry, strict integrity, sterling honesty, great benevolence, and 
 honest, faithful devotion to the cause of Christ, we have a bright 
 example, commanding the admiration of, and worthy of being 
 imitated by every young man. 
 
 3. That while we deeply regret his sudden decease, we are 
 grateful for the good which he was permitted to accomplish, and 
 for the many liberal things which he devised and executed for the 
 welfare of the young in this community. 
 
 4. That we tender our hearty sympathy to the relatives of the 
 deceased, feeling that in him we too have lost a friend and helper, 
 and as a mark of our respect for his useful labors and stainless 
 character, we will attend his funeral in a body. 
 
 5. That these resolutions be published in the daily papers and 
 be entered on the minutes of our Association, and a copy thereof 
 furnished Mr. John A. Weir, the esteemed brother of the deceased. 
 
 Resolutions adopted by the Methodist Ministers 
 of the City of Harrisburg, Pa. 
 
 Whereas, By the sudden demise of James W. Weir, this com- 
 munity has suffered the loss of one well-known for his many noble 
 
42 
 
 qualities and Christian virtues, and unbounded catholicy of spirit, 
 as well as for his zeal and efficiency in all Christian work ; 
 
 And whereas, His nobility of Christian character is the common 
 heritage of the Church of God, and of all who are in any degree 
 in sympathy with moral excellence ; therefore, 
 
 Resolved, 1. By the Ministers of this Methodist Preachers' Meet- 
 ing of Harrisburg, that we recognize the common loss which Christ- 
 ian society and the cause of Christian charity have suffered. 
 
 2. That we sympathize with the congregation of which he was 
 a most faithful and exemplary member, and especially with our 
 co-worker, Rev. T. H. Robinson, D. D., his pastor, to whom he was 
 a most valued friend and counselor. 
 
 3. That we tender to the relatives of the deceased our sincere 
 condolence. 
 
 4. That a minute of these proceedings be entered upon our re- 
 cord, and a copy be furnished to the friends and pastor of our 
 deceased brother. 
 
 ACTION OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOLS OF THE 
 CITY, MARCH 17, 1878. 
 
 In nearly all the Sunday Schools, appropriate reference 
 was made to the death of Mr. Weir, and delegations were 
 appointed to attend his funeral. 
 
 Pine Street Presbyterian Sunday School. 
 
 Mr. Jacob F. Seiler, Superintendent of the Pine Street 
 Presbyterian Sunday School, paid the following brief but 
 sincere tribute to the worth of Mr. Weir. Referring to 
 the subject of the lesson, which was " Hezekiah^s good 
 reign," Mr. Seiler said : 
 
 " When Hezekiah died all Jerusalem was in mourning, for there 
 was not an interest in the kingdom of Judah that had not felt his 
 influence for the better. His gold had been given freely to the 
 Temple. The priests had been the object of his special regard. 
 The worship of Jehovah had so occupied his kingly mind that he 
 
43 
 
 was identified with God Himself by both aliens and friends. Every 
 home in the land had felt the influence of this one man's conse- 
 cration to the God of Israel. But God had other preachers of 
 righteousness besides those who have passed into history. In every 
 generation he has raised up living witnesses who were to testify 
 of Him — the living to the living. More people in this community 
 know God through James Weir living than through the dead Hez- 
 ekiah. Many a house of God in this land had his gold upon it. 
 iS'o man, so far as my knowledge extends, was a better friend of 
 the ministry, or more jealous of Christ's servants, than the de- 
 ceased. All sorrows found in him sympathy, as every good agency 
 received his ready and intelligent help. While we mourn for his 
 loss let us also pray the Master to increase the number like him." 
 
 The Elder Street Presbyterian Sunday School 
 unanimously adopted the following' resolutions: 
 
 Resolved, 1. That in the death of Mr. James W. Weir, we lose 
 an esteemed and valued friend. We bow to the hand of God in 
 this with the full hope of a perfect rest with Him. "He cannot 
 come to us, but we will go to him." 
 
 2. That we attend the funeral services. 
 
 3. That Rev. George M. Bonner, Elder Thomas Miller, Baker 
 White, Mr. Barnetts and the Superintendent, be a deputation to 
 the cemetery. 
 
 4. That these resolutions be published, and a copy, with the 
 condolence of the school, be sent to the family. 
 
 ACTION OF SUNDAY SCHOOL CONVENTIONS. 
 
 Extract from the proceedings of the 
 
 International Sunday School Convention, 
 held at Atlanta, Georgia, April 19th, 1878. 
 The hymn 
 
 " Shall we meet beyond the river ?" 
 was sung, when Mr. Searles announced the fact of the 
 
44 
 
 sudden and quite recent death of Mr. James W. Weir, of 
 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, one of the veterans in the work. 
 Rev. George A. Peltz offered the following: 
 
 Whereas, Our Heavenly Father has called to Himself our late 
 fellow-worker and "beloved brother, James \V. Weir, of Harrisburg, 
 Pennsylvania ; 
 
 And whereas, Mr. Weir was an active member of the National 
 Sunday School Conventions of 1832, 1833, 1859 and 1869 ; partic- 
 ipating by letter and by telegram in the Convention of 1872, and 
 addressing the First International Convention in 1875 ; 
 
 And whereas, at the time of his death, Mr. Weir held his com- 
 mission as a delegate to this Convention, and hoped to attend with 
 us here ; therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That by his sudden removal we also are admonished 
 to be ready. 
 
 Resolved, That we put on record our high appreciation of the 
 peculiar worth of our departed brother ; and we further record our 
 sincere purpose, like him, to endure to the end in the blessed 
 work of teaching the Word of God. 
 
 By a rising vote the resolution was adopted, and or- 
 dered to be spread upon the minutes of the Convention. 
 
 The Penn'a State Sunday School Convention 
 in session at Williamsport, Penn'a, June 13th, 1878, 
 adopted the following resolution, viz : 
 
 That in the death of Mr. James W. Weir, of Harrisburg, the 
 Sunday School cause in general and in this State in particular, has 
 lost a wise couselor, an efficient worker and a liberal supporter. 
 May his mantle fall upon many, and may we all abundantly in- 
 herit his spirit, for it was that of the Master. 
 
 ACTION OF COLORED CITIZENS OF THE CITY. 
 
 At a meeting of eolored citizens held Saturday, March 
 16th, to consider the propriety of appointing a deputation 
 
45 
 
 to attend the funeral of Mr. James W. Weir, Major J. W. 
 Simpson was called to the chair. A committee of three 
 was appointed to express appropriately the feeling of the 
 colored citizens in reference to Mr. Weir's death, viz : 
 Prof. Win, Howard Day, Mr. Spencer P. Irvin and Mr. 
 Joseph B. Popel. 
 
 The committee submitted the following paper for action 
 which was unanimously adopted, viz : 
 
 While we reverently bow to the decree of Him "who doeth all 
 things well," our hearts are sore-stricken in that we have lost a 
 friend, who, early and late, was true to us in following his convic- 
 tions of justice. He, early in the anti-slavery struggle, joined 
 himself to our cause, and forty-five years ago. assisted in founding 
 the first Anti-Slavery Society formed in this city. For the rights 
 of man he suffered obloquy, and consented even to be abused. In 
 all the changing years past, when others forsook our cause and 
 fled, we found Mr. Weir still the defender of the right and the 
 friend of the friendless. And to-day, as we humbly gather around 
 his coffin, we humbly lay our laurel wreath upon his memory, 
 thankful to God that such a man has lived. 
 
 In respectfully tendering the expression of our sympathy to the 
 bereaved relatives, we can invoke for them and ourselves the same 
 unselfishness, the same devotion to principle and calm Christian 
 spirit which Mr. Weir exhibited. 
 
 NOTICES OF THE PRESS. 
 
 Harrisburo Evening Telegraph. 
 
 " We doubt that if in the last half century this community has 
 felt a more poignant pang of sorrow than that which penetrated it 
 last evening, when the death of James W. Weir was announced. 
 It has been appalled by the knowledge of great calamities, and 
 afflicted by disasters which could not be averted — but all of which 
 
46 
 
 could be overcome or repaired— but the death of an eminently 
 good man — good in the sense which made him a Messing to all 
 with whom he came in contact, is so far-reaching in its melancholy 
 effects that no skill of man can repair the loss. The all-wise 
 Providence of God provides for vacancies thus made in the com- 
 munity, and therefore it is not strange to hear men ask, who will 
 take Mr. Weir's place — has the Church of which he was the prom- 
 inent figure a man to till that vacancy ? Easy indeed, it is to ask 
 such a question, but its solution is not within our power. 
 
 In Allibone's Dictionary of Authors, we find the following : 
 
 "Weir, James Wallace, a great-grandson of two of the valiant 
 defenders of Derry (Weir and Wallace.) was born in Harrisburg, 
 ]805. Manual of Prayer, with an introduction by Rev. Albert 
 Barnes, Philadelphia, 1838, 12mo ; 4th edition. The Closet Com- 
 panion, or Manual of Prayer; New York, 1854, 12mo. Excellent. 
 Also, tracts published by American Sunday School Union, and 
 contributions to periodicals." 
 
 Herein we have glance at the true character of James W. Weir. 
 If he had been a knight of old, his shield would have been emblaz- 
 oned with the words, Do good. Though for over fifty years filling 
 the most important financial trust, he blended with every hour of 
 his life something of good for those around, as well as for all whom 
 he could reach. We never saw a man so intensely in love with 
 his own Church, so liberal, tolerant and brotherly in feeling to 
 Christians of all denominations. This was the result of magnifi- 
 cently cultivated mental forces. Whatever had God in it, always 
 commanded his reverence ; he adored the truth, practiced charity 
 as a duty which must go into every day's labor, and while the 
 most liberal contributor to every cause in aid of suffering humanity, 
 nothing was more offensive to him than to be reminded of his gifts. 
 He never absented himself from any public movement for the gen- 
 eral good, nor did he pause to consider what might be the effect 
 of his position on such occasions, touching his personal interests. 
 If a fallen man needed lifting up, his hand was the first to be out- 
 stretched to the poor wretch — if a reformed man needed anima- 
 tion it was only necessary to go to James W. Weir, who to all 
 such, was a fountain that never failed to refresh. 
 
 His character was perfectly symetrical in moral organization, 
 and of mental balance so nicely adjusted, that it was seldom, if 
 ever, disturbed by impatience. His tastes Avere all refined. Join- 
 
47 
 
 ing a love of literature to that of art. he delighted in the study Oi 
 the classics, and in his more relaxed moments could talk of art 
 with a confidence and clearness that evinced an extensive knowl- 
 edge of the old masters. His public addresses in this city were 
 models of chaste conception and polished elaboration. And while 
 always shrinking from any public display, he never addressed an 
 audience, either as a lecturer or a casual speaker, w ithout im- 
 pressing his hearers with the purity of his character and the lofti- 
 ness of his purpose. And this, after all that may he said or 
 written of Mr. Weir, is the true index of the man. He was pn. e 
 in character and lofty in purpose. No matter what he did, where he 
 spoke, with whom he came in contact, this, like a golden thread, 
 ran through the woof of his life. He was pure in character and lofty 
 in purpose.''' 
 
 " His life wa> geutle and the element-; 
 
 So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up. 
 
 And say to all the world. This teas a man '. 
 
 Harrisburg Morning Patriot. 
 
 •'The death of James W. Weir, Esq., the well-known Cashier 
 of The Harrishurg National Bank, which occurrel yesterday after- 
 noon at his residence in this city, will be regretted and mourned 
 not only by a large circle of personal friends but by this commu- 
 nity in general. For many ye ars the decease 1 was the controlling 
 spirit in the management of the very reputable and well-estab- 
 lished banking institution with which he was connected at his 
 death, and it may be said with entire truth, that he discharged 
 the trust committed to him with the utmost fidelity and integrity. 
 He was a man of strong convictions, honest and earnest in his 
 undertakings, but always liberal and charitable toward those with 
 whom he found occasion to differ. He was gifted with rare social 
 qualities and a graceful wit, which male him one of the most 
 companionable of men. In movements for the reformation of so- 
 ciety he was always foremost, not only giving his time and labor, 
 but contributing freely of his means to the accomplishment of 
 what he thought a philanthropic purpose. To the poor and lowly 
 he was always a kind and true friend, and his charities though 
 
48 
 
 not ostentatious, were made with a free and open hand. Truly, a 
 man of noble attributes, and in respect of decision and energy of 
 character, one possessing qualities of true greatness, has passed 
 away. Long may his upright and honorable life be an example 
 for imitation, and long may his memory be green in the hearts 
 of those who survive him." 
 
 New Orleans Picayune. 
 
 DEATH OP JAMES W. WEIR. 
 
 " Our New York correspondent writes us that one of earth's 
 brightest lights went out, when the gentleman whose name heads 
 this article passed to his rest from his late residence in Harrisburg, 
 Pa., on the 14th inst. 
 
 Mr. Weir was known by rich and poor through all the length and 
 breadth of his native town, and of him it could be said with the 
 veriest truth — 
 
 " None knew him but to love, 
 None named him but to praise." 
 
 He lived three years beyond the "three-score and ten," and it 
 is safe to say that in that life was crowded the work of a century ; 
 and what is best of all, his life was an unspotted life. There are 
 few indeed of whom this can be said, but it can be said of James 
 Wallace Weir. 
 
 Columns have been both spoken and written since his decease, 
 yet the noblest epitaph that could be engraven upon his tomb 
 would be : "He went about doing good." 
 
 In all charitable works — in errands of love and mercy — in the 
 Sabbath School and Church — in the helping hand to the needy 
 and unfortunate, no matter what their race, color or religion, the 
 deceased was ever modestly foremost. He did not wait to see 
 whether others would do, or what others would do — he carried out 
 instantly the noble promptings of his heart, and in blessing others 
 he himself was blest. Hundreds, yes thousands, can testify to 
 the unselfish, Christlike deeds of this grand old soldier of the 
 Cross. 
 
 The Presbyterian Church at Harrisburg, in which he had been 
 a Ruling Elder for nearly fifty years, and the Sabbath School of 
 
49 
 
 the same Church over which he had been Superintendent for 
 nearly the same space of time, were the scenes perhaps of his 
 deepest fervor and his most glorious seasons in the Christian life. 
 The Church was his home, and in the Church militant on earth he 
 realized in the fullest manner possible, the splendors and joy- of 
 the Church triumphant in Heaven. 
 
 Mr. Weir's secular occupation was banking. For eleven years 
 from 1833, he held the position of Teller in The Harrisbnrg Nat- 
 ional Bank, and for thirty-four years — making a total of forty-five 
 years — he filled the post of Cashier in the same institution, in 
 short, it might with truth be said, Mr. Weir was himself the Bank, 
 for it was virtually under his control and rested upon his shoulders- 
 
 He stood, though with infirm and bending body, as its strong 
 support down to the day of his death — and when he closed his 
 books for the last time, there was not a stain of dishonor — not a 
 figure to be erased or changed upon any page. They were a clean 
 record, and he presented them, with all the other countless trans- 
 actions of his life, without fear before the Great Judge of earth 
 and heaven. 
 
 While living, Mr. Weir would not knowingly have permitted 
 such eulogy as this, but now that he has passed on and upward, 
 thase lines are written as a bright example to those who remain 
 behind. 
 
 ''Forever with the Lord" was most appropriately sung as Rev. 
 Dr. Robinson finished his tribute to the deceased, in the presence 
 of the largest assembly of mourners ever witnessed in the capital 
 of the Keystone State, and then lovingly and tenderly they bore 
 him to his rest. 
 
 And from that rest there will go out a fragrance for long years 
 to come, for 
 
 •' The ashes of the just, 
 
 Smell sweet and bloom in the dust." 
 
 Typographic Advertiser, Philadelphia. 
 
 "James Wallace Weir, a former compositor in our establish- 
 ment, and afterwards Cashier of The Harrisburg National Bank. 
 
50 
 
 He held this responsible position over forty years, and earned the 
 distinction of a financier of the highest ability. He was a most 
 excellent man in every respect ; and, notwithstanding his frail 
 health, for many years he earnestly gave himself to the promo- 
 tion of benevolent, reformatory and religious movements of his 
 day. His literary taste and ability were of high order. He was 
 born August 9th, 1805, and died Thursday, March 14th, 1878. 
 His la.st words were were characteristic of his energetic life : " Wist 
 ye not that I must be about my Father's business ?" 
 
 JAMES W. WEIR. 
 
 By a former Pupil in the Sunday School. 
 
 How little worth were monarch's envied name, 
 Or statesman's honor, or the conquerors fame. 
 
 And garlands rare, that victor's brow entwine, 
 Compared, ! sainted man of God, with thine, 
 
 A conqueror thou ! Ne'er nobler warfare done, 
 Nor mightier victory gained than thou hast won. 
 
 Illustrious! Not in vengeful deeds of blood, 
 But in a life-time spent in doing good. 
 
 Constant as needle to the attracting pole, 
 Was bent on mercy's work, thy steadfast soul. 
 
 From youth, through manhood, to thy latest age, 
 God's holy service did thy heart engage ; 
 
 That, with a never faltering purpose, gave 
 Its efforts, fallen, sinking man to save. 
 
 Humanity's compassionating friend, 
 Thy pity knew no hindrance to the end. 
 
51 
 
 By rescued sons of sin and sorrow blest, 
 Thou goest to thy peaceful, honored rest ; 
 
 And deeds of heaven-born charity divine, 
 Like fadeless laurels, deck thy hallowed shrine. 
 
 Oh, friend ! Why should we shed the bitter tear, 
 Or hang the gloomy cypress on thy bier ? 
 
 Why weep as though a cherished one had died, 
 When only death humanity hath glorified ? 
 
 Why should we count thy endless gain a loss, 
 Who hung thy trophies on thy Master's cross ? 
 
 Why sorrow, hopeless, at thy bliss begun — 
 
 Thy blessed Lord's approving words — " Well done?" 
 
 Charles N. Hickok. 
 Bedford, March 18, 1878. 
 
 Fleming, Print. Harrisburg.