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AN

ADDRESS

DELIVERED AT THE FUNERAL

ISAAC WEEKS, Es(^.,

JANUARY 2 7, 186 8.

BY ISAAC JENNINliS,

PASTOR OF THE FIRST CHURCH IN BENNINUTON, VERMONT.

l^ew ¥otih :
STEAENS * BEALE, STATIONERS AND PRINTERS, 147 FULTON STREET.
1868.

I Cob. XV., 53—57.
" For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must
put on uumortality.
So when this corruptible shall have put ou incorruption and this
mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the
saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.
O death where is thy sting ? O grave where is thy victory ?
The sting of death is sin ; and the strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ."

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[nntvnl liirbress.

"Be thou faithful unto death, and I wiU give thee a crown of life."
Among the many symbols of heavenly glory -with
which God's Word abounds, The Crown is always
prominent, as if it were intended to familiarize the
children of the kingdom with their exalted destiny,
and to excite them to walk worthy of it.
The symbol is used as one of reward, because con
querors in the public games were crowned ; and iu
this connection is the added idea of an imperishable
cro-wn. " They do it to obtain a corruptible cro-wn,
but we an incorruptible." The wrestlers in those
games which are practiced among you contend in
order to obtain a garland of laurel, oak leaves or the
like, which fade soon away, but we christians strive
for an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that
fadeth not away — a crown of life ; not a fading crown,
but one that is ever living. There will be the reward
of everlasting Kfe in the presence of God, in His
exalted, glorious, heavenly service, and amid joys
that never end.
This is the reward of an enduring fidelity. So
James — "Blessed is the man that endureth tempta
tion " — remaineth faithful, notwithstanding all tempta
tions to swerve or falter, or abandon duty, " For when
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he is tried, he shaU receive the crown of life, which
the Lord hath promised to them that love him." It
is thus that in the word of God we have the most
inspiring inducements placed before us, to fidelity and
constancy in the way of righteousness, and in the
service of God; and to christian fortitude amid the
severest trials.
But it is not mere faithfulness in general, a merely
human, or merely philosophical virtue, that is meant,
but also christian faithfulness. It is what we admire
in natural faithfulness, exalted and sanctified, and
sprinkled with the blood of Christ, and so made
acceptable at the severe judgment seat of a holy God.
It is therefore essentially faithfulness to the doctrine,
and truth, and cause in this world, of Christ crucified.
In the spirit of loving and stedfast duty to Him who
was faithful to us unto the death of the cross, and
therefore has himself sat down on the right hand of
the throne of God. And what an inspiring motive to
christian fidelity, that Christ renders our poor service
acceptable before the holy throne by himself suffering
severer pangs than we, if we are his followers, can
ever experience. It is by arguments so full of tender
ness and constraining power to the believing heart
that christian faithfulness is sustained. And what
confidence is thus furnished us for our heavenly antici
pations. " Be thou faithful imto death, and I will
give thee a crown of life." Jesus, our Saviour, says
this to those for whom He has earned the everlasting

FXJNERAL ADDRESS.

reward. The crown of life, Christ has earned by his
faithfulness unto death, and he confers it upon us
on the condition that we, in our poor imperfect way,
are faithful unto death.
When we indulge the fond hope for departed
christian friends, that they have ascended to wear
the crown of life, it is not because we place an
exalted estimate upon their deserts, much as we love,
and perhaps even adore them ; they were stiU imperfect.
They and we alike are, when self alone is considered,
or as a matter of self righteousness, unworthy to reign
forever in celestial beatitudes and celestial glory. But
this impediment to our most exalted anticipations for
our dear christian friends, as well as for ourselves, is
removed away when we consider that the glorified
saints in heaven wear the crown Christ has earned for
them. They are clothed with the robe of His righte
ousness. They stand in the solemn presence of the
great and final Judge, unabashed, because they are
" accepted in the beloved." They may have been very
modest, very diffident here ; but all painful diffidence
is there removed from them forever ; for they wear a
crown of glory which Christ has earned for them by
His merits, and which He himself has placed upon
their brow.
These funeral services appear to me to furnish an
appropriate occasion, and one which should not pass
unimproved, for some particular notice of the life and
character of our dear departed friend.

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FUNERAL ADDRESS.

Mb. "Weeks was born in this town, on November 10,
1796, and was consequently in the seventy-second year
of his age at the time of his decease. He was the
fifth child in a family of eleven children, two of whom
died in infancy, and nine grew up to adult years, in
cluding a sister who deceased at the age of seventeen.
These were children of David and EKzabeth Weeks ;
and grandchildren of Thomas and Catherine Weeks.
The parents and grand parents removed to this town
together from Hardwick, Massachusetts, in 1783. Of
this family of children, to which our deceased friend
belonged, only one, the eldest, now survives ; of the
others, six have deceased within eight years.
Mr. Weeks has held many important offices of
responsibility, requiring talent, integrity and industry ;
and in connection with these public offices and his
public business, he will be long and honorably remem
bered. He possessed a remarkably sound judgment ;
his views were sober, moderate and wise ; his advice
good ; and it is creditable to the good sense of the
town that he had committed to him for so long a
period important and varied business of the town ;
and to so remarkable an extent with the general ac
quiescence and satisfaction. Where work was to be
done, he personally superintended the work. He did
not say to the employee, go ; but he said, come. He
pursued his work and business without the excitement
of hurry, but early and stedfastly ; and when neces
sary he put his own shoulder to the wheel. And so

FUNERAL ADDRESS.

constantly was he occupied with business, and so
much was he still abroad in the town, mingling with
his neighbors and feUow-citizens, socially and in busi
ness, that he did not seem to be so old as he really
was ; and it strikes us unexpectedly to learn that he
had reached and passed, by more than a year, the
limit in the scriptures assigned as the common rule
to the days of man upon the earth.
But it is not merely as an honored and faithful
public servant that he will be long remembered, but
also as a friend and benefactor. He was ever ready
to help the poor — and those who were not poor, whom
it was in his power to assist. In this respect his life
has been a marked one of beneficent usefulness.
There are many who with no unmeaning words can
testify to this, I may perhaps say life-long trait of his
character. Our friend haS lived all his life here
among you so kindly and so well, that I venture to
say, never was tribute of mourning offered to the
memory of one dead among us more sincere.
Silently, at the last, without pain, without at least
any showing of pain, or uneasiness, or unwillingness,
he lay upon his bed of death, and underwent the
process of mortal dissolution. Silently as the snow
flakes fall, his spirit passed' away.* Silently, -without
any extraordinary demonstrations of parade, we will
bear his remains to the cemetery, and lower them into
the grave ; but we will feel in the depth of our hearts
that we have met with a great loss.
* January 24, 1858.

*ra

10 FUNERAL ADDRESS.

He was singularly a man of few words, especially
in public assemblies ; a remarkable example of those
whose life consists in deeds and not words, who are
much in action and little in profession. He never,
I suppose, said a word in town-meeting on public
affairs, except to make some required report, or to
answer a question ; nor in any political meeting ; and
yet how faithfully he served the town. How faith
fully he discharged his official duties during the recent
war, when the duty of disbursing the state pay to
the soldiers was very arduous. And on the question
of a patriot's duty, on the political and moral ques
tions of anti-slavery in the public affairs for years
past, how faithful ; how consistent with himself ; how
staunch his position and course ; so that those who
have been on his side in poHtics and those who have
been on the other side in politics could not but res
pect him. For myself I feel more like sitting with
the mourners than like addressing you on this occa
sion, and yet he never abounded in words of friend
ship, never abounded in promises or assurances to
the ear; so much more is there in deeds than in
words ; so much more by a great deal, in deeds with
out words than in words without deeds.
It has been the same with regard to the Church
of Christ, to that church in particular of -which he
was a member. He had Httle to say when he was
examined for admission to the church. In the social
rehgious meetings of the church, never, I believe, has

FUNERAL ADDRESS. 11

his voice been heard; but how faithful in deeds and
in his life has he been to Christ's Kingdom. Often
at the social meetings, though at quite a distance from
his house, and oftentimes in the evening and in incle
ment weather; and ever ready to provide for his
family to attend ; and in the business meetings ever
ready to do pecuniarily his part. Faithful, is the word.
As we are now called to go on -with our christian work
in the church and the parish -without him, affectingly
come up in recollection to my mind, the staunch and
true who have gone before him, from their earthly to
their heavenly reward. The number of this class who
have deceased since I have been pastor of our church,
would make no mean roll of honor ; and he was hon-'
ored by them, and they by him. To those who survive,
how the words ring out upon our ears on this occasion,
" Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a
cro-wn of life."
He made a public profession of religion, and united
with the church on January 5, 1862. He felt deeply
his unworthiness to wear the name of " christian."
It seemed to him a step so solemn, a position so
responsible. "Upon his examination, his diffidence ap
peared in the extreme ; his diffidence of making chris
tian professions and relating christian experiences.
Nothing, I am sure, could have brought him to this
step, except the thought of a duty to confess Christ,
the thought of exhibiting to others an example of
owning Christ. Two sisters and two brothers, aU

12 FUNERAL ADDRESS.

dearly beloved, had been called away by death near
together ; within the short period of less than eight
months, and in a manner very sudden. The affecting
bereavement not only made him tender, and imparted
to him solemn views of death and the world to come,
but also, I think, had this consequence : he could not
bear the thought of going hence himself without hav
ing set his seal to the testimony that God in Christ
was his Sa-viour. He felt a trembling hope that his
sins were forgiven through the precious blood that
was shed on the cross; he saw clearly that there was
none other name given under Heaven among men,
whereby we can be saved ; and he could not think of
dying -without ha-ving in the appointed manner testi
fied openly to his sense of infinite obligation for Ee-
deeming Love. There was another feeling ; it was the
motive of exhibiting a right example in this thing
before others, and particularly before the young. I
was impressed with this at his examination. He seem
ed to be diffident of bringing forward evidences of his
spiritual state, but there was one thing he confidently
adduced ; for a long time he had felt a deep interest
that young men should not put off becoming christians,
and nothing gave him more satisfaction than the know
ledge that any one of this class had come forth to be
seriously and consistently on the Lord's side.
We may beUeve that our loss is his gain, that he has
been called to come up higher and wear the crown of
life. Appropriate are the words of Scripture "WeU

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FtTNEBAL ADDRESS. 13

done thou good and faithful servant ; thou hast beeii
faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over
many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."
What God has for him, and what he will have in
Heaven for you to do, we know not now, but we shall
know hereafter ; and when we do know we shall then
wonder that we could have been so grieved while in
the flesh, by God's seemingly untoward ways re
specting us.
But most deeply now do we sympathize with this
afflicted house. The blow that has fallen here is, in
the earthly sense, irreparable ; and where can I point
these crushed hearts for comfort, but to that God, who
has in His sovereign wisdom, seen fit to let the blow
fall. At home, as a husband, a father, a brother,
he was so tenderly affectionate ; and at the same
time so judicious in counsel, so wise to guide, that
the memory of him, now he is gone must be fragrant
indeed. "When it was said to the angel of the church in
Smyrna, and through him to the church itself, " Be
thou faithful imto death and I will give thee a crown
of life," the design was to encourage the christians
of Smyrna to christian fidelity amid great tribulations.
So amid the sorrows of severe bereavement, where
there is the temptation, not indeed to apostatize from
Christ, but to be fiUed with dismay before a future
darkened by the sudden removal of one who has been
a prop to lean upon under aU trials and changing

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14 FUNERAL ADDRESS.

scenes of this chequered Ufe, it is a great attainment
of christian fideUty to calmly commit all these to God,
" in trial's fearful hour." To go forward to the new
duties forced upon us by such bereavements without
shrinking, is like being faithful unto death. Such trials
show what stuff our christian character is made of_
We are encouraged to such fidelity, by the promise
from our gracious God of a glorious and everlasting
reward. Being thus faithful, the symbols of mourning shaU
bye and bye be exchanged for the white robes; the
head that is now bowed in anguish of spirit shaU
then have upon it a radiant diadem of -victory, whose
sparkling gems shaU reflect for ever the lustre of the
throne of God. In that exalted state, instead of
looking downward into the grave and saying: there
are buried my fondest earthly hopes, the countenance
shaU be Ufted up with seraphic elevation, and shaU
cast ever more beaming glances into the future of a
perfectly blessed immortaUty Instead of thoughts of
loneUness and dependence and trouble, there shaU be
thoughts of plucking ever more the fruits from the
tree of Ufe. There wiU be both activity and repose,
where there is no trouble, no loneUness, no separation]
but aU is powerful support, aU is immortal strength
aU is unending joy. Instead of the feeUngs of dejec
tion and weakness and impotence, there shaU be the
triumphant ffieling. Having overcome, it wiU be
granted to the faithful soul to sit down with Christ on

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FUNERAL ADDRESS. 15
his throne. " And there shaU be no night there ; and
they need no candle, neither Ught of the sun ; for the
Lord God giveth them Ught and they shaU reign for
ever and ever."

m —

— B

Itic in 0ttr fitfpe oi mst Wljobt."

still one in life and one in death.
One in our hope of rest above ;
One in our joy, our trust, our faith,
One In each other's faithful love.
Yet must we part, and parting, weep ;
"What else has earth for us la store ?
Our farewell pangs, how sharp and deep !
Our farewell words, how sad and sore !
Yet shall we meet again in peace.
To sing the song of festal joy,
"Where none shall Md our gladness cease.
And none our fellowship destroy.
Where none shall beckon us away.
Nor bid our festival be done ;
Our meeting-time, th' eternal day.
Our meeting-place, th' eternal throne.
There, hand in hand, firm-linked at last,
And, heart to heart, enfolded all,
'We'll smile upon the troubled past,
And wonder why we wept at all.

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