was with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

That his heart was right toward men we have the consistent testimony of a life spent in ministering to human good. The highest benefit which he could have conferred on his race was precisely what he did, to consume his days and his energies in the labors of the mind, to develop the great principles of Christian truth and duty, to rescue religion from obsolete phraseology and repulsive associations, and show that it is not a degrading slavery of the human mind, but the free, spontaneous action of the soul, which keeps itself unspotted from the world.

Thus living, thus laboring, he has conferred the highest obligations upon the church and upon mankind. He was truly a burning and a shining light, and the revolution of centuries may not again bring so bright a star into our firmament. But let us thank God that he has spared us so precious a gift so long. Let us be grateful that, with so feeble a frame, he has left so much wisdom, and piety, and eloquence behind him that his lot was cast in an age which gives his writings a wider influence than they could ever have obtained before, and mingles them with the elements which are to form the character, and shape the destiny of a youthful and mighty nation.

A COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE

OCCASIONED BY THE DECEASE OF DR. GREENWOOD.*

The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.—Psalm cxii, 6.

THE church has ever delighted to commemorate her saints. In doing so she has thought to discharge her duty to the living and to the dead. She has prized their memory as among the choicest of her treasures. She has regarded them as the seals of her faith, and the crown of her rejoicing, the best testimony to the world of the divine origin of Christ's commission, and the richest purchase of her Saviour's blood. And when one is taken from us, in whose society we took pleasure, in whose character we placed implicit confidence, and by whose instructions we felt ourselves enlightened, strengthened, comforted, made wiser, better, and happier, we can enter into the feeling which in darker ages was exaggerated into superstition,-of veneration for departed goodness, which made pil

* Delivered in September, 1843.

grimages to the spot that eminent virtue had sanctified by its presence, and which would bear away as sacred the very dust that had been trodden by the feet of the holy and the just. A new feeling is created towards them by death. Death is the true canonization. It is that which exalts a mortal among the saints. As in that mysterious change the body is left among the perishing things of earth, so do we gladly consign their imperfections to the same oblivion, and think of nothing as rising to immortality but what was true, and pure, and noble, and pious. While they were here, we praised them with some reserve, we felt them still to be compassed with our common infirmity, still exposed to temptation, to weakness, and to sin. Now, our tongues are loosed, the restraint is taken off. Death has placed his unchanging seal upon them, and we freely utter the assurance we feel of their characters, now unalterably fixed. We speak of their virtues as of something which nothing now can tarnish, their deeds as of something which is now subject to no sad decline, their names as beyond the reach of earthly stain.

It is good for us to meditate on departed excellence. It is a great auxiliary to our faith. To our doubting spirits the life of a good man comes with the power of demonstration. Amidst all the uncertainties which surround us, this

much is sure, that a man has lived nobly and well. Humanity, we are persuaded, not only bears the image and impress of God, but, though clothed with infirmity, and surrounded with temptations, is capable of accomplishing an exalted destiny. It can bind itself with singlehearted allegiance to truth, and struggle manfully in her cause. It can subject itself to the stern law of integrity, till it stands among the fluctuations of human things, like a rock in the midst of the ocean. It can be the originating cause of boundless social good, whose circling waves, emanating from a single point, may continually spread wider and wider, till they reach and bless the utmost circumference of the globe. The life of the truly excellent is so much positive good in the world. No man can gainsay it-no man can deny its value. If there is any thing precious, any thing worthy our admiration, it is goodness. If there are any fruits that spring up upon the fields of time worthy to be preserved, they are the actions of a pure and holy man. If there be any thing which deserves to be gathered into the garners of eternity, it is the spirits of the just made perfect.

The lives of the excellent, who have lived and died in the faith of Christ, do more than any other argument to sustain the confidence of the world in its divine origin. In these instances, at least, God did not make a revelation

in vain. Their characters reflect back a moral glory on the means by which they were formed to be what they were. In them, at least, the mission of the Son of God was fulfilled, a purpose worthy of the interposition of Omnipotence was achieved, and we trace the same wisdom in the scheme of redemption, as in the creation of the world.

Examples of high attainment in the Christian life serve to confirm our hope of the destiny of our race, and the growing power of our holy religion. We see what man may do, how good, and true, and pure he may become, and then with what moral force he acts upon others; how, if he minister in holy things, his life may preach even a more powerful gospel than his lips; and if ten men were enough to save a city from perdition, the millions of the church may be able at length to save the world We are led to feel that the church has not yet put forth all her strength. She may have children training at her side, whom God shall clothe with a mightier power than any she has sent forth to convert the world. God, we have reason to trust, will raise up intellects proportioned to the wider field which is now opening for the spread of the Gospel, and the continually increasing means of disseminating far and wide the thoughts of the wise, and words of the eloquent; that a growing fervor and spiritu