BX 9543 .K6 C7 1858 
 
 Memorial of the Rev. John 
 Knox, D.D 
 
IVt E ]SJ: O R I A.L 
 
 KEY. JOHN KNOX, D.D. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY CONSISTORY. 
 
John A. Gray, Frinter and Stereotyper^ 
 16 and 18 Jacob St, Fire-Proof Buildings. 
 
^./% 
 
 ^^ 
 
JOHN KNOX, 
 
 BOHN IN ADAMS COIHSTTY, PA., 
 
 JUNE 17, 1790. 
 
 LICElSrSEID TO I'R.EA.CIi, JXJKTE, 1815. 
 
 OKDAIN'ED AND INSTALLED 
 
 COLLEAGUE PASTOR OF THE REFORMED PROTESTANT DUTCH 
 CHURCH IX THE CITY OF NEW-YORK, 
 
 JULY 16, 1816. 
 
 DIED JANUARY 8, 1858. 
 
DEATH 
 
 AND 
 
 FUNERAL SERVICES. 
 
 TAKEN' OHIEFLT PROM 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN INTELLIGENCER 
 
THE LATE KEY. JOHN OCX, D.D. 
 
 Ox Tuesday of last week, (January 5,) the Eev. Dr. Ivnox, 
 who had been engaged in pastoral visitations, on reaching 
 home in the after part of the day, passed out upon the back 
 piazza of his house, which is inclosed with swinging blinds, 
 reaching nearly to the floor ; and in some way unknown, he 
 was precipitated from an open lattice into the yard, a distance 
 of five or six feet. He struck with his head upon the flagging, 
 and was taken up insensible, indicating that a severe concus- 
 sion of the brain, if not a fracture of the skull, had taken place. 
 The report of the melancholy casualty spread, as sad news al- 
 ways does, with great rapidity, and the utmost anxiety was 
 felt in this city and elsewhere to learn what the result of the 
 injury would prove to be. The worst apprehensions were 
 soon realized. In spite of medical skill and the tenderest 
 watchfulness of Christian friendship. Dr. Knox lay imtil 
 Friday afternoon last in the thrall of approaching death. 
 From the time of his sudden fall, up to the moment of death, 
 he gave but little evidence of consciousness. When first placed 
 in bed, he answered two or three questions intelligently, and 
 was heard in gentle and broken words to say, ^' Jesus, have 
 mercy on me ;" but very soon he seemed to hear no sound — 
 the accustomed voice of loved ones who surrounded him 
 brought back from his lips no response. In the grand and 
 solemn intercourse of his soul with God, he found no place 
 nor ability to talk with friends. 
 
 Swift as the darting arrow came the shock and the conquest 
 of death, and laid our venerable father, brother, friend, low 
 beneath his sceptre. lie passed from the maturity of his use- 
 
fulness and ripened vigor of honorable age, into the glory and 
 the greatness of that immortal state for which he had been 
 baptized and crowned by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 We feel ourselves quite unable to do justice, in a brief 
 sketch like this, to a character so orbed in beauty, so symme- 
 trical in its proportions, so chastened in the severe and gentle 
 virtues of manly force, so exuberant in the fruits of godly liv- 
 ing, so rich in all the attributes of private and official worth, 
 as was the character of Dr. Knox. Yet, for the love w^e bore 
 him, we are impelled to draw in rapid outline some features of 
 tliat character whom all admired, and few will ever actualize 
 in their personal growth. 
 
 Dr. Knox w^as a native of Pennsylvania. He was born near 
 Gettysburgh, in the year 1790, graduated at Dickinson Col- 
 lege, studied Theology with the Kev. J. M. Mason, D.D., one 
 of whose daughters he subsequently married. Forty-two years 
 ago, he was ordained as one of the pastors of the Collegiate 
 Reformed Dutch Church of this city, being then in the 27th 
 year of his age. Forty-two years ago ! What changes have 
 jostled and crowded and overwhelmed each other in this city 
 within this period ! When Dr. Knox begun his ministry, the 
 old Wall street Church stood in its stately strength. The 
 Merchants' Exchange had not yet overshadow^ed Garden street, 
 where the church of Dr. Mathews stood. The Middle Dutch 
 Clmrch, now the Post-Office, was then the centre of Dutch af- 
 fections. Franklin Square w^as then the up-town of the 
 wealthier merchants and of the distinguished citizens. Then 
 Podgers, and Pomeyn, and Milner, and a host of men illus- 
 trious in their day, and embalmed in fragrant memories now, 
 occupied the pulpits of this city, and adorned its civil and 
 social life. They have passed away. The dim shadow of the 
 all-engulfing future has received them. Their spirits have 
 gone where the mighty rest. Their graves are almost for- 
 irotten or unnoticed now. 
 
 In the private individuality of his character, Dr. Knox was 
 
9 
 
 the model of a Christian gentleman. Ko hurried impulses, no 
 warping prejudices, no sharp dogmatism, no selfish indiffer- 
 ence prevented him from exhibiting, at all times, and on all 
 occasions, the calm, equable, humble, and dignified temper of 
 a man who respected himself enough to respect others. Kind 
 without an air of condescension, truthful without an ostenta- 
 tion of frankness, warm-hearted without credulity, scrupulously 
 lionorable, and pimctiliously exact in the use of words, and in 
 the performance of his promises, he won the friendship of 
 those who knew him, and kept that friendship until the 
 last. 
 
 As a preacher. Dr. Knox lacked what is commonly styled 
 eloquence in delivery, but his manner had the best element of 
 eloquence — which was persuasiveness. Never boisterous, 
 never resorting to tricks of art, or follies of pantomime ; he 
 presented the truth in a clear, bold, convincing, and winning 
 form, so that his success, in the high purpose of a Christian 
 minister, was far greater than that of more showy and fussy 
 men. The matter of his sermons was, of course, always 
 evangelical, and this, as we think, is the chief secret of his 
 long continuance in one charge, and of his undiminished in- 
 fluence throughout his pastorate. Other men have come and 
 gone, attracting and losing crowds, while he kept on the even 
 tenor of his Christian way, preaching the Gospel, and nothing 
 but the Gospel, to the people whom he loved. The example 
 of such a man, and of such a ministry, is worth very much to 
 a city like this, where every species of ingenuity is tried to 
 supplement the Gospel, with charms and devices of merely 
 human skill. 
 
 As a philanthropist. Dr. Knox occupied a higli position. 
 He was a trustee of Columbia College, in this city ; of Kutgers 
 College, in ]^ew- Jersey; of the Leake and Watt Orphan 
 Asylum, Chairman of the Publishing Committee of the 
 American Tract Society, and a member of several Boards of 
 our own Church. In all these public relations, he evinced a 
 
10 
 
 steady diligence, and lent liis influence and his wise counsels 
 to the progress of their welfare. 
 
 In behalf of Rutgers College, he devoted at several times 
 especial efforts to aid the improvement of its finances, and 
 secure to that institution the best affections of the Church. In 
 connection with his venerable friend, Abraham Van Nest, 
 Esq., on one occasion, he raised the College from great embar- 
 rassment, and proved, in that regard, its almost saviour. But 
 we must not enlarge. We saw Dr. Knox on the Monday pre- 
 ceding the fatal Tuesday, and he then rejoiced in the posses- 
 sion of health, and said that " he was growing old, he knew, 
 and yet he felt but few of the infirmities of age." Ah ! he had 
 discovered and obeyed the great law of health, which is none 
 other than the pursuit of worthy ends, by worthy means, with 
 a high Christian purpose. Dr. Knox was always at work, and 
 when the Master said, " Come up hither," he laid aside the 
 implements of his earthly toil, and went up to rest. 
 
 THE FUNERAL. 
 
 The funeral was attended first at the house of the deceased, 
 in Fourth street (where the Kev. Dr. McElroy, the life-long in- 
 timate friend of the deceased, delivered a short address, and of- 
 fered prayer.) and thence to the Lafayette Place Church. Mili- 
 tary demonstrations and the pompous parade of funerals in 
 which political elements supplant all decent grief are common. 
 But we have never witnessed such an assemblage, of such 
 people as came to do homage to the memory and the good 
 name of Dr. Knox. 
 
 His remains were borne by honorable men, who walked re- 
 verently beside their sacred burden. The coffin was clothed 
 with black cloth, fastened with silver screws, with handles on 
 the sides, and bore upon its lid a plate with the name and age 
 of the deceased. Following the coffin were the Rev. Drs. De 
 Witt, Yermilye, and Chambers — his bereaved colleagues — his 
 
11 
 
 family, the Consistory of the church, trustees of various insti- 
 tutions, members of societies with whom the deceased was 
 connected, while hundreds of clergymen of every evangelical 
 denomination preceded the remains. 
 
 Upon entering the church an involuntary feeling of awe 
 must have fallen upon all. The desk from which Dr. Knox 
 had so long and so well preached was shrouded in black, and 
 stood a mute and unconscious mourner, and solemn monitor as 
 well. The posts of the lamps had hidden their golden 
 splendors beneath their sombre drapery, and the sides, rear, 
 and front of the deep recess were veiled with weeds of sorrow. 
 The fronts of the galleries were also draped, and the organ 
 trembled in black while it wailed sobbingly and tenderly a re- 
 quiem for the dead. The congregation within the church 
 contained most of the distinguished divines, scholars, jurists, 
 and many of the aged inhabitants of the city. There were 
 men whom the world honors, come to pay their homage to a 
 Christian minister, whose highest and noblest distinction was 
 that he lived and preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Such 
 a spectacle contained more than libraries hold of instruction 
 on the true dignity and real honor of life. 
 The pall-bearers were : 
 
 Eev. Dr. Beerian, of the Episcopal Church. 
 '^ Phillips, ^' Presbyterian " 
 
 « Bangs, " Methodist " 
 
 " "Williams, " Baptist " 
 
 " Fekris, " Dutch '^ 
 
 " McCaktee, " Presbyterian " 
 
 " Hardeneergh, " Dutch " 
 
 " Skinner, " Presbyterian " 
 
 llis physicians, who followed the remains, were Drs. Gnr- 
 don Buck, John Watson, Edward L. Beadle. 
 
 The exercises in the church commenced with the funeral an- 
 them by the choir : " I heard a voice saying unto me, Write 
 from henceforth, Blessed are the dead wlio die in the Lord." 
 
12 
 
 The following rich and most impressive prayer was then 
 offered by the Eev. Dr. Spring, the senior pastor of this city : 
 
 PRAYER BY THE REV. DR. SPRING. 
 
 O Lord God ! who hast laid the foundations of the earth, 
 and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall 
 perish, but thou remainest, and they all shall wax old, as doth 
 a garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they 
 shall be changed ; but thou art the same, and to thy years 
 there is no end. And this is our joy, almighty God, under 
 those dark dispensations of thy providence which so fre- 
 quently overshadow our world, and eclipse the hopes of thy 
 people. The Lord liveth, and blessed be our Eock ; and let 
 the God of our salvation be exalted. The Lord God omnipo- 
 tent reigneth, and let the earth rejoice. Yea, let the islands 
 of the sea and the trees of the field clap their hands, because 
 the Lord reigneth. Thou art light, and in thee is no darkness 
 at all. Thou clothest thyself with light as with a garment, 
 and dost array thyself in majesty and excellence. Yet, O God ! 
 while we have perfect confidence in the spotless rectitude of 
 thy nature, and in the wisdom and goodness and faithfulness 
 of all thy dispensations, clouds and darkness are often round 
 about us. Justice and judgment are the habitations of thy 
 throne. Lord, we would appear before thee, while we suppli- 
 cate thy favor under the bereaving providence which sum- 
 mons us to this house of mourning ; we would remember who 
 it is that speaks to us, that the God of all the earth is speak- 
 ino: to us from the dark cloud. We would be still, and know 
 that it is God. Thou hast a right to judge us ; and if thou, 
 Lord, shouldest mark iniquity against us, we could not answer 
 thee for one of a thousand. By one man sin entered the 
 world, and death by sin ; and so death passed upon all men, 
 for that all have sinned. And we bow before the sentence. 
 We must bow before it, we know ; and we ask for grace to 
 bow before it cheerfully. O Lord ! we would not be found, 
 
13 
 
 even under such a dispensation as this, contending with the 
 Almighty. Who ever hardened himself against God, and 
 prospered ? We would rather lie down at thy footstool, ac- 
 cept the punishment of our iniquity, and magnify the God of 
 heaven, and give him glory, before our feet stumble on the 
 dark mountains, and we look for light, and there is darkness. 
 What shall we say unto thee, in view of this ? We look back 
 on all thy dealings with thy beloved servant, and see so much 
 to be thankful for in thy goodness and mercy toward him, 
 that while we come trembling and with holy fear before thy 
 throne, our lips shout praises. With thankful homage to thy 
 will, we recall thy loving-kindness to this people, through the 
 instrumentality of their faithful pastor, whose mortal remains 
 are ready to be consigned to the clods of the valley. We 
 thank thee for permitting him to preach the everlasting Gos- 
 pel so long, and with so much success. We thank thee for 
 the seals of his ministry which thou hast given him. We 
 bless thee for the testimony which these have borne to his 
 usefulness in the kingdom of thy dear Son. O Lord God ! 
 we thank thee for all those precious hopes which were often 
 brought home to his own heart, in uttering the truths which 
 he was permitted to proclaim to his fellow-men. And though 
 thou hast called him away in a manner which did not allow 
 of his testifying on his dying-bed to the preciousness of the 
 truths to which he gave such practical testimony in his long- 
 continued life, yet we have cause to bless thee for thy kind- 
 ness to him ; and we ask thee to bless this scene to our own 
 hearts. Especially remember the afflicted family from whom 
 thou hast taken a father and friend. Put under them thine 
 everlasting arms, and enable them to see that the father's God 
 is also the God of the children. Hemember this whole peo- 
 ple, and pour out thy Spirit upon them. Grant that those, 
 who have heard and thankfully received thy trutli from the 
 lips of thy servant, may remember their obligations to the 
 God of grace. And if there be any who have long heard 
 
14: 
 
 and long rejected the Gospel of the great salvation, as deliv- 
 ered by him, may this be the hour when some arrow from thy 
 quiver may penetrate their hearts, that they may bow at thy 
 footstool while it is called to-day. Remember this church, 
 which thou hast blessed in the days of the past ; for while we 
 have stood by, and watched one and another of its ministers 
 to the grave, the Great Shepherd has watched over it, and 
 has said : I will never forsake thee. Teach them with prayer- 
 ful minds to look up to thee, to know what thou wouldest 
 have them to do. Guide them by thine eye, and bless them 
 by the influence of thy grace. May this event not come 
 without its solemn lesson of instruction to those who minister 
 at the altar. May we realize the high privilege to stand be- 
 fore multitudes of our fellow-creatures, and testify to the Gos- 
 pel of the grace of God. We thank thee, that the nearer we 
 draw to the grave, and the more frequently we see it open be- 
 fore us, the more valuable that privilege appears to us. May 
 we prize it more and more. May we, from whom thou hast 
 taken a brother in the ministry, keep our lamps trimmed, and 
 be ready for the coming of the Son of Man, not knowing at 
 what hour we may be called to meet him. While we declare 
 the unsearchable riches of the grace of Christ, make it pre- 
 cious to our own hearts. While we proclaim the obligations 
 of thy law, may we welcome them ourselves. While we 
 warn others to flee from the wrath to come, let us ever re- 
 member that the day is coming when we ourselves shall stand 
 before the Son of Man with them, not to preach, but to be 
 judged ; to listen to the sentence which shall separate the 
 righteous from the wicked ; and may it be our happy lot, 
 through thy abounding grace in Jesus Christ, to hear the wel- 
 come, little as we deserve it, '' Well done, good and faithful 
 servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." And now, 
 blessed God, as a collection of dying creatures, we come to 
 thy throne, before we deposit the dust of our beloved brother 
 in its last resting-place. Teach us how frail we are. Teach 
 
15 
 
 lis to number our days, so that we may apply our hearts unto 
 wisdom ; to bring before us the great realities of the eternal 
 world, in all their vastness, in all their preciousness, and in 
 all their intimate relations to our own souls. God of grace, 
 grant, we humbly beseech thee, that if human life with an}^ 
 of us has been trifled with, if duties have been forgotten, that 
 this may be the last hour in which it shall be so. If we have 
 not devoted our services to these dying and living men, may 
 we remember the great maxim : l^one of us liveth to himself, 
 or dieth to himself; but whether we live, we live unto the 
 Lord ; whether we die, we die unto the Lord ; that living or 
 dying, we may be with the Lord. May we realize the solem- 
 nities of that hour, when in the great congregation of the 
 universe, we shall stand at the divine bar. Prepare us. Lord, 
 for that solemn hour, for the sake of Jesus our Redeemer, to 
 whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be endless praise. 
 Amen. 
 
 Tlie Eev. Dr. Bethune read selected passages of Scripture. 
 The hymn commencing, 
 
 " Hear what the voice from heaven proclaims 
 For all the pious dead," 
 
 was sung by the choir ; when the Rev. Dr. Yan Yranken, the 
 Senior Professor of the Theological Seminary in ITew-Bruns- 
 wick, addressed the audience as follows : 
 
 BEV. DR. VAN VRANKEN'S ADDRESS. 
 
 Death is always productive of intense emotions, because it 
 is always attended by everlasting issues of glory or of shame 
 to the dying. It speaks a language which every human heart 
 should hear and feel. And the effect of it we see in the 
 domestic circle, in tears and groans, and broken hearts, and 
 crushed spirits, and the saddest of all earthly desolations ; and 
 when we visit the house of mourning, although we go as min- 
 
16 
 
 isters of consolation, we enter softly, and come away softly. 
 For death has produced a feeling of solemnity and sadness 
 with which nothing else would correspond. Every thing that 
 we witness there should be sober, and sad, and tender. But 
 if we go beyond the bounds of the domestic circle, and asso- 
 ciate the dead with the living interests of the world ; and 
 even if we connect him with the cause of education ; if we 
 connect him with the moral improvement of the world ; if 
 we connect him with the life and witli the sorrows of the dis- 
 tressed ; if we connect him with the Church of God, with our 
 ministry and its solemn ordinances, with our preached Gospel, 
 and with all that renders sacred that instrument of God's ap- 
 pointment, with our counsels, with our plans, our efforts to 
 improve the condition of the world and to save the souls of 
 men — then death speaks to a larger circle, and in a louder 
 tone. The whole community is made to hear, and an effect is 
 often produced like the one which we now witness in this vast 
 assemblage, in these crowded streets, in this involuntary hom- 
 age to the worth of a departed servant of God. 
 
 And if he has extended his relations beyond the Church, to 
 institutions such as are designed to promote the great work of 
 evangelizing the world, our views are still widened, and the 
 whole community and society at large feel that death has 
 been in the place ; and how many hearts are made to bleed ! 
 
 But we may feel more deeply the visitation of death, if we 
 view any one individual case in connection with others of 
 similar character, and closely corresponding in time. If we 
 witness the fall of an armor-bearer in the hosts of God, and 
 then have to recollect for a moment, and our memory reminds 
 us that another and another have just fallen in the same glo- 
 rious cause, we feel — if we have hearts to rejoice in the pros- 
 perity of Zion, hearts to rejoice in the lively ministration of 
 God's truth — we feel more deeply still. Tliree or four short 
 mouths have sufficed to lay three of our standard-bearers low, 
 
three of our miglity men. In the last four months, Ludlow, 
 Polhemus, and Knox have fallen ! 
 
 If the preservation and the perpetuity of the Church de- 
 pended upon any human arm, successive bereavements like 
 these might well make us tremble on viewing what we have 
 lost ; for we have few such men, the world has few such men, 
 to spare. But faith must take the place of emotion, and tlien 
 our fears pass away. Let it be that God has taken our strong 
 and valiant men out of the field of action ; yet every one he 
 has preserved just so long as was necessary to accomplish the 
 end which he designed in their vocation. And when their 
 work is done, and not until it is done, will he call them to 
 their eternal reward. In the mean time, let all who love the 
 Church of God look to our exalted King, and rejoice in this, 
 that, because he lives, we shall live also. 
 
 I am not called upon to give you any thing like a character 
 of our departed brother. That duty will fall to other hands — 
 to one who was associated with him in the holiest offices of 
 religion, in the tenderest sympathies, and in a continued 
 course of friendship that has served only to make kindred 
 hearts mingle into unison. "What the effect of the represent- 
 ation upon you may be, will depend entirely on the state of 
 the conflict in your hearts, between pleasant memories and a 
 consciousness of present bereavement. 
 
 And yet, I can hardly come to approach, and to look for a 
 moment at the wide chasm which has been created by the loss 
 of our departed brother, without desiring to know what it was 
 that enabled him to hold out so long, and accomplish so much. 
 I feel that he was truly great. It can not be said of him, while 
 his mind and hands were occupied with a variety of things 
 connected with the advancement of the kingdom of Christ, 
 that he was one who did a little here, and a little there, and 
 not much in the aggregate. Our departed brother's exertions 
 not merely extended over a wide field, but they were efficient, 
 and such as called forth the admiration and blessings of those 
 
18 
 
 who loved the interests he endeavored to advance. The fact 
 that he filled so large a space — the fact that he was engaged 
 in so much, and that he accomplished so much, proves that 
 this community, as well as the whole Church, has lost no com- 
 mon man. There must have been in him every element of 
 greatness, an enlightened understanding, practical wisdom, 
 earnestness in his application to all that he undertook. He 
 was fervent in spirit, full of zeal for the glory of God, and the 
 advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom. Under the influ- 
 ence of these high sentiments, and with the industry and 
 application which marked our departed brother, he must have 
 made himself felt in society, and felt only for good. 
 
 The attributes which made him so successful in his various 
 departments, when employed in his office as a minister of the 
 religion of Jesus, would lead us to look for every thing that 
 the heart of a Christian can desire. A faitliful exhibition of 
 God's truth, a prayerful preparation for the services of the 
 sanctuary, watchfulness for the souls of his flock, a godly walk 
 and conversation exhibited day by day before them, testified 
 to the power of the religion which he professed, so that those 
 who saw him " took knowledge of him, that he had been with 
 Jesus." 
 
 I scarcely know of any honor to be enjoyed by a man de- 
 parting from the world greater than that which he enjoyed in 
 the homage and veneration paid him, and in the deeply afiiicted 
 spirits of this vast community. 
 
 The excellence and the extent of his influence for so many 
 years perhaps is now felt to be more than would otherwise 
 have been imagined. That influence is felt in the very city 
 that had the blessing of such a man walking through its streets, 
 visiting house after house, administering consolation, giving, 
 instruction to the ignorant, going to places of mourning, and 
 there mingling his sorrow with theirs whom God had afiiicted. 
 The influence, I say, of a man like that must make him a 
 blessing to society to a degree almost incalculable. And per- 
 
19 
 
 haps if we look around we shall hardly find another man 
 whose presence would be more missed than his. 
 
 This Church for forty-two years has enjoyed his ministry ; 
 and the results of each year's successive services of the forty- 
 two have only been to increase the veneration of the flock for 
 their pastor ; have only been to establish him more firmly in 
 the affections of their hearts, whilst his general deportment, 
 and the general influence which he has exerted, have tended 
 to establish his reputation far and wide as a man wdio stood, I 
 had almost said, alone. For there are few that maintain a 
 consistency like his ; few that exert so hallowed an influence 
 as that of his daily walk and conversation ; few are looked to 
 with the confidence felt in his principles and his integrity ; few 
 are regarded so highly, as to the safety with which any cause 
 may be committed to their guardianship. 
 
 It would be something very pleasant if we were able now 
 to gather up the results of a life like that of our departed 
 friend. What a gathering this would be ! If we could only 
 follow out the direct and indirect influences of a life so loner, 
 so holy, so diligent, so earnest in the cause of God ! Witnesses 
 would arise from every quarter to testify to what they have 
 experienced through him, directly or indirectly. And the 
 number would be multiplied, and the facts aggregated, until 
 we should be astonished that God should connect with the 
 exertions of one single man results so important as these. But 
 though we can neither see nor hear these results, all of them 
 are written in the book of God's remembrance — not only the 
 direct results, but all remotely connected with them — all the 
 secret influences which distill, like the dew of evening, from 
 such a man as the departed, operating silently on the hearts 
 of men, unconsciously alike to him and them. For when the 
 mind is brought into contact with an object so venerated, it 
 catches at least a portion of its spirit, or there will be a 
 diminution of the contrary spirit, and a predisposition formed 
 
20 
 
 to act like him who enjoyed so much of the confidence and 
 the admiration of the community. 
 
 REV. DE. HUTTON'S ADDRESS. 
 
 The Eev. Dr. Hutton said : When God speaks to us by a 
 visitation such as that which has called us here to-day, it seems 
 to me almost like presumption for man to raise his voice. 
 Death has sounds of its own, which are always touching, and 
 impressive, and forcible. Its pale ensign in the countenance 
 of our friend whom we now mourn, and whom death has 
 stricken down, the ties which are broken, never again to be 
 united — there are a thousand things in which death speaks to 
 us, and speaks most powerfully. The house into which it enters 
 is always a house of mourning — the family into which it enters 
 is always broken — the home or the Church into which it enters 
 is robed in blackness and mourning, l^otwithstanding all the 
 light which our blessed religion throws around the grave, still 
 death always brings mourning in its train. 
 
 And, brethren, God meant that it should. God meant that death 
 should never come without touching our hearts and afi*ecting our 
 feelings. He wants us to mourn when death strikes near to us. 
 You remember our Divine Lord and Redeemer, when he stood 
 on one occasion, as we are standing to-day, beside the grave 
 of a friend — lie w^ept. And if I could consult my own feelings 
 alone, I would follow his blessed example, and weep now. And 
 I feel that all who knew our departed friend would join with 
 me. 
 
 But on that same occasion, when our beloved Lord stood by 
 the grave of his friend, you may remember he uttered these 
 words : " Whosoever believeth in me, though he were dead, 
 yet shall he live." And I can not help the thought, even amid 
 all this drapery of mourning. I feel that our departed father 
 and brother lives. Yes, he lives! Whenever the thoughts 
 are recalled to the fact of the loss which we have experienced, 
 
21 
 
 (and oil ! how many things recall that loss ! — we can hardly 
 move out in the street without missing his kindly voice and 
 his loving hand; we do feel his loss,) yet I can not but feel that 
 he lives. I can not keep my heart around his coffin — it rises 
 to the brighter and the better world. Even to-day, gathered 
 as we are in the house of our God, God's own house, I recall 
 the words read a few moments since in our hearing : God has 
 prepared a place for us — " in my Father's house are many 
 mansions." 
 
 I can not but contrast this scene here on earth, which this 
 event has produced, with the one which it produces on high — 
 the double aspect in which the death of our departed friend is 
 thus presented. The aspect here I need not speak of The 
 tears which have fallen, the sighs which are heard, the anguish 
 of soul which those most nearly connected with our departed 
 brother feel — all tell us what the scene is here on earth. 
 Friends, seek to cast your eyes to the brighter world. Seek 
 to realize the scene presented there at the death of our de- 
 parted brother. Said our Divine Master: " Father, I will that 
 my servant be with me where I am." 'T was the voice of 
 Jesus, and all heaven was interested in it. And at the call of 
 that voice the spirit of our departed brother entered the bright 
 and the glorious world. There was joy in heaven, though 
 there was sorrow on earth. The harp of David resounds with 
 a new song ; the strings of Isaiah's harp sound with a new 
 joy; for a bright and glorious servant of God has come home. 
 
 Imagine our dear father and brother, who, for forty-two 
 years, has been ministering in this Church, watching by the 
 bed-side of the dying, and helping them through to their bright 
 abode. Here his sad congregation gather, and weep as they 
 remember him. But oh ! the cono;reo:ation of the saints to 
 whom he has ministered while here ! How different the con- 
 gregation in the brighter world appears from this. They 
 gather around him to welcome him home ; they recognize him 
 as their pastor and friend when they were on earth. Oh ! 
 
22 
 
 methinks, sweet, and kind, and gentle as is our remembrance 
 of the kindness of our friend, with w^hat great joy must they 
 be filled, and with what rapture he will be greeted there ! 
 With what pleasure and gratitude must he take the crown of 
 his rejoicing, and lay it at his Saviour's feet, with the wonder- 
 ing acknowledgment : " Why, Lord, have I been made to re- 
 ceive such great joy ?" 
 
 And now, dear friends, why do I thus bring to your view 
 these two aspects of the death of our departed brother ? Why 
 do I lead your thoughts to that brighter world, in contrast 
 with this ? Is it to make the present seem the darker ? Oh ! 
 no. Kemember that this vision, which our Father gives us, of 
 that brighter and better world, is the vision given in Jesus 
 dying to save sinners. It is through this Almighty Saviour that 
 we are permitted to indulge in the vision of that happiness in 
 which we believe he now mingles. And though the scenes of 
 death be dark and sad here, yet all the light which we enjoy 
 under these circumstances is the light reflected from the 
 brighter world. I present before you this scene, because, now 
 he is dead, I desire to do that, in which, and for which, he la- 
 bored all his life. I am presenting to you Christ crucified — 
 the only hope and the only help of our fallen world. Methinks 
 that if you will only let your minds follow me to that brighter 
 world, you will find that there is a louder call made now by 
 our deceased brother, in the name of his Divine Master, than 
 he ever made while here on earth. 
 
 Children, sons and daughters of our departed friend, think 
 of him in the happy world, meeting the beloved partner of 
 his life. Does he not bid you come to the brighter world ? 
 Does he not say, " Children, here — here is home, here is home ?" 
 I think that you must acknowledge there is a new tie created 
 and a new call to you from that upper world. 
 
 Dear friends in the ministry, and especially you who were 
 his colleagues, is there not in the thought that your loved 
 brother has gone before you, and that you will soon follow — 
 
23 
 
 is there not preachiDg of Christ crucified in this, even to your 
 own souls? And brethren, you who were wont to gather 
 within these walls, and listen to his words, how often has he 
 stood where I now stand, pointing you to that brighter and 
 better world, and bidding you come to Jesus that you might 
 live. Oh ! methinks I see him to-day pointing — no, no longer 
 pointing, for no longer has he to look up — but beckoning to 
 you from those purer worlds, urging those of you whom, when 
 here, he sought to lead to the Saviour, still to come to him. 
 Therefore speak I of that scene. It preaches Christ crucified, 
 whom our departed friend and brother loved. Oh ! let the 
 scene teach us, and let us heed the lesson. 
 
 The following prayer was then offered by the Rev. Dr. 
 Magie, of Elizabeth, K J. 
 
 PRAYER BY THE REV. DR. MAGIE. 
 
 God, our Heavenly Father ! we thank thee that we have 
 the opportunity of coming before thee once more, and of 
 spreading our sorrows before the mercy-seat. We rejoice in 
 this privilege when trials overtake us, and dark dispensations 
 of thy providence occur to us, and beloved friends are torn 
 away from our side — that we may come and pray to thee 
 through Christ. Thou Divine Saviour ! thou compassionate 
 Son of God ! do thou extend thine hand, and thine help to us. 
 We commend this broken and bereaved family to the care of 
 a covenant-keeping God. May all the prayers that our de- 
 parted brother, and his beloved and sainted wife, long offered 
 for them, be answered and fulfilled. May the dear brethren, 
 with whom he labored so long and so lovingly, be strengthened 
 to walk in his steps — to follow him as he followed Christ. 
 And may the people to whom he broke the bread of life, 
 whose sick beds he visited, with whom he mingled in their sor- 
 rows and joys, now remember the words that he spoke to them 
 while he was yet present with them. May all the institutions 
 
24 
 
 in which he took so lively au interest be benefited, even by his 
 death. O God! we rejoice that this scene is not a scene of 
 sadness alone. There is light shining in this house of mourn- 
 ing, the light that shines from the Gospel of Christ. And we 
 now, as we close these services, commend ourselves to God, 
 and to the Word of his grace, which is able to keep us from 
 falling, and to build us up, and give us an inheritance among 
 them that are sanctified. Oh ! may we be so happy as to meet 
 at last, washed, and sanctified, and justified in the name of the 
 Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God! And to the 
 Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be all the praise for- 
 ever. Amen. 
 The T53d Hymn, 
 
 " Unveil thy bosom, faithful tomb, 
 Take this new treasure to thy trust," 
 
 was then sung, and the vast audience, after taking a final look 
 of the familiar features of the venerated dead, slowly separated. 
 
 A part of the Burial Service of the Church w^as said at the 
 vault, by the Rev. Dr. Bethune. The Rev. Dr. Van Yranken 
 pronounced the benediction. 
 
 The remains were then interred in the family vault, adjoin- 
 ing the Church on Lafayette Place, where also lie the remains 
 of Mrs. Knox. 
 
 On the cofiin was a plate bearing this inscription : 
 
 REV. JOHN KNOX, D.D., 
 
 Born June 17, 1790, 
 
 JDXIBID J-A.ISrXTA.E,-^ 8, 1858- 
 
PROCEEDINGS 
 
 OP 
 
 CONSISTORY 
 
ACTS OF CONSISTORY. 
 
 At a meeting of the minister, elders, and deacons of the 
 Reformed Protestant Dutcli Church of the City of New-York, 
 held January 9, 1858, 
 
 The President announced that the meeting was called in conse- 
 quence of the decease, last evening, of our Senior Pastor, Rev. 
 John Knox, D.D. ; that Consistory take such order in reference 
 thereto as they may deem appropriate. 
 
 Wliereupon it loas ordered^ That a Committee of Six be ap- 
 pointed to make all proper arrangements for the funeral, and that 
 they consult with the family of the deceased, and fully carry out 
 their wishes as to the order and details of the funeral. 
 
 Messrs. Van Nest, Lynes, Beadle, Brower, Schieffelin, and 
 Monroe were appointed such Committee. 
 
 Resolved^ That this Consistory, the Ministers, Elders, and Dea- 
 cons, attend the funeral as mourners, and wear the usual badge of 
 mourning. 
 
 Besolved^ That we meet at this place on the day of the funeral, 
 and proceed to the house in a body, to join in the procession. 
 
 Hesolved, That a copy of these Resolutions be sent to the family 
 of the deceased by the Clerk. 
 
 In Consistory, January/ 14^A, 1858. 
 
 '"'Resolved^ That the following minute, in relation to the death 
 of their beloved Senior Pastor, be entered on the Minutes of 
 Consistory : 
 
 "While the Consistory desire to bow with submission to the ever 
 wise providence of the Head of the Church, in removing from 
 them suddenly, by death, their beloved and valuable pastor, John 
 Knox, D.D., they feel this bereavement to be a sorely distressing 
 one to the Church in which he has so long labored with diligence, 
 
28 
 
 fidelity, and success, and where his memory is so deeply rooted 
 and embalmed in the affections of the people. 
 
 " Dr. Knox was settled as colleague pastor of this Church in 
 July, 1816, and has remained in the active discharge of the duties 
 of his ministry for forty-one years and six months, when he was 
 suddenly called from earth to heaven on the 8th January instant. 
 
 " In him there was a beautiful combination of traits of character 
 which fitted him for the great and prolonged usefulness which he 
 exercised during his life, and which commanded the uninterrupted 
 respect, confidence, and affection of not only the Church, but of 
 the community at large. 
 
 " His piety was sincere and deep, and ever appeared to be the 
 element in which he moved. His judgment was sound and prac- 
 tical, his spirit kind and tender, and his wisdom manifest in devis- 
 ing and executing measures of usefulness. His preaching was 
 uniformly evangelical, experimental, and instructive. He ever 
 kept a watchful eye over the wide extent of the pastoral charge, 
 and assiduously performed the pastoral duties relating to it. His 
 intercourse with his people ever left the most grateful impression, 
 and his visits in the season of affliction and in the chamber of sick- 
 ness were most highly prized. 
 
 " Since 1833, at the death of Dr. Kuypers, he has been the senior 
 colleague. His wisdom, prudence, and kindness have been of 
 signal advantage in the Collegiate charge. Uninterrupted har- 
 mony has existed, and his surviving colleagues feel themselves 
 specially bereaved. He has been placed in a number of important 
 trusts by the General Synod of our Church, in which, by his effi- 
 cient exertions, he has been instrumental to promote the interests 
 of the Reformed Dutch Church at large. At the same time he 
 filled several important positions in some of the literary and 
 benevolent institutions of this city, in which his counsels and 
 labors were of the greatest value. 
 
 "A few years past, his health became more firm and robust than 
 in some former years ; and the prospect was bright for many years 
 of continued active duty. Suddenly he was called away, in cir- 
 cumstances the intelligence of which thrilled the community. 
 But, though sudden, it ' found him with his loins girded, and watch- 
 ing.' It was a translation in a moment from earth to heaven ; 
 from the scene of his toils and his conflicts to that of his rest and 
 victory. 
 
 *' The Consistory deeply sympathize with his bereaved family, 
 assure them of the veneration and love with which they will ever 
 
29 
 
 cherish the memory of their now glorified father, and pray that 
 the God of their parents will extend to their children and their 
 children's children the blessings of the covenant, and at last re- 
 imite them in heaven. 
 
 '•'•Jiesolved, That it be referred to our Senior Pastor, the Rev. 
 Dr. De Witt, to preach the funeral sermon on the occasion of the 
 death of our late Pastor, the Rev. Dr. Knox, in each of our 
 churches." 
 
 In Consistorj, February 4, 1858. 
 
 '•'■Eesolved^ That the Rev. Dr. De Witt be requested to furnish, 
 for publication, his sermon commemorative of our deceased Pastor, 
 Rev. John Knox, D.D., and that the publication of the sermon, 
 with such other matter as they shall deem proper, be committed 
 to the committee who had charge of the funeral ceremonies." 
 
 Extract from the Minutes. 
 
 GEO. S. STITT, Clerk. 
 
A. DISCOURSE. 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE OF THR 
 
 I{ E V . JOHN KNOX. 1) . 1) . 
 
 DELIVERED IS THB 
 
 MIDDLE DUTCH CHURCH, LAFAYETTE PLACE, 
 
 On the Evening of Sabbath, Jan. 24, 1858, 
 
 BT 
 
 THOMAS D E ^SV I T T , D . D . , 
 
 ONB OF THB 1IIXI9TEBS OF SAID CHURCS. 
 
SERMON. 
 
 Acts 20 : 24 : "But none of these things move me, neither count I my 
 Ufe dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the 
 ministry which I have received by the Lord Jesus, to testify the grace of 
 God:" 
 connected with 
 
 2 Timothy 4 : 6, 7, 8 : "For I am now ready to be offered up, and the 
 time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have 
 finished my course ; I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for 
 me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall 
 give me at that day, and not unto me only, but unto all them also that love 
 his appearing." 
 
 The emblems of mournino: surroundinsf us are not a 
 mere drapery, as a pageant, attracting outward obser- 
 vation. They fitly correspond with the deep-rooted 
 feelings of sorrow for the loss of their venerated and 
 beloved senior pastor, which pervade this whole church 
 and congregation. They correspond also with the 
 widely spread general sentiment of the community at 
 large, which, although it may be less deep and strong, 
 is equally true, sincere, and cordial. This was strik- 
 ingly testified, on the occasion of the recent funeral 
 solemnities, by the crowds of our citizens gathered to- 
 gether, and the common feeling which seemed to influ- 
 ence them. Surely we are allowed, and called to 
 mourn. God declares it to have been the sin of Israel 
 3 
 
34 
 
 of old, that they were not grieved under the afflictions 
 dispensed by his hand ; " / have stricken them^ hut they 
 were not grievedP If " no chastening is, for the pre- 
 sent, not joyous, but grievous," then a chastening like 
 this must be truly and greatly grievous. 
 
 In the death of God's servant, whose memory we now 
 cherish. He has smitten us. He has smitten the family 
 circle, largely branched out, where his spirit and life 
 were habitually felt, and seen in all their loveliness, 
 consistency, and value, where his doctrine distilled as 
 the dew, and his influence spread blesssings around. 
 He has smitten this church over which he was placed, 
 where he labored for so long a period of years with sig- 
 nal diligence and acceptance ; where his name is as oint- 
 ment poured forth, and where the best monument to his 
 memory will be reared in the warm affections and en- 
 during remembrance of the hearts of the people, to be 
 handed down to children's children. He has smitten 
 the community at large, who not only witnessed, felt, 
 and confessed his " holy, just, and unblamable conver- 
 sation," but reaped the fruits of his varied, active, and 
 efficient labors for the public good. The Psalmist ex- 
 claims, (Ps. 12 : 1 :) " Help, Lord, for the godly man 
 ceaseth, for the faithful fail from among the children of 
 men." Isaiah declares, (Is. 57 : 1 :) " The righteous per- 
 isheth, and no man layeth it to heart, and merciful men 
 are taken away, none considering that the righteous is 
 taken away from the evil to come." How pleasantly is 
 it immediately added : " He shall enter into peace, they 
 shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his upright- 
 ness." 
 
85 
 
 Mournful and bereaving as is the stroke of Provi- 
 dence which has removed from us our beloved and 
 valued pastor and friend, there arise nothing in this 
 scene but pleasant memories which crowd upon the 
 mind in the review of his life and ministry, and in his 
 death we are warranted to contemplate the victory he 
 gained as now invested with the "crown of righteous- 
 ness," and enjoying the "inheritance incorruptible and 
 undefiled in the heavens." This church has been fa- 
 vored and blessed with his prolonged ministry of forty- 
 one years and a half in uninterrupted confidence and 
 affection, and with abiding usefulness. It is for us to 
 embalm his memory, and in view of his recently opened 
 and now closed grave, to take a retrospect of his life 
 and ministerial service, and then meditate on his death 
 in all its attending circumstances, and all the everlast- 
 ing issues following it in the glory revealed. 
 
 The two passages of Scripture which I have placed 
 in connection, are adapted to lead us to a right consid- 
 eration of the Providence which has assembled us, and 
 are appropriate to the special commemorative exercise, 
 in which we are now engaged. The first passage is 
 taken from the address delivered by the Apostle Paul 
 to the assembled elders of the Church at Ephesus, when 
 he was about to leave them after a ministry of more 
 than three years, and when he bade them an affection- 
 ate and tender farewell. The address is a most impress- 
 ive, faithful, and affectionate one. It is no wonder that 
 after its close, and as Paul was about to leave them, 
 those assembled " all wept, and fell upon his neck, and 
 kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which 
 
86 
 
 he spake that they should see his face no more." The 
 -second passage is from Paul's second epistle to Timothy, 
 written at the time of his second imprisonment at 
 Kome, and just previous to the martyrdom which, we 
 learn from ecclesiastical history, he suffered there. To 
 this he refers : " I am now ready to be offered up, the 
 time of my departure is come." Timothy was Paul's 
 son in the faith and ministry of the Gospel. The imme- 
 diate context charges him in relation to the proj)er dis- 
 charge of the duties of the mimistry. The words 
 quoted, " I have fought a good fight," etc., while they 
 have a bearing upon the Christian life in general, refer 
 particularly to the service of the ministry, and connect 
 fidelity in that service with the gracious and blessed 
 reward which follows it. These connected passages 
 place before us the mimstry of Paul and the close of 
 
 IT AT DEATH. 
 
 I. The Ministry of Paul. — Iq the address to the 
 elders of the Church at Ephesus, he distinctly refers to 
 the appropriate duties and employments of the ministry, 
 to the principles which governed him, and the spirit 
 which characterized and animated him in the discharge 
 of these duties, and so also to the means by which, and the 
 manner in which they were performed. In the history 
 of Paul's labors in the ministry of the Gospel, furnished 
 in the Acts of the Apostle, compared with his own de- 
 lineation of them in his address to the elders of Ephesus, 
 and with his reference to them in numerous passages 
 in his epistles, as well as the instructions and motive 
 which he urges upon the ministry, we find a model sub- 
 
37 
 
 lime, beautiful, and attractive, which every minister 
 should, however imperfectly and feebly, yet truly and 
 faithfully, copy. Let the address to the elders at Ephe- 
 sus, with its numerous teachings and references as to the 
 character, duties, difficulties, encouragements, and results 
 of the ministry, be ever present to the mind of every min- 
 ister, and be his vade mecum through his whole course. 
 
 We quote a large part of his address to the Ephesian 
 elders, bearing upon the course of his ministry. 
 
 '* Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, 
 after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, 
 serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and Avith 
 many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the 
 lying in wait of the Jews. And how I kept nothing 
 profitable unto you, but have shown you, and taught 
 publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the 
 Jews, and to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and 
 faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now I go 
 bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the 
 things that shall befall me there ; save that the Holy 
 Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and 
 afiliction abide me. But none of these things move me, 
 neither count I my life dear unto me, so that I might 
 finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I 
 have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel 
 of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that ye 
 all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of 
 God, shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you 
 to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all 
 men ; for I have not shunned to declare the whole 
 counsel of God." 
 
88 
 
 In this passage Paul adverts to the office he sustained; 
 the theme of his ministrations ; the spirit ivhich he cher- 
 ished^ and hy which he was influenced in his woi'Tc / the 
 industry and fidelity with which he employed the various 
 means for effecting the object of the ministry ; the diffi- 
 culties encountered in the prosecution of it ; the firmness 
 of principle^ and decision of character^ which carried 
 him steadily through his lohole course / and the approv- 
 ing testimony of an enlightened and sanctified conscience 
 and heart as to the discharge of his ministry. 
 
 These points well deserve an expanded discussion, 
 and the outlines are here given, which, if filled up, 
 would furnish a full and satisfactory exhibition of the 
 Gospel ministry. But in this discourse devoted to the 
 consideration of the life and death of our departed 
 friend and pastor, room is not allowed for an extended 
 view, and a very brief notice of these points only can 
 be taken. 
 
 1. Paul speaks of the office with which he was in- 
 vested, and which he terms, " the ministry which he 
 had received from the Lord Jesus." God in his infinite 
 wisdom and love has provided salvation for sinful man 
 lost in guilt and depravity, through the redemption 
 which is in Christ Jesus. To efi'ect this salvation he has 
 ordained a ministry of the truth and grace he has re- 
 vealed, and committed it to mortal men, raised out of the 
 ruins of the fall, redeemed and sanctified. " The treas- 
 ure is committed unto earthen vessels, that the excel- 
 lency of the power may be of God." This ministry is 
 connected with the declaration of divine truth, with the 
 organization of Christ's Church on earth, and with the 
 
39 
 
 employment of the various means and agencies by which 
 the truth is made effectual. It is termed by the Apos- 
 tle in the fifth chapter of the second Epistle to the Cor- 
 inthians, '^ the ministry of reconciliation." In that min- 
 istry we stand habitually between God and man. 
 " We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did 
 beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead be ye 
 reconciled unto God." Everlasting issues await this min- 
 istry. It must prove either a " savor of life unto life, 
 or of death unto death." It is received from Christ, 
 who, ascending on high, and leading captivity captive, 
 gave the gift of this ministry, that God might dwell 
 with the rebellious. As he was about to ascend on 
 high, he gave the commission : " Go ye and preach the 
 gospel to every creature," and added the promise : 
 " Lo ! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the 
 world." 
 
 2. The theme of Paul's ministkatio]^. — To testify 
 the Gospel of the grace of God^ and to testify repentance 
 toward God^ and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 The grace of God in the provision of redemption, and 
 salvation throus^h the atonement and mediation of Jesus 
 Christ, as revealed in his word, and applied by the spirit 
 to the soul, is interwoven with the vitality and marrow 
 of the Gospel. With propriety, therefore, is it termed 
 the " Gospel of the grace of God." 
 
 The cross of Christ is the central point, whence radi- 
 ate all those truths, which, while they unfold the way 
 of salvation, bear harmoniously and fully upon the in- 
 terests, the hopes, the duties, and consolations of men. 
 The exercises of "repentance toward God, and faith 
 
40 
 
 toward our Lord Jesus Christ," correspond to our lost 
 estate by nature, and our saved estate by grace, and 
 are interwoven witli the doctrines, exhortations, pre- 
 cepts, and promises of the divine word. They must 
 ever be the burden of the message of the ministry of 
 the Gospel. Paul declares in his epistle to the Corin- 
 thians: "I determined to know nothing among you, 
 save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." "We preach 
 not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves 
 your servants for his sake." Such must be the deter- 
 mination and spirit of every true minister of the Gospel. 
 3. The spieit which Paul cherished, and by 
 WHICH he was influenced IN HIS WORK. — ^''Serving 
 the Lord with all humility of mind^ and with many 
 tearsP Humility is the very element of holiness in the 
 service of God by his creatures. Holy angels confirmed 
 in their first estate are most humble. Peculiar must be 
 the feelings of self-abasement of the penitent sinner re- 
 turning to God, and hoping in the pardoning mercy and 
 saving grace of the Redeemer. This temper of soul 
 is placed at the very head of the beatitudes pronounced 
 by our Saviour, and was frequently enforced and illus- 
 trated in his discourses with his disciples. It is to in- 
 vest and adorn as a garment. " Be ye clothed with 
 humility." When we read the epistles of Paul, we ob- 
 serve, how deeply humility was rooted in his heart. 
 While we mark the ardor of his spirit, and the vigor of 
 his efi'orts, we find his humility uniform and prominent. 
 Connected with this humility of mind in the ministry of 
 Paul was great tenderness of feeling. '* With many 
 tearsT The noble-minded and heroic Paul, " who count- 
 
41 
 
 ed not his life dear unto him," so that he might fulfill his 
 ministry," and who looked death and danger in the face 
 with a calm and unmoved spirit in the prosecution of 
 his work, yet shed many tears. What a combination 
 do we here find of a gifted and cultivated mind, and 
 firm purpose, and decision, with prevailing warm and 
 tender affection. Humility and tenderness of heart are 
 important and vital elements in the character of true 
 heroism. Blind obstinacy is generated and nourished 
 by pride and selfishness, but true decision of character 
 and moral heroism are ever connected with the calm and 
 enlightened mind, and the affectionate and loving heart. 
 When Paul was arraigned before the Sanhedrim at Je- 
 rusalem, and in chains before the Roman Governor, we 
 do not read of his weeping, but his soul towered over 
 his persecutors, while his countenance shone with a radi- 
 ance like that which possessed Stephen in his last hours. 
 How expressive was his response to Agrippa. " I would 
 to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this 
 day, were both almost and altogether such as I am, ex- 
 cept these londsT But when we trace him laboring and 
 watching for souls, and feeding the flock of Christ, what 
 exquisite tenderness does he display ! Speaking of the 
 enemies of the Gospel, he writes : " Of whom I have 
 often told you, and tell you even now, iveeping^ that they 
 are the enemies of the cross of Christ." (Phil. 3.) How 
 impressively does he state his spirit and conversation ex- 
 hibited in the midst of the churches, which he was instru- 
 mental in rearing, and in which he labored. " We were 
 gentle among you, as a nurse cherisheth her children. 
 So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing 
 
42 
 
 to have imparted to you, not the Gospel of God only, 
 but our own souls also, because ye were dear to us." 
 This spirit was assimilated to that of his Saviour, who 
 never wept, but was calm and undisturbed under his 
 own trials and sorrows, but wept at the grave of La- 
 zarus, and over guilty and doomed Jerusalem. 
 
 4. The industry at^d fidelity which Paul e3i- 
 
 PLOYED in PURSUINa THE OBJECT OF HIS MINISTRY. 
 
 He " l^ept hack nothing that xoas profitable from them^ He 
 " showed them publicly, and taught them from house to 
 houseT " He shunned not to declare the whole counsel of 
 GodP What unremitted diligence and activity are here 
 exhibited, what sedulous care to employ the best means, 
 and wisely to apply them, what watchfulness in regard- 
 ing the individual state of every member of his charge, 
 and what solicitude to declare the pure truth in its just 
 discrimination ! When we read his epistles, we find the 
 same spirit breathed, and the same unwearied diligence 
 in the use of all means to fulfill the work of his ministry. 
 The directions he gives to Timothy were exemplified by 
 himself. " Preach the word ; be instant in season, out 
 of season ; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffer- 
 ing and doctrine." " Watch thou in all things, endure 
 afilictions ; make full proof of thy ministry." 
 
 5. The difficulties and trials encountered by 
 Paul in the prosecution of his ministry, and the 
 firmness of principle and decision of character, 
 
 which carried him through his whole course. 
 
 He speaks of " the many temptations by the lying in 
 wait of the Jews," and he surely anticipates that in 
 every city bonds and imprisonment awaited him. The 
 
43 
 
 form and severity of the teaiptations and trials whicli 
 beset the ministry now, are different from those whicli 
 met Paul, but the world is still unchanged in its reigning 
 spirit, and its friendship is still enmity against God. The 
 Gospel applied with power and faithfulness to the con- 
 sciences and hearts of men, will prove, to the unrenewed, 
 " foolishness," and excite opposition. The insidious wiles 
 of the world " lying in ivait^'' are the most to be guarded 
 against, and Satan has his greatest advantage when he 
 transforms himself into " an angel of light}'' A minister 
 needs a peculiar and strict discipline of his heart in 
 all circumstances, continually to make full proof of his 
 ministry. Then when the severest trials and the strong- 
 est opposition arise, he will remain calm, peaceful, and 
 unmoved. In view of the temptations which laid in 
 wait, and in distinct apprehension of the persecutions 
 and afflictions which were before him, Paul humbly and 
 confidently said, " None of these things move me," etc. 
 His singleness of aim, his strength of faith, his loving 
 devotedness to the service in which he was engaged, 
 sustained him in all his course, and enabled him to 
 "finish it with joy." He writes to the Philippians ; 
 " This ONE THING I do, forgetting the things that are be- 
 hind, and reaching forth to the things that are before, 
 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling 
 of God in Christ Jesus." 
 
 6. Hence Paul cherished the approving testimony 
 
 OF AN ENLIGHTENED AND SANCTIFIED CONSCIENCE AND 
 HEART AS TO THE DISCHARGE OF HIS MINISTRY. " I 
 
 take you all to witness this day, that I am pure from 
 the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to de- 
 
44 
 
 clare unto you the whole counsel of God." Thus he 
 writes to the Coiinthians: " Therefore seeing we have this 
 ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not, but 
 have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not 
 walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God de- 
 ceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending 
 ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." 
 
 The verses quoted from the Epistle to Timothy lead 
 us to contemplate the close of Paul's ministry at death. 
 He was then in bonds at his second imprisonment in 
 Rome, and in expectation of immediate martyrdom, 
 which we learn from ecclesiastical history there took place. 
 After directing his son Timothy in reference to the dis- 
 charge of the duties of the ministry, he takes an approv- 
 ing review of his ministerial course, connected with a 
 rejoicing prospect of its gracious reward with the crown 
 of righteousness in heaven. In the review he says : " I 
 have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I 
 have kept the faith." How beautifully and aptly do 
 these several expressions correspond to Paul's delinea- 
 tion of the ministerial course, which he pursued, in his 
 address to the elders of the Church at Ephesus ! " I 
 HAVE FOUGHT A GOOD FIGHT." In his addrcss he speaks 
 of the temptations lying in wait, and the persecutions 
 and afflictions which attended and awaited him. "I 
 HAVE FINISHED MY COURSE." This is cxactly correspond- 
 ing to the phrase in his address, that " I might finish my 
 course with joy." To the elders of Ephesus he declares 
 his humble and firm purpose, amid all circumstances so 
 to fulfill the ministry which he had received of the 
 Lord Jesus, as to " finish his course with joy." Now in 
 
45 
 
 immediate view of death, and in a distinct and enlight- 
 ened review he exclaims : " It is finished with joy." '' I 
 HAVE KEPT THE FAITH." This alludes not merely OT di- 
 rectly to his personal adherence to the faitli he had re- 
 ceived, but particularly to his ministry of the truth. This 
 corresponds to the portion of his address as to the tes- 
 timony he bore of his declaration of the whole counsel 
 of God, so as to be pure from the blood of all men. 
 With such a review he connects the exulting prospect 
 of the reward of grace, with the plaudit : " Well done, 
 good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy 
 Lord." There is a force in the expressions as w^e sepa- 
 rately trace them. ^' Henceforth there is laid up for me 
 a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous 
 Judge, shall give me at that day ; and not to me only, but 
 unto all them that love his appearing." The dissection 
 of this sentence into the terms which compose it, as se- 
 parately contemplated, and then brought into their con- 
 nection, will unfold a beauty and force in their meaning, 
 not apprehended in the first general view. On the dis- 
 tinct points we can not dwell, but merely direct atten- 
 tion to one, ^'' Not to me only ^ hut unto all them that love 
 Ms appearing^ Looking forward to his own " crown of 
 righteousness and glory," his heart at once embraces all 
 the redeemed of Christ, here described as " loving his 
 appearing." The communion of saints on earth assimi- 
 lates to, and is preparatory to the communion of saints 
 in heaven. As Paul here adverts to the course of his 
 own ministry and its results, he doubtless has peculiar 
 respect to its fruits in sinners converted, brought to 
 Christ and trained for heaven. This relation is one of 
 
46 
 
 inexpressible tenderness. The Apostle says : " Thougli 
 ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye 
 not many fathers." ^' For what is our hope, or joy, or 
 crown of rejoicing ? Are not even ye in the presence 
 of our Lord Jesus at his coming ? Ye are our glory and 
 joy." Great will be the bliss and joy in having the 
 crown of righteousness and glory studded with jewels of 
 sinners saved. 
 
 " Then, holy, happy Shepherd ! thou shalt stand 
 Among thy ransomed sheep at Christ's right hand ; 
 Keceive thy blest reward, in glory rise, 
 And like a star illume the upper skies." 
 
 " They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of 
 the firmament, and they that turn many to righteous- 
 ness as the stars forever." 
 
 The lineaments of a faithful evangelical ministry, as 
 drawn by Paul, and the joyful close and issue of it, are 
 not inappropriate to a view and contemplation of the 
 life and death of our late senior pastor. 
 
 We proceed to give a brief sketch of the early life 
 and training of our departed friend and pastor, until he 
 entered the ministry and became the pastor of this 
 church. Then after considering some of the traits of 
 his character harmoniously adjusted, and consistently 
 exemplified, we shall trace his onward course of 
 faithful and useful labor in the offices he sustained, and 
 the trusts committed to him. 
 
 Dr. Knox was born June 17, 1790. It was his pri- 
 vilege and happiness to be descended from a chain of 
 pious ancestry. His grandfather, Samuel Knox, of a 
 
47 
 
 Scotcli Presbyterian family, emigrated from the north 
 of Ireland about a century since, and settled in Adams 
 county, Pennsylvania, near Gettysburgh, on a property 
 still possessed by his descendants. He died in 1808 at 
 the age of eighty-two. Dr. Knox spoke with deep emo- 
 tion of the excellent traits which adorned his character. 
 He was eminently pious, well instructed, and intelligent 
 in evangelical truth. Thus his grandson received from 
 him many of his first lessons in the truths of the Gospel. 
 Often did they kneel together in the closet, when the 
 aged Christian would pour out his heart in behalf of his 
 grandson. Dr. Knox, in the intimacy of his family- 
 circle, has been known in recurring to his grandfather 
 to shed tears and exclaim, Oil I lioiv I loved Mm ! ^' It 
 is believed that the care and the efforts of this man of 
 God exerted a great influence in early childhood and 
 youth in forming his character, which through life was 
 so beautifully and consistently unfolded. The pious 
 wife of this venerable man died in 1818 at the age of 
 eighty-four. Her Bible with Canne's notes, passed into 
 the hands of our deceased friend, and was his devotional 
 companion to the last of his life. 
 
 His father was Dr. Samuel Knox, who died on the 
 homestead, in Adams county, in 1821, at the age of sixty. 
 He was a physician in high reputation, and with large 
 practice. He was known as a pious man, and held in 
 high reputation in the church and the community, and 
 his house was the resort of pious ministers. His mother 
 was a worthy helpmate of her husband. She survived 
 him a number of years, and died in 1843. Many in our 
 
 * See Appendix, Note A. 
 
48 
 
 church will remember this mother in Israel by the 
 visits she was accustomed to pay to her son. Under 
 such happy and continued influences his spirit and cha- 
 racter were formed from early childhood and youth ; 
 and as w^as the child, so afterwards became the man. 
 From childhood he evinced great conscientiousness, ten- 
 derness, and affection, and a strict regard to every duty 
 assigned to him. He received his instruction in pre- 
 paration for college from his father, and from the min- 
 ister of the church to which the family were attached, 
 and of which he early became a member. He entered 
 the junior class in Dickinson College, at Carlisle, in 
 1809, and graduated in 1811. la his college life, pro- 
 fessors and students alike regarded him with respect and 
 affection, and in no case have the associations then 
 formed been terminated but by death. The few of his 
 early companions will cherish his memory as that of 
 one who in mature and older years developed into ripe- 
 ness the strong, lovely, and pure traits of character 
 which in youth attracted their hearty esteem. 
 
 Leaving college, he at once resolved upon fulfilling 
 the purpose, which he had long entertained, of a course 
 of preparation for the ministry, and entered into the 
 Theological Seminary of the Associate Reformed Church 
 in this city, under the superiatendence of Rev. Dr. John 
 M. Mason. While there, the impression he made with- 
 in the Seminary was strong, and excited the ho]3e of his 
 future usefulness. Amons: his fellow-students there 
 arose an attachment to him which bound them as with 
 clasps of steel, and which, instead of weakening, became 
 stronger by years. At that time, an acute observer of 
 
49 
 
 character remarked : " He is one of nature's noblemen.'' 
 It miglit liave been added, " made so by divine grace.'' 
 
 An incident occurred in tbe course of these his stu- 
 dies, which has recently been related to me, and which 
 I venture to insert here. In the year 1812, he was 
 travelling in the mountainous parts of western Pennsyl- 
 vania, when he alighted upon a poor cottage. On en- 
 tering it, he found, amid the signs of poverty around, 
 two aged persons, with their two daughters, with the 
 air of respectability in their great destitution. On con- 
 versing with them, he found they were Gen. Arthur St. 
 Clair, a soldier in the French war, Maj. General in the 
 Revolutionary Army, and afterwards Governor of the 
 ]S"orth- Western Territory, with his family. Much af- 
 fected with the incident, he made a statement appealing 
 to American patriotism and Christian benevolence. 
 Some benevolent ladies moved thereby, it is said, col- 
 lected in this city eleven hundred dollars. 
 
 He received his licensure to preach the Gospel in 1815. 
 It was a rule in the Associate Reformed Church, that 
 after licensure, a year should be spent in visiting 
 the vacancies within the bounds of the Church, as ar- 
 ranged by the Synod. After fulfilling his appoint- 
 ments, he received calls for settlement from three of the 
 leading vacancies.'" At this time, ministerial aid was 
 needed in this our Colleo^iate Church. Havinsr become 
 favorably known during his residence as a theological stu- 
 dent in the city, and having preached to the acceptance 
 of the congregation, he was unanimously called as one of 
 the colleague pastors, and was installed July IG, 1816. 
 His classmate and friend, Paschal N. Strong, was called 
 
 4 * See Appendix, Note B. 
 
50 
 
 and settled at tlie same time. Drs. Milledoler and Kuy- 
 pers were at this time tlie officiating ministers. Dr. Mille- 
 doler left in 1825, being called to the Professorship of The- 
 ology in our Theological Seminary at New-Brunswick. 
 Dr. Kuypers died in 1833, since which Dr. Knox has been 
 the senior minister for the period of nearly twenty-five 
 years. Through his whole ministerial course he has 
 been in the most affectionate and confidential inter- 
 course with all his colleagues, and his sound judgment, 
 affectionate kindness, and practical wisdom have been 
 eminently serviceable in that relation. 
 
 In 1818, Dr. Knox entered into the marriage relation 
 with the eldest daughter of his theological instructor, 
 the Kev. Dr. Mason, in whom he received a rich bless- 
 ing and found a true heljDmate. I may be here allowed 
 to pay a passing tribute to her memory. She was gifted 
 with a strong mind, which was well cultivated. She 
 was unpretending and simple in her manners. Her 
 spirit was social, kind, and buoyant. In the numerous 
 family of children given to them, she exerted the hap- 
 piest influence, and was a light in her household ; and 
 her influence in the whole circle in which she moved 
 was pleasant and salutary. Her memory is endeared 
 to the congregation of her husband's charge. She died 
 July 6, 1855, rejoicing in the hope of the Gospel.* After 
 a separation of two years and a half, their bodies now 
 lie side by side in the tomb, and their spirits are re- 
 united in the presence of Christ, where there is fullness 
 of joy.f 
 
 * See Appendix, Note C. 
 
 t In the life of Dr. Mason, we find in a letter from him to his uncle, Ebenezer 
 Mason, of Edinburgh, the following reference to the approaching marriage 
 
51 
 
 We now proceed to advert to some of the traits of 
 character in our deceased friend and pastor, and after- 
 wards take a view of their developmeut in the different 
 fields he occupied and in the offices he sustained. 
 
 In recalling to my mind my endeared friend, and 
 following the current of his life during the thirty years 
 in which I have been intimately associated with him, 
 and in a'ttempting to delineate his character, I feel a 
 difficulty arising from the beautiful harmony of these 
 traits, the symmetry of his whole character, and the 
 even and steadfast course which he pursued through 
 life. There was no peculiar prominence in any one 
 trait so as to obscure and depress others ; nor was his 
 life filled with peculiar or extraordinary incidents. His 
 path from the morning of life was that of the just, shin- 
 ing more and more steadily and onward to the perfect 
 day. 
 
 Where there is a river arising from and nourished by 
 springs beneath, copiously supplying it, and which 
 passes through a level country in a straight direction, 
 enlarging and deepening its channel, and quietly spread- 
 ing fertility on all sides, there is very little to supply 
 the pencil of the painter to furnish a prominent picture. 
 
 of his daughter, which took place May 11, 1818. The brief allusion to Dr. 
 K.'s traits of character exhibits him as he appeared through life : "Euphc- 
 mia, who loses none of her superiority and interest, is shortly to be married 
 to one of my pupils, a minister of the Dutch Church in this city. He has 
 the name of a famous reformer — John Knox, and was he a lineal descend- 
 ant of that great man, would not shame his blood. The fire of the Scottish 
 Elijah he has not, for he has not so many bad materials to burn up ; but he 
 is much respected for his piety, good sense, sound doctrine, and calm in- 
 trepidity in the work of the Lord." 
 
52 
 
 But where there are mountains, and cascades, and 
 curves, and corners, the picture is readily filled up. 
 
 In presenting a short outline of the traits of his cha- 
 racter, it is difficult to avoid the aspect of indulging in 
 the vein of eulogy. But I am conscious that it is not 
 merely affectionate attachment to his memory, but a 
 knowledge carefully formed with the best opportunities 
 in the intimacies of intercourse of observing him in the 
 different circumstances of life, that guides me in the es- 
 timate. And I well know that the whole circle of his 
 acquaintances and friends, especially those who have 
 been for the longest period acquainted with him, will 
 testify that I use in relation to him the language of 
 truth and soberness. 
 
 1. Dr. Knox was a man of discipliis^ed, earnest, and 
 UNIFORM PIETY. The proccss by which he was very 
 early trained in the fear of God and the love of Christ, 
 has been adverted to. Hence it was not of a fitful na- 
 ture, swayed by impulses, and fluctuating in its nature, 
 but it became incorporated with his nature, and was the 
 vital element in which he lived and moved. It breathed 
 in his spirit, it spake in his words, and acted in his life. 
 He was a man of prayer, acknowledging the Lord in all 
 his ways. Humble in his spirit, and never obtruding any 
 thing in relation to his personal religious character and 
 exercise, yet no one could stay by his side without real- 
 izing that he was a devout man, living and walking in 
 a heavenly atmosphere. It was this strength and cul- 
 ture of early piety which, grafted upon a pleasant 
 natural temperament, moulded his character in the 
 form it displayed through life, and gave to him that 
 
53 
 
 love and respect wliicli clustered around him, and fur- 
 nished him with that silently growing and expanding 
 usefulness he exerted. 
 
 2. He was a man of great co^^scientiousness, sim- 
 plicity, a:nt> integrity of character. He had the 
 wisdom to mark times and circumstances, in order to 
 regulate his judgment and course of conduct, but guile 
 was never found in his heart or on his lips. What he 
 thought and felt he spoke. The " hidden things of dis- 
 honesty" never came near him, or were his abhorrence. 
 This trait in his character impressed me on my first ac- 
 quaintance, and as the opening years of his life were 
 displayed before me during the many years in which 
 we were associated, the conviction became continually 
 strengthened that he was " an Israelite indeed, in whom 
 there was no guile," and that he was privileged to cher- 
 ish the testimony of an approving conscience that " in 
 godly sincerity and simplicity, not by fleshly wisdom, 
 but by the grace of God he had his conversation in the 
 world." 
 
 3. He was a man of sound judgment, carefully 
 TRAINED, AND OF A PRACTICAL wiSDo:\r, which was rarely 
 mistaken, in the counsels and measures adopted and 
 pursued. It was not indeed that acuteness of intellect 
 which theorizes as to the unknown and invisible in its 
 transcendental investigations. But his was the solid 
 sense, the clear judgment, and the practical wisdom, 
 which mark human life as it is, and events as they arise 
 in Providence, which will preserve their possessor in 
 purity and peace, and make the i)ath of duty and well- 
 doing plain before him. This was remarked concern- 
 
54 
 
 ing him, as he gained acquaintance with his brethren in 
 the ministry, and as he made his appearance in the 
 ecclesiastical bodies. Hence he was much resorted to 
 as a wise counsellor to be safely trusted in matters of 
 difficulty, and for the solution of cases of conscience. 
 In the various trusts committed to him, he evinced 
 prominently in the execution of them, this sound judg- 
 ment and practical wisdom. And while he was a wise 
 counsellor, he was truly a peace-maker. 
 
 4. He was a man fixed and un wavering in his prin- 
 ciples of faith, and of duty. He could say : " I believe, 
 therefore have I spoken." He had early received the 
 teachings of divine truth in a prayerful spirit, and its 
 instructions were from childhood imbedded in his heart, 
 and interwoven with his intellectual and spiritual cul- 
 ture. No temptation, however subtle or surprising, could 
 swerve him from his enlightened and pure faith, or se- 
 duce him from the path of uprightness. No varying 
 wind of doctrine turned him aside. Humble and self- 
 distrustful, he lay low at the throne, and thence he de- 
 rived that clearness of vision, and that strength of holy 
 resolution which kept him, and led him onward in the 
 " even path of uprightness." 
 
 5. He was a man of gee at courtesy, kindness, and 
 URBANITY. He w^as dignified in his appearance and in 
 all his intercourse, but never distant or supercilious. 
 He was social in his spirit, and in his habits. He could 
 mix in the highest ranks of society without embarrass- 
 ment, eliciting respect from all, while no one knew bet- 
 ter how to " condescend to men of low estate," and to visit 
 the cottages of the poor, and identify himself with them. 
 
55 
 
 He consulted all the minor proprieties of life every 
 where, and on all occasions. In this there was no thin 2: 
 studied. It seemed to flow from his very nature, as if 
 he could not do otherwise. 
 
 6. He was a man of tendeeness of feelikg. With 
 him, as we have before remarked in the case of Paul, 
 humility and tenderness of heart were necessary and 
 important elements in forming that decision of charac- 
 ter, which is enlightened, pure, and beneficent. This 
 tenderness of feeling appeared to those who became in- 
 timate with him, a striking feature in him. It was 
 strongly felt in his domestic circle ; it was felt around 
 him, wherever he moved, and was best appreciated 
 by those who enjoyed the most of his confidence and 
 friendship. Thus readily his sympathies were called in 
 exercise '' to rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep 
 with them that weep." Thus Avas he qualified to be a 
 son of consolation. 
 
 7. He was a mai^ of esdustey, ais^d he systematized 
 the course of duties devolving upon him for the faithful 
 discharge of them. Very few understand and realize the 
 amount of duties in different spheres which rested upon 
 him, and the exactness of the attention which he paid 
 to all. He observed punctuality in his engagements 
 with great precision. Whatever business might accu- 
 mulate, he never allowed any ofiice or duty he assumed 
 to prove a sinecure. Quietly he accomplished much by 
 '' doing one thing at a time," and arranging it in its pro- 
 per place and order. 
 
 8. In him evangelical faith and a catholic spirit 
 were happily united. His heart breathed the Ian- 
 
56 
 
 guage : " Grace, mercy and peace be upon all them who 
 love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth." No 
 one could be more firmly attached to the system of 
 doctrines he embraced, and more devoted to the inter- 
 ests of the Church wherein he labored. But his large 
 heart embraced all in the common faith and love of 
 Christ, by whatever name called. For a period of min- 
 isterial service approaching forty-two years, he dwelt 
 by the side of his ministerial brethren and Christians 
 of other evangelical denominations in uninterrupted 
 mutual respect and friendship. 
 
 These traits of character were consistently and hap- 
 pily developed in the various relations, trusts and offices 
 with which he was invested. 
 
 They were displayed in his home and domestic circle. 
 Character has there its best illustration, as it is there 
 constantly witnessed, and there its influence is constantly 
 exerted. There are the ties which are the closest and 
 most tender ; and thence spread influences which bear 
 upon society and the Church. But the family home is a 
 sacred scene, with whose interests, joys, and trials a 
 stranger must not intermeddle. But the character we 
 have depicted must have had a peculiar lustre, and ex- 
 erted a blessed influence there. A large family of child- 
 ren was given to him, nine of whom survive, all having 
 reached maturity, and four having died in infancy. 
 The memory of father and mother is deeply rooted in 
 the hearts of the children, and they will esteem the 
 heritao:e connected with the remembrance of their faith 
 and piety, their instructions, prayers, and holy example, 
 as above all price. His house was often the home of or- 
 
plians, nieces and nepliews, and over wliom lie exercised 
 all of a father's care and kindness. Very many recall 
 his cordial and generous hospitality. Letters from some 
 at a distance, from those who frequently enjoyed it 
 while in this city, have been received, dwelling upon 
 the worth of Dr. Knox's character, especially as mani- 
 fested at home."^'* 
 
 View him in iiis ministerial office, preaching the 
 gospel of Christ. In the declaration of divine truth 
 he was always sound in sentiment, lucid in discussion, 
 and he bore it practically home to the consciences and 
 hearts of his hearers. His preparation for the pulj^it 
 was careful. His discourses were uniformly imbued 
 with evangelical truth, and replete with Scripture inter- 
 woven. His manner was with deep seriousness, and 
 bore the conviction of his cordial sincerity. Although 
 he may have been destitute of that glare and glitter 
 which attract the masses, and produce a sudden and 
 meteor-like popularity, still every reflecting mind, and 
 upright heart, seeking to be profited, would never fail 
 to be edified by his ministrations.f He never kept out 
 of view the cross, while declaring the whole counsel of 
 God. He could say, in relation to the many topics which 
 we see often announced, and which lose sight of the cross, 
 and tend only to passing excitement and amusement, as 
 Archbishop Leighton replied to one who asked him why 
 he did not preach as others on the agitating topics of the 
 times: " Oh !" said he, "there are enough to preach on 
 the times; will you not allow me, a poor servant of 
 Christ, to preach for your souls, and on eternity ?'' In 
 
 * See Appendix, Note D. t See Appendix, Note E. 
 
58 
 
 the preacliing of Dr. Knox the state of his people was 
 always brought in view with happy adaptation. He 
 always marked what respected and affected the state 
 and interests of his flock, and then rightly divided the 
 word of truth. Recalling the valuable pulpit ministra- 
 tions of Dr. Knox in their matter and manner, I have 
 been disposed to view them as the ideal of the oft- 
 quoted words of Cowper: 
 
 '* I would express him simple, grave, sincere ; 
 In doctrine uncorrupt ; in language plain, 
 And plain in manner ; decent, solemn, chaste, 
 And natural in gesture ; much impressed 
 Himself as conscious of his awful charge. 
 And anxious, mainly, that the flock he feeds 
 May feel it too ; affectionate in look 
 And tender in address, as well became 
 A messenger of grace to guilty men." 
 
 View him in the discharge of his pastoral duties. 
 Here he was eminently attentive and useful, and few 
 have surpassed him in this respect. There were graven 
 on the breast-plate of the High Priest the names of the 
 twelve tribes of Israel in his approach to the mercy-seat. 
 So with Dr. K., the names of the people of his charge 
 were on his heart, and his eye was fastened upon their 
 interests. This collegiate congregation ^extends over a 
 large part of the city, in some places sparsely, in others 
 more densely. The care of the pastors is not divided 
 into sections allotted to one separately, but the charge 
 of each one covers the whole extent. He was minutely 
 observant of the state of the congregation. He would 
 on Sabbath from the pulpit look over the face of the 
 congregation, and during the week I have heard him 
 say : " Such a family or person was not in his pew. 
 
59 
 
 Probably some one is sick." In consequence lie would 
 make his call to ascertain. His visits to the chamber 
 of sickness, and in seasons of affliction, were ever most 
 grateful and highly prized, and there are many hearts 
 among us which will ever cherish the memory of them. 
 
 In the position which he occupied as senior colleague, 
 his influence was most salutary and pleasant. Some 
 have supposed that a collegiate ministerial and pastoral 
 relation is in its nature and operation a delicate one. 
 It may be so, where minds and hearts are not in unison ; 
 but when they are, it may be productive of much com- 
 fort, and promote usefulness. His admirable judgment, 
 and kind spirit, during his whole ministry, commended 
 him to his colleagues, and since his accession as senior 
 colleague, we his surviving colleagues are witnesses of 
 his great usefulness in that position, and his memory is 
 greatly endeared to us. 
 
 He has rendered important services to the Reformed 
 Dutch Church at large. Early after his settlement in 
 the ministry here, he was remarked by the ministers 
 and friends of the Church who gained his acquaintance 
 as possessing valuable traits of character, inspiring con- 
 fidence and hope of future usefulness. His first appear- 
 ance in our ecclesiastical bodies made a most favorable 
 impression. He was chosen Stated Clerk of the Gen- 
 eral Synod in 1818, and continued such about eight or 
 nine years. He took a very active part in raising funds 
 for the endowment of professorships in the Theological 
 Seminary at New-Brunswick, and also funds for Rut- 
 gers College. Of the ministers laboring actively for 
 these objects, Drs. Ludlow and Schoonmaker, both now 
 
60 
 
 removed to their rest, were very efficient ; but it is be- 
 lieved that Dr. Knox bestowed more time and effort 
 than any other in the ministry. A venerable elder of 
 our Church (Mr. Abraham Van JVest) still survives, to 
 whose liberality and efforts our institutions are more 
 indebted than to those of any other, and by whose side 
 Dr. Knox worked. On the various boards which have 
 been organized by our General Synod, he generally had 
 a place, and the duties belonging to such places, like all 
 he ever undertook, he always carefully and punctually 
 discharged. From the moment he entered in the Re- 
 formed Dutch Church, he identified himself with its in- 
 terests, loved her cordially for her genius and character, 
 and acted continually a prominent and most useful part 
 in promoting her welfare and prosperity. 
 
 Early after the Board of Corporation of the General 
 Synod was organized, he was chosen a Director. To 
 this Board is intrusted the suiDcrintendence of the 
 finances of the Church at large, relating to the endow- 
 ments of the literary and theological institutions ; the 
 scholarship for beneficiaries ; the Widows' Fund, etc. 
 The number of directors is ^ve, of which he was the 
 only clerical member. His services here were very 
 valuable, and he exhibited that business talent wbich 
 he carried into every post he assumed. 
 
 He took a part in a number of those societies in 
 which the cooperation of Christians is found in spread- 
 ing the kingdom of the Redeemer throughout our land, 
 and throughout the world. He was particularly identi- 
 fied with the American Tract Society from its form- 
 ation until his death, as a member of the Publishing 
 
61 
 
 Committee. The amount of labor involved in the 
 discharge of the duties of this office, is seen by con- 
 sidering the extended number of the publications of 
 the Society, all of which, whether in manuscripts 
 or in volumes, passed through the careful inspection 
 of the Committee. Much time at the meetings of 
 the Committee, and at home, must necessarily have 
 been consumed. Twelve years since, at the death of 
 the lamented Dr. Milnor, he became the Chairman of 
 the Publishing and also of the Executive Committee. 
 A deservedly strong and affectionate tribute to his 
 memory, in recognition of the excellence of his charac- 
 ter, and of the great value of his services to the Society, 
 has been prepared and published by the Executive 
 Committee. 
 
 He was also actively and efficiently engaged in some 
 of the benevolent and educational institutions of this 
 city. At the organization of the "Leake and Watts 
 Orphan House," some twenty years since, he became, 
 by the will of the founder, a member of the Board of 
 Trustees of that institution, as the senior minister of this 
 Church. His services in behalf of this important insti- 
 tution, which is accomplishing much good, have been 
 unwearied and most valuable. The amount of time he 
 has devoted, and the wisdom he has exercised in his 
 constant care over its interests, can only be estimated 
 by those who are conversant with its history and affiiirs. 
 At the time of his death, he was President of the Board 
 of Trustees, and Chairman of the two important com- 
 mittees — the Finance and the House Committee. Some 
 years since, he was chosen a Trustee of Columbia Col- 
 
62 
 
 lege, in this city, wliere his services, in his punctual 
 attendance, and wise counsel and cooperation, were 
 highly prized, and his character was greatly respected 
 and esteemed. As this College is under the auspices of 
 a sister Christian denomination, (the Episcopal,) it was 
 a strong evidence of their Christian courtesy, as well as 
 a tribute to his character and an estimate of his business 
 talent and services, that they placed him on the most 
 important committees, and some time since elected him 
 their Chairman, which office he sustained at his death. 
 Besides these trusts, he sustained some others which did 
 not require such an amount of time or care — such as 
 Trustee of Kutgers College, Trustee of the College of 
 Physicians and Surgeons of this city, etc. There were 
 times when he felt the pressure of his multiplied duties 
 to be burdensome, and was led to reflect whether he 
 was not required by advancing years to lighten the 
 burthen, and relinquish some part of the trusts com- 
 mitted to him. He was unwilling to retain any one of 
 these without carefully and punctually attending to 
 their fulfillment. In every case strong desire was urged 
 by his associates that he would remain. In these few 
 latter years, with his health more confirmed, the amount 
 of his duties was never greater, and he never yielded 
 more time and toil in the discharge of them. Lately he 
 said to me, on a certain day : " I have spent this day 
 six hours in attending different boards and committees 
 to which I belong." While thus engaged in full active 
 service, death met him with a sudden stroke and re- 
 moved him, as it were, in a moment from his labor to 
 his rest ; from his toil and conflict to his reward and 
 victory. 
 
We dwell for a moment on tlie circumstances of his 
 DEATH. In the fall of 1827, wlien I settled liere as col- 
 league pastor witli him, his health was seriously im- 
 paired, and there were strong indications of seated dis- 
 ease. By advice, he went to the West-Indies, and the 
 favorable influence of the climate, and of the sea voyage, 
 restored him to comfortable health. For a series of 
 years, though he never omitted nor relaxed his work, 
 there was a susceptibility to cold tending to his chest. 
 A few years since, in 1849, his health being somewhat im- 
 paired, he went to Europe, where he spent a few months.^'' 
 After his return, his health became gradually firm, and 
 his constitution for the last three years possessed a more 
 than usual degree of vigor, as was remarked by his 
 friends and acquaintances. He referred himself with 
 gratitude to the fact. On the Monday preceding his 
 death on Tuesday, his colleagues were at his house, ac- 
 cording to a custom we have of taking tea at each other's 
 houses alternately on the afternoon of the first Monday 
 in every month. We congratulated him on his fine 
 health, and the renewal of his youth, and greeted the 
 prospect of his prolonged usefulness, and pleasantly re- 
 marked that "he might survive all his colleagues." 
 Little did we know what a day would bring forth. On 
 the next day (Tuesday) he was engaged in making pas- 
 toral visits, which are now mournfully though pleasantly 
 recalled. On reaching home, shortly after four o'clock 
 in the afternoon, he passed into the piazza back of the 
 house, and opening the blinds, or finding them open, he 
 by some misstep lost his balance, and fell over headlong 
 on the stone pavement of the yard. On being imme- 
 
 * See Appendix, Note F. 
 
64 
 
 cliately taken up and removed into tlie bouse, there 
 were a few moments of consciousness, briefly responding 
 to an inquiry and uttering some ejaculation. But in a 
 few moments he sank into entire unconsciousness, and so 
 remained until his death, at eis^ht o'clock on the eisrhth 
 of January, in the evening. The intelligence came as a 
 shock, and excited general and deep interest, not only 
 in the Church, but in the community also. This interest 
 was exhibited at his funeral in a manner very rarely wit- 
 nessed.* His death came suddenly, at a time most un- 
 expected, and in a form and manner most distressing to 
 our views and feelings. But was there in the time and 
 manner of his death to him evil ? Can we not in this 
 event, when the tide of strong feeling subsides, and 
 Mth is exercised in the clear vision of God's word and 
 Providence combined, see even mercy to him in it ? 
 He was found workinsr in the harness when his Saviour 
 called him. He was watching at his post when the 
 Lord came. I have heard him say, with the deep im- 
 pression of humility and piety, that he should dread 
 being laid up from activity and usefulness. I replied 
 that " We had nothing to do with the time and circum- 
 stances of our departure. These were in the Lord's 
 hands. There were two kinds of service to which he 
 called us : doing and suffering his will." He replied : 
 " It is so ; it is our duty and mercy to meet his will in 
 life, and then be ready for death as the Lord shall ap- 
 point." As I was standing by the death-bed of my col- 
 leasfue, I said to his aflPectionate son : " It is sad to mark 
 your dear father lying there, and not to be able to hold 
 outward communion with him. But think of this, that 
 
 * See Appendix, Note G. 
 
65 
 
 you have better evidence and sweeter comfort than any 
 circumstances connected with death could furnish you. 
 You have the evidence of his whole life, the memory of 
 which is deeply engraved in your heart." In the church 
 of which the Rev. John Newton was pastor, there was 
 a venerable Christian lady, a mother in Israel, and 
 greatly endeared. She died suddenly. Mr. Newton 
 meeting one of his congregation, gave him the intelli- 
 gence. He said : " I suppose she gave striking and 
 precious evidences on her death-bed." Mr. Newton re- 
 sponded : " She gave the brightest and most delightful 
 of all evidences. She could not utter a word, but the 
 Lord took her in a moment. The evidence she gave 
 was that of a close walk with God for fifty or sixty 
 years." 
 
 The suddenness of the death of Dr. Knox in the ac- 
 tive discharge of his duties, recalls to mind the death of 
 the Rev. Dr. Livingston, who forty years ministered 
 with great acceptance and usefulness in this church, and 
 who died in 1825, at the head of our Theological Semi- 
 nary, at the age of seventy-nine. While habitually strong 
 in faith and cheerful hope, he w^ould express his fear of 
 lingering disease laying him aside from his duties, and 
 of the pangs of dying. It pleased the Lord to spare 
 him these. He had been employed during the day in 
 lecturing to his classes, with almost more than his ac- 
 customed vivacity, and spent the evening wdth some 
 Christian friends at his house in interesting and edifying 
 religious conversation. He retired to bed in the best 
 of health. In the morning, as he did not appear at the 
 accustomed hour for family devotion, his room was en- 
 5 
 
6Q 
 
 tered, and he was found sweetly sleeping in death. 
 Every feature was calm and natural, and the bed-clothes 
 were not in the least disturbed. He must gently and 
 at once have breathed out his spirit. The death of our 
 deceased friend and brother had not in its suddenness 
 an aspect pleasant like that of Dr. Livingston, but it 
 was equally safe and blessed. The Master in this provi- 
 dence spake to him, " Come up hither," and his ran- 
 somed spirit ascended to be with Jesus. 
 
 Two remarks drawn from the subject will be briefly 
 stated. 
 
 First. We contemplate in the life and death of our 
 friend and pastor the greatness of goodness. In 
 goodness the mind, heart, and life meet together in har- 
 mony. The sweet sympathies of a sanctified nature, and 
 the ennobling virtues of a holy life invest the good man 
 as a beautiful garment. There is emphasis in the words 
 of Paul in the fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, 
 " Scarcely for a righteous man (one of strict integrity 
 and consistency) will one die, yet peradventure for a 
 GOOD man one would even dare to die." Barnabas was 
 " a GOOD MAN, full of faith and of the Holy Ghost." 
 This is the highest style of man. Is there any greatness 
 superior to this ? When I was in London in 1846, I 
 heard the Rev. Edward Bickersteth referred to as the 
 good Mr. Bickersteth. He is since deceased, and is 
 known among us by his valuable religious writings, 
 and by the delineation of his life and character 
 in his biography. He was plain in his appearance, 
 but his countenance at once attracted you by the 
 mild and devout spirit which beamed from it, and when 
 
67 
 
 he spoke, his words fell like the dew of Hermon. I 
 then thought that this is the greatness which should be 
 coveted. I have heard the same attribute conferred 
 upon my lamented colleague. None more grateful or of 
 higher worth could be conferred. Through a prolonged 
 life he has gained the united conviction and confession 
 of his goodness^ tried in every circumstance and relation 
 of life, and combinino: the best and noblest attributes of 
 character, and now at his death on that beautiful vest- 
 ure of goodness not a stain can be traced. When the 
 lamented and lono^-to-be-remembered Milxor was in 
 civil life, and in the halls of legislation, and evinced his 
 finely formed character, there was a worldly greatness 
 pertaining to him ; but when he became the subject of 
 divine grace, and devoted himself to the ministry, exhi- 
 biting through his whole subsequent course the Christ- 
 ian graces, and exerting a beneficent influence, he at- 
 tained a greatness he never had before, the greatness of 
 goodness. This is the greatness of our own Freliis^g- 
 
 IIUYSEN. 
 
 My second remark, oi^ which I shall not expand, 
 
 IS, THE mutual privileges AND RESPONSIBILITIES, WHICH 
 
 EXIST retween 3HNISTERS AND PEOPLE. In this rela- 
 tion there is a sacredness, value, and importance to be 
 found in no other. The province of this ministry is not 
 with the fleeting interests of time, and the vanities of 
 earth, but it seeks to form a spiritual dominion within 
 the soul of man, to restore the sinner lost in guilt and 
 depravity to the favor, communion, and service of God, 
 and to train him for the heaven of holiness and happi- 
 ness. When Paul received the commission for the mi- 
 
68 
 
 nistry, the object was stated, " To open their eyes, and 
 to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power 
 of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness 
 of sins, and inheritance among them who are sanctified 
 by faith that is in me." In the last chapter of the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, there are two distinct verses 
 which bear upon this mutual privilege and responsibil- 
 ity, namely : " Obey them that have the rule over you 
 for they watch for your souls as they that must give ac- 
 count, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief." 
 What a touching and expressive description of the mi- 
 nisterial office ! " They watch for souls^ they must give 
 account''' The other verse respects the remembrance 
 of the ministry of those, who have ceased from their la- 
 bor, and entered into their rest. Verse 7 : " Remember 
 them which have the rule over you, who have spoken 
 to you the word of God, considering the end of their 
 conversation." 
 
 The bereavement, by the death of Dr. Kuox, in his 
 family circle will be deeply felt. Besides his children, 
 nine in number, there are relatives (orphans and others) 
 who have experienced a tender kindness and a watchful 
 care, parental in their nature, who will not fail to cherish 
 feelings of a filial kind in memory of him. That prudent 
 care, that tender sympathy, that ready aid which he 
 ever sought to cherish and extend, those wise instruc- 
 tions which he gently and seasonably administered, the 
 example so bright and uniform, which he exhibited in 
 the domestic scene, will be found no more. But it may 
 well call for gratitude that he was spared so long to a 
 good age, and that the children reached their maturity 
 
69 
 
 before their father and mother were taken from them. 
 Pleasantly will they recall the tenor of their pious and 
 lovely lives, and the comfort of the assurance of their 
 possession of the inheritance of saints in light, is richly 
 furnished to them. '^ A good man leaves an inheritance 
 to children's children." Children of my deceased friend, 
 more precious than all of gold and silver is the inherit- 
 ance, which parental piety, a holy walk and conversa- 
 tion, and fervent prayers bestow upon you. I have wit- 
 nessed his fervent anxiety for your spiritual welfare. 
 May the grace which has gathered so large a proportion 
 of you into the Church by open profession, gather all of 
 you into its bosom — let the death of your father be a 
 cord of love to draw you close to the Saviour. May 
 the God and Saviour of your parents be your God and 
 Saviour ! 
 
 His COLLEAGUES tenderly feel their loss in his death. 
 Uniformly very pleasant has been their personal inter- 
 course with him, and uninterrupted have been their 
 harmony and mutual confidence in their common coun- 
 sels and labors in this ministerial and pastoral charge. 
 I have often felt, and perhaps have expressed the feel- 
 ing, that I hoped never to see the day when I should 
 become the senior actincr minister of this Church. But 
 God has in a remarkable and impressive manner brought 
 it to pass. About fourteen years since, our colleague. 
 Dr. Brownlee, was, while in the vigor of health and 
 amid active labor, suddenly and in a moment prostrated 
 by an apoplectic attack, paralyzing him on one side- 
 For a time he appeared to be nigh unto death ; but 
 gradually and slowly he convalesced, until for some 
 
70 
 
 years back lie has enjoyed a comfortable state of body 
 and of mind, but still without the least prospect of be- 
 ing restored to active duty. 'Now suddenly our senior 
 pastor, while walking with God, was taken by his Sav- 
 iour. How impressive the admonition of these provi- 
 dences ! " There is but a step between us and death." 
 " Work w^hile it is day ; the night cometli in which no 
 man can work." The shadows of evening are closing 
 around me. I am but fifteen months the junior in 
 age of my deceased colleague, though I have passed 
 more years in the ministry, having been settled at Hope- 
 well, in Dutchess county, in the fall of 1812, whence I 
 removed to this city, in the fall of 1827. I feel the need 
 of a larger share of divine grace to enable me to fill up 
 (what must be at the best) the small remnant of my 
 days in the discharge of duties which may devolve upon 
 me. My colleagues join most cordially in the tribute I 
 have feebly endeavored to pay to the memory of our 
 deceased friend and senior colleague. I trust we are 
 united in a threefold cord of affection and confidence, 
 and may this afilicting stroke draw us still closer to each 
 other, and to the Redeemer. While we value your 
 affectionate confidence, we invite your united prayers 
 and cooperation, that our ministry among you may be 
 in the " fullness of the blessings of the Gospel of jDeace." 
 The CoNSiSTOEY of this Church, with whom our de- 
 parted friend was associated in its government, mourn 
 over him as a standard-bearer fallen by their side. 
 While mourning over their loss, they should find and 
 feel an incentive to increased watchfulness and fidelity 
 in the discharge of the trust committed to them. " Be 
 
71 
 
 thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown 
 of life." God, by removing from the midst of the 
 Church one by one for a short time past, calls us to 
 solemn reflection. Since May last, five who have borne 
 the office of elder, have been called to the sanctuary 
 above ; four at the age of eighty, or a little upwards, 
 and the fifth at the age of seventy, all men of tried 
 worth and Christian character. While the fathers are 
 thus passing away, let us look to Him who can supply 
 their places. May his Sj)irit be poured forth upon our 
 seed, and his blessing upon our ofi'spring, and thus may 
 we find it verified, that " instead of the fathers shall be 
 the children who shall be princes on the earth." 
 
 To the MEMBERS OF THIS CHURCH AND COXGREGATION, 
 
 I would say, cherish the memory of your loved deceased 
 pastor, and let that memory be pleasant not only, but 
 also profitable. It is said that Dr. Payson on his death- 
 bed directed that a label should be placed on his breast 
 as he lay in his coffin, with a clear and legible inscrip- 
 tion : " KeMEMBER THE WORDS THAT I SPAKE UNTO YOU 
 
 WHILE I WAS YET WITH YOU." Thus cvciy ouc wlio ap- 
 proached to take a last view of the precious remains, 
 had this distinctly in sight. Though this admonition is 
 not brought in the same form and manner, yet it is 
 forcibly and tenderly impressed upon us by the event 
 of death which has invaded the ministry of this Church. 
 " He being dead yet speaketh." Of the fruits of his long 
 ministry, a large proportion have preceded him in their 
 entrance into the heavenly rest, and they are now join- 
 ins^ in the common sons: of the redeemed. The others, 
 who are yet on their way of pilgrimage and in the 
 
72 
 
 spiritual warfare, will ever cherisli the most grateful 
 emotions in memory of him, which time and death will 
 not weaken or efface. Let all who have sat under the 
 droppings of his ministry, and been conversant with his 
 life and walk, but have not yet embraced the Saviour 
 and devoted themselves to his service, now seek to gain 
 a blessing from his death which they failed to gain in 
 his life. Within a few months God has removed, by 
 death, three of our prominent and most valuable minis- 
 ters in our Church at large : Professor Ludlow, than 
 whom no one has been more influential in promoting 
 the interests of the Reformed Dutch Church, and who 
 sustained the distinguished offices which he held in the 
 pastoral charge, at the head of a distinguished literary 
 institution, and in the professorate in our Theological 
 Seminary with signal ability and high reputation ; 
 the Rev. Dr. Polhemus, called away in the meridian of 
 life, in the vigor of ripe manhood, just after he was 
 transferred to an opening field of great promise of useful- 
 ness, beloved in life and lamented in death ; and now 
 our lamented Dr. Knox. These bereavements bear an 
 impressive lesson to those who are in the ministry, and 
 should lead us, and the churches among whom we labor, 
 to go from the instruments to the Head of the Church 
 and the Lord of the harvest, in firm trust and fervent 
 prayer, that he would pour a double portion of the 
 unction of the Holy Spirit upon us, that he would estab- 
 lish our section of Zion in abiding and increasing peace 
 and prosperity, and that he would for this end raise up 
 continually a ministry endowed with gifts and grace, 
 thoroughly trained, and eminently diligent, faithful, and, 
 under God's blessing, successful. 
 
EXTRACTS FROM SERMONS. 
 
 Concluding Remarks of the Sermon preached by the Rev. Thomas 
 E. Vermilye, D.D., in the Middle Dutch Churchy {La Fayette 
 Placed on January lOth^ 1858, from the text Hebrews 6: 12; 
 ^^Be not sloth ftd : but folloicers of them who through faith and 
 patience inherit the promises.'''* 
 
 Our subject finds a practical application and use in 
 tlie overwhelming act of Divine Providence we this day 
 mourn. 
 
 I dare not yet tiust myself to enlarge upon it, nor 
 upon tlie character and worth of him who is gone, and 
 whose loss, to us his colleagues, to the people, to the 
 Church at large, and the varied institutions of benevo- 
 lence and learning with which he was connected, will 
 be long and deeply felt. We shall miss his kindly asso- 
 ciation and his wise counsels ; you will miss him from 
 those pulpits he has for more than forty years occupied, 
 from the domestic circles and scenes of affliction, where 
 he was always so prompt and constant an attendant : 
 where his Christian words and his warm sympathizing 
 heart always poured whatever alleviation human sym- 
 pathy can pour into the wounded spirit. To the last 
 he was assiduous in duty ; and I esteem it a fit and 
 beautiful closing incident that he came in from pastoral 
 visitations but the moment before the fatal event. 
 That form so familiar we shall see no more. The pas- 
 tor has ended his labor and has gone to his rest. The 
 father is removed from the domestic circle ; the com- 
 
74 
 
 panion, tlie friend, lies locked in liis last sleep, which 
 only the voice of the archangel and the trump of God 
 shall break. No more shall we see his face in the flesh. 
 Very dear wert thou to me, my brother, and years of 
 intimate intercourse have but the more impressed me 
 with the assurance of thy modest, constant worth. I 
 found thee an humble, consistent Christian ; an intelli- 
 gent, faithful friend ; a true man, fit to be confided in • 
 and so have many found thee. Thy work is now done : 
 thy record is made up : thou hast been active and faith- 
 ful unto death : thou art, at this moment, inheriting the 
 promises : thy spirit wears the white robe of victory, 
 thy voice is now tuned to the song of Moses and the 
 lamb : thou hast entered the kingdom : thou hast gotten 
 the crown. Farewell, till we meet — oh ! may we meet 
 in a better world. But ye, brethren, remember them 
 that have had the rule over you, and have spoken unto 
 you the word of God : whose faith follow, considering 
 the end of their conversation. "Be not slothful: but 
 followers of them who through faith and patience in- 
 herit the promises." 
 
 Concluding Remarks of the Sermon preached by the Rev. T. W. 
 Chambers, D.D., in the Middle Dutch Churchy {La Fayette 
 Place,) January 17, 185 8, /rom the text : '-'■ Remember them who 
 have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of 
 God ; whose faith folloio, considering the end of their conversa- 
 tion.'''^ Hebreics 13:7. 
 
 % ^c *K- ^- -H- -Sf -JS- 'A ^ 
 
 You have no doubt all anticipated the application 
 of this subject. After the lapse of nearly a quarter of 
 a century, the grave has opened to receive another of 
 the collegiate pastors dying in the service of this church. 
 In July, 183o, the excellent Dr. Kuypers was buried ; 
 last week all that was mortal of Dr. Knox was com- 
 
75 
 
 mitted to the tomb. It is not my purpose now to dilate 
 upon the general character of our late venerated leader. 
 That has been wisely reserved for another occasion and 
 an abler hand. My object is simply, in the spirit of the 
 text, to indicate some of those traits of Christian cha- 
 racter in which it is your duty to imitate him whose sud- 
 den departure we all mourn. I say Christian character, 
 for his personal excellencies as a man, and his official 
 worth as a minister, are not embraced in the scope to 
 which the text limits our thoughts. Let me call upon 
 you to remember and follow your departed leader. 
 
 First. In Ms fixedness of religious principle. With- 
 out parade and without noise he moved on in the jour- 
 ney of life with such simplicity and godly sincerity, that 
 we all expected from him the appropriate exhibitions of 
 Christian principle called for from time to time, with 
 just as much confidence as we anticipate the movements 
 of the stars in their courses. Nor were we disappointed. 
 
 His aim was ever to do that which is right. So mani- 
 fest was this, that no man would have dared to approach 
 him with an improper proposah All who knew him 
 even slightly had the profoundest conviction that he 
 was an immovably upright man — not to be swerved by 
 caprice, or interest, or passion, or importunity, from 
 what he judged to be the path of duty. Is this your 
 character, my hearer ? If not, then you have something 
 yet to learn from him who lies sleeping in yonder vault. 
 Remember him and follow him. Mark the perfect man 
 and behold the upright. 
 
 Second. His ahoiinding symixitliy loitli Ids fellow-men 
 was another trait worthy of our imitation. In this 
 grace of character he was peculiar, if not unequalled. 
 He fulfilled to the letter the apostolic precept: "Re- 
 joice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that 
 weep." Never was there a man who could so accom- 
 
76 
 
 modate his own sentiments to the state of others. If in 
 deep waters himself, still he could sincerely and cheer- 
 fully congratulate others on their possessing the favors 
 of a benignant providence. Yet not less readily did his 
 tears fall and his heart beat for those in distress, how- 
 ever happy his own situation might be. It was this 
 trait which gave such unspeakable value to his visits in 
 the sick room and the house of mourning. The suf- 
 ferers felt that he was there not only officially but as a 
 friend ; that he entered into their feelings ; and that the 
 desire of his heart was to see them relieved and com- 
 forted."^ And in this he is eminently to be followed. 
 We have no right to seclude ourselves from the cares, 
 interests and sorrows of others. As Christians we must 
 feel with and for them, and show that feeling in the 
 proper way and place. If the disposition does not exist 
 naturally in us, we are to cultivate it, as did my late 
 colleague. He must have had by nature a sympathiz- 
 ing temperament, but we can not doubt that grace 
 heightened that constitutional gift ; and the sympathies 
 which otherwise had been restricted to the narrow cir- 
 cle of friends, were spread out till they took in all men 
 and all circumstances. If we all followed his faith in 
 this respect, what a happy church and community would 
 this become ! 
 
 Third. His liaUtual courtesy is another point for imi- 
 tation. His dignity, so well suited to his age and sta- 
 tion, was beautifully tempered by a Tvinning courtesy, 
 which was not reserved for great occasions or important 
 persons, but because it was the habit of his life and was 
 therefore shown to all without distinction of age or po- 
 sition or character. No man ever saw Dr. Knox do a 
 
 * It was doubtless this sympathy which more than any other one trait so endeared 
 him to his people, and made the news of his death strike them like a sore personal 
 Calamity, as if every one had lost a dear and valued friend. 
 
77 
 
 rude thing. A favor conferred was doubled by the 
 raanner of bestowing it, while the inevitable pain of re- 
 fusal was greatly softened by the tender consideration 
 with which it was communicated. Herein it behooves 
 all to follow him. So much of the comfort of our daily 
 lives depends upon the manner of doing and saying 
 things, that it is a Christian duty when we see a fair 
 model of courtesy, to copy that model, and as far as 
 possible make it our own. 
 
 Four. The same may be said of our departed friend's 
 qovernnient of the tongue. He was remarkable not only 
 for his abstinence from evil speaking in all its forms, 
 but also from rash speaking. He opened his mouth 
 with wisdom, and in his tongue was the law of kind- 
 ness. Taking his full share alike in common conversa- 
 tion and in more formal discussions, he yet avoided the 
 unkind, uncharitable, indiscreet, or unbecoming speeches, 
 which so often mar the intercourse even of otherwise 
 good men. Kecognizing the importance of that little 
 member, which, the wise man says, has death and life in 
 its power, he used it, but used it wisely, not content 
 with a mere negative virtue which, as we all know, may 
 consist with a dreary and most wearisome inanity, but 
 aiming to have " his speech alway with grace, seasoned 
 with salt," that is, endued with a hallo v\^ed and whole- 
 some pungency. Having then such an example of wis- 
 dom in the government of the tongue, let us follow it, 
 and strive to get the same eminence in that virtue 
 which has so much to do with the comfort and useful- 
 ness of Christians in all ranks and conditions of life. 
 
 Five. The list of Dr. Knox's exemplary virtues is ftir 
 from being exhausted, but I have time to touch upon 
 only one more — his diligence in doing good. It is true 
 that his example here bears primarily upon those of the 
 same calling, yet it is appropriate to all as prompting 
 
78 
 
 them to be as faithful in their sphere as he was in his. 
 The pulpit and parochial cares of this large charge 
 pressed heavily upon him as the senior pastor. Yet when 
 did lie ever stand in this or any other pulpit, without 
 careful preparation ? What house of mourning failed to 
 be lio-htened by his genial presence, or what sick bed 
 was unsoothed by his words of consolation ? Old and 
 young, rich and poor, high and low, are alike witnesses 
 to his diligence. But as if direct ministerial labors were 
 not enough, he for the Master's sake accepted from time 
 to time, as Providence called him, posts in various im- 
 portant institutions, literary, charitable, and religious, 
 which made heavy draughts upon his time and strength, 
 but he met those draughts with undeviating promptness 
 and zeal. They consumed all his leisure, and often 
 burdened his mind with serious cares and responsibili- 
 ties, but he did not complain. His business was to do 
 good, and he did it. And never was he more busy in 
 this way than in the closing years of his life. The fresh 
 memory of them gives point to the admonition in the 
 text to follow his faith. As you recur to the multiplied 
 instances your own eyes have seen of his unceasing dili- 
 gence, remember that this is a stimulus to you to go 
 and do likewise in your own appropriate sphere of 
 Christian activity. 
 
 Let me close by urging the impenitent among you to 
 follow their departed pastor in his simple faith in the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. That faith he preached with great 
 plainness and simplicity, and confirmed his preaching 
 by a godly and consistent life. He kept back none of 
 the counsel of God, but declared it all, publicly and 
 from house to house, and that for a period longer than 
 many of you can remember. That faithful and affec- 
 tionate ministry is now closed, but its consequences are 
 not closed. There is a day coming when you will have 
 
79 
 
 to give account for the clear instructions, and solemn 
 warnings, and tender entreaties, which you have heard 
 from the lips now sealed in the silence of the grave. 
 That venerable form which you have so often seen in 
 this sacred place, you will see yet once more in a place 
 infinitely more solemn and august, and then, when con- 
 fronted with the Judge, you will be asked what heed 
 you gave to the message he brought. On the answer 
 your everlasting doom will turn. If still impenitent 
 then he who while on earth so often invited you to the 
 Saviour, must stand up to bear witness against you, that 
 when God called you refused, when He stretched out 
 His hands you would not regard. Shun, shun that fear- 
 ful testimony. Even now recall the words of that voice 
 which you will never again hear in this world, and de- 
 termine by God's grace to follow him even as he followed 
 Christ. Rest not until you have entered the strait gate, 
 and acquired like precious faith with him. Then he 
 will be a witness for you instead of against you, and 
 you will meet him in joy, and peace, and glory — meet 
 him never again to part. Which may God grant for 
 Christ's sake ! 
 
 Close of a Discourse^ preached in the North Dutch Church, Alba- 
 ny^ by Rev. Dr. Rogers, in memory of Rev. John Kxox, D.D., 
 on Sunday evening, January 24, 185 8, /Vow the text: ^'' For all 
 flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. 
 The grass withereth, and thefloirer thereof falleth away. Rut 
 theicord of the Lord endureth forever.'''' — 1 Peter 1 : 24, 25. 
 
 The views which have now been presented are highly 
 appropriate to the circumstances in which our whole 
 church is at this moment placed. The inscrutable pro- 
 vidence of God in a few brief months has made sad 
 breaches among the standard-bearers in our Zion. Our 
 
80 
 
 men of strength, and wisdom, and usefulness; the excel- 
 lent, the honored, and the loved are falling around us. 
 Three distinguished names have, in the short space of 
 four months, been blotted from our ministerial roll. 
 Polhemus, Ludlow, Knox, are no more. One of our 
 youngest churches sits in her widowhood, and mourns 
 the departure of her first and only pastor. From the 
 most venerable, and the oldest, comes also a wail of sor- 
 I'ovv over the grave of him who, for forty-two years, 
 has gone in and out before her, and broken to her the 
 bread of life. To his memory our few remaining words 
 Avill be devoted. 
 
 The intelligence which so suddenly and unexpectedly 
 informed us that the Rev. Dr. John Knox, Senior Pastor 
 of the Collegiate Dutch Church of New-York, had been 
 taken from us in the midst of his health and usefulness 
 by an unforeseen and fatal casualty, has excited a thrill 
 of the sincerest grief throughout our entire denomina- 
 tion. For forty-two years he had been connected with 
 our most ancient and most important Church. His 
 early and his later years had been devoted to its inter- 
 ests. For a quarter of a century he had been its senior 
 pastor, and had long stood in the front rank of our dis- 
 tinguished clergy. Probably the decease of no other 
 one of our ministers could sever so many ties, and be 
 felt in so many directions. His long, unbroken course 
 of public labor in one sphere, and that the great me- 
 tropolis of our country, would naturally keep him in 
 the eye of the Christian public, while the dignity, abil- 
 ity, propriety, purity, and efficiency with which he filled 
 that sphere, insured him in no ordinary degree the re- 
 spect, the confidence, the approbation, and the affection 
 of the whole Church of God. The simple fact that Dr. 
 Knox lived nearly half a century in the midst of the 
 toils, temptations, and responsibilities of his exalted 
 
81 
 
 station, and pufsued the even tenor of his way, as a 
 humble, faithful minister of God ; never stooping to 
 seek for popularity by arts which degrade the pulpit : 
 never seeking to preach other than the simple Gospel, 
 in the simplicity of Christ ; always mindful of the Mas- 
 ter, rather than the servant ; and steadily growing in 
 the reverence and esteem of the whole Christian com- 
 munity until he was literally burdened with the most 
 weighty and precious interests of the cause of religion 
 and philanthropy ; this simple history is his noblest 
 eulogy, and contains the highest tribute to his exalted 
 worth. I remember him from my earliest years. He 
 entered upon his labors in my native city nearly two 
 years before my birth ; and as far back as I can re- 
 member any thing, I remember the high character 
 which he sustained as a Christian minister and a Christ- 
 ian gentleman, and the distinguished estimation in which 
 even in his early ministry he was held in that city. He 
 was for years the pastor of some of my own family 
 relatives, and I know that in this delicate and solemn 
 relation, no man could be more excellent or more be- 
 loved. He was a man of symmetrical and well-balanced 
 mind. He was an edifying and instructive preacher. 
 There was no one quality of mind or heart which stood 
 forth in bold or dazzling prominence, but there was a 
 most happy and harmonious combination of excellencies 
 which fitted him in a high degree for solid and perma- 
 nent usefulness. As a counsellor it will be hard to find 
 his equal. He was cautious without timidity, firm with- 
 out obstinacy, conservative without stagnation, and pro- 
 gressive without radicalism. The many religious and 
 benevolent institutions with which he was connected, 
 both denominational and general, will miss him sorely 
 from their counsels. Every good cause will miss him. 
 The cause of Christian education, the cause of religious 
 6 
 
82 
 
 literature, the cause of the widow and the orphan, and 
 many others, have lost a warm, judicious, and steadfast 
 friend. While the ancient Church, which he served so 
 faithfully for forty-two years, has lost a pastor whose 
 kind counsels, whose affectionate sympathies, whose wise 
 instructions, and whose consistent example it will be 
 hard indeed to supply from any other source. 
 
 The manner of his death, while it was sudden and 
 shocking to his surviving friends, was in some respects 
 characterized by special mercy. "We have lost the les- 
 sons of his dying hours, but we have the lessons of his 
 consistent and useful life. He was kindly spared a long 
 and painful illness, and died like a true soldier of the 
 Cross with his armor on. The last day of his life was 
 spent in pastoral visitation among his people. Eeturn- 
 ing near the close of the day, he stepped out upon the 
 piazza in the rear of his dwelling to open a glass door, 
 which, opening suddenly, occasioned his fall upon the 
 pavement below. The fall produced a fracture of the 
 skull, which resulted in death on the fourth day follow- 
 ing. That door was to him the gate of heaven. He 
 passed through it to walk in paradise. It was indeed a 
 sudden death, but to him sudden death was " sudden 
 glory." It seems to us that his end was premature. 
 But the words of the poet may well be applied to him : 
 
 " Go to the grave in all thy glorious prime, 
 Thy full activity of zeal and power ; 
 A Christian can not die before his time ; 
 The Lord's appointment is the servant's hour !" 
 
 Those of us whose privilege it was to unite in paying 
 the last offices of respect and burial to his remains, can 
 need no better evidence of the estimation in which Dr. 
 Knox was held by the Church and the public than the 
 extraordinary demonstration which was made at his 
 
83 
 
 funeral. A more imposing and affecting sight could 
 scarcely have been presented than was presented in the 
 church where the public services of the solemn occasion 
 were held. It was not the sable drapery with which 
 the large edifice was appropriately clothed, nor the sol- 
 emn dirges which the wailing organ uttered, nor yet 
 the tremulous tones of venerable men of God as they 
 spoke and prayed above the coffin of their departed 
 V)rother that gave character, and interest, and impress- 
 iveness to the scene. It was the gathering of thousands 
 of the best and noblest men and women of our great 
 metropolis, who came to testify to his worth and pay 
 their homage to his memory. The clergy of all denom- 
 inations were there, among them the most distinguished 
 and venerable of each branch of the Church, sincere 
 mourners for one of the most venerable of them all ; 
 one whose catholic spirit made little account of minor 
 diversities in the Christian brotherhood, but whose 
 warm heart hailed in every Christian minister a brother 
 in a common Lord. The noblest and best men of the 
 Church were there, her pastors, her rulers, her members, 
 and all wept for a father and a brother. His bereaved 
 colleagues were there, long connected with him in the 
 most intimate and delightful association, grieving, most 
 of all, that they should see his face no more. The 
 strong men, and the wise men, and the learned men, 
 and the honorable men of the city were there, affected 
 by a common sorrow, over a common loss. This was 
 his noblest eulogy. Those silent, sorrowing thousands, 
 silent save when some deep sigh or audible sob broke 
 from some overburdened heart, were eloquent, yea, 
 more eloquent than any orator's eulogium or poet's song 
 iu their testimony to his worth. No pomp or pageant- 
 ry such as waits on the obsequies of the world's hero 
 was there. No trailing banners, no nodding plumes, no 
 
84 
 
 roll of muffled drum, no cannon^s roar lent their facti- 
 tious splendors to the scene. Not his the showy but 
 heartless rites which are paid at the conqueror's grave. 
 Devout men carried him to his burial, and made great 
 lamentation over him. A thousand tearful eyes, a thou- 
 sand saddened hearts paid honest and fitting tribute at 
 a good man's grave. In many a household and in many 
 a heart will his memory be sacred as the memory of 
 the just, till the day when the beloved pastor and his 
 redeemed people shall together enter into the joy of 
 their Lord. 
 
 My Christian brethren, while as a denomination we 
 are learning in sadness that all flesh is grass, and all the 
 glory of man as the flower of grass ; let us remember 
 that though the grass withereth, and the flower thereof 
 falleth away, the word of the Lord endureth forever ! 
 Though the grave must close over all that is fair, and 
 venerable, and useful, and good ; though the valued, 
 and trusted, and loved must leave us in their appointed 
 time, let us not forget that the God of Zion lives ; that 
 the Captain of our salvation survives, and that we can 
 still trust in the Chief Shepherd and Bishop of our 
 souls. It is indeed sad for us, short-sighted and depend- 
 ent as we are, to see our strong men falling like the 
 oaks of the forest, but we must not forget that the 
 purposes of a sovereign God shall never fail of their 
 complete accomplishment, and that the promise of the 
 Saviour to the Church is, that the gates of hell shall not 
 prevail against her. We need not despair of the 
 Church ; God will take care of Zion. She will come 
 up out of the Avilderness leaning on the arm of her Be- 
 loved. She will stand forth " fair as the moon, clear as 
 the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." Zion 
 will arise and shine, her light being come, her glory 
 shall go forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp 
 
85 
 
 that burnetii. Our dying Ludlow said: "There are 
 two things of which I have no doubt. The safety of 
 my country, and the safety of my soul." So there is 
 another thing of which no Christian can doubt, and 
 that is the safety and final triumph of the Church of 
 God. "The grass withereth and the flower thereof 
 falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth for- 
 ever." 
 
 But there is a voice which speaks to us from the 
 grave of departed goodness with a higher aim than to 
 awaken a transient emotion. It admonishes us to be 
 up and doing in our own work for the Master and his 
 cause. It tells us that we know not the day nor the 
 hour when the Son of Man cometh, and will call us to 
 give an account of our stewardship. It admonishes us 
 that the best way to meet Him in peace is to be found 
 of Him, when He cometh, diligently doing our duty. 
 The ministry of our Church are especially reminded by 
 these repeated dispensations of their need of increased 
 watchfulness, zeal, and devotion. May God impress 
 the lesson deeply in their hearts ! The officers and 
 members, too, are also enjoined to renewed activity for 
 the honor of God and the welfare of immortal souls. 
 Let them be watchful and strengthen the things which 
 remain, that are ready to perish. Let them rally as 
 one man to the promotion of every legitimate interest 
 of the Church. Let them sustain all its efforts to extend 
 its usefulness in our country and the world. Let them 
 cooperate with and encourage the ministry in their 
 efforts to this end, remembering that every thing which 
 they keep back from the Lord, of sympathy, of prayer, 
 of contribution, and of toil will only detract from the 
 splendor of their crowns of rejoicing in the day of the 
 Lord. 
 
 And let all men who are yet in their sins, and unpre- 
 
86 
 
 pared to meet their God, beware how they trifle with 
 what is so momentous and uncertain as a dying man's 
 life. Had not our departed Knox long years ago given 
 himself to the Saviour, and lived always in readiness to 
 meet Him, how different would now be the record of his 
 life and death ! He had no opportunity at the last to 
 do this great work: 
 
 While yet ye live, ye dying men, 
 " Prepare to meet your God !" 
 
 " Now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day 
 of salvation." 
 
RESOLUTIONS 
 
 OP 
 
 INSTITUTIONS, RELIGIOUS, BENEVOLENT, AND LITERARY. 
 
RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 Record of the American Tract Society on the Death of the 
 Rev. John Knox, D.D. 
 
 The Executive Committee of the American Tract Society on the 
 18th January, 1858, unanimously adopted the following record : 
 
 The Committee would bow submissively to the holy will of 
 God in suddenly calliug to himself their esteemed and 
 venerated Chairman, the Eev. John Knox, D.D., one of the 
 Society's founders, who has consecrated to its best interests his 
 faithful efficient labors, his kind, wise, and judicious counsels, 
 and his prayers, throughout the whole period of its history. 
 Having acted on the Executive and Publishing Committees 
 for twenty years, on the death of theKev. Dr. Milnor in 1845, 
 he was appointed Chairman of both Committees, which posi- 
 tion he filled with distinguished ability and acceptance to all, 
 for nearly thirteen years, till called to the rest above. 
 
 Dr. Knox was born, of pious and highly respected parents, 
 near Gettysburgh, Pennsylvania, June 17, 1790, and graduated 
 at Dickinson College, Carlisle, in 1811. He pursued the study 
 of theology in the Seminary of the Associate Keformed Church, 
 under the superintendence of the Kev. Dr. John M. Mason, 
 was licensed to preach the Gospel in 1815, and on the l-ith of 
 July, 1816, at the age of twenty-six, was installed pastor of 
 the Collegiate Keformed Dutch Church in the city of :N"ew- 
 York. In this prominent and highly responsible station, sus- 
 tained by the warm afi'ections of the large associate congrega- 
 tions, he faithfully and successfully fulfilled the duties of the 
 
90 
 
 ministry, " publicly and from house to house," to an endeared 
 and confiding people, for nearly forty-two years. Being still 
 in the vigor of health and with every promise of continued 
 usefulness, on the 5th inst. he fell from the piazza back of his 
 parlor, producing a concussion of the brain, which instantly 
 terminated consciousness, and he died on Friday evening, 
 January 8, 1858, at the age of 67, surrounded by his surviving 
 six sons and three daughters. The estimable wife of his youth, 
 eldest daughter of the Rev. Dr. Mason, to whom he was 
 married May 11, 1818, died two years before him, July 6, 
 1855. 
 
 His position and growing influence through this long period 
 of years brought him into many responsible and endeared re- 
 lations. At the time of his death, he was President of the 
 Board of Trustees of Columbia College, of the Leake and 
 Watts Orphan Asylum, which had his constant care, and of 
 the Board of Education and the Sunday-School Union of the 
 Reformed Dutch Church. He was a Director of the Board of 
 Corporation of that Church ; a Trustee of Rutgers College, 
 ]^ew-Brunswick, and of the New- York College of Physicians 
 and Surgeons; and was connected with numerous other 
 religious and benevolent institutions, who expected and 
 received his wise counsels and cordial cooperation. It was the 
 mournful privilege of this Committee, on Tuesday last, to 
 unite with representatives from these various institutions, 
 and thousands from our evangelical churches of every name, 
 in the highly appropriate and impressive funeral solemnities. 
 
 To the Rev. Dr. Knox the American Tract Society owe a 
 debt of lasting gratitude. Not only did he examine the 
 numerous invaluable publications that have been sanctioned 
 and issued since its formation, but the records show that of the 
 562 meetings of the Publishing Committee which have been 
 held, he attended/b?^r hundred and sixty-three^ though he was 
 absent some months on a visit for health to the West-Indies, 
 and afterwards on a visit to Europe, when he represented the 
 
91 
 
 Society as a delegate to the annivei'sary of the Eeligioiis Tract 
 Society in London. He also attended 19-4 out of 477 meetings 
 of the Executive Committee, though often detained by 
 parochial or other official engagements. 
 
 The motives that impelled him to these labors were the same 
 that gave character to his life, and controlled his efforts, 
 whether public or private, in the pulpit or through the press. 
 He loved and cherished, and every where firmly and calmly 
 vindicated the great essential doctrines of the cross as God's 
 appointed means for the salvation of men. " Bought with a 
 price," and ''not his own," he felt bound to consecrate his 
 energies to make known these "glad tidings." This object he 
 pursued with a business talent, promptness, and energy that 
 few possess ; with frankness, honesty, and unbending integrity ; 
 with sound judgment and an almost innate discretion and sense 
 of propriety ; with distinguished urbanity, kindness, and 
 courtesy, and with sympathy for the suffering and the orphan, 
 which at once opened the way of access, and won the confi- 
 dence of all who knew him. He loved the Society as an 
 effective agency for securing the great object of his life ; as 
 issuing the true Gospel, and bearing it, under the blessing of 
 the Spirit, to millions of the wandering and the lost. He loved 
 it too as uniting the friends of evangelical truth of every name 
 and locality, and loved to be among them, as was affectingly 
 indicated when distinguished ministerial brethren from six 
 ecclesiastical communions united in bearing his body to the 
 tomb. The members of the Committee, thanking God for all 
 that he was, and all that he did while with them, rejoice that, 
 having " finished his course," and " kept the faith," he now 
 sees the Saviour as He is, and mingles with " the general as- 
 sembly and church of the first-born" in His eternal praise. 
 
 They can not refrain from adding, as strictly appropriate to 
 the present occasion, the choice words written by Dr. Knox 
 himself on the death of his associate on the Publishing Com- 
 mittee, Dr. Milnor, whose labors and responsibilities their in- 
 
92 
 
 timate and cordial relations enabled him so justly to ap- 
 preciate : 
 
 " While the whole community, in whose heart he is em- 
 balmed, has reason to mourn the removal of one of its most 
 useful members and brightest ornaments, a man of God, as- 
 sociated with every benevolent and good work, the American 
 Tract Society is called by this dispensation of divine Providence 
 to lament the loss of services extending through its entire ex- 
 istence, and which, under God, have eminently contributed to 
 its success and usefulness. With the whole history of the 
 Society he is identified : at all times, notwithstanding his many 
 avocations, bestowing upon the interests of the institution an 
 unwearied, a prompt and zealous attention. In connection 
 with the Publishing Committee especially, his labors have 
 been incessant and indefatigable ; and his wisdom, piety, self- 
 denying industry, enlarged and catholic spirit, and uniformly 
 kind and courteous bearing, have left impressions of respect 
 and love on the hearts of his colleagues, deep, enduring, and in- 
 effaceable. His exemplary piety, purity of life, benevolence, 
 charity, and usefulness, had invested him with a wide-spread 
 and constantly growing infiuence and weight of character 
 which it is the lot of very few ever to attain. His praise is in 
 all the churches ; and perhaps no other man at the present 
 time could have been taken from us more universally and 
 deeply lamented." 
 
 Minute of the Executive Committee of the Board of Domestic 
 
 Missions of the Keformed Protestant Dutch Church, 
 
 March, 1858. 
 
 " It having pleased God in his all-wise providence to remove 
 by death the venerable Vice-President of the Board of Do- 
 mestic Missions, John Knox, D.D., this Committee would 
 record their high estimation of the personal worth of their 
 deceased brother — of his eminently conservative character — of 
 his long ministerial usefulness — of his exemplary devotion to 
 
93 
 
 the duties of his office, as well as faithfully meeting the re- 
 sponsibilities of his relations to various literary and benevo- 
 lent institutions ; and they unite with the whole Church in sym- 
 pathy with his bereaved family circle, his colleagues in the 
 pastoral office and the particular church of which he was the 
 senior pastor, and pray that this bereavement may be sanctified 
 to all." 
 
 Eesolulions of the General Synod's Sabbath-School Board. 
 
 At a special meeting of this Board, held the 11th inst., the 
 death of the Eev. John Knox, D.D., having been announced 
 by the Yice-President, James Anderson, M.D., it was unani- 
 inously 
 
 Resolved^ Tliat the Yice-President and the Eev. Thomas C. 
 Strong be a Committee to prepare an appropriate minute, ex- 
 pressive of the sense of this Board of this afflictive visitation, 
 and of the high regard entertained for his eminent character 
 and services. 
 
 Resolved^ That this Board will attend the funeral of Dr. 
 Knox, to-morrow, from his late residence. 
 
 At an adjourned meeting, held on the 18th inst., the Com- 
 mittee appointed to prepare a suitable minute in regard to the 
 sudden and afflictive decease of our late honored and devoted 
 President, Kev. John Knox, D.D., reported the following : 
 
 Whereas^ it has pleased God in his inscrutable sovereignty 
 to remove from the scenes and duties of this present life, the 
 Eev. John Knox, D.D., for many years the revered President 
 of this Board, giving encouragement by his presence, and wis- 
 dom by his counsels ; therefore, 
 
 llesolved^ That this Board will bow with resignation to this 
 dark dispensation of our Heavenly Father, and while we 
 mourn our loss, we would pray that this visitation may be 
 sanctified to the arousing of Christian effort, and the more 
 vigorous prosecution of that work which is intrusted to us, and 
 which lay so near the heart of our late esteemed President. 
 
94 
 
 Resolved^ That this Board will ever love to cherish with 
 grateful and pleasant remembrance, those Christian virtues 
 which graced the character of our father and brother as a man, 
 and gave impressive power and unwonted influence to all his 
 labors as a faithful and conscientions minister of the Gospel, 
 his candor and integrity in all business relations, his urbanity 
 and gentleness in private life, his singularly guileless dis- 
 position which ever influenced his every word and act, his 
 consistent, ardent, and impressive piety, his fidelity to the in- 
 terests of every institution with which he was connected, his 
 earnest and faithful ministration through a period of forty-two 
 years, his warm-hearted sympathy and efi'ective liberality for 
 the poor, the widow, and the orphan, and to crown all, 
 his constant aim to promote the glory of God, both by word 
 and deed. 
 
 Resolved^ That in his decease, this Board has lost a tried 
 friend, an unwearied supporter, a wise counsellor, and an 
 efficient ofiicer, whose prayers and eflTorts were always com- 
 bined to promote the growth, and develop the energies and 
 usefulness of this institution. 
 
 Resolved^ That as a tribute of respect and afi'ection, at the 
 next Anniversary of the Sabbath-schools connected with the 
 Board, all the banners be draped with crape. 
 
 Resolved^ That a copy of these Resolutions be transmitted 
 to the family of Rev. Dr. Knox, and also published in the 
 Christian Intelligencer and Soioer. 
 
 Bauman Lowe, Sec. pro tern. 
 
 Record of the Proceedings of the Board of Education of the 
 Reformed Dutch Church. 
 
 Immediately after the opening of the meeting of this Board 
 on Monday last, the decease of the Rev. John Knox, D.D., 
 who was the President, and a member of the Executive Com- 
 mittee, of the Board, was announced by Rev. B. C. Taylor, 
 
95 
 
 D.D., accompanied by some appropriate and affecting re- 
 marks, when it was 
 
 Resolved^ That a Committee be appointed, consisting of 
 Eev. Drs. Hutton (Yice-President) and Taylor, to draft a min- 
 ute expressive of the sense of this Board in regard to this 
 afflictive event, to report at the next meeting. 
 
 Whereupon the Board at once adjourned, to meet at the 
 late residence of its esteemed President, to attend his funeral, 
 on Tuesday, at half-past two o'clock P.M. 
 
 The Committee appointed to prepare a minute expressive of 
 the sense of the Board in reference to the death of Pev. 
 John Knox, D.D., presented the following report, which was 
 accepted, and ordered on record : 
 
 Besolced^ That while the Board of Education recognize the 
 good hand of our God in this dispensation of his ever- wise 
 and kind providence, and therefore bow in submission, yet that 
 they receive with the deepest sorrow and regret the announce- 
 ment of the death of their highly esteemed associate, friend, 
 and President, the Rev. John Knox, D.D. 
 
 Resolved^ That in the death of Dr. Knox, the Board deplore 
 the loss of a truly good and inestimable man, and minister of 
 the Gospel of Christ ; a devoted and sincere friend, and an 
 able and wise counsellor ; w^hose enlightened and undoubted 
 piety, generous and kind heart, and high moral excellence, 
 can hardly be over-estimated. 
 
 The Board would gratefully record their testimony, that for 
 self-sacrificing and never-tiring devotion to his official duties, 
 for wisdom in counsel, for kindly disposition, unaffected piety, 
 and real worth, they feel that he has not only left behind no 
 superior, but that there is no one who can completely fill the 
 void which his death has made, both in the Church and in the 
 city, and that it may be truly said of him, as of one of old, 
 that having served his generation^ he fell asleep. 
 
 Resolved^ That a copy of this minute be sent to his be- 
 
reaved family, aiid that it also be published in The Christian 
 Intelligencer and The Sower and Missionary Recorder. 
 
 M. S. HuTTON I Committee. 
 
 Benjamin C. Iaylok, j 
 
 Tribute of Affection to the Memory of the late Dr. Knox, by 
 
 the Young Men's Association of the Middle 
 
 Dutch Church. 
 
 At a special meeting of the Young Men's Association of 
 the Middle (Collegiate) Dutch Church, held on Monday even- 
 ing, the 11th inst., the following minute was adopted : 
 
 Our senior and much-beloved pastor, the Rev. John Knox, 
 D.D., having been suddenly removed from us by death, this 
 Association, in which he took such a warm and earnest inter- 
 est, records with deep sensibility the sad event. 
 
 The eminently useful and blameless life which character- 
 ized the deceased — the love and devotion he manifested in. the 
 discharge of his pastoral duties — the attachment he showed to 
 the young of his flock, and his untiring efforts to impress 
 upon their minds the truths of the religion to which his life 
 was devoted, will be affectionately and gratefully remembered 
 by us. 
 
 In testifying this tribute of gratitude for his faithful life, 
 and of affectionate veneration for his memory, we are im- 
 pressed by the words of our Saviour, which were so often 
 borne home to our hearts by the voice of our beloved pastor, 
 while living, and which now appeal to us so solemnly in his 
 death ; " Be ye also ready ; for at an hour when ye think not, 
 the Son of Man cometh." 
 
 Resolved.) That the foregoing minute be published in The 
 Christian Intelligencer. 
 
 H. M. Brush, Sec'y. A. A. RAYEIsr, Pres't 
 
97 
 
 Tribute of the Young Men's Association of the Beformed 
 Dutch Church, cor. of Fifth Avenue and Twenty-ninth St. 
 
 At a meeting of the Young Men's Association of the Ee- 
 formed Dutch Church, corner of Fifth Avenue and Twenty- 
 ninth street, held on Wednesday evening, the 13th inst., the 
 following preamble and resolution were offered by Mr. Abm. 
 Bogardus : 
 
 Whereas^ It has pleased God to remove from us our beloved 
 pastor, the Eev. John Knox, therefore 
 
 Resolved^ That a committee be appointed to prepare resolu- 
 tions expressive of the sense of this Association in regard to 
 the solemn dispensation of Providence, and of the affection- 
 ate respect they entertain for the memory of one so long 
 spared as a preacher of righteousness, and the counsellor and 
 instructor of youth. 
 
 Messrs. Abm. Bogardus, Mortimer De Motte, and T. Edward 
 Yermilye were appointed a committee, and presented the fol- 
 lowing resolutions : 
 
 Resolved^ That this Association, in common with the Church 
 at large and the whole community, mourn the loss of our be- 
 loved friend and senior pastor, the Eev. Dr. Knox, an honor- 
 ary member of this Association. 
 
 His most upright and consistent character as a man and a 
 Christian, his eminent devotion and godly sincerity as a min- 
 ister, and his life of varied and active usefulness, have filled 
 us with affectionate veneration. 
 
 We have felt towards him as tow^ards a father. We deplore 
 liis departure as that of a pastor and friend, in whose sincerity 
 of purpose, kindness of feeling, and wisdom in council, we 
 could always confide. 
 
 May we have grace to profit by his salutary instructions 
 and his pure example. 
 
 Resolved^ That we present to the family of our departed 
 7 
 
98 
 
 pastor and friend, the expression of our sincere sympathy in 
 their bereavement, and our prayers that the God of their 
 father may be their God also. 
 
 Resolved^ That these resolutions be placed on the minutes 
 of the Association, and that a certified copy be transmitted to 
 the family, and that a copy be sent to The Christian Intelli- 
 gencer for publication. 
 
 Edward C. Delay an, PresH. 
 
 EicHAED Amerman, Sec'y, 
 JSTew-York, Jan. 19, 1858. 
 
 Besolutions of the Leake and Watts' Orphan House. 
 
 At a special meeting of the Leake and Watts' Orphan 
 House in the city of New- York, held at the Mayor's Office, 
 on the 13th of January, 1858, it was unanimously 
 
 Resolved^ That the Trustees have received with unfeigned 
 sorrow the announcement of the death of their President, 
 Rev. John Knox, D.D. ; 
 
 That this Institution, by such decease, has lost a member of 
 remarkable efficiency, the labors of whose diligent hands, the 
 sympathies of whose warm heart, the sound operations ol 
 whose well-balanced mind, were ever devoted to the best in- 
 terests of the orphan ; 
 
 That the refined deportment, the dignified manners, the 
 high-toned urbanity of the gentleman, and the fervent piety of 
 the Christian, which on all occasions were so eminently con- 
 spicuous in his intercourse with others in our numerous bene- 
 ficent and literary institutions, and with the community at 
 large, have won for his memory a deep and abiding home in 
 our hearts ; 
 
 That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to the family 
 of our deceased associate, with the tender of our sincere con- 
 dolence on this afflicting bereavement. 
 
 F. De Peyster, Clerh. 
 
99 
 
 Record of the Trustees of Columbia College. 
 
 At a meeting of the Trustees of Columbia College, held on 
 Monday, the 1st of February, 1858, the following recital and 
 resolutions were offered by the Rev. Dr. Berrian, duly second- 
 ed, and passed : 
 
 Since the last stated meeting of this body, an event has oc- 
 curred, in the wise and mysterious providence of God, which 
 has wrung the hearts of many with anguish, and filled the 
 community at large with sorrow. 
 
 The late venerable Chairman of this Board, the Eev. Dr. 
 Knox, whom to know was to love, and the more he was 
 known to love him the better, has been suddenly taken from 
 us, in the fullness of health, and the ripeness of his faculties, 
 unbroken by age, with " eye not dim, nor natural force 
 abated," and left us to wonder and regret that so useful a life, 
 though far advanced, had not been still farther prolonged. 
 
 But to this we must all bow in humble submission. It is 
 our duty to perpetuate the remembrance of him, not only as 
 personal friends, but more especially on account of the rela- 
 tions we publicly bore to him. 
 
 Be it therefore 
 
 Resolved^ That in view of his punctual attendance as a 
 Trustee at the meetings of this Board ; the interest which he 
 took in all its proceedings ; the practical wisdom and sound 
 good sense with which he came to his own conclusions ; and 
 the prudence, discretion, and kind feeling which he invariably 
 manifested in his conferences with the Committees of this 
 body, and with its several members individually, he has been 
 eminently useful to this Institution, and is entitled to the 
 grateful remembrance of all who are connected with it. 
 
 Resolved^ That by his careful attention to the matters which 
 were brought before him as the Chairman of this Board ; by 
 his fairness, impartiality, and coolness, even amidst differences 
 
100 
 
 of opinion, and in the lieat of debate ; and bv his uniform 
 courtesy, amenity, and kindness, he heightened the respect 
 and regard in this new position, which had been entertained 
 for him as a Trustee, and presented an example which was 
 worthy of future imitation. 
 
 Besolved^ That the Board of Trustees feel the deepest sym- 
 pathy with the family of Dr. Knox ; and that a copy of these 
 resolutions be sent to it, as an expression of their high estima- 
 tion of his public labors and his personal worth. 
 
 Extract from the Minutes. 
 
 "William Beits, Clerk, 
 
 Besolutions of the Trustees of the College of Physicians and 
 
 Surgeons. 
 
 At a special meeting of the Trustees of the College of Phy- 
 sicians and Surgeons in the City of N^ew-York, held on Mon- 
 day evening, Jan. 11, 1858, the following resolutions were 
 unanimously adopted : 
 
 Resolved^ That the Trustees have heard with deep sorrow of 
 the decease of their late associate, Rev. John Ivnox, D.D. 
 
 Besolved^ That this College, in common with other institu- 
 tions of learning and benevolence of our city, has sustained a 
 severe loss by the removal of one whose sound judgment and 
 mature experience always gave weight to his counsels. 
 
 Resolved^ That the unaffected piety and amiable manners 
 which were so uniformly displayed in the character of the 
 deceased, will always endear his memory to our recollection. 
 
 Resolved^ That the Registrar communicate these resolutions 
 to the bereaved family, with the assurance of our heartfelt 
 sympathy in their affliction. 
 
 GuRDON Buck, M.D., Registrar. 
 
EXTKACTS FROM PAPERS 
 
 From TJie Independent 
 THE LESSON OP SUDDEN DEATH. 
 
 Seldom have the religions commnnity of !N^ew-York been so 
 profoundly affected by any local event as by the sudden death 
 of Rev. John Knox, D.D., the senior pastor of the Collegiate 
 Eeformed Dutch Church in this city. The long and faithful 
 ministry of Dr. Knox had endeared him to a wide circle of 
 Christians in all denominations ; his co-pastorate over the se- 
 veral Collegiate churches, and his position at the head of the 
 Executive Committee of the American Tract Society, and in 
 various benevolent institutions, had made his name, his per- 
 son, and his services familiar to the whole Christian com- 
 munity ; his benignant countenance and courteous mien had 
 won for him the affectionate regard of neighbors, of the young, 
 and even of strangers ; while his readiness for ever}^ work that 
 commended itself to his judgment as wise and good in its re- 
 lations to the kingdom of Christ, his steadfast faith and zeal 
 with regard to that kingdom, his abundant labors, and his 
 catholic spirit, made him a conspicuous example to the minis- 
 ters of the Gospel in their high and holy calling. The man- 
 ner of his death, by fixing the attention of the whole com- 
 munity upon the event, has greatly aggravated the sense of 
 public loss. 
 
 Dr. Knox was ordained and installed pastor over the Col- 
 legiate Church, in the Middle Church on E'assau street, (now 
 the Post-Office,) in July, 1816. He was then about 25 years 
 of age, and he has continued in the ministry over the same 
 church, though officiating in different edifices, until his death 
 at the age of 67. With the exception of Drs. Spring and 
 Berrian, Dr. Knox had been in the pastoral office in this city 
 
102 
 
 for a longer period than any other minister ; and in his case, 
 as in those of the venerable pastor of the Brick Church and 
 the senior rector of Trinity parish, the first settlement proved 
 to be a settlement for life. 
 
 At the time of Dr. Knox's settlement, the Collegiate Church 
 held the houses of worship known as the Middle (now the 
 Post-Otfice) and the North., on the corner of Fulton and Wil- 
 liam streets — one of the few church edifices now remaining 
 far down town. The old church in Garden street, which for 
 many years represented the original corporate Eeformed Dutch 
 Church in New-York, in 1813 was organized into a distinct 
 church and congregation, leaving the Middle and North 
 churches under the original incorporation with one Consistory. 
 Among the predecessors of Dr. Knox in the pastorate over 
 these churches were Rev. John H. Livingston, D.D., John N. 
 Abeel, D.D., Jacob Brodhead, D.D., and Philip Milledoler, 
 D.D. With the latter Dr. Knox was associated as colleague 
 for nine years. Dr. Knox was a pupil in theology of the late 
 Dr. John M. Mason, who at that time superintended the Asso- 
 ciate Eeformed Theological Seminary in this city. Thus he 
 was a link between the ministry of the present generation and 
 the honored and revered names of the past. Both as a preacher 
 and a pastor Dr. Knox fulfilled his ofiice with great acceptance 
 to the large congregations of the Collegiate churches. Sound 
 in theology, lucid in the exposition of divine truth, affectionate 
 in manner, and devout and earnest in spirit, he was welcome 
 alike in the pulpit and in the houses of his hearers. When 
 the old Middle Church was vacated in 1814, he took the more 
 immediate charge of the congregation in Lafayette Place, 
 where the Consistory had erected a new house of worship in 
 1839. The name Middle Church was transferred to this ; it 
 stands about midway between the North in Fulton street and 
 the new house on Twenty-ninth street and the Fiftli avenue ; 
 and the three now comprise the Collegiate Church. Dr. Knox 
 was by ten years the senior in office of Drs. W. C. Brownlee 
 and Thomas De Witt, who became his colleagues in 1826-7. 
 Dr. Thomas E. Yermilye was added to the corps of Collegiate 
 pastors in 1839, and Dr. T. W. Chambers in 1819. His posi- 
 tion of seniority, however, never restrained in the least his 
 natural freedom of intercourse with his juniors in the ministry, 
 
103 
 
 whether in his own or in other denominations. His modes of 
 thought and action, indeed, were rather of the " Old School ;" 
 and he may have looked with suspicion upon the zeal of 
 younger men for reforms demanded by the present times. 
 Hence as chairman of the Executive Committee of the Tract 
 Society, he, for a time, withstood the movement among the 
 members of the Society for a change in the policy of its ad- 
 ministration upon the subject of slavery. Accustomed to 
 move in the interior circle of the Society's affairs, he did not 
 fully realize the external position of the Society as it appeared 
 to many in the new questions which have arisen in connection 
 with our great national sin. Yet in the exciting discussions 
 connected with that question, we believe him to have been as 
 sincere in his own convictions of right and duty as he was 
 courteous and affable toward those who as honestly opposed 
 his policy. It is a pleasing reflection that these discussions, 
 so far as we are aware, never led to a personal alienation be- 
 tween Dr. Knox and those of his Christian brethren who most 
 decidedly opposed the course of the Tract Administration on 
 the slavery question. 
 
 On Tuesday morning of last week we met Dr. Knox in front 
 of his own dwelling, and received his usual courteous saluta- 
 tion. He was then in full health ; indeed, age did not seem 
 to have at all impaired the freshness of his countenance or the 
 vigor of his frame. That same evening we learned that he was 
 lying at the point of death. In the act of opening the blinds 
 of the piazza in the rear of his parlor he lost his balance, and 
 falling upon the stone pavement, a distance of several feet 
 below, fractured his skull, and sustained other injuries which 
 from the first made his case hopeless. He lingered in a state 
 of unconsciousness until Friday evening, when he expired at 
 8 o'clock. His funeral was attended on Tuesday, the 12th iust., 
 at the church on Lafayette place, by a great concourse of citi- 
 zens, including the ministers of all denominations, who assem- 
 bled in large numbers to testify their respect and grief 
 
 How impressive is the lesson of this event as to the import- 
 ance of being momently prepared for death ! AVe know 
 that Death is ever nigh ; that he may come suddenly ; that 
 nothing is more uncertain than the time and the manner of his 
 
104 
 
 coming. But do we not cherish a secret expectation that we 
 shall have time to make special preparation for death ? that a 
 prolonged sickness or other timely warning will enable us to 
 set our house in order ? Do w^e realize that Death may come 
 to any one of us without warning of any kind, and that at any 
 instant we may pass directly from the visible into the invisi- 
 ble? How momentous the thought that without one moment's 
 opportunity to review our lives under the near shadow of 
 eternity we may be called to stand before God ! Be ye also 
 ready ^ for in such an hour as ye ihinh not the Son of Man 
 comeih. 
 
 How valuable is the testimony of a good life — a life so clear, 
 so decided, so uniform in its devotedness to God that it needs 
 no confirmation of dying words to give surviving friends the 
 fullest assurance of one's good estate. Few within the circle 
 of our acquaintance could so well dispense with the record of 
 a dying testimony as could that venerable servant of Christ to 
 whom death came without premonition — who passed, as it 
 were, by a single step, from the porch of his earthly home to 
 the mansion prepared for him in our Father's house. His long 
 life of usefulness, his serene and cheerful piety, bear witness 
 that while his mind was clouded toward earth it was luminous 
 toward heaven. Let it be our endeavor so to live that no 
 question of our blessed immortality shall arise at death, though 
 we should then be able neither by word, nor look, nor sign, to 
 testify to others the peace and joy of the inner man. Espe- 
 cially does the suddenness of death in the case now before us, 
 closing a life of unquestioned piety, call upon ministers to 
 make Him whom they preach first and central in their own 
 daily thought and life. 
 
 Amid all the solemnity and mystery in which the close of 
 this good man's life is shrouded, how striking the suggestion 
 of the immortality of that life, which comes to us in the very 
 suddenness of its earthly end ! Was the soul wounded in that 
 fall ? Did he who had thought and loved and prayed and la- 
 bored for the good of man and the glory of Christ, cease to he 
 when the smitten brain ceased to manifest a consciousness of 
 outward things ? No man believes this ; no man can believe 
 this, or doubt that powers unwasted by disease, resumed their 
 activity in another sphere. Could surgical skill have removed 
 
105 
 
 the pressure from the brain, the mind that seemed unconscious 
 might have awoke as from a sleep. What then must be that 
 awaking, when the soul itself, freed from all material pressure 
 and ^constraint, not dismantled but disenthralled, enters the 
 glory of the Infinite and Eternal ? May God fit us for that 
 transition, through Him who died and rose again ! 
 
 From the Sower, 
 THE LATE DK. KNOX. 
 
 We need not ask the readers of the The Sower^ in the words 
 of David, respecting Abner, Know ye not that there is a prince 
 and a great man fallen in Israel ? The unwelcome tidings 
 has spread from mouth to mouth, has been seized by the daily 
 press, has sped on the wings of the telegraph, until long be- 
 fore this sheet falls into the hands of the reader, all true friends 
 of our Church will have felt the great loss wdiich our branch 
 of Zion has been called to mourn. 
 
 Dr. Knox, next to Dr. Spring, was the oldest settled pastor 
 in this city. It is believed that the settlement of Dr. Berrian, 
 of Trinity Church, and of Dr. Knox, was nearly at the same 
 time. lie was born June 17, 1790, near Gettysburgh, in 
 Adams county, Pennsylvania, of pious parents, of the highest 
 respectability. He pursued his literary course, and was gra- 
 duated at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1811. 
 He then entered the Theological Seminary of the Associate 
 Reformed Church, under the superintendence of the Rev. Dr. 
 John M. Mason, and was licensed for the Gospel ministry in 
 1815 ; shortly after which he was married to Euphemia, the 
 eldest daughter of his instructor in theology. In 1816 he was 
 called, in connection with the Rev. Paschal N. Strong, to the 
 pastoral charge of the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church in 
 this city. Before ten years had elapsed, the gifted Strong was 
 summoned to the sanctuary above, leaving behind him a tra- 
 ditional reputation (for he seems to have published little or 
 nothing) of the most exalted character. His fellow-laborer 
 was spared for more than four times that period ; during all 
 which time he ministered, with a fidelity and zeal quite un- 
 
106 
 
 surpassed, in all the functions of his holy office. Once, about 
 the year 1827, he spent the winter months in St. Croix, and in 
 1849 he made a short tour in Great Britain and the adjacent 
 parts of the Continent. With these exceptions, both of which 
 were rendered necessary by the state of his health at the time, 
 he was always found at his post, doing the Master's will to the 
 best of his ability. To the last he filled his own place in the 
 pulpit, and never was seen there without careful and adequate 
 preparation. Indeed, of late years the increased animation in 
 both the matter and manner of his pulpit eiforts, was a theme 
 of common remark among his hearers. 
 
 But it was in the other spheres of a Gospel minister's work 
 that his excellencies were most obvious and striking. As a 
 counsellor in church courts, both higher and lower; as 
 a consoler of the sick, the bereaved, and the tempted ; as a 
 guide to hiquiring souls, as an interpreter of dark passages in 
 Christian experience, his skill, tenderness, assiduity, and pa- 
 tience were unequalled. His appearance, his manner, the 
 very tones of his voice, seemed to fall soothingly and per- 
 suasively upon all who came within their reach. His own 
 people, and multitudes of others, who spontaneously sought his 
 wise counsel, feel by their present privation the greatness of the 
 blessing which he was to them ; while among his younger 
 ministerial brethren, Dr. Knox was familiarly known as " the 
 Model Pastor." Yet although he was thus faithful and 
 laborious in his duties as the senior pastor of the largest body 
 of communicants in this city, this was very far from being the 
 only field of his Christian activity. 
 
 Successive calls w^ere made upon him from outside institu- 
 tions, until he came to be, as he was at the time of his death. 
 
 Chairman of the American Tract Society's Committee on 
 Publication. 
 
 President of the Board of Trustees of Columbia College. 
 
 President of the Trustees of Leake and Watts' Orphan 
 Asylum. 
 
 Director of the Board of Corporation of the Keformed Pro- 
 testant Dutch Church. 
 
 Trustee of Kutgers College, ISTew-Jersey. 
 
 Trustee of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. 
 
107 
 
 President of the Board of Education of the Eeformed Dutch 
 Church. 
 
 President of the Sabbath-School Union of the Eeformed 
 Dutch Church. 
 
 Most of these official positions were such as demanded mucli 
 time, pains, and thought ; yet he never came short. Always 
 prompt, punctual, courteous, and faithful, he was a most 
 efficient co-laborer in every one of these important relations. 
 Yet none of them was allowed to trench upon the time due to 
 study, or to the wants of his immense parochial charge. It is 
 to be remembered too, that all this service was gratuitous. 
 Not a farthing, directly or indirectly, reached his hand because 
 of these posts. His labors in them were labors of love. No 
 wonder that the death of such a man is felt to be a great pub- 
 lic loss. 
 
 During his ministerial life, Dr. Knox was contemporary with 
 eight colleagues, namely : Drs. Kuypers, Schureman, Mille- 
 doler, Strong, Brownlee, De Witt, Yermilye, Chambers, four 
 of whom preceded him to the heavenly rest. With all of 
 them he lived in uninterrupted harmony from first to last ; and 
 by none of all his kindred and friends is his loss more deeply 
 regretted, or his memory more tenderly cherished, than by his 
 survivors in the ministry of the Collegiate Church. 
 
 From the Neic-Yorh Courier and Enquirer. 
 
 THE REV. JOHN KNOX. 
 
 One week since there was seated in one of the Eeformed 
 Dutch Churches in this city, a gentleman, himself an old 
 citizen, who nearly half a century since had heard the first 
 sermon preached in this city by the Eev. John Knox, then a 
 young minister, coming from Pennsylvania to begin a long 
 career of " gentleness, goodness, and faith" — to walk the ways 
 of this great city in all rectitude and right. It was the lot of 
 this gentleman to hear Dr. Knox's last sermon, as he had liis 
 first. The life of the good man was suddenly closed, and the 
 church of which he was the senior pastor is to-day in mourning 
 for the event which came like the mysterious cloud of old — 
 brio^htness to him and shadow to them. 
 
108 
 
 The death of Dr. Knox breaks that chain of three, whose 
 living link was so bright — so wound around the life-long as- 
 sociations of the Episcopal, the Presbyterian, and the Dutch 
 churches of this city. 
 
 To Dr. Knox, and Dr. Berrian, and Dr. Spring it had been 
 given to dwell among one people, minister to the heart of 
 generation after generation who came to one place to worship ; 
 or, if the place changed, it was only because the outer world 
 grew too loud for the calmer utterances of the pure faith they 
 disclosed, and the scene was changed, but the Church and the 
 truth remained. 
 
 The men who came to worship in the old Middle Dutch, in 
 Trinity, and in the Old Brick, when as young men these three 
 clergymen took upon them their intensely important duties, 
 are in the vaults of the churches or the graves of the cemeteries. 
 The children that wondered at the novelty of their induc- 
 tion, have — those who survive — left behind the best of their 
 years, and the greater part have gathered to the dead. 
 
 All that can change a young and springing city, like our 
 own, has been before the eyes of these three venerable men. 
 They have learned all that life can teach them as a commentary 
 on the book of truth before them, and now their bond of com- 
 panionship is broken. The pastor of the oldest church, goes 
 first of the three. 
 
 Dr. Knox was a steadfast, gentle, moderate man, very 
 earnest in his work ; of a solemnity of manner that made his 
 words by their very sound like the messages of another world ; 
 a pastor who mingled for so many years with his people at 
 their homes as well as in the public worship ; who was 
 cognizant and companion of their happiness and their sorrows, 
 and who in all these years, while he was compelled often to be 
 in the knot of the intricacies of the web of family affairs, 
 knew how to walk the narrow golden line of the Christian 
 friend that never forgot to be wise while he was sympathizing. 
 
 The Fathers of the Church were his familiar friends. He 
 knew Livingston and Linn, and learned from their exalted 
 school the dignity and prudence which made his fraternity 
 with those by whose side he stood on the very last Sabbath of 
 his life, one of uninterrupted brotherhood. De Witt, Yer- 
 milye, Chambers felt in their inmost heart that they possessed 
 
109 
 
 in their senior a counsellor who had learned of the pious dead 
 the lesson of love to the living. 
 
 There are memories connected with Dr. Knox's care and 
 solicitude for these many years over the orphans of John G. 
 Leake's blessed endowment, that need no human annals. 
 Theirs is the language that is graven so that the inscription 
 shall remain on the " new earth." 
 
 THE REV. JOHN KNOX, D.D. 
 
 To the Editors of the New - York Exipress : 
 
 The death of Dr. Knox, who for more than forty years has 
 exercised the ministry of the Gospel in the Collegiate Re- 
 formed Dutch Church of this city, and who, by his consistent 
 and exemplary Christian character and course, and by the 
 wise, diligent, and successful discharge of the many trusts 
 committed to him in the Church and in the community, had 
 gained universal respect and affection, has made a deep im- 
 pression among our citizens. This impression has been deep- 
 ened by the suddenness and other circumstances of his deatli. 
 Though he had attained the age of sixty-eight years, he was 
 in the enjoyment of good health — for three or four years past 
 was more vigorous than at previous periods. 
 
 Last Tuesday, he devoted the day to pastoral visits. Ee- 
 turning home about four o'clock, he passed into the piazza 
 back of the house, inclosed by blinds. It is supposed that, 
 the blinds being opened, he by some misstep lost his balance, 
 and was thrown over headlong on the pavement of the yard, 
 falling with great force on the part of his head adjacent to his 
 temple. He was taken up motionless and unconscious, and 
 remained so until his death, which occurred about eight o'clock 
 last Friday evening. 
 
 Dr. Knox was one of the oldest settled pastors in this city. 
 In 1816, he was called as one of the pastors of the Collegiate 
 Reformed Dutch Church, and was installed in the month of 
 July of that year. From that time till the day of the casualty 
 which terminated his life, he prosecuted his ministry with 
 unremitted industry and success. Few clergymen have been 
 
110 
 
 as constant in the discharge of the duties of the pulpit, whe- 
 ther upon tlie Sabbath or in the week-day service. 
 
 The fulfillment of the work to which he was devoted, was 
 the passion of his life. He never spared himself. Not only 
 did he preach constantly, but in pastoral labors he was an ex- 
 ample of assiduous, pains-taking perseverance ; so that his 
 influence upon the people of his charge, and upon the com- 
 munity, always salutary in an eminent degree, was never so 
 great as upon the day when his life and labors were closed. 
 His preaching was instructive, evangelical, and practical. He 
 possessed a sound, practical judgment, which made him a 
 wise and valuable counsellor and successful peacemaker. His 
 devotedly pious and sympathetic spirit rendered him a pecu- 
 liarly acceptable visitor in the sick-room, in the house ot 
 mourning, and in seasons of affliction. By the series of col- 
 leagues with whom he was associated during his long minis- 
 try, he was ever held in strong esteem and affection, and not 
 ajar of feeling occurred in their relations to each other. His 
 manners were dignified and courteous, blended with kindness. 
 His sincerity and uprightness of spirit and conduct were 
 known and read of all men. Besides the heavy duties de- 
 volving upon him in his ministerial and pastoral capacity, he 
 discharged important trusts committed to him by the General 
 Synod, with the view of promoting the interests of the de- 
 nomination at large, with efficiency ; and his service in this 
 respect will long be remembered by them. He dwelt in 
 friendly intercourse with ministers and Christians of other de- 
 nominations, and cordially cooperated with every effort to 
 advance the kingdom of Christ and the welfare of man. 
 
 At the formation of the American Tract Society in 1825, 
 he was chosen a member of its Publishing Committee, and 
 has remained such during its whole course ; and since the 
 death of Dr. Milnor, he has been its Chairman. He has ren- 
 dered important services as a member of the Board of Trus- 
 tees of the Leake and Watts' Orphan Asylum. 
 
 At the time of his death, he was Chairman of the Board of 
 Trustees of Columbia College ; and, in addition to being a 
 prominent member of the various Boards of his own Church, 
 was connected with nearly all the religious and benevolent 
 associations of the day. 
 
Ill 
 
 To the last day of liis life, the Eev. Dr. Knox was system- 
 atically devoted to useful and varied employments. He thus 
 gained the profound respect of the community at large, the 
 expression of which has been drawn forth impressively during 
 his brief illness, and at his death. Shortly after his settlement 
 in the Collegiate Church, he married the eldest daughter of 
 the Eev. John Mason, D.D., a lady of great excellence, who 
 was truly in every respect a helpmeet. She died two or three 
 years ago. The large fiimily whom they reared have the pre- 
 cious legacy of their prayers, instructions, and example. 
 
 CHAUCER'S PASTOB. 
 
 Wide was his cure ; the houses far asunder, 
 Yet never failed he for rain or thunder, 
 Whenever sickness or mischance might call, 
 The most remote to visit, great or small ; 
 And staff in hand, on foot the storm to brave, 
 This noble ensample to his flock he gave. 
 Though holy in himself and virtuous, 
 He still to sinful men was mild and piteous ; 
 Not of reproach, imperious or malign, 
 But in his teachings soothing and benign. 
 To draw them on to heaven, by reason fair 
 And good example, was his daily care. 
 
 Our many readers who knew the late Dr. Knox will be 
 gratified in tracing the exact likeness of the foregoing pen- 
 picture, made centuries ago, to this exemplary man of God. 
 The portrait will bear studying for its close resemblance. 
 Every line has its counterpart in reality, nor need any abate- 
 ment be made on the score of the difierence between ancient 
 times and modern. The " wide cure," " houses far apart,'' 
 " never failed,'' " staff in hand," " on foot," " holy in himself," 
 " to sinful men mild," " teachings soothing," " draw to heaven," 
 " good example," " daily care" — had the father of English 
 poetry been describing Dr. Knox, he could not have better 
 set forth him who will long be known as a Model Pastor. — 
 Christian Intelligencer. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 I 
 
APPEN^DIX 
 
 Note A. 
 
 The tender aifection, with which Dr. Knox cherished in his 
 heart of hearts the memory of his departed fathers, was most 
 beautifully and impressively shown upon the occasion of the bap- 
 tism of his grandson, who bears the family name, Samuel. Those 
 who were present (and they were many) on the occasion, wdll not 
 forget the tremulous tones of the venerable officiator, as he spoke 
 of the name which he was about to name upon his infant grand- 
 child in the holy sacrament of baptism. His memory was all alive 
 with the most fond reminiscences of the past, and he could scarce- 
 ly give them utterance. " This child," said he, " belongs to the 
 fifth generation of my family, with whom I have been associated 
 in the fondest affections of my heart, who have borne the name 
 about to be named upon him. Of these, the individuals of three 
 generations lived and died in the faith of the Gospel, and I do not 
 doubt are now in that presence where there is fullness of joy and 
 pleasures for evermore. The first — how well I remember that 
 holy man, my beloved grandfather ! How often have I lain in his 
 bosom, how often have I been the subject of his prayers, and how 
 I loved him ! The second, my father, a man of God — of intelli- 
 gent, earnest, devoted piety — to his care, to his counsels, to his 
 instructions, how deeply am I indebted! He sleeps — having 
 served his generation, and served it well, by the will of God he 
 fell asleep in Jesus. To these holy men, to their assiduous and 
 self-denying labors and prayers in my behalf, under God, I owe 
 all that a kind Providence has given me, of position in life, and 
 opportunities of usefulness — yes, and my hope of heaven ! Their 
 memory is precious and blessed, and can not die within me wliile 
 my heart shall beat. Nor can his, my faithful, loving brother, 
 whose sun went down in its meridian. He, too, dwells in the 
 home of the saved, where the inhabitants shall never say : ' I am 
 
116 
 
 sick.' Oh ! may all the succeeding generations be followers o^ 
 them, in as far as they followed Christ. This, this is my heart's 
 desire and prayer to God, that at last we all may be gathered to- 
 gether there, where there is no going out forever. God grant it, 
 for his name's sake." The effect produced by this address, (of 
 which the above is the faintest outline,) as uttered by Dr. Knox, 
 was most salutary and impressive. All felt that religion was a 
 powerful reality, and that the venerable speaker was a beautiful 
 illustration of the influence of divine grace in elevating and refin- 
 ing the most noble and generous of human qualities. 
 
 Note B. 
 
 At the end of the year after his licensure by the Presbytery, 
 Mr. Knox received calls from the following churches in the Asso- 
 ciate Reformed communion, namely : the church near Milton, in 
 Pennsylvania ; the church in Spruce street, Philadelphia ; and the 
 church in Newburgh, New- York. Besides these, the Presbytery 
 put into his hands calls from the Middle Dutch Church in Albany, 
 New- York, and the Collegiate Church in New-York City. 
 
 Note C. 
 
 In his sermon occasioned by the death of Mrs. Knox, the Rev. 
 Dr. McElroy, who had known her long and well, says : " Seldom 
 is so much intellect, education, grace, and loveliness combined in 
 a single character ; and more seldom still have we an opportunity 
 of contemplating a character so eminently consistent and harmo- 
 nious in all its parts. It was simple, dignified, transparent." 
 
 In the commencement of Dr. Knox's will, bearing date in June, 
 1857, the following sentences are found: "With all affectionate 
 earnestness, I commend my beloved children to the providence 
 and grace of God, and charge them that they cultivate the fear 
 of God, live in mutual love and harmony, and, as ability and ne- 
 cessity shall indicate, be helpful to each other. I charge them 
 also ever to remember and strive to imitate the eminently pure, 
 exalted, and endearing exemplification of the graces and virtues 
 of the spirit which they all have seen and known in their blessed 
 mother." 
 
 " They were beautiful in their lives, and in their deaths were 
 not (long) divided." 
 
117 
 
 Note D. 
 
 The Rev. Professor Huntington, of the Auburn Theological 
 Seminary, has written as follows to the family of Dr. Knox. We 
 give the extracts from his letter, as an admirable summing up of 
 the i^ersonal character of the venerated dead. " It is now nearly 
 twenty years since all my associations with the city of New- York 
 have clustered in your father's house, and around your father's 
 person. And through all that time — with a single comparatively 
 brief interval of precarious health — he has appeared to me hardly 
 to change ; unless, indeed, to grow more vigorous, efficient, use- 
 ful, and cheerful, as he grew more patriarchal. When I saw him 
 in May last, he was perfectly well, and bade fair to continue long 
 in active service. All tidings from him since have indorsed the 
 same promise. Xo healthy child, no man in the full strength of 
 middle life, was ever cut down more unexpectedly. He was the 
 central figure in all my views and memories of your great city. 
 I can not describe to you my loss for a regulating, controlling ob- 
 ject, when I think of Xew-York, without thinking of him as still 
 living, moving, acting in it, of all its great interests tnagna pars. 
 
 " Dr. Knox was preeminently adapted to fill a large i)lace in his 
 day and generation. His noble, majestic form never disappointed 
 the expectations which it could not fail to raise. The earthly 
 house and the immortal tenant w^ere w^ell matched. He was born 
 to exert a commanding influence. He was conseci'ated to exert a 
 commanding influence for good. His comprehensive mind spurned 
 all narrow, contracted, mean, petty, and flxlse views of any sub- 
 ject to which his attention was directed. He saw farther than 
 most men ; and as far as he saw, he saw clearly, and what he saw 
 he spake, ' without partiality and without hypocrisy.' Then, too, 
 his great heart was full of generous sympathies, which forbade 
 him to yield his judgment to the special pleading of any ex parte 
 advocate of selflshness and injustice. For these and similar rea- 
 sons, his wisdom became the characteristic by w^hich he was best 
 known to the world — the secret of his power in the pulpit, and in 
 pastoral visitation, over the understanding and hearts and con- 
 sciences of his parishioners, a power which a long ministerial life 
 but served to increase, and which will continue to be felt when all 
 the popular eloquence of the times shall be forgotten ; the secret, 
 too, of his election to so many important offices in the benevolent 
 societies and philanthropic and educational institutions of his age, 
 offices which, however arduous and thankless the labors devolved 
 
118 
 
 upon him in them, he could not be permitted, for any plea of in- 
 creasing years, to resign ; and the secret, moreover, of the innu- 
 merable applications to him, in person and by letter, for private 
 advice, from kindred and connections near and remote ; from 
 members of his own congregation, and his fellow-citizens gen- 
 erally ; from his ministerial brethren ; from strangers and foreign- 
 ers ; from high life, middle life, and low life, thronging his house, 
 interrupting him at his meals, his devotions, and his studies, and 
 burdening him with cares enough to crush any ordinary man, 
 though, truth to say, he seemed to thrive under them. 
 
 " For, wdth all the public responsibilities which his sound judg- 
 ment and discretion brought upon him, he found so much time for 
 the enjoyment and duties of social life, that he was best know-n 
 throughout the large circle of his family and friends for his 
 loann affection^ constant and kindly solicitude^ and bountifid hos- 
 pitcdity. Who that ever witnessed, can forget how his imposing 
 presence was relieved by the beautiful combination in his manners 
 of dignity, courtesy, affability, and cordiality ? His hearty w^el- 
 come was sustained by his unwearied attentions to his guests, till 
 his farewell left them more his admirers than ever. Among the 
 multitudes entitled to his regards, or admitted to his confidence 
 and favor, not one, in disappointment, perplexity, or sorrow, ever 
 applied to him for assistance, counsel, or consolation in vain. 
 Many a time has he volunteered his thoughtfulness for them, and, 
 when they least expected it, has soothed their griefs, guided them 
 through their difficulties, and opened to them new avenues of use- 
 fulness and prosperity. And ever have they found him most 
 deeply interested in, and most ready to promote, their spiritual 
 and eternal welfare. He loatched for their souls. If any man 
 ever had a right to adopt the words of 'the greatest of all the 
 men of the East,' it w^as Dr. Knox : ' When the ear heard me, 
 then it blessed me ; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to 
 me : because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless^ 
 and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that 
 was ready to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow^s 
 heart to sing for joy. I was eyes to the blind, and feet w^as I to 
 the lame. I was a father to the poor, and the cause which I 
 knew not I searched out. Unto me men gave ear, and waited, 
 and hept silence at my counsel. I chose out their ivay, a7id sat 
 chief and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth the 
 mourners,"* " 
 
119 
 
 Note E. 
 
 Dr. Knox had always a strong aversion to appear in print. His 
 published discourses are therefore few. The following-named are 
 all, it is believed, which he gave to the public. The majority of 
 them were prepared with no thought of publication, and all of 
 them amid the many pressing calls of his multiplied engagements. 
 They are therefore examples of his ordinary ministrations. 
 
 1. The Duty axd IS'ecessity of Searching the Scriptures. 
 A Discourse delivered in the Reformed Dutch Church in New- 
 Brunswick, September 3, 1823, upon the occasion of the Inaugur- 
 ation of the Rev. John De Witt, A.M., as Professor of Biblical 
 Criticism in the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Protest- 
 ant Dutch Church. " Search the Scriptures." John 5 : 39. 
 
 2. The Death of the Aged Pious a Blessing. A Sermon 
 occasioned by the Death of the Rev. Gerardus A. Kuypers, D.D. 
 Preached in the Middle Dutch Church, June 7, 1833. "Then 
 Abraham gave uj) the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old 
 man, and full of years : and was gathered to his people." Gene- 
 sis 25 : 8. 
 
 3. Parental Responsibility. A Discourse delivered in the 
 Middle Dutch Church, November, 1834. " For I have told him, 
 that I will judge his house forever, for the iniquity which he 
 knoweth ; because his sons made themselves vile, and he re- 
 strained them not." 1 Samuel 3:13. 
 
 4. Parental Solicitude. A Discourse delivered in the jMid- 
 dle Dutch Church, December, 1834. " Oh ! that Ishmael might live 
 before thee !" Genesis IV : 18. 
 
 5. Comfort in Sorrow. A Discourse occasioned by the Death 
 of Mrs. Marianne F. McElroy, wife of the Rev. Dr. McElroy, 
 Pastor of the Scotch Presbyterian Church in Cedar street, Xew- 
 York. Delivered on Sabbath morning, November 27, 1836. "But 
 I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them 
 who are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others who have no 
 hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so 
 them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." 1 Thes- 
 salonians 4 : 13, 14. 
 
 6. Preparation for Death. A Sermon on the occasion of 
 the Death of Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Ramsay Thompson, 
 of the U. S. Army, who was killed in battle with the Indians, at 
 Okee-cho-bee, Florida, December 25, 1837. Delivered in the 
 
120 
 
 Middle Dutch Church, February 11, 1838. "Therefore be ye 
 also ready ; for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man 
 cometh." Matthew 24 : 44. 
 
 7. The Chuech Gloeious. A Discourse delivered on the oc- 
 casion of the opening for divine worship) of the building erected 
 by the Consistory of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of 
 the City of New- York, on the corner of Fourth street and Lafay- 
 ette Place, May 9, 1839. "And I will make the place of my feet 
 glorious." Isaiah 60 : 13. 
 
 8. The Good and Faithful Servant. A Discourse delivered 
 in the Reformed Dutch Church on Lafayette Place, March 11, 
 1849, on occasion of the death of the Rev. William Cahoone. 
 " His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful serv- 
 ant ; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee 
 ruler over many things : enter thou into the joy of thy lord." 
 Matthew 25 : 21. 
 
 9. The Character and End of the Perfect and Upright. 
 A Discourse delivered in the Middle Dutch Church, (Lafayette 
 Place,) June 28, 1857, on the occasion of the death of John Neil- 
 son, M.D. " Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright ; for 
 the end of that man is peace." Psalm 37 : 37. 
 
 Besides these published sermons, Dr. Knox furnished, from time 
 to time, to the public papers, a number of addresses delivered by 
 him on various occasions of general interest. He was also the 
 author of several tracts, which have had large circulation through 
 the instrumentality of the American Tract Society. 
 
 His time generally, however, was too fully occupied with the 
 cares of his numerous positions of responsibility and labor, to 
 afford him leisure for prej^aration for the press. 
 
 Note F. 
 
 The visit of Dr. Knox to Europe, in the year 1849, introduced 
 him to the acquaintance and friendship of some of the most dis- 
 tinguished Christian men of Great Britain and the Continent, 
 upon whom he produced the same favorable impression which, 
 during all his life, he produced at home. Since his death, the 
 venerable Dr. Raffles, of Liverpool, has written : " The little that 
 I was privileged to see of the excellent Dr. Knox, attached me 
 strongly to him. From that little, I feel assured that all that was 
 said of him on the occasion of his funeral, is true. I never met 
 
121 
 
 with a man who more thoroughly combined the polish of the gen- 
 tleman with the piety of the Christian ; and I can perfectly under- 
 stand how deeply and painfully the void occasioned by the re- 
 moval of such a man must be felt by the family to which he was 
 endeared, and the community he so much benefited and adorned." 
 Other letters of the same character have been received by the 
 family, from persons of high distinction in Great Britain. 
 
 Note G. 
 
 At the anniversary of the American Tract Society in May, 
 1845, Dr. Knox made the following remarks relative to the loss 
 sustained by the Society, the Church, and the community in the 
 death of the devoted Rev. Dr. Milnor. No one acquainted with 
 the feelings of the community, when it was announced that Dr. 
 Knox was dead, no one who witnessed the demonstration at his 
 funeral, can fail to remark how his words, so true in 1845 of the 
 lamented Milnor, became in 1858 as emphatically true of himself. 
 
 " With humble submission to a wise and holy Providence, we 
 nevertheless deplore our loss, in the removal by death of him 
 whose devoted and faithful labors as Chairman of the Publishing 
 and Executive Committees have been identified with the prosper- 
 ity of the Society from the time of its formation. This venerated 
 and beloved man of God is no longer with us. God has taken 
 him. We shall see his face no more. 
 
 " In the mellowed but undecayed ripeness and richness of his 
 powers, the unabated activity of his efforts, and the zenith of his 
 usefulness, he has been taken from us ; and, although it is not al- 
 ways given to men in pubHc stations, even the gifted, the useful, 
 and the good, whether in political, civil, or professional life, to 
 carry with them into the evening of their days a lustre un dimmed 
 and undiminished, he has passed to the grave as full of honors as 
 he Avas full of days. 
 
 "Of liberal and catholic spirit and enlarged philanthropy, Di-. 
 Milnor was associated with every great enterprise of Christi:!n 
 benevolence ; and, notwithstanding his own unobtrusive modesty, 
 a foremost place in the ranks of well-doing was sj^ontaneously and 
 usually assigned to him by his compeers. 
 
 " In this Society, his station, from the commencement, was that 
 of chief responsibility and toil. By a ready facility, habitual sys- 
 tem, and self-denying diligence, he was able to perform, and to 
 perform promptly, seasonably, and well, a vast amount of labor. 
 
122 
 
 " Look over the scene of his domestic duties, his pastoral toils, 
 his connection with the institutions of his own Church, and the 
 other great meliorating institutions, civil and religious, which 
 adorn our city : call to mind the claims upon his time and atten- 
 tion, and the interruptions incident to his position ; his fidelity, 
 piety, purity, gentleness, urbanity ; the degree and the kind ol 
 influence pervading this w^ide sphere emanating from his single 
 person — and you perceive why it w^as that a sob so deep and con- 
 vulsive burst from the heart of the community when the tidings 
 of his death fell upon its ear. 
 
 " Mr. President, I have seen a Limngston laid in the grave, a 
 3Iason^ a 3PLeod^ a Momeyn^ a Hohart^ and others illustrious 
 in their day, burning and shining lights, men deeply endeared, of 
 high intellect and renown, and of commanding influence ; and I 
 have received impressions not to be efiaced. Were it not for the 
 revelation to Abraham, ^I am the Almighty God^ the All-svffi- 
 dent^ I should have almost felt respecting some of these, that the 
 exigencies of a sinful and disordered generation could not dis- 
 pense with their presence. And yet scarcely in any case have I 
 seen the fountains of human feeling more deeply moved, than 
 when the remains of our beloved Milnor were committed to the 
 earth — when talent and piety and eloquence poured out their tri- 
 bute to his worth, and the hearts of that great assembly of the 
 rich and the poor, the lofty and the lowly, the wise and the sim- 
 ple, dissolved, and with a subdued murmur flowed together in the 
 sympathy of grief. There is nothing in all the forms of pride and 
 worldliness that can bear a tribute like this." 
 
A FAINT TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF 
 
 THE REV. JOHN KNOX, D.U., 
 
 SENIOR PASTOR OF THE COLLEGIATE REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH. 
 
 "Behold an Israelite indeed!'^ 
 
 Ere his path of life grew dreary, 
 
 Or his step was slow, 
 Ere his heart was worn or weary, 
 
 With his work below, 
 The crown of righteousness was ready 
 
 To adorn his brow. 
 
 In a moment he departed 
 
 To his heavenly rest ; 
 We, the mourners, stricken-hearted, 
 
 Knoio that he is blest, 
 Know that with one step he mounted 
 
 To his Saviour's breast. 
 
 Yet ah ! yet with selfish sorrow. 
 
 We his loss must weep ; 
 Scarcely dreaming of a morrow 
 
 When regret shall sleep. 
 Or M'hen we shall cease to miss him 
 
 In time's shadows deep. 
 
 Never more on earth to meet him. 
 
 Oh ! how sore the pain ! 
 Ne'er with human tongue to greet him 
 
 'Mid the haunts of men ; 
 Never, never more to meet him 
 
 On this earth again ! 
 
124 
 
 His holy life and ministry 
 
 A seraph's pen might write — 
 Pure, and stainless, and harmonious, 
 
 Even passing bright, 
 As a jewel set in glory, 
 
 Shone his Christian light : 
 
 Standing on the heights of Zion, 
 
 On Christ's battle-tower, 
 In the fullness of his vigor, 
 
 And his mental power, 
 Never putting off his armor 
 
 Till his dying hour. 
 
 Suddenly his work was ended ; 
 
 'Twas sufficient here — 
 He was summoned to a service 
 
 In a higher sphere, 
 And the pearly gates unfolded 
 
 To admit him there. 
 
 By the golden harps of angels, 
 
 Welcomed to the courts above. 
 And with songs of bright evangels. 
 
 Hailed with joy and sacred love ; 
 Welcomed by the saints and angels, 
 
 Never more from heaven to rove. 
 
 Gentle, modest, unassuming. 
 
 Was his course on earth ; 
 Seeking no parade or honors 
 
 To proclaim his worth : 
 Yet the world's strong testimonials 
 
 Rush spontaneous forth. 
 
 Like the waves of mighty waters, 
 
 Was the o'erflowing crowd. 
 Pressing on with those who bore him 
 
 To his last abode, 
 Showing how revered, lamented, 
 
 Was this Man of God. E. Bogaut. 
 
LINES ON THE DEATH OF DK. KNOX, 
 
 The evening shades were gathering dark 
 Around a well-spent day ; 
 
 Angels unseen were chanting — hark ! 
 "Beloved, come away." 
 
 He knew their voices — quickly flung 
 
 The lattice open wide : 
 A solemn requiem was sung, 
 
 For death stood by his side. 
 
 Remorseless Death ! thou mayst rejoice ; 
 
 A shining mark is thine ; 
 Mute is the sympathetic voice 
 
 Whose breathings were divine. 
 
 'Twas ordered that no parting scene 
 Should agonize his breast ; 
 
 Nor doubt, nor fear should flit between 
 Glad visions of the blest. 
 
 And now the great eternal chime 
 Tolled the order — Soul, depart ! 
 
 Angels thy guide, the guard of time 
 Sentinels of the heart. 
 
 From Jordan's river, crowned with grace, 
 The saint emerges bright. 
 
 To meet his Saviour's smiling face, 
 In the " land of pure delight." 
 
 January 15, 1858. A. S. 
 
Princeton Theological Semmary-Spe. 
 
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