BX 9225 .G878 N62 1872 (^M^- ^'^U Cr/j. y^.xJ^OiU/. kW Of mticif^ JAN 21 1993 )\ BX9225.G878 N62 1872 t Noble, Mason, 1809- -1881 Discourse commemorative of the life and character of Rev. Ralph Randolph Gurley / A DISCOURSE COMMEMOBA.TIVE OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER Rev. Ralph Randolph Gurley, MASON NOBLE, D. 33., Pastor of Sixth Peesbvterian Church. ^ublisljcb at i^^t request of i^t g^mtrixan (S^olonigation Sotutg." WASHINGTON CITY: M'eiLIi A WITUEROW, PKlNTBltS AND 8TKRE0TYPEES 1872. ,^ OF PRIftCf^ m 21 W3 DISOOTJRSE. " I am distressed for thee, ray brother , . . : very pleasant hast thou been unto me." — II Samuel, 1 : 26. The distress of David at the death of Jonathan, his faithful friend and bi'other, was very deep and overwhelming. The love which the noble young pi'ince had manifested for him, a love unselfish, strong, and unchanging in the most trying circumstances — a love which had separated him from his royal father, placed an insuperable obstacle between him and the throne of the kingdom, and finally led him to give up life itself on the disastrous battle-field of Gilboa — all this love passes vividly before him, and fills with its presence his whole being. The future, just opening before him — its vacant thi'one, its promises of power and glory, its ambitions and its bloody strifes — is forgotten in the sad present, and in the pleasant memories of his friend — "Very pleasant hast thou been unto me, my brother: thy love to me was wonderful." Over all their past relations does the light of this love shine, imparting new sweetness to their past companionship, and a strange mystery to the event which he now deplores. I am sure that I express the sentiment of all your hearts, when I say that our distress at our bereavement to-day is mingled with most pleasant memories of the beloved brother who has been taken from us. Rev. Ralph Randolph Gurley was a man of very rare quali- ties, both of mind and heart, and his life, protracted through so many years, has been full of scenes of the profoundost interest to himself and the world. He was born at Lebanon, Connecticut, on the 26th of May, 1797. Ilis father, the Rov. John Giirloy, was the first pastor of the Congregational Church in Lebanon. His mother was Mary Portei", a sister of the late Rev. Dr. David Porter, of Catskill, New York. Then- were five sons and two daughters in the family — our brother being the fifth child, and surviving all his brothers and sisters. He was graduated at Yale College in 1818, and soon after became a resident of this city. In 1822 he received his appointment as Agent of the American Colonization Society, and from that time to the present, a period of fifty years, his life has known no other first and all- absorbing object. For the last few years his connection with the Society has been only nominal, on account of his physical prostration. But he retained to the last his interest in all its proceedings, never yielding his conviction that the young Republic of Liberia was destined to become a mighty state, a great centre of civilization and of Christianity for Africa, and fraught with the highest blessings to her exiled children in America. Whatever be the final issue in the coming centu- ries, his name will not be forgotten by the friends of the Afri- can race, or by those who can appreciate private worth or public usefulness. I have known him well for forty years. I fii'st met him in the Foui'th Presbj^terian Church of this city, in the spring of 1832, on the day on which I commenced my ministry among that people. Prom that time to the present, I have been on the most intimate terms with him as a friend and brother. For several years I sustained toward him and his family the sacred relation of christian pastor, and our intercourse has ever been most unreserved. I have, of course, known him as thoroughly as it is permitted us to know the upright in heart; and in looking back to-day over the scenes of his busy life, the first and deepest impression with such a review makes upon me is — 1. His love op his fellow-men. There are times, I trust, when we all forget ourselves in the interest which we feel in the good or evil fortune of others. But with him it was a constant experience: I have sometimes thought it was his ruling passion, so quick was he to see the wants of others, and so prompt and skillful in bringing relief. Among many deeds of kindness, with which his life was filled, I remember one described to me during the first year of my residence in Washington, by a gentleman who was familiar with the facts. A poor widow, whose husband had been dead only a few days, was lying ill in a wretched hovel. Her only child was also sick, and tliey were both destitute of the com- mon comforts of life; there was no food and no fire. He heard of the distress, and went in person to minister. His quick eye saw, and his large lieart took in, the whole state of things. He made a fire, he brought food, he boiled the teakettle, and made a cup of tea, and thus efficiently relieved the necessities of the Buff'ering. As I knew more of him, I learned that this was only an illustration of his mode of doing good. He was sure to find out suifering, and to attempt to relieve it. During these many years that have since passed, he has gone in and out among the homes of the poor, found suffering where others did not know of its existence, and parted with the last shilling in his own limited purse, that he might comfort others. It is well known, to all familiar with his ways, that he not unfrequently embarrassed himself by his great generosity to the suffering poor: this was specially the case in his tender sympathy for the colored people. In the second or third year of my residence here, I was sur- prised to learn that his library and furniture were to be sold at public auction, and his pleasant home to be exchanged for a boarding-house. On inquiry, I ascertained that a colored family were about to be sold and separated from each other in perpetual bondage in the distant South. To save them from their sad fate, ho became personall}'' responsible for the money necessary to redeem them. When the time of meeting his obligations arrived, there was no other way to secure his object but the sacrifice of his home, and of those literary treas- ures which were dearer to him than gold. I was present at the sale, and saw his books, which wei-e principally the choicest editions of the ancient and the Knglish classless, and arranged in a book-case, which his own exquisite taste had invented, all knocked down to the highest bidder. But groat as was the sacrifice, it did not prove sufiicient I'or his relief, and he lived for several years meekly and uncomplainingly under the burden. His whole life was, in fact, one of obedience to the divine law: "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." He came nearer than any man I ever knew to the example of Christ, washing the feet of unworthy and worthy men, not passing by the traitor Judas, and by gentleness over- coming the resistance of the warm-hearted and impulsive Peter. He was worthy to stand by the side of Abon Ben Adhem, described in eastern fable, who "Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace, And saw within the moonlight of his room — Making it rich like a lily in bloom — An angel writing in a book of gold ! Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold, And to the presence in the room he said: 'What writest thou?' The vision raised his head, And in a voice, made all of sweet accord. Answered: 'The names of those who love the Lord.' And is mine one? said Adhem, ' Nay; not so,' • Replied the angel. Adhem spake more low. But cheerly still, I pray thee, then. Write me as one who loves his fellow-men.' The angel rose and vanished. The next night He came again, with a great wakening light, And showed the names that love of God had blest ; And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest." Now, our brother loved God with a most reverent, deep, and all-controlling love. It was the supreme joy of his life. He prized being enrolled among those who loved the Lord, as the very highest attainment which a man could make. And in his sense of deficiency in this respect, and from his spirit of consecration to Him who said, "One is your master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren," he turned with an humble and loving heart to his fellow-men. The divine in man seemed ever before him. All the lowly were to him the sons of God. The oppressed race were "colored men." His enemies even were mistaken and "imperfect" friends. He ever recognized the brotherhood of the race, and felt that thej^ were all children of the same Heavenly Father. He was a Christian through and through: "in all things shewing himself a pattern of good works; in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, 80 that he that was of the contrary part was ashamed, having no evil thing to say of him." His truth, his goodness, his humility, his want of self-assertion, his gentleness, his patience with unreasonable men, his submission to God in the midst of disappointed hopes and deranged plans of life, and under the bereavements which desolated his home and the personal sick- ness which made him a helpless invalid for so many years, and above all his constant trust in the sacrificial work of a divine Saviour for the pardon of his sins — all proved him to be a living Christian — and yet the more thoroughly yov knew him the deeper was the impression that his constant prayer was — " Write me as one who loves his fellow-men ! " Another very pleasant memory of our brother is — 2. His high intellectual culture. I am not informed in relation to the early training which laid the foundation of his tastes and habits as a scholar. I only know that as a literary man he stood among the first in his class during the last year of his college life. Said the Rev. O. Eastman, one of the venerable Secretaries of the American Tract Society, in a letter to me about a year since: "I have known Mr. Gurley since September, 1817, more than fifty-three years. He was a senior when I was a freshman in Yale College. When my class was admitted into the Brother's Society, he made an address from the President's chair. I have ever since entertained a high respect for him." His position among men of culture was never lost. His con- nection with a great National Society would prevent him from pursuing steadily the study of the ancient classics, or investigating thoroughly the great questions of natural science, or becoming a leader in the discussion of abstruse metaphysics. But he followed these studios and discussions with interest, and was abreast of the times in their controlling thoughts and opinions. In his theology, he was in sympathy with those who entertained the grandest conceptions of the love of God in the GosjjcI of His Son: believing that "light and not darkness, love and not necessitj', are at the innermost heart of all," his culture as a Christian theologian began, if it did not end, in the recognition of this wonderful and blessed truth. But there was one field of learning which had irresistible charms for him, and in this he gathered much "gold and silver and precious stones." No one could hear him talk or preach, or read his books, or listen to his fervid and eloquent appeals in behalf of the Colonization cause, without feeling that the spirit of the old English classics had breathed its inspiration upon all his powers. His library was filled with books of this class. Behind the green curtains, which hung on bright rings and in graceful folds before his elegant book-case, were seen "peeping out" his choicest volumes of Lord Bacon, and Milton, and Shakspeare, and Akenside, and South, and Barrow, and Bishop Butler, and Jeremy Taylor, and Tillotson, and Eobert Boyle on Seraphic Love, and the "judicious" Fuller, and many others. These were, I think, his favorites and his daily com- panions. There was in the peculiar structure of his own mind an uncommon adaptation to those old masters of elevated and beautiful thought. He read and pondered them with the keen- est relish, and their ideas and tastes became a part of his own being, so that, without consciousness and without plagiarism, he both spoke and wrote in their lofty style of pure old Eng- lish eloquence. Were this the proper time and place, I could verify this remark by quotations from his "Life of Ashraun," his correspondence with Sir Thomas Powell Buxton, of England, and even from his Annual Eeports of the American Coloniza- tion Society, which were always regarded as an intellectual treat by his friends in Washington and thi^oughout the country. When he reached the maturity of his strength, some twenty years ago, his mind had become very rich and fruitful. His ])erception of truth in its more delicate relations was very vivid, and when he stood before men and reasoned with them, his argument was always strong with the logic of facts, while over all his discourse his brillmnt imagination and pure taste cast their most attractive and charming influence. He was, in fact, a poet in the highest sense; not only writing beautiful verses in exquisite numbers, but living in closest sym- patb}^ with all nature, material and spiritual, enjoying a clear insight into many of her mysteries, anl a true appreciation of lior rich and Tnanifold instruction. I have said that his mind was fruitful. He was, indeed, ever at work and accomplishing results. There are three volumes from his pen known and liighly appreciated by his friends, and which will establish his reputation as one of our first Amer- ican writers. They are "The Life of Ashmun," "Gurley's Mis- sion to England," and "The Life and Eloquence of Larned." The first is the most elaborate, being a large octavo volume of over five hundred pages. It was written, as I remember well, in the midst of the most pressing duties, lie giving to its pre- paration the small hours of the night after the labors of his office were ended. His "Mission to England" is the history of his endeavors to bring the leading philanthropists of England into an earnest sympathy and co-operation with the American Colonization Society. His "Life and Eloquence of Larned" is a worthy tribute to one of the most eloquent young divines that ever filled an American pulpit, and who finally laid down his life in the midst of the pestilence at New Orleans, as a willing sacrifice to duty to the Presbyterian church of which he was the first pastor. In addition to these published volumes, he maintained a con- stant and extensive correspondence with every part of our country and with Liberia. He had also the entire editorial responsibility of the monthly publication of the African REPosiroRY, as well as the preparation of the Annual Reports of the American Colonization Society. If all his writings could be collected, they would make many large volumes, full of noble Christian thoughts of the rights of man and of the duty of governments to bre.ak every j^oke, and lift up the oppressed of all nations. But while the memory of his rich aiul fruitful inlellect is so pleasant to his friends, wo cannot forget — 3. His FAITHFULNESS, SELF-DENIAL, AND POWER AS A PREACHER OF THE Gospel. Though he was never ordained or installed over any par- ticular church as ])astor, yet his connection with the churches 10 of our Presbytery was of the most intimate character, and his services in our pulpits were most eagerly sought and delighted in. Indeed, he was not more universally beloved as a, man than prized as a preacher of Christ. All denominations were attracted towards him, so that his Sabbaths were as full of service as if he were a pastor. In the colored churches, at the poor-house, at the jail, and in the penitentiary, he greatly mag- nified his ofl&ce; while the amount of labor he pei'formed, with- out fee or reward, in supplying the pulpits of sick or absent pastors, and in attending funerals among the poor, laid all our churches under the very highest obligations to him and his family. Such incessant labors, added as they were to the ex- hausting duties of his office, were of course a constant inter- ference with his physical as well as mental comfort. But personal fatigue, ordinary sickness, deprivation of his literary reading, and of the society of his family and friends, were all forgotten when he was asked to speak for Christ, and lead the devotions of His peojjle. Ordinarily his sermons were a very simple and loving exhibition of some common truth. The precept or the promise, the doctrine or the warning, which for the time he held up before his hearers, came to them all glowing with the love to Grod and man which burned in his own heart. Sometimes, on ordinary occasions even, he rose to the sublimest heights of pulpit eloquence; and while his soul seemed to be all on fire with the thoughts within him, his manner was most gentle and sweet and winning and over- powering. Those of the present generation who have known Mr. Gurley only in the comparative feebleness of the last fifteen years, have no true or worthy conception of his power in the pulpit. I wish I could give you a living picture of him as he sometimes stood before men in the name of Christ and of suffering humanity — for the two were always united in his mind. In his person he was, in the vigor of his manhood, remark- ably handsome; like David, "he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to." When he arose and announced his text, your sympathy was instantly excited, but more at first for himself than for the truth which he ut- tered. Ho was timid, hesitating, and embarrassed; his voice 11 was low and tremulous with emotion, and his look uncertain, if not deprecatory. As ho proceeded in his simple, though embarrassed way, he soon forgot himself and others, in the clear vision of his subject as it opened before him. He would then unconsciously lift up his tall person to his full height, stand straight and firm upon his feet, twine his fingers in his long black hair, and throw it away from his noble white forehead, and, in gestures expressing his emotions, and in words of purest English formed into sentences of the rarest harmony and force, he would turn your fears for him into ad- miration of the man, and finally into forgetfulness of every- thing but the truth which inspired him. On such occasions, as was said of a great poet, his features were "like a beautiful alabaster vase, seen to perfection only when lighted up from within," and the words of his lij)s penetrated your inmost being. His sermons were never written. He did not carry even a brief or a skeleton into the pulpit to guide his thoughts. He said that he was embarrassed rather than aided by such helps. His thoughts, however, were the fruit of much pre- vious study, and his language was as choice and appropriate in his extemporaneous address as when he held his pen in the quiet of his study. If he had devoted himself exclusively to pulpit oratory, I have sometimes thought he would have united in himself the dazzling eloquence of our American Larned, with the clear and finished reasoning of Henry Mel- vill, of London, of whose preaching he was accustomed to speak with much enthusiasm. As it is, the memory of his power as a preacher will ever be pleasant to his friends. But it is his character, as connected with the attempted elevation of the colored race, that will ever claim our special admiration. I would, therefore, invito your attention to 4. His consecration to his life-work as Secretary of the American Colonization Society. He was called into the service of the Society in the enthusi- asm of his youth, and devoted to its interests his best ])Owers for a long and busy life. The sublime object of the Society was, in Mr. Caa-lcys uwu 12 words, 'Ho restore a degraded people, loDg exiled from their mother country, to their own distant and barbarous shore, and there elevate them to a national existence, informed and dig- nified with the spirit of law, literature, liberty, and Christianity, that by their example and achievements the light of a new day might dawn upon Africa, and the day-star arise in their hearts." This was the beautiful ideal which ever kindled his imagina- tion, and called forth all the natural and generous benevolence of his heart. His first work was in Washington. Here in his office there was more than enough to engage all his powers. There was daily correspondence with the patrons of the Society, planning expeditions of colonists, and preparing and superintending their outfits, regulating the affairs of the infant colony, editing the Repository, and writing for the press generally to defend the Colonization cause. To use again his own language, "they commenced their enterprise without resources, unsustained by general opinion, and opposed by forces arrayed on opposite grounds and in different and oj^posite sections of the country." This state of things demanded not only the constant use of the public press, but his personal presence in every part of the land. In obedience to this summons, he frequently left the quiet of his home, and visited the principal cities both North and South ; occupying pulpits on the Sabbath and public halls during the week, encouraging friends and convincing enemies of the scheme. He was found sometimes holding private in- terviews with gentlemen on their great plantations in the South, and with Christian merchants in their counting-rooms in the North. At other times he was meeting opponents in public debate, and the clash of arms was sometimes very loud and stirring, as he fought the good fight in Boston and in Cin- cinnati, and in other cities of the East and West. But he did not confine his personal labors to his own coun- try. He made several voyages aci-oss the Atlantic — thrice to Africa and once to Europe. His first visit to Africa was in the early history of the colony, during the life of the Colonial Agent, Ashmuh, when the affairs of the colony were in almost hopeless entanglement, and the whole enterprise in danger of 13 irretrievable disaster. That visit and its benefits to Liberia will ever be one of the brightest chapters in the history of her early struggles for existence, and an illustration and proof of his fidelity and wisdom as a mediator among men. It is not too much to say that, by his love and patience and energy the character of Mr. Ashman was fully vindicated before the world, the relations between him and the colonists restored to more than their original harmony, and the colony itself brought into a state of stable and permanent prosperity. According to Dr. Tracy's Historical Discourse, Mr. Grurley also at this time had the responsibility of originating the plan of government for Liberia. He says: "It is enough for his glory that ho alone among white men saw the safety of trusting a negro people with some part in the management of their own concerns; and that by boldly acting on his belief, he placed his name on the not long list of legislators whose wisdom organized States on principles that secured peace, permanency, coherence, and a healthy growth." Mr Gurley's second visit to Liberia was in 1849, under in- structions from the United States Government. On his return he made a report on the condition and prospects of that Repub- lic, which was printed by order of Congress, and was warmly commended by Henry Clay and others. His third visit was of comparatively recent date, being one of the last great efforts of his active life. After the many struggles, discouragements, and disasters through which the Society and the colony had passed, it was his privilege to stand once more on those distant shores, and look upon the young ''liepublic of Liberia," her independence acknowledged by the leading Christian Governments of the world, iier peo- ple enjoying all the rights of freemen, and her future as cer- tain as Christian churches, and free schools, and a college, and a prosperous community could make it. His visit to Great Britain is fresh in the memory of many of his friends. Its object was to confer with the lea-ding philan- thropists of England, and enlist them, if possible, in the great work of colonizing Africa. Though lie failed in Hccuring that object, he performed a very important woik. In a wriiten "testimonial," signed by forty gentlemen in London, and pre- 14 sented to him a few days before he sailed for home, it is said : " Where some men would have abandoned the undertaking in despair, or risked its future success by the indiscretions of a hasty zeal, he pursued his objects with a calm and patient per- severance, that won the personal esteem even of many who continued adverse to the principles of the Colonization Society. During the period of his residence in England, he has been as- siduously occupied in diffusing information through all accessi- ble channels of publicity. And it may be confidently asserted, that while his statements deeply interested all who were for- tunate enough to have the advantage of hearing them, they brought conviction to the minds of some who had previously been either doubtful or opposed." This testimonial brings into a clear light the characteristics of Mr. Gurley's mode of working, as well as its spirit. His zeal knew no abatement, and his temper lost nothing of its sweet- ness in the midst of the most decided and even violent oppo- sition. In relation to the financial success of the Society, it is well known that Mr. Gurley felt that money was the very "sinews of war," in the great struggle to establish and maintain a flourishing colony in Africa; and the success of the Society in this respect was promising. When he first became its Agent, in 1822, its income for that year was only $778. From that time it increased regularly for the next ten years, as follows: $5,000, $10,000, $14,000, $19,000, $26,000, $28,000, up to $40,000. Still there was, in his judgment, something far better than this to be continually aimed at and secured. He would fill the public mind with great and worthy ideas of the ultimate object which the Society had in view, both for this country and Africa. True and enlarged views, in his opinion, would not only secure all the material aid neces- sary, but finally unite all good men, and so enlist the nation, North and South, in the work, that it would become a magnifi- cent Government enterprise. In that faith he lived and labored; hence his comparative indifi'erence to mere finance. Mr. Gurley was looking at public opinion, and its power over the greatest and the gravest questions connected with the Af- rican race. He believed in the mighty influence of good men. 15 and was ever pressing upon them his sacred cause — pleading with statesmen, clergymen, merchants, editors, and educators of the people. The simple fact was, that his entire active life was devoted to this work. He thought and planned and toiled ; he wrote and spoke and reasoned and prayed and suffered for the eleva- tion of the negro race. In proportion as he loved his fellow- men, ho hated the oppressions of slavery. Though called a pro-slavery man by his enemies, he spoke of it boldly in these , burning words: "Its perpetuity is irreconcilable with the nature of our institutions, the spirit of the age, and the order of Providence. It stands in the temple of our freedom, like the image of death at the Egyptian festivities, to sadden our thoughts, to cloud the light, and tune to melancholy the in- struments of joy." "Let him who inculcates the dogma, that the liberty of one portion of mankind must be perpetually dependent for existence on the slavery of another, expect few disciples in this land, until the signatures which the Genius of Liberty has carved in our mountains be forever erased, and her glorious banner, now waving over us, be taken down forever. Let him ask for proselytes among the Arabs of the desert, or the awe-struck minions of despotic power, but expect not his doctrineto prevail among a people who have already taught wisdom to kings, and thundered forth the truth that makes the spirit of man free in the ears of an astonished world." His books, his speeches, his editorials in the EepositorYi his Annual Eeports, and his correspondence with Henry Clay and with Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, of England, are full of these generous outbursts in behalf of universal freedom. Yet he held so firmly to the old ideas that the States themselves must eventually proclaim liberty throughout the land, or that the providence of God would in some other way, unknown and unanticipated by us, bring to an end the great oppression, that ho was unmoved by all the misrepresentations of himself and of Colonization on the part of those who considered themselves the exclusive friends of the colored race. "Without impugning their motives, he felt that they were mistaken in their mode of working. Such men as Gerrit Smith and William Lloyd Garrison, and the class they represent, he honored as bold 16 and disinterested men — men who were ready to risk their reputation and their life in a most unpopular cause, and from most philanthropic motives. But he had no confidence in their wisdom; neither did he share in the opinion of some, that to them was to be attributed the grand result of universal eman- cipation when it came. And in vindication of his just fame, and in the home of his earnest and loving labors for the last fifty years, I desire to say, that it was the view which Mr. Gurley entertained of slavery and of the national compact, and of the wondei'-work- ing providence of Grod, that finally pervaded and controlled the American mind. In the Church, among her ministers, and throughout all classes of the people, in the free States, there was a most intense aversion to slavery, mingled with the deepest love of the nation, and a longing for deliverance from a national humiliation and a grievous wrong; and yet they did not see how the good of the oppressed could be se- cui-ed by national violence. What, then, did secure the final result? It was the volun- tary withdrawal of States from the authority and privileges of the national compact, and their armed resistance to its claims. What Mr. Grarrison and his fi'iends did in theory to destroy slavery, the seceding States did in fact to "conserve" it. In thus separating themselves violently from the nation, they surrendered the rights which had been secured to them by the national compact. Then came the great uprising of the people to preserve the nation's life, and in that struggle the conflict between the claims of the negro and the life of the nation ceased forever. They had become, in the providence of God, one and the same. The hands on the great clock of time had suddenly gone forward, and the hour of emancipa- tion struck so loud and clear, that the good, the pure, the strong, the patriotic, the conscientious, the conservative, heard it, and rose up as at the voice of God himself. In the Church, Dr. Skinner and Dr. Spring; Dr. Tyng and Dr. Vinton; Bishop Janes and Dr. Williams, and the hundreds of thousands they represented in the ministry and membership of the leading evangelical denominations; in the State, President Lincoln and General Dix and General Grant, who had always strug- 17 gled Lo uphold the nationa,! compact, and were now conse- crated to the same ideas, as expressed in the immortal letter of Mr. Lincoln on tlie relations of slavery to the Union; and the millions of people, whose opinions had been as conserva- tive as theirs, all now rallied around the banner of universal freedom, and bore it on high and onward to victory. And in the front rank of all stood Ealph Randolph Gurley. Inti- mately associated as ho had ever been with some of the best and strongest of those who now trampled on the dear old flag, he did not hesitate a moment. I can never forget how his eyes sparkled with new hope for the afflicted children of Africa, as we talked together of that providence of God by which an evil that had seemed to defy all human remedies had at last vanished like a dream, and left the whole land lighted up with the brightness of universal freedom. In the splendor of such a result, which the love and teach- ings and labors of his life had done so much to produce, we leave him ; for it is a splendor which shall never die. In the concluding words of his own "Life of Ashmun," I would say, changing only a word or two, to adapt it more per- fectly to our brother and the present time — "Thou hast not lived, thou hast not labored in vain. I hear responded from ten thousand tongues, thou hast not lived, thou hast not labored in vain. The light thou hast kindled in Africa shall never go out. The principles thou hast exemplified are true and everlasting. Thy country is doing justice^ for now, in all her borders, no fetter is worn by the guiltless; and when upon Africa thy country shall have conferred, in the free spirit of the Great Master of Christians, her language, her liberty, and her religion, and the honors of all nations shall be cluster- ing thick upon her, Africa, America, the world, shall know thou hast not lived, thou hast not labored in vain." Though I fear that I may have wearied your patience already, yet I cannot conclude without i-eminding you how very pleasant to his friends is — 5. The memory ov his truly Chrfstian home. His home is a place almost too sacred for us to enter, and yet I cannot forbear saying to you wiio loved him, that it was 18 such a home as the character of such a man, united to the loveliest of Christian women, could create. The ministries of Christian affection were never more beautifully exemplified in husband and wife and in parents and children. In that circle you felt encompassed by an atmosphere of love, where mutual esteem and kindness and gentleness and forbearance and dis- interestedness reigned supreme. It was not a family affection, selfish and exclusive, mixed up with family pride and envy of others. Their united love was a full and overflowing spring of living water, pouring itself forth most lavishly on every side, especially on the poor and the suffering, so that they seemed absolutely to forget their own sorrows in their sym- pathy for others. Lovely and pleasant were our brother and sister in their lives, and in their death they were scarcely divided. I had the mournful pleasure of ministering to them both, as they went down gradually and gently, to the last hour. Mrs. Gurley preceded her husband some three months, trusting only in the righteousness of Christ, and yielding herself up, calmly and without murmuring, to the holy will of God. Mr. Gurley, though in great bodily and mental feebleness, yet comprehended the whole situation. The promises of the Gospel and the prayers offered by his bedside seemed to be most intelligently enjoyed by him to the very last. On the 30th of July last he fell asleep in Jesus, and awoke, we need not doubt, in the midst of that more perfect home which our Saviour has prepared for those that love Him. Before this he has met again his glorified wife and the eleven children who preceded them to glory. I am glad for thee, my brother, and very pleasant is the prospect of meeting thee above. Amen. 19 TO THE AUTHOR OF THE "LIFE OF ASHMUN." BY GEORGE HILL. Thy task is o'er, a monument thoa here Hast built, wherein the memory of him, Whose tribute rightly were a nation's tear, Shall, like a star no earth-born vapors dim, Survive, embalmed like relics in perfumes. Or regal dust in Cyclopean tombs. I met thee in life'.s early day, and still Have watched thy course — too long, tlirough years gone by, Stealing unheard, yet, as the Alpine rill Swells to the torrent, destined to a high And loud celebrity, the glorious crown He wins, who strives truth, virtue, to promote; And long shall Afric in her heart enthrone Thy worth, thy words long treasure in her thought. MINUTE OF WASHINGTON CITY PRESBYTERY. The following minute was adopted by the Washington City- Presbytery, tit its meeting October 8, 1872, viz: "The Presbytery would record on their minutes the fact, that since their last stated meeting, and on the 30th of July, 1872, their brother, Ralph Randolph Gurley, departed this life, in the full faith and comfort of the Gospel. Mr. Gurley was a licentiate of the Baltimore Presbytery, and was trans- ferred to the Presbytery of the District of Columbia, when it was originally constituted in 1823 — forty-nine years ago. In the many years which have since passed, he had seen all the original members of that Presbytery finish their labors on earth, and enter upon their heavenly reward. "Though never ordained or installed as pastor over any particular church, j'et his connection with the churches of the Presbytery was of the most intimate character; and his ser- vices in the pulpit were most eagerly sought and greatly de- lighted in by Chi-istians of all the evangelical denominations. Before the failure of his strength, his labors were very abund- ant also among the poor of Washington — preaching with great 20 zeal and acceptance in the colored churches, at the Poor-house, and in the .Tail and Penitentiary. He visited the sick, the poor, and frequently officiated at the funerals of those who were destitute of a pastor. By such laboi's, and the great gentle- ness and pure benevolence of his character, he endeared him- self to all classes, and his memory is very fragrant to thousands who have witnessed, if they have not shared in, his ministries of love. "Presbytery would also bear witness to the wisdom, fidelity, and unwavering resolution with which, for more than half a century, Mr. Grurley devoted his great powers to the eleva- tion of the colored race. The American Colonization Society, with whose plans and labors he was so long and intimately identified, and the flourishing Republic of Liberia, whose con- stitution of Government he originally drafted, and whose pro- gress has been watched over and promoted so successfully by his self-denying and untiring toil, are his enduring monument. Though prostrated by severe illness for many years past, he still retained his connection with the American Colonization Society as Honorary Secretary. His faith in the great scheme of African Colonization and in the glorious future of Liberia never failed. In all the years of his physical prostration, as in the sad bereavements experienced in his family circle, (his wife and eleven children having preceded him to the grave,) his Christian character shone out in great beauty. Submis- sive gentleness, unchanging patience, accompanied b}' a firm reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ, as his only hope for pardon and eternal life, made his sick-room a pleasant resort for his Christian friends, and his death only an entrance into the everlastino; kini>;dom. "We sympathize verj?^ deeply with the members of his be- reaved family who still survive, and feel that we share largely in the honor which such a life and character have conferred on them and on the Presbyterian Church. 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them.' " A true copy : T. B. McFalls, Stated Clerk. OBITUARY OF MRS. GURLEY. Died in Washington City, April 27th, 1872, Mrs. Eliza McLellan Gurley, the wife of Rev. R. R. Gnrley, in the six- tieth year of her age. Mrs. Gnrley came to Washington as a bride nearly fortj'^-five years since, and has thus been a resident among us for almost half a century. In passing from us to the grave, she leaves a large circle of deeply-attached friends, who are reconciled to their loss only by the reflection that she has laid down the burden of life here to enter into the perfect rest of heaven. Her character was one of ram excellence. To remarkable beauty of person she united such sweetness of disposition and refinement and grace of manners, that all were attracted to her. Her mind was as bright with intelligence as her heart was full of pure affection. In the relations of wife and mother, she was the idol of her husband, and the unfailing source of happiness to her children. Of her numerous children, only two survive her: the rest, some in very tender 3'ears, and BOme in the maturity of their powers, having preceded her to the tomb. Hut, in all these circumstances of sorrow, her gen- tle submission and uncomplaining patience proved her confi- dence in the wisdom and goodness of that Father who directs all our affairs. Her own experience of sorrow did not lead her to gloom and forgetfulness of the grief of others. It, on the contrary, seemod to lead her out of her own home circle into the tenderost sympathy with other desolated homes. Hence she was found so often in the abodes of poverty, and in the midst of sickness and of death, out of her own compara- tively slender purse supplying the immediate wants of the suffering, and ministering to them with her loving presence and kind words of sympathy and encouragement. The bless- ing of him who was ready to perish came upon her, and she 22 caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. "She was a mother to the poor, and the cause that she knew not she searched out." There was a brief period of life when great physical pros- tration, united with a native distrust and depreciation of her- self, led her to doubt the genuineness of her own Christian character, and she walked in the midst of darkness and de- spair. It seemed for a time, indeed, as if her reason would be overwhelmed by the mighty waves that rolled over her. But careful and skillful nursing gradually restored her health, and a clearer apprehension of the infinite grace of God in the Gos- pel of His Son led her to a cheerful hope of Divine favor and that sweet and abiding peace which has so characterized the past ten or fifteen years of her life. To her most intimate friends how much like the Saviour Himself has she seemed to be! What gentleness in her ways! How charitable in her judgment of others! How thoughtful of the wants and con- venience of those who ministered to her! How self- forgetful in her plans — showing that she was in deep sympathy with Him who said, "I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." The last weeks of her life only brought into clearer view these Christian-like traits of character. The promises of the Gospel were taken into her heart more confidingly than ever, and the sting of death was taken entirely away. When not able to speak, except in a low whisper, and her eyes were closed upon all earthly objects, her ears were still open to every voice that spoke to her, and her mind grasped every thought that was uttered. As her soul thus rose superior to the weakness of her body, it seemed to assert its divine origin and prove its own immortalit3\ Her weeping friends looked on in joyful triumph as she spoke of Christ as her own Ee- deemer, and committed herself entirel}^ to Him to conduct her through the valley of the shadow of death, while all felt the truth and pertinency of the words of the officiating minister of Christ, pronounced over her remains in the cemetery of the dead: "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from hence- forth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them." ^liimmmiMST"' Seminary Libi 1 1012 01260 1052