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A TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF OUR ANCESTORS. 
 
 t SERMON 
 
 o'C!C5asioni£'d by the death ot 
 
 
 DELIVERED JUNE 
 
 HY 
 
 REV. B, M SMITH. 
 
 HIE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 RING. AUGUSTA I 01 NT1 
 
 B L I S H 1 
 
 fAUNTOJS 
 
A TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF OUR ANCESTORS, 
 
 A SERMON, 
 
 OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH OF 
 DELIVERED JUNE 4, 1843, 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. B. M. SMITH, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF TINKLING 
 PRING, AUGUSTA COUNTY, VA. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST, 
 STAUNTON . 
 
 PRINTED BY KENTON HARTEK. 
 1813, 
 
3P® MIS E&OTIalMB 
 THIS SEH3S10N 
 
 IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 
 
 THE AUTHOR: 
 
SERMON 
 
 Deut. 32 : 7. 
 
 Remember the days of old. 
 
 The Jewish historian, inspired to record whatever, relating 
 to his remarkable nation, might serve for the instruction and 
 admonition of mankind, has presented in this chapter, on the 
 one hand, a most eloquent and impressive exhibition of the dis- 
 plays of Divine mercy and goodness to the chosen tribes ; and 
 on the other, a faithful description of their rebellious and un- 
 grateful conduct. 
 
 It is impossible to peruse such summaries, touching the his- 
 tory of this wonderful people, without acknowledging their 
 adaptation to the purpose of instructing mankind. Some have 
 thought, they discovered in many striking features, a remarka- 
 ble similarity in the dispensations of God towards our own na- 
 tion, and those, here recorded, towards the Jews. Without 
 pretending to decide on the propriety of this suggestion, it may 
 be permitted, under the general observation, just -offered, to 
 apply the exhortation of the text to our instruction on this in- 
 teresting occasion. 
 
 It is true, our fathers were not descendants from a heathen 
 ancestor, chosen of God, by express revelation, led by remark- 
 able providences, encouraged by extraordinary promises, and 
 taught by angelic ambassadors ; — they were never under the 
 galling yoke of Egyptian bondage, " hewers of wood and 
 drawers of water" to foreign despots; nor were they conducted 
 
by a high hand and an outstretched arm, by signs and wonders 
 in Heaven above, on the earth beneath, and in the waters under 
 the earth, to a land of promise. No sea opened, for them, a 
 passage through its floods ; no mountain burned with fire, blaz- 
 ing in the lightnings and echoing to the pealing thunder, which 
 announced the presence of Jehovah, to instruct them in His 
 Law. No rock burst forth with perennial streams, at the touch 
 of their Moses, to allay their thirst ; no heavens were darkened 
 by hosts of birds hasting to be their food ; and no earth, white 
 with the honied manna, appeased their hunger while it rebuked 
 their infidelity. No Jordan parted before the symbols of their 
 Faith, borne by the Teachers of their Religion ; and the walls 
 of no Jericho fell before the miraculous power of the trumpets 
 of their warfare. But shall we say for all this, that the God of 
 all the world, " without whom not a sparrow falls to the ground," 
 has sat an uninterested spectator of our fortunes ? If our ances- 
 try sprung from no Abraham, they could say, " though Abraham 
 be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledge us not," the Lord was 
 our " Father and our Redeemer." They were, to a great ex- 
 tent, the seed of those, whom God acknowledged to be his 
 adopted children, by the fiery furnace of persecution for " Right- 
 eousness sake." If the ocean did not open to them a drypath, 
 its winds and its waves received commandment from Him who 
 holdeth them in his fist, to bear them safely to their desired 
 haven. Though God appeared to no Indian Balaam, preventing 
 the fierce purposes of a Balak, yet how wonderfully did his pro- 
 vidential care often seem to say to the untutored savage, " touch 
 not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." Though 
 not wasted for their sins in a barren wilderness, yet let us never 
 forget the lessons of wisdom, they, alike with the Jews, were 
 taught, when suffering for unmindfulness of that first of all 
 christian principles in Prudence, " Trust in the Lord, and do 
 good," " Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils." 
 If no thunder from Sinai taught them God's Law, yet did He, 
 in his Providence, permit them to hear, with extraordinary clear- 
 ness and faithfulness, by his appointed ministry, in the days of 
 our national infancy, the gentler sounds of Gospel Mercy, 
 preached in purity and power. If no iron-handed despotism 
 
oppressed their energies, they early discovered, that it was only 
 withheld, till they were no longer too few to be profitable, nor 
 yet too many to be feared. If deliverance were wrought by no 
 storms and fires and famines, and bloody streams and midnight 
 wailings over the work of a destroying angel, or by no Moses, 
 with his miracle working rod, yet God, by his Providence taught 
 their Faith to trust, neither in the horse, nor in chariots, but 
 "in the name of the Lord their God." Pharaoh and his Host 
 were confounded in the Red Sea ; God confounded their enemies 
 in their own council chambers. Egypt was taught by plagues 
 and tornadoes, by disease and death, to know her ruinous po- 
 licy ; and England learned the same, by the expense of a war, 
 which in a few years swelled her national debt nearly five hun- 
 dred million dollars. In short, we believe that in instances too 
 numerous for present detail, God, by his Providence towards our 
 fathers, has laid us under perpetual obligations to read and pon- 
 der with a personal application, this portion of his Truth, and 
 especially the words of the Text, " Remember the days of old." 
 Nor do I consider it a departure from the spirit of this passage, 
 somewhat to enlarge its application. Moses' Song is composed 
 of a melancholy lamentation over Jewish stubbornness and 
 apostacy, and a triumphant vindication of God's holy and right- 
 eous ways, as well as mercy, kindness and love to his people. 
 God, in his Providence, permits us in " remembering the days 
 of old," to recount, not only His goodness, but the virtues of 
 an ancestry, who, with many human infirmities and deep convic- 
 tions of personal unworthiness, presented to the world the ex- 
 ample of some of the rarest virtues, the illustration of some of 
 the purest principles, and the exhibition of the most noble en- 
 terprises, which the pen of history has yet recorded. 
 
 With some, and those not only the aged, it is very common 
 to expatiate on the virtues of the past generation, and the de- 
 generacy of the present. Whether such views are always just, 
 in every particular, is questionable. The human race, as a 
 body, has certainly made progress in some departments of sci- 
 ence and art, at various periods of its history. But to the mo- 
 ralist, man remains the same. The advocates for " human per- 
 fectibility," have yet to deduce from facts, their first sound 
 
argument, to establish their positions. With increased facilities 
 for " knowing the right" there yet remains the indomitable dis- 
 position to "pursue the wrong." Man, as a moral being, has 
 received no modification of that natural temper which is so 
 faithfully described in the word ol God, " The heart of man is 
 deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." When, 
 therefore, admitting the rapid progress of our race and nation in 
 much which contributes to human knowledge, art and comfort , 
 and rejoicing in the manifest evidence of the greater extent 
 to which sound principles of truth are prevailing, the rapid dif- 
 fusion of Gospel Light and privileges, and the astonishing re- 
 sults of comparatively feeble instrumentality, in extending these 
 blessings among the dark places of the earth , let us not deceive 
 ourselves into the supposition, that the present generation, as 
 individuals, afford better specimens of human nature, than our 
 ancestors of '76 ; or that the communities composed of such 
 individuals, have necessarily progressed in the knowledge and 
 practice of sound moral principles, in any proportion to their 
 progress in science and art. 
 
 Indeed, we arc persuaded, that if ever people had reason to 
 boast of an ancestry, we are the people. Some grow tired, 
 with what they petulantly term, " the garrulity of age." Good 
 manners, to say nothing of religion, should teach us better. 
 The Bible says "honour the hoary head." It is a "crown of 
 glory, when found in the way of Righteousness." And to 
 whom should we look for aid to "remember the days of old," 
 with better prospects of success, than to those, whom God, in his 
 providence, has preserved, to declare his mighty acts, and tell 
 of the abundance of his loving-kindness ? We are reminded, 
 by the occasion which has, to-day, added such large numbers to 
 our ordinary congregation, that such are passing away. Ano- 
 ther of the Heroic band of the Revolution has been gathered to 
 his Fathers. Few survive him of like age, and equal ability to 
 inslruct us, in the history of the past. Few remain to say, I 
 was at Valley Forge and Brandywine, Camden and York. 
 Nearly all those who in the council or the field participated in 
 the memorable contest ol 177G-S3, have long since "fallen on 
 l( i p " Of nearly sixty signers of the Declaration of Indc- 
 
pendehce not one is alive, and of thirty-nine members of the 
 Congress which adopted our Federal Constitution, there remain 
 hut few, if any. Of those of the armies of the Revolution, 
 who survive, many linger among us, barely living memorials of 
 the past, unable, by reason of physical infirmity or mental imbe- 
 cility, to communicate either amusement or instruction. Gen, 
 Porterfield, by natural gifts, mental improvement, and an active 
 participation in some of the most stirring scenes of the Revo- 
 lution, together with the possession to an unusual degree, and 
 for an uncommon period, of his intellectual powers, was pecu- 
 liarly fitted to instruct us in the annals of the past ; while by 
 his kind deportment and venerable years, he was eminently 
 adapted to impress on our minds, his valuable instructions. 
 With him, then, we have buried our most important aid in keep 
 ing alive the recollection of our Fathers. We are no longer per- 
 mitted to hear from his lips the never-tiring recital of the deeds 
 and the words of the men of old. However delightful the pri 
 vilege, it is ours no more ! 
 
 Under the influence, then, of the solemn emotions, becoming 
 this Holy day, and this sanctuary of the Most High ; impressed 
 by a view of the decaying memorials of generations, who for a 
 hundred years have worshipped on this spot ; affected by those 
 tender sentiments, which the death of a revered and honored 
 relative has aroused in the hearts of his descendants, those sym- 
 pathies for the living felt by all, and that veneration and esteem 
 which our venerated friend inspired while alive, and the regrel 
 he occasioned in his death ; let us earnestly seek to fix in our 
 minds, such a remembrance of the days of old, as will be for our 
 lasting benefit, such as will supply, in some measure, the want 
 of living admonitors by word and example, and such as will ex- 
 cite us to a diligent emulation of the virtues of our Fathers, 
 and a holy gratitude to God, for their legacy of sound principles, 
 even more valuable, if accepted, than the incomparable Institu- 
 tions, which they purchased and secured, by their wise counseb 
 and their blood. 
 
 I We co mint more appropriately honor the memory of our 
 venerated friend, than by thus following the suggestion of the 
 text, as now fully developed, in its application to us, With ac- 
 
customed modesty, he uniformly declined suggesting a text for 
 his funeral sermon, and though requested by me, to do so, never 
 undertook to give any instructions, relative to the melancholy 
 service, I am, to-day, called to perform. But from acquaintance 
 with his character, from the general tenor of his life, and from 
 express and repeated declarations of his principles, I feel au- 
 thorised to believe, that could his own wishes have been known, 
 they would have coincided in my present purpose ; and however 
 feebly that purpose may be executed, I am encouraged in the 
 attempt, by the conviction, that while I honor the memory of a 
 distinguished patriot, and gratify the dictates of my own feelings, 
 I cannot make this occasion more redound to your benefit, than 
 by presenting, in connexion with his name and character, and 
 himself as a specimen of the generation to which he belonged, 
 the Principles of the men of the Revolution. 
 
 We have no apotheosis to celebrate. We deify no man nor 
 set of men. We unhesitatingly admit, and grieve to remember, 
 that all who counselled and all who fought, did not act on the 
 same exalted principles of honor, patriotism, Christianity and 
 morality. We claim no perfection for the best ; no entire ex- 
 emption from the infirmities and sins, any more than from the 
 ills, to which man, in his lapsed state, is the miserable heir. 
 But we believe, that by recorded, solemn, deliberate acts of the 
 highest council of the nation ; by the admitted character of the 
 men who gave impress to the character of the age ; by the ac- 
 tions of the most conspicuous leaders of those, whose prowess 
 achieved and whose wisdom secured our National Independence; 
 by the avowed sentiments of the men, who established our Fe~ 
 deral Constitution ; and by the character of that public opinion, 
 which sustained such men, such purposes and such acts, it may 
 be easily proved, that our Forefathers not only acted on Princi- 
 ples, but on Principles of true Patriotism, of honor and integrity, 
 of Religion and of enlightened Liberty. 
 
 1. They acted on Principles. By this, of course, I mean, 
 that their motives were not the results of caprice or passion, 
 their Resolutions were not the ebullitions of anger, nor the dic- 
 tate of faction, their plans were not the immature conceptions 
 oi visionary enthusiasts, and their acts, neither the spasmodic 
 
convulsions of rage, nor the fitful bursts of impotent malice or 
 wounded pride. Nor were those men, in any sense, deliberate 
 rebels against just authority. As British subjects they were 
 prepared to yield to the Crown of England all proper service 
 when rightfully demanded, and they did yield it. Whether 
 called to repel French invasions, or punish Indian perfidy, the 
 colonists repeatedly evinced, at once their courage, loyalty and 
 patriotism. But they were the descendants of those, who had, 
 successfully or unsuccessfully, contended for the blessings of 
 civil and religious liberty. The early emigrants to America 
 were, in part, Refugees from civil or ecclesiastical tyranny, or 
 both, in England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Holland and Ger- 
 many, and in part, those who sought this new world, to enjoy, 
 without molestation or fear of change, those Rights of conscience, 
 which were of uncertain tenure across the Atlantic. The prin- 
 ciples they brought to the land of their adoption were those, 
 which for three centuries in Britain, and more than one on the 
 continent had, violently or silently, been undermining the an- 
 cient thrones of despotism in Church and State. From the age 
 of the weak minded John, to the period of the English Revolu- 
 tion, there had been a constant contest between arbitrary power 
 and popular Rights. The former had continually lost and the 
 latter gained ; but what was lost, was only yielded when no 
 struggles could retain it, and what was gained, was at the cost 
 of some of the best blood of England, and the loss of some of 
 the best subjects of the British Crown. The Reformation of 
 Religion encouraged and promoted, or engendered those sound 
 principles of civil and religious liberty, which constitute the 
 glory of our political Institutions. But both in England and on 
 the continent, the effort to repress the growth of free principles, 
 became more energetic, as their operation became more extend- 
 ed. Charles I. lost his crown and his head, a Martyr to his 
 arbitrary principles, while thousands of his subjects lost life 
 and property, and thousands more surrendered home and coun- 
 try, contending for the fundamental principle of popular free- 
 dom, " the voice of the people must be heard in the Govern- 
 ment." "It has been said, that our 'Adam and Eve came 
 out of Newgate.' If so, it was because that prison had been 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 crowded with the best men of their day.' 1 Yes, our ancesti 
 whether English, Scotch, Irish, Dutch, French or German, was 
 mostly composed of Refugees, but Refugees from Oppression, 
 not from Justice ; of Exiles, but Exiles for unquenchable vir- 
 tue, not for crime ; of Convicts, but Convicts of resistance to 
 arbitrary power, not of violation of righteous Laws. It is rea- 
 dily seen, that the descendants of such men, imbibing their prin- 
 ciples with their own first perceptions, would not readily yield 
 to any attempt to oppress them, however slight the occasion. 
 To be taxed five pence or five pounds, without representation, 
 involved alike, in their estimation, the destruction of their Rights 
 as freemen. To be compelled to sustain a creed, which they 
 approved or disapproved, was alike, to them, a violation of the 
 Rights of conscience. They took up arms, not to gain, but de- 
 fend, their freedom ; not to oppress or conquer others, but to 
 sustain themselves. It was on Principles, long cherished, fully 
 weighed, clearly understood and dearly loved Principles, they 
 opposed the arrogant claims of a corrupt Ministry, a pensioned 
 parliamentary majority, and a vain, ill-advised monarch. It 
 was on Principles held as their birthright, they volunteered, ill 
 supported, meanly equipped, barely armed, with troops of raw, 
 undisciplined militia, or untrained continental recruits, to en- 
 counter the well appointed Regiments of England's Armies. It 
 was on Principles, not on expediency, nor on compromises with 
 tyranny, they laid the foundation of a nation, when they disco- 
 vered their Rights, as colonies, were disregarded ; and amidst 
 discouragements the most appalling, difficulties the most over- 
 whelming, and trials the most depressing, they pressed forward 
 to the attainment of their ends. 
 
 2. In suggesting some of those Principles of our Revolu- 
 tionary Fathers, to which it is profitable to direct your attention, 
 I am embarrassed, on the one hand, by the want of time to do 
 every topic justice, and on the other, by the unsuitableness of 
 tome, for a very extended notice on such an occasion and in 
 this place. I cannot, however, be persuaded, that it is unbe- 
 fitting the solemnities of this day or the nature of my office, in 
 a few words, to remind you of the principles of Patriot' 
 Honor , Industry and Simplicity, on which tho^e men acted . 
 
li 
 
 while mainly endeavoring to set before your minds, a view of 
 their sentiments on Religion and Religious Liberty. 
 
 Seldom has the world witnessed greater sacrifices, more single- 
 hearted devotion, and untiring zeal, in any cause, than was 
 evinced, by our ancestry, in securing our Liberties. Whether 
 by contributions of property, risk of Life, or that which is dearer, 
 Reputation, ihey uniformly present the most conclusive evidences 
 of the possession of most exalted patriotic motive. When call- 
 ed to the council or the field, they obeyed ; and yet we read of 
 no indecent haste to run before they were called. There was 
 honor attached to their office, but there was danger too. He 
 who, to-day, might be haranguing a popular Assembly, the Con- 
 tinental or State Legislature, on the Rights of the colonies, or, 
 sword in hand, with his ragged half-armed Volunteers, charging 
 on some British Regiment, might to-morrow, be in the hold of 
 a Prison-ship or swinging to the gibbet. We read of no time- 
 serving demagogues, no fair spoken, loud tongued declaimer for 
 the votes of the people, no self-seeking, over-reaching, grasping, 
 ambitious leader of a party. Oh no ! there was one end ; their 
 country's — one motive ; a desire to serve, not to rule her — one 
 party ; Freedom's Band against the world — one glorious, anima- 
 ting contest, to outstrip each other in patriotic deeds — one no- 
 ble achievement; the foundation of a nation — exciting all, en- 
 couraging all, arming all with unshaken fortitude, persevering 
 labor, unconquerable bravery, inextinguishable zeal. I should 
 delight to tell you of that most venerable of all Assemblies, the 
 old Continental Congress. Oh, how it should warm our affec- 
 tion for our Fathers and awaken gratitude to God, to remember 
 that chosen Band ! How should our cheeks be suffused with 
 shame, to reflect that some of our modern Hotspurs, bloated 
 sots, fierce, angry, contentious, abusive, swearing, gambling, 
 ambitious Demagogues, call themselves the successors of Han- 
 cock and Adams, Witherspoon and Wythe, Carrol and Harri- 
 son, Franklin and Lee ! How solemn their Assemblies, when 
 men spoke bold, daring words, doubtful whether a Patriot's 
 fame, or a Traitor's fate awaited them ! How did the lip qui- 
 ver, and almost refuse to utter the dictate of the heart, when 
 the bold proposition to sever the band uniting the colonies to 
 
12 
 
 England, was discussed ! It is said, when assembled on the 
 4th July, 1776, to sign that Instrument, for many minutes a 
 solemn stillness reigned throughout the house. None moved, 
 none spoke. Yet those men were not alarmed. No ! they 
 were oppressed with the sense of the solemn, almost awful res- 
 ponsibility which they incurred. They were determined, and 
 the more so, because they were deliberate. They were delibe- 
 rate, and the more so, because they were serious. And it was 
 in this spirit, the great body of those who participated in that 
 memorable contest, thought and acted. 
 
 I had intended to say nothing on this occasion of the courage 
 and patriotism of our Fathers, as illustrated in the camp and on 
 the bloody field of battle. But I cannot forbear a brief allusion 
 to the career of one, whose name and connexion have introduced 
 to my notice, his generally unknown and unappreciated character. 
 
 Of two sons of a gentleman of Frederick county, the eldest 
 embarked in the cause of American freedom, on the first alarm 
 which echoed through the land from the cannon of Lexington 
 and Bunker Hill. He sustained from the first, a high reputa- 
 tion for all those virtues, which distinguish the patriot warrior. 
 In the attack on Quebec, he won a most eminent fame, though 
 destined, by the errors of others, to a painful captivity in re- 
 ward for his courage. After release, he again volunteered in 
 his country's service, and by numerous instances of distinguish- 
 ed valor in the sphere which he occupied, rapidly rose to dis- 
 tinction. By the death of his Father, placed in possession of 
 considerable property, after providing for his sisters, he invested 
 his all in money and embarked it in his country's cause. He 
 fell at the battle of Camden, mortally wounded. Robbed of his 
 papers and money, he was unable during his days of decline, to 
 furnish his executors with the evidence of his claims, or even 
 administer to his own wants. A generous enemy supplied his 
 necessities, and after a protracted season of suffering from his 
 wound, in the effort to reach Charleston, travelling with his bro- 
 ther and servant, he died on the banks of the Santee. His 
 country supplied a grave, his brother averted from his fame the 
 reputation of having owed to charity the comforts of a sick and 
 dying bed, but for his active services, his patriotic zeal, his ge- 
 
13 
 
 nerous devotion to the cause of American freedom ; this pool 
 tribute of one, but lately a stranger to his name, is all his me- 
 mory has received. Col. Porteiifield conferred distinction on his 
 native State, on his country, on her armies; to this time that 
 country has hesitated to acknowledge the claims of his heirs, to 
 what justice, to say nothing of gratitude, should long since have 
 granted. 
 
 3. Let us remember the Honor, Simplicity and Industry 
 which marked the character of our Fathers. 
 
 There may have been, in the army, some misled by that false 
 code of honor, which values the mere puff of a depraved public 
 sentiment, and the dictate of a gothic spirit, more highly than 
 the Law of God and man, the ties of friendship or the tender 
 endearments of the domestic circle. But such men were rare. 
 The honor, of which I speak, was evinced both in public and 
 private life, by a strict regard for truth, and an honest discharge 
 of all obligations. In those days, neither the character nor 
 name [in the modern acceptation] of Defaulter, was known, and 
 our Fathers lived and died in blissful ignorance of that new 
 mode of paying national debts and securing absolution from so- 
 lemn contracts, called Repudiation. True, their almost empty 
 coffers afforded few temptations to the defrauder, but their mo- 
 netary agents, far from evincing a grasping avarice for what was 
 their country's, oftener sacrified their property to aid her cause. 
 
 We love to dwell on the frugal, simple and industrious habits 
 of those worthy men. And yet it deserves remark, that those 
 who most diligently cultivated such habits, were the least charge- 
 able with a species of modern frugality, consisting in withhold- 
 ing donations to charitable objects; a species of modern simpli- 
 city, curtailing those expenses, which promote moral improve- 
 ment ; and a species of industry, too common in our day, work- 
 ing seven days instead of six of every week. 
 
 Labor was then esteemed no disgrace, whether it were labor 
 with the hand or of the head. Schemes of rapid accumulation 
 by a species of gambling called Speculation in Lands and in 
 Stocks, trading on a capital twice or thrice the value of the es- 
 tate, on which it was borrowed, and living in luxury at the ex- 
 pense of creditors, were all undiscovered modes of procuring or 
 
14 
 
 exhibiting wealth. The device of increasing property by break 
 ing, and growing rich while ostensibly poor, were equally among 
 the unresolved mysteries of a future day. " Hard hands and 
 brawny arms, the dingy workshop and dusty field, soiled and 
 weather-stained garments, on which mother earth had embroi- 
 dered her own honors," were not then considered the marks of 
 disgrace, when connected with honest, brave hearts, pure life 
 and christian conduct; but rather the insignia of true nobility, 
 the trophies of manly achievement. Nor was it alone dislike to 
 England which then inhibited the foolish aping of foreign man- 
 ners, and the contemptible fondness for swaggering Lords, up- 
 start authors, mustachioed Counts, or penniless, profitless Barons, 
 which have so disgraced boasted Republican Americans. Whim- 
 pering sentimentalism, affected graces and superficial accomplish- 
 ments were not the adornings of our mothers, nor idleness and 
 extravagance the attributes of gentility among our fathers. 
 
 4. I proceed to offer some illustrations of the religious Prin- 
 ciples of the men of the Revolution. And here in the abun- 
 dance of materials offered for my use, I find myself at a loss to 
 select and present with necessary brevity, even the most brief. 
 
 Of the piety of Gen. Washington, we have scarcely room for 
 the least doubt. In private life, he lived a christian, according 
 to the most uniform testimony. During his military career, ha- 
 rassed and perplexed by the immense and arduous duties of his 
 station, he found time for the service of God, in secret. He 
 was no stranger to his public worship. He looked with child- 
 like confidence to the God of nations, to imbue him with wis- 
 dom and strengthen his arm. Among others, our deceased 
 friend has left the testimony of personal observation and know- 
 ledge, to the truth of these statements. But I shall not under- 
 take, by the exhibition of individual characters, to illustrate the 
 position before us. While w r e should find many lamentable op- 
 posites to the pious character of Gen. Washington and others, it 
 may be clearly established, that the public sentiment of the day 
 was deeply religious, and not merely religious, it was christian. 
 The official documents emanating from the Commander-in-Chief 
 and from the Old Congress, even regarded as insincere, (which 
 few however are disposed to assert) must still constitute conclu- 
 
15 
 
 sive confirmations oi the christian sentiments of the people at 
 large. For even supposing few or none of those, who held the 
 language, about to be quoted, were sincere in its use ; that they 
 did hold it, and that in their most solemn official declarations, 
 evinces a conviction on their part, that it was agreeable to the 
 people. I believe they were sincere, that is, the larger part, — 
 that the Congress as a body, and Gen. Washington and his im- 
 mediate advisers and associates, were deeply imbued with ge- 
 nuine heartfelt piety. 
 
 Not to tire your patience, with extensive quotations from the 
 various documents before the public, I shall select a few, most 
 emphatically confirming the truth of the position now taken. 
 When resigning his command of the Army, Gen. Washington 
 says, " I accepted the office with diilidence in myself, but with 
 confidence in the patronage of Heaven, and my gratitude for the 
 Interposition of Providence, increases with every review of the 
 momentous contest." In his inaugural address, he avows his 
 " fervent supplications to that Almighty Being, who rules the 
 Universe, who presides over the councils of nations, and whose 
 providential aids can supply every human defect, that His Be- 
 nediction may consecrate the liberties and happiness of the peo- 
 ple of the United States and enable every instru- 
 ment employed in the administration of the government, to exe- 
 cute with success, the functions allotted to his charge." lit 
 assures himself that in this homage to God, he expresses the 
 sentiments of the Legislature and the people. He records his 
 solemn belief, that every step by which " the people had ad- 
 vanced to the character of an independent nation, had been dis- 
 tinguished by some providential agency." 
 
 The Continental Congress, among the earliest important en- 
 actments, appointed a " day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer 
 to Almighty God, that the Colonies might ever be under the 
 care and protection of a kind Providence ; that America might 
 soon behold a gracious interposition of Heaven." "And," 
 says Ramsay the Historian, "since the Fast of the Ninevitcs, 
 perhaps there has not been one, which was more generally kept 
 with suitable dispositions, than that of July 20th, 1775. It \\ as 
 no formal service, The whole body of the people felt the im 
 
16 
 
 portance, the weight and danger of the unequal contest in which 
 they were about to engage ; that every thing clear to them was 
 at stake ; and that a divine blessing alone, would carry them 
 through it, successfully. This blessing they implored with their 
 whole soul ; impressed with an humble confidence in the mercy 
 and goodness of that Being who had planted and preserved 
 them hitherto, amid many dangers, , in the wilderness of the new 
 world." It was no mere formality that the signers of the De- 
 claration of Independence used, when they expressed " their 
 firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence" and so- 
 lemnly appealed from the decisions of earthly potentates, to the 
 supreme judgment of the King of Kings and Lord of Lord:;, 
 on the purity of their motives and rectitude of their intentions. 
 Two years after the appointment of " the Day of Fasting 
 and Prayer" the Congress unanimously adopted a Preamble and 
 Resolutions appointing a day for " solemn Thanksgiving and 
 praise," from which, a few disjointed extracts will fully bear out 
 the character, already assigned the authors of the Instrument. 
 " It is the duty of all men, to adore the superintending Provi- 
 dence of Almighty God, to acknowledge, with gratitude, their 
 obligations to him, for benefits received, and to implore such 
 further blessings as they stand in need of: And it having 
 
 pleased him in his abundant mercy, to smile on us in 
 
 the prosecution of a just and necessary war, for the defence 
 
 and establishment of our inalienable Rights and Liberties 
 
 to prosper the means used for the support of our troops, and to 
 crown our arms with the most signal success : It is therefore 
 recommended to the Legislative or Executive Powers of these 
 United States, to set apart Thursday, 18th December next, for 
 
 solemn Thanksgiving and praise that the good people 
 
 may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate 
 
 themselves to the service of their Divine Benefactor may 
 
 join [to this] the penitent confession of their manifold sins, 
 
 and their earnest and humble supplication that it may please 
 God, through Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them 
 
 out from remembrance That it may please him to 
 
 prosper the trade and manufactures of the people, and the labor 
 of the husbandman ..... and the mean; of Religion, for the 
 
11 
 
 promotion and enlargement of that Kingdom, which consisietfc 
 in Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." Once 
 more, in the minutes of this venerable body for October 12th 5 
 1778, there occurs the following noble expression of sentiment, 
 " Whereas true Religion and good morals, are the only solid 
 foundation of public liberty and happiness : Resolved that it be, 
 and it is hereby earnestly recommended to the several States, to 
 take the most effective measures for the encouragement thereof, 
 and for the suppression of theatrical entertainments , horse-ra- 
 cing, gaming and such other diversions as are productive of idle- 
 nessj dissipation j and a general depravity of principles and man- 
 nm." Such documents can hardly be expected from our pre- 
 sent Legislatures, either State or National. They would now 
 perhaps excite the derision of many : but such should remem 
 ber that they themselves are accustomed to honor these men foi 
 their wisdom, courage, prudence, zeal and patriotism. Here we 
 see the secret source of these virtues — " They trusted in God. 1 ' 
 Let men deride and mock: it has been well observed, "Had 
 our forefathers been less puritanical, we had been less free.' 1 
 
 In view of the conflicts of party, the animosities and jealous- 
 ies of opposing factions, the embarrassments of our affairs, the 
 venality and corruption of too many in high places, the trucu- 
 lency and slavishness of aspiring demagogues, the violence and 
 brutality of mobs, the contempt for sound principles of morality, 
 and pure, undefiled religion, openly professed by many, and 
 practically evinced by nearly all in power ; the frauds, the em 
 bezzlements and the wasting, practised by monetary agents of 
 Government, and the sad prospects of the future ; is it not our 
 duty and our privilege to fly to the Hope of the whole Earth, to 
 look for help to the King of Kings, to cast, in humble believing 
 confidence, the destinies of our beloved land on Him, who was 
 the God of our Fathers, and should be our God and our Guide ? 
 Oh that there were a heart in the people to ponder these things — - 
 to " cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils" and make 
 the God of Israel their strength and their salvation ! 
 
 5. Our forefathers were not only religiously disposed them- 
 selves, and, as we firmly believe, many of them, personally, de- 
 cidedly and fervently pious ;— but they were firm defenders and 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 faithful expositors of the Rights of conscience. All denomuia 
 lions of christians shared in the common danger and the com 
 mon labor. Remembering that most galling yoke of British 
 tyranny, that mitigated, but not destroyed, remnant of oppres- 
 sion and papal imposition, a Church Establishment, with its ex- 
 action of support for a creed they did not receive, and a worship 
 they could not practise ; — they determined, that by constitution- 
 al provision, no right of conscience, respecting Religion, fret 
 dom of speech, the press, or of petition, should ever be cm 
 tailed or impeded by any legislative enactment. It is important 
 to observe, that although a few individuals were found, espe- 
 • icily in the State of Virginia, (which had had experience oi 
 some of the benefits and evils of an Established Church,) some- 
 what disposed to modified forms of a union of Church and 
 State, and in Massachusetts, in which a very great uniformity 
 of creed, removed some of the chief obstacles to a support of 
 religion by Law; yet the great body of the people, most reso- 
 lutely insisted on securing to all, full rights of conscience, im- 
 parting to no man nor set of men the power of " lording it over 
 God's heritage." The Presbyterian and (out of the Establish- 
 ment in Virginia) the Episcopal clergy, — though naturally sup- 
 posed by many, to sympathize with an institution in which then 
 respective maternal churches of Scotland and England, were so 
 nearly interested ; — so far from opposing, sustained the political 
 action on this important subject. The Presbytery of Hanover, 
 ihen comprising in its bounds, nearly all the Presbyterian clergy 
 and churches of Virginia, in four or five able and eloquent me- 
 morials to the Virginia Legislature, not only deprecated all Lt 
 gislative interference in matters of faith, but on the agitation of 
 some Bill, proposing to incorporate the ministers of Religid 
 the various denominations, then prevalent, and by general as- 
 sessment, provide for their support — the Presbytery most deci- 
 dedly and unanimously entered its solemn protest. These im- 
 portant papers are in the office of the Clerk of the House of 
 Delegates of Virginia. They have been published, but are too 
 long for any thing farther than \\n> reference. Such were the 
 entiments oi oui forefathers generally, throughout the Uni< 
 d we beli< peak the language oi all Evan 
 
tentant Christians now, when we say such are still our sentim 
 
 II. But time would fail me, and your patience be exhausted, 
 by presenting any farther illustrations of the principles of the 
 men, who wrought our national deliverance. Let rae now brief- 
 ly present, in the life and character of Gen. Porterfield, a 
 specimen of those men, and the operation of those principles, 
 which I have feebly attempted to pourtray. 
 
 His life, though long, presents but few very striking histori 
 cal reminiscences. Of his birth, parentage and education, but 
 little need be said. He boasted of no nobility, and needed to 
 boast of none, higher than that, which his life illustrated. His 
 family depended, for respectability, on no empty titles, conferred 
 by vain conceited princes, to prop the factitious dignity of 
 thrones, based in blood, robbery and oppression. To say he 
 was born on the 22nd February, 1752, in the county of Frede- 
 rick, one of four children, two sons and two daughters, who sur- 
 vived their parents, inheriting from them, a moderate sufficiency 
 of this world's goods; a name unsullied by disgrace, and hon 
 by the best of reputations, that of the unbought, but 
 ndeserved esteem of those who knew them ; and princi- 
 ples of virtuous conduct, sufficient, if practised, to continue 
 them in the possession of their heritage, — to say this, is to say 
 ill, that the scanty materials to be gathered after the lapse of 
 nearly a century, enable me to say : and yet this is enough 
 Had parents been less virtuous, less honest, less worthy, the 
 son might have been all he was, with no reflection on his cha 
 racter, by reason of their infirmity. Had they been, of all man 
 kind, the purest and best, their virtue could not have wiped from 
 a degenerate son, one spot of any moral impurity, by which h<= 
 might have polluted himself. 
 
 He entered the army 1776, and remained rising in reputation 
 and rank till the capture of the American forces at Charleston, 
 when he was destined to exchange service in his country's cause 
 with prospects of personal honor and glory for suffering a pain- 
 ful captivity. Let us never forget, that such suffering is equally, 
 if not more fully, declarative of genuine patriotism, and as 
 worthy, if not more worthy of our grateful remembrance, than 
 the active and brilliant career of the successful warrior, The 
 
20 
 
 captive pines in tedious and often degrading confinement with 
 nothing to alleviate his condition arising from reflections on the 
 personal fame and glory of his life ; while the fortunate soldier, 
 for all his hardships has a consolation and support, in Ihe double 
 motive of contributing to his own and his country's glory, ami 
 honor and safety. 
 
 After the war, he removed to this county, where he formed a 
 large circle of friends and acquaintances, was often honored by 
 the marks of esteem tendered by his fellow-citizens, and, though 
 it may have been the misfortune of some, either to have been 
 incapable of appreciating him or ignorant of his value, none of 
 those who knew, failed to respect and honor, if not to love him. 
 He was a patriot, such as I have endeavored to describe. 
 Through life, whether in public or in private, he bore, for him- 
 self, by his conduct, one uniform testimony, that the ends at 
 which he aimed, were those of his country's welfare. At the 
 call of that country, in peace, he performed, with marked fideli- 
 ty and interest, the duties of a magistrate, and when age dis- 
 qualified him longer to serve, personally, he aided his jurs 01 ^ in 
 office, by his counsel to them and the influence of his exans^ 
 on the public sentiment. When war once more threatened de- 
 solation to our land, he readily offered himself to aid in perpe 
 tuating, as he had aided in securing, our National Rights. 
 Through a long and severe, but to him, by party ascendancy, 
 unsuccessful political contest, party scrutiny could find nothing 
 in his character, on which, its malignity, even had it existed, 
 might delight to dwell. He was a gentleman. He was em- 
 phatically a good specimen of a race of men, — leaving, it is to 
 be feared, more descendants than successors, — who were polite 
 without hypocrisy, sensitive without fastidiousness, genteel, 
 without foppery, candid without rudeness, hospitable without 
 ostentation, condescending without meanness, kind without flat- 
 tery, generous without extravagance, and economical without 
 penuriousness. His was the gentility of a Virginia gentleman, 
 when the name was an honorable appellation, and not a mere 
 complimentary epithet. 
 
 As parent, husband, master, those who had reason to know 
 him best, need no eulogy at my hands, and the sanctity of do- 
 
21 
 
 mestic relations may not be disturbed, when public opinion can 
 be satisfied as to what does not concern the public, by the full 
 satisfaction afforded in what does. 
 
 With all his estimable qualities, in the performance of all hi: 
 duties, in the consciousness of his well-founded claims on the 
 approbation of his fellow-men ; he yet " thought on his ways'' 
 in the Judgment of an Omniscient eye, and realizing his condi 
 tion in His sight, as a helpless lost sinner, fled for Refuge and 
 Help to the " Hope set before him in the Gospel." He profess 
 ed several years since the experience of a renewed heart, and 
 the enjoyment of peace of conscience, assurance of God's 
 Love and hope of final acceptance through the merits and medi- 
 ation of Jesus Christ. He united himself to this Church, and 
 continued to his death, consistently with his profession, a Chris- 
 tian and a Presbyterian. He loved the Church of his choice, 
 her scriptural doctrines, her simple modes of worship, her Re- 
 publican form of Government, but he was no bigot. His was 
 an intelligent choice and he could afford to be liberal. His faith 
 was not a mere speculation, nor was his confession merely or- 
 thodox. He added his personal testimony to that of the men 
 of his generation, to the value of the Gospel of Christ, and ever 
 diligently impressed on others, reverence for the authority and 
 obedience to the commands of God. His last appearance in 
 the house of God, (a few Sabbaths previous to his death,) was 
 rendered memorable in the minds of all who saw him, by his 
 audible testimony of his appreciation of sentiments, on the ob- 
 ligation of the Sabbath law, and the blessings it confers, which 
 the preacher expressed. Long may this community enjoy the 
 recollection of his virtues and the influence of his example. 
 
 III. It remains forme to close this discourse, with a few prac- 
 tical remarks, suggested by topics, now presented to your con- 
 sideration. 
 
 i. We should be mindful, that the permanency and purity of 
 our political institutions, must depend on the will and character 
 of the people. 
 
 We call ours a government of laws, but of what force is a 
 law, to one, who is at once law-giver and subject, beyond his 
 own will r 
 
,ay be, that a written and recorded purpose is properly 
 egarded as possessing, formally, a more binding power, than 
 mere assertion ; but, morally, llie one is as binding as the other. 
 As with individuals, so with communities. The law is an ex- 
 pression of popular will. 
 
 We infer the character of our forefathers from their institutions. 
 It remains to be seen how far those institutions correctly declare 
 the character of their posterity. When the popular will becomes 
 corrupt, the best laws and constitution remain a dead letter, are 
 set aside by mobs, or formally displaced, for legalized exposi- 
 tions of error and authoritative decisions of wickedness. Let 
 principles, opposed to those of our forefathers, take possession 
 of the popular mind, let irreligion and infidelity succeed piety and 
 the fear of God, selfish and party motives usurp the place of 
 patriotism ; let men become enamored of a religion of mere 
 form and show, which substitutes devotion to a saint, for the 
 worship of God, and makes obedience to a Foreign Prince, ob- 
 ligation paramount to all other, let the moral restraints of the 
 Bible be sundered, and men permitted to follow the dictates ol 
 inclination; then you may give written constitutions and libra- 
 ries of laws to the flames. All history proves, that men cannot 
 be controlled without religion of some sort, unless it be by the 
 strong hand of Tyranny ; and that, unless that religion be that 
 of God's revealed word, it ever will become the colleague of 
 superstition, and the subservient tool of demagogues and des- 
 pots. Already have wc had fearful illustrations of the truth of 
 these remarks, in the insubordination of some portions of our 
 country. — When the wicked bear rule the land mourneth, and it 
 matters not whether the wicked be one or ten thousand Rulers. 
 l[ our institutions are preserved in practice as well as theory, 
 the people of this country must be virtuous as well as intelligent. 
 Mere civilization, the progress of science, the improvements in 
 art, the extension of commerce, the perfection of machinery, 
 will but advance men in wealth, to enervate them by luxury, and 
 condense our population in vast masses of commercial and ma- 
 nufacturing communities, to fret and ferment in their own cor- 
 rupting intercourse, and exhale the fetid effluvia of every moral 
 abomination. Unrestrained by moral principles, undirected by 
 
sound Bible truth, the people ot this country, by all then in 
 crease in numbers, wealth and prosperity, will find the veryiun- 
 rlamental institutions of liberty perverted to their destruction. 
 The right of suffrage will become the high road to power, for 
 men of lieentious principles and ambitious designs, to " wither 
 with their frowns, and bruise with their iron feet our fair inheri- 
 tance." Liberty of conscience, will be but a liberty to violate 
 all law, human and divine, and to substitute the riotin 
 anarchy for the regularity of peace and good order, and the will 
 of infuriated mobs, for the constitutional decisions of upright 
 judges. Freedom of speech and the press, will only serve to 
 agitate the elements of society, with the bitterness and rancoui 
 of party spirit, the mutual denunciations of the most flagitious ; 
 till the public sense of propriety, decency, honor, politeness and 
 purity, shall have been blunted, and men shall be prepared to 
 witness with the insensibility of brutes, relieved only by a pue- 
 rile curiosity, the most terrible scenes of outrageous cruelty, 
 bloodshed, and oppression. Let us then remember our Fatln i 
 and seek to preserve, by the constant inculcation and practice of 
 their principles, the valuable legacy of their labors, their prayers 
 and their wisdom. 
 
 2. Let us ever observe the proper distinction between tin 
 htical and ecclesiastical interests of society. Our venerated 
 friend, in the only publication from his pen which I was ever per 
 milted to see, has presented us the proper view of this subject. 
 Let the State ibster and protect the Institutions of the Gospel ; 
 let the Church yield to good Laws and sound principles of Jus- 
 tice, her constant support. Because Church and State are dis- 
 united, they are not independent of each other. Let us guard 
 carefully against the error, to which some have been driven, in 
 presenting as hostile interests, the governments of men and the 
 government of God. True Religion, in its precepts and prac 
 tices, is the best morality — no man, imbued with the Spirit of 
 Christ, becomes a worse citizen, in any relation of life. But 
 while we believe it a duty of patriotism, as well rs Religion, to 
 aid in promulgating the truths of the Gospel, the Stat< 
 must guard with a jealous eye, every tendency to a union, whi< h 
 has uniiormly subji n.enlo the impositions ■■! impostui 
 
24 
 
 dictates of spiritual despotism, and the exactions of insatiable 
 avarice. I fear some signs of the times. — I fear the overween- 
 ing spirit of the Roman Jesuit. — I confess, I tremble for my 
 country, when, by the machinations of one, and the mere re- 
 quest of another of the Emissaries of Rome, the Bible, the bul- 
 wark of our morality, the basis of our Laws, the charter of the 
 rights of conscience, is discarded from the public schools of 
 two of the largest cities oi our Union. Let none construe this 
 as a specimen of religious bigotry. That God has his people 
 among the professed followers of the Pope, I have no doubt, — 
 but I have as little, that the unchanging and unchangeable tem- 
 per of the Jesuit, is evinced in the present schemes of the Roman 
 Catholic Hierarchy in our Land. Rome can afford to conform to 
 any Government, and adopt the peculiar spirit of any age, for the 
 great principle of Jesuitical devices is summed up in " Oaths 
 with Mental Reservation," and " no Faith to be kept with Here- 
 tics." The facts of recent occurrence in New York and Phila 
 delphia, shew what Rome is, when she has the power, to over 
 throw our liberties, and how soon the power may be hers, none 
 can say : " The price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance." 
 
 3. Our subject, to-day, in connexion with the brief notices of 
 Gen. Portekfield, instructs us in the value of the Gospel. 
 
 Godliness is indeed profitable for all things. The principles 
 of faith and practice, revealed in this blessed book, can alone 
 conduct man safely through time, can alone open to him the en 
 during source of Eternal felicity, when time shall be no more. 
 
 Guided by them, man is happier in the humblest sphere, al 
 lotted by God, than he can be, without them, in the loftiest. 
 Their possession adds weight to character, firmness to resolution, 
 and energy to enterprise. They invest man with a dignity be- 
 coming his origin, and commensurate with the aspirations of his 
 immortal soul. They impart security to our rights, faithfulness 
 to Rulers, obedience to the ruled, order to society, peace to com- 
 munities, and to every individual, fully under their control, that 
 priceless possession, a contented spirit. But if, " in this life 
 only, we have hope, we are of all men most miserable." Re- 
 ligion confers all its temporal blessings as meie incidental results 
 of the great purpose oi its Revelation, It derives all the conso- 
 
25 
 
 lations, by which it soothes in adversity, sustains in affliction, and 
 gladdens in prosperity, from the unseen and " Eternal weight of 
 Glory," to which its promises direct the eye of the christian. 
 We are furnished in the closing years of our venerable patriot, 
 an instructive lesson on its power over calamities, which few 
 know by experience, and none can otherwise properly estimate — 
 calamities, whose experience can never instruct others to endure 
 them, and for which, the greatest moralist of antiquity, in one 
 of his most celebrated essays, vainly endeavors to offer allevia- 
 tion ; — I mean of course, the calamities of old age. Long since 
 he had reached that period when he seldom greeted a cotempo- 
 rary of his youth. For many years he had enjoyed the occa- 
 sional company of his old friends, or his compatriots in arms, 
 but latterly, he stood amongst us almost alone, as the represen- 
 tative of his generation and his station in the Army. Had he 
 died fifteen years ago, he had died an old man and full of 
 years ; he had then fulfilled the allotted period of human life. 
 Few linger so long as he did. Old men called him an old man, 
 and the middle aged said " he was old, when we first knew 
 him." He had seen three generations of our race. He con- 
 nected us with men whose names are known to us in histories 
 published long before our birth, and with events, whose record 
 has already become defaced by time. He had survived the 
 partner of his bosom, longer than the average period of human 
 life. Of all his cotemporaries, not one of his family, had now, 
 for several years, remained to cheer his solitude. Long since 
 he had buried from his own house, her, who had rewarded his 
 fraternal protection and love, by the tender and care- assuaging 
 assiduities of sisterly affection. By reason of their own age 
 and infirmities, the visits of old soldiers had become fewer and 
 farther between, till the last venerable relic of his early friends, 
 paused for the last time on his threshold and with trembling 
 knees and palsied tongue and feeble hands, the final adieus of 
 earth were pronounced. His own infirmities increased, as his 
 comforts decayed. Even the affection of children and grand- 
 children could contribute but little, to relieve sorrows, of which 
 they could know nothing, or remove griefs of whose effects only, 
 they could be informed, What natural sympathy can there be 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 between the vigor of mature life or the joyousness of youth, 
 and the decrepitude of age ? That he valued the efforts of his 
 affectionate offspring, whenever made, to impart cheerfulness to 
 his solitary hearth, peace to his mind, not yet quiet under the 
 pains of bereavement and the accumulated cares of a long life, 
 and comfort to a body waxing feeble by disease and often more 
 a source of grief than of happiness ; that he was rejoiced by all 
 of tenderness, care and filial respect and kindness evinced, none 
 knew so well as they who saw the cheerful smile with which he 
 greeted, or the tearful regret with which he parted from them. 
 But none knew better than he, that no earthly affection, how- 
 ever pure and tender, could successfully administer to the sor- 
 rows of an old man, bending under the pains and infirmities of 
 fourscore years and ten. His eye had grown dim, his voice was 
 feeble, his hand trembled with age, his feet and ankles grew 
 weak, his palate refused to taste, his ear grew tired with hearing, 
 desire had failed, "the silver cord was loosed, the golden bowl 
 broken, the pitcher was broken at the fountain, and the wheel at 
 the cistern." Food failed to nourish as well as to gratify. 
 Reading ceased to instruct by reason of a decaying memory, 
 and almost ceased to amuse, by reason of the melancholy con- 
 viction, that it could no longer instruct. The affairs of the 
 neighborhood, the news of the day, had but little interest for 
 one w r ho had outlived his cotemporaries, and to whom most of 
 the present generation were unknown, or only known by their 
 ancestors. 
 
 With so many bodily infirmities, aggravated by the gradual 
 undermining of an incurable disease, his chief, if not only bodily 
 pleasure, arose from the temporary alleviation of suffering, pro- 
 vided by the skill and tender care of his physician. For many 
 years his greatest mental pleasure had been, to recall and detail 
 to willing auditors, the interesting scenes of his youth and man- 
 hood. But this resource of amusement to the aged, gradually 
 failed. His own narratives lost interest to himself by repetition, 
 however interesting to others. He never desired death, however 
 tired with life's toils and sorrows, and uniformly expressed his 
 cordial submission to the will of Him who gave, to be exercised, 
 in taking what he gave, at His own good pleasure. And yet, 
 
27 
 
 with all the aggravations of his infirmities, and all the diminu- 
 tion of his comforts, he was not an unhappy man. What then 
 was the source of his consolation, the basis of his happiness ? 
 He was a Christian. Yes my hearer, this blessed Gospel can 
 shed its consolations around that dreary winter of Life, infirm 
 old age, when the supplies diligently sown in spring, nurtured 
 in summer, and matured in autumn, no longer administer com- 
 fort. Earth may be barren, " friend after friend depart," happy 
 associations be changed to sources of misery and regret, the 
 keener by as much as once they afforded a greater degree of de- 
 light ; each limb, each sense, each faculty, become but the me- 
 dium through which grief assails the sufferer ; but when " flesh 
 and heart fail," he who has made God his refuge and leaned for 
 support on the Redeemer of God's people, can say, God is the 
 strength of my heart and my portion forever. Though each 
 chosen source of earthly pleasure may have failed and all the 
 springs of comfort be frozen, there is One who assures us " I 
 will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Even down to gray 
 hairs, lam He. Such, my hearer, were the consolations which 
 it was the privilege of our venerated friend to enjoy. What a 
 precious Faith, how rich this Gospel in all necessary to make 
 our sorrows less ! But it is not exhausted. Its blessings are 
 still abundant. God is rich in Mercy to all that call on Him, to 
 all that call on Him in sincerity and truth. Though millions 
 have been supplied at this fountain, its streams are sufficient for 
 millions more. To the young, the middle aged, and the aged, 
 it says, " Come ye to the waters, yea come, buy wine and milk, 
 without money and without price." " Whosoever will, let him 
 come and take of the water of Life freelv." 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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