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 SERMON 
 
 OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH 
 
 OF 
 
 'EX-PRESIDENT POLK, 
 
 DELIVERED ON SUNDAY, THE 24X11 JUNE, 1849, IN THE riR«T 
 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. E. BALLANTINE, 
 
 Tht Pastor. 
 
 Published by request of a number of gentlemen, memberi of the 
 Church and Congregation. 
 
 WASHINGTON : 
 
 PRINTED BY ROBERT A. WATIRI. 
 
 1849. 
 
 1. « 
 

 
A SERMON 
 
 THEN SHALL THE DUST RETURN TO THE EARTH AS IT WAS; 
 AND THE SPIRIT SHALL RETURN TO GOD WHO GAVE IT. 
 
 Ecclesiastes 12: 7. 
 
 This is the inspired preacher's account of that which follows 
 upon the decease of a l;.iman being — when death cornes over 
 this curious and wonderful work of God, the body, and, in the 
 beautiful language of the same writer, " ijie silver chord is 
 loosed, and tlie golden bowl is broken, and the pitcher is 
 broken at the cistern, and the wheel is broken at the fountain." 
 It is the fact of death wjiich afTect? the inspired man ; and he 
 pursues the history and destiny of him who dies, no farther than 
 to exhibit stront;ly the utter breaking up of his earthly life. He 
 does not mention here, though he does elsewhere, (v, 14,) our 
 future retribution, nor the resurrection of the body ; but only the 
 wide, and, so far as existence in this world is concerned, the 
 Jiual separation of our material and our imniaierial parts. 
 " Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was ; and the 
 spirit shall return to God who gave it." 
 
 My hearers, a solemn providence of God, which it is cur 
 duty, and I trust our dlspnsi:ion seriously to regard, ca'ls our 
 attention aLiain to thi^ "reat and solemn and cnninu^ iheme of 
 death. It is a providence wl-.ich speak-; to the INaiion; for he 
 who, not four full inonihs ago, retired from the Presidential chair, 
 his term of office having closed, has now also, ha\iig readied 
 the limit fixed by his Creator, departed this life. JAMKS K. 
 POLK is no longer among the living. Hi> nioital ])ari i;ag 
 
returned to the earth as it was, and the spirit has returned i& 
 God who gave it. 
 
 And if all citizens of our republic should hear and attend to 
 the voice of this providence, it is certainly becoming and ap- 
 propriate for us to do so, not only as citizens of Washington 
 among whom were spent the years of his public life; but as 
 members of this congregation, with whom for years he habit- 
 ually worshipped, and from the midst of whom he so lately 
 withdrew. That last Sabbath of his attendance in this sanctu- 
 ary, interesting, then and since, has by his death, become in- 
 vested with new and affecting interest. It was the fourth of 
 March last, the last day of his Presidency. His term of office; 
 which was commenced with a solemn oath in the name of his 
 Maker, closed while he was engaged with us in the services of 
 God's worship : — certainly a sacred, solemn moment, when the 
 holy employment might stimulate the sense of accountabilitys 
 and the desire of God's acceptance, and excite to prayer in be- 
 half of the country which he loved, and the government of 
 which he had administered with so much assiduity, energy, and 
 ability.* We remsraber with sad interest now, his retiring at 
 the close of the services from the seat which he had so long 
 occupied ; and how he gave the parting hand to those who were 
 around him. It was not without deep emotion that he said to 
 an elder of the church, whom he met among^the last in the aisle, 
 as he shook his hand, and called him by name — " I shall never 
 worship with you again." A prediction how soon and sadly 
 confirmed ! 
 
 Friends : The sentiments of a funeral oration, the phraseology 
 of friendly eulogy, would accord neither with our present busi- 
 ness nor its sacred object. We are before God, engaged in the 
 duties of his worship. It is our business to hear for our profit 
 
 *Tbe author of the Sermon is miBunderstood if ho is considered as expross- 
 iBg in these worda the Bcntiments of a political patty. He finds his senti- 
 menti Btrongly expressed by the political press without distinction of party. 
 
God's truth as spoken in liis word, and by his sovereign provi- 
 dence. That truth 1 am sure has already reached your mind* 
 and hearts, and has met with serious responses there. 1 leel dis- 
 posed to commune with you, my hearers, in these responses which 
 your hearts have made. It shall he my endeavor this morn- 
 ing to give expression to sonic of the thoughts and Jcclings 
 which have arisen in the bosoms of us all in connection with 
 this providential event, and, by expressing, to make them more 
 clear, and, as far as they arc correct, more deep and pt-rmanent 
 within us. 
 
 First. You have certainly felt with fresh force the truth of the 
 irresistihlc poiver and xmdistingnishing work of death. 
 
 Y'ou knew it before — that dealii, commissioned by the 
 authority and sustained by the Almighty power of God, bears 
 down to the earth all without exception — that if you should 
 look into the grave, you would find that " both the small and 
 the great are there." You have stood in the grave-yard and 
 said, " life's poor distinctions vanish here." You have sung the 
 words : 
 
 " Princes this cla}' must bo your bed 
 In spite of all jour lowers ; 
 Tiio tall, the wise, tiie reverend iicad 
 Must lie as low as ours." 
 
 But when recently startled by the news of the deaih of one 
 whom we so lately saw occupying the place and exercising the 
 authority of President of the United Slates, then you saw these 
 truths, you fcU these sentiments more strongly. They were 
 enforced by the dignity o(h\m, whom death had made its mark. 
 Many of life's distinctions are factitious. We know that the 
 rich are not any better than the poor. As republicans, we 
 undervalue the distinctions of hereditary nobility. We believe 
 that sovereign power, descending by the law of primogeniture, 
 may come, and often has come, into the hands of thoic who 
 without that title would never have been trusted to guide a 
 boat or a plouch. But we cnnnot feel that the honors and the 
 
6 
 
 and the authority which intelligent American citizens give to 
 him whom they select to be their President, are so unmeaning 
 and so irivial. We feel that a President of the United Slates 
 stands out even from the mass of the great and the distinguished. 
 Few, very few are they whose fortune ic has been to be invest- 
 ed with that exalted dignity. Certainly, if any of life's distinc- 
 tion can avail a man with the Great Disposer of all tilings, this 
 greatest earthly dignity would do so. But does it thu5 avail? 
 Ycu get your answer in the death of President Polk. This 
 great distinction — substantial as in some respects it is, in refer- 
 ence to the course of Providence, and the law of death, is, we 
 sec — we feel — nothing, — nothing. Realize then more than 
 ever, your liability to die. Who of us is exempt ? Who stands 
 so h'gh that death cannot reach him? Who has surrounded 
 himself with so lofty battlements that death cannot scale them? 
 with so thick walls that death cannot penetrate them? We all 
 stand in on open field, unprotectetl ; and fatal daris are falling 
 thick around us. The earthly house of our tabernacle may be 
 dissolved at any mouient. We may go our way, use all our 
 wisdom and strength, and make our lives " as sure as we can :" 
 we cannot moke them svre. On the list of the dead for the cur- 
 rent month stands the name of a President. Oilier names, not 
 thought of now, may be there, ere the last sands of tl)€ month 
 are wasted. 
 
 Secondly. The decease of the late ex-President has excited a 
 feeling of regret as if it came too soon. We frtl that death cut 
 him off prematurely, in the midst of life ; when much, very much, 
 that was desirable was still before him untasted and unenjoyed. 
 He retired from the highest public to the highest private station 
 on earth, and couid scarcely liave felt himself settled in his 
 home, that home furnished with every ret]uisite for refined en- 
 joyment ; when he was summoned to eternity. We could have 
 wished that he might have been allowed to spend those years 
 of (hgnified leisure which bi<> past activity and honors had pre^ 
 
pared for him— the evening years of life, lengthened out as now 
 our summer evenings, to their greatest possible liaiit. When 
 ihe hours of business have passed, and we feel entitled lo take 
 repose; — when the sinking sun has relaxed the intensity of its 
 heat, and the rising zephyrs have freshened and sweetened the 
 air; — when the light is becon)ing more and more mellcnv, and 
 the evening clouds, catching the sun-beams, are tinged with 
 rich and richer and then fading hues; when inanimate na- 
 ture seems to breathe with fresh freedom, and all animated 
 nature is drinking in enjoyment, and the twilight lingers long 
 on the quiet landscape as if willing to remain until the next 
 advancing day: — Such, say our hearts, is that evening of life 
 which is to be desired — the period which seems made for en- 
 joyment, for which all life's previous years of effort and endur- 
 ance are only a preparation and provision. They are the for- 
 tunate who experience the pleasures of an honorable and quiel 
 old age — they are unfortunate who are deprived of them. 
 
 Let us examine this feeling of our hearts; there is much in 
 it calling for reflection. So far as it is comiecicd in our minds 
 with the death of ex-President Polk, it implies a conviction that 
 a man may have been through all the grades of civil honor in 
 our country ; may have held the highest trusts which his fel- 
 low citizens can put into his hands; and, having completed his 
 public career, may have retired with honor to private life, and 
 still die prematurely — may die regretted as unfortunate. Hold 
 fast that conviction — look at it. ^Vhat estimate do we, when 
 we thus tliink and feel, put upon the greatest worldly power and 
 honor ? Why, that they are in themselves, when considered as 
 the great portion and boon of life and existence insufiicient, un- 
 satisfactory — that there is son)eil)ing still bc}ond them to be 
 desired. Hold fast this view of the world's greatest bestow- 
 ments. It is not always tli^t we can take it — not always tliat 
 we can be convinced, at least practically, that it is true. But 
 a ray of li^ht from eternity falling upon the open tomb enables 
 
us to grasp it. These great objects of pursuit then, so splendid 
 in the prospect, to which men devote their hves, and for which 
 some sacrifice their conscience and their peace — the holders of 
 which are envied and flattered and sought unto as the arbiters 
 of worldly good ; may, we believe, still leave the soul empty, 
 hungry, starved, to a premature death. And what then, I ask, 
 is the world ? What is the worth of the whole of it, if the 
 greatest of its possessions and honors are worth so little, and have 
 so little power to make the soul happy ? Let us hold fast that 
 truth — let us keep that impression. It is precisely the senti-^ 
 ment of the author of our text, when he says of the world, when 
 taken as the portion, " vanity of vanities ! vanity of vanities ! 
 all is vanity !" 
 
 And if this be true of life's day, may it not be true also, in 
 the same sense, of life's evening ? Are the years of old age 
 necessary to a happy life or existence ? How iew of those 
 who reach them, find them to be that season of enjoyment 
 which they had expected. Some bitter ingredient spoils the 
 cup and makes it poison. The pressure of various adversity — 
 perhaps poverty, or disappointmeiits as to expected sources of 
 enjoyment — sore bereavements with which the old must become 
 familiar, because these are the price of their protracted years — 
 the ingratitude of some whom we have befriended — the in- 
 creasing disregard of a young and bustling generation — the very 
 irksomeness of leisure; these and other causes make age, that 
 hoped-for period of sweet repose, far oftener than otherwise, 
 most burdensome and intolerable. And what are certainly the 
 far advanced years of Ufe? The Psalmest says, (Ps. 90 : 10,) 
 " The days of our years are threescore years and ten, and if by 
 reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength, 
 labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away." The 
 preacher also, in the verses immediately preceding our text, calls 
 the years of advanced age, " evil days'' — " years in which thou 
 shalt say, I have no pleasure in them'' — when ''desire shall 
 
9 
 
 fail." Who would noi lallicr wish lo he pafhercd to the torub 
 before these years of imbecility :ind pain ? He who dips wlu-n 
 age is yet in its greenness, may have heen merciftilly •' tnkcn 
 away from the evil to come." 
 
 We must take right views of life. It is not designed to be 
 the time of our chief joy. It is a time for trial and for seivice, 
 and for preparation for eternity. We are servants of our Maker 
 and Master. No man has a right to say while life lasts, that he 
 lias nothing to do but to be iiappy. We are also imperfect, 
 sinful creatures, candidates for a world of eternal retribution ; 
 and we may be both punished for our sin and disciplined for 
 our eternal good, as long as we live in this world. (Jod has 
 also largely mingled joys in the cup of every period of life ; and 
 he offers besides, both to young and old, the everlasting bless- 
 ings of Heaven. He, therefore, who faithfully does life's duties, 
 who submits to God's disciplinary dispensations, who receives 
 thankfully God's good gifts, and especially who " lays up in 
 store a good foundation against the time to come, that he may 
 lay hold on eternal life" — he may die early, die in youth, and 
 yet be justly esteemed truly fortunate. 
 
 Thirdly. The death of ex-President Polk has (pdckcne.d 
 into new exercise our respect for his personal character and 
 moral worth. 
 
 Death throws the mantle of kindness over even great defi- 
 ciencies of moral character. The deceased ex-President needs 
 no such act of charity. There was in him a purity of life, a 
 dignity of moral character, worthy in themselves, of all praise — 
 how much more when they adorned the highest station in our 
 country, and now command the testimony and the eulogy of all ! 
 Who does not feel a patriotic pride and joy, when he hears the 
 spontaneous expressions of respect from all sources for the per- 
 sonal character of the deceased, and reflects upon the influence 
 of such a character on the side of virtue upon public sentiment 
 and upon the standard of character in the holders of oflice and 
 
10 
 
 honors in our country. Salutary in the highest degree — sani- 
 tary — conservative of the civil and social institutions of our 
 country, is private personal virtue in our public men. The in- 
 duence, and therefore the responsibility of those in places of 
 honor, is in this respect great. The blessing of God rests upon 
 all public men of virtuous, exemplary lives. God give us al- 
 ways virtuous Presidents and Legislators, and office holders of 
 every grade ! They are among the greatest blessings which he 
 can confer upon this great and growing people. 
 
 President Polk was not a member of the visible Church of 
 Christ, but he was a sincere believer in the Bible, and, as you 
 all know, a regular and devout attendant upon the worship of 
 God on the Sabbath. He was an attentive hearer of the 
 preached word ; and he felt the importance of religion to society 
 and the temporal well being of men, and of personal piety to 
 every individual as a qualification for eternal happiness. 
 
 FourlJdy. And here I must give expression to another feeling 
 which has arisen in all our hearts — it is that of earnest hope that 
 the deceased ex-President may have secured, upon the terms of 
 the Gospel offer, the best, the eternal blessings oj true religion. 
 Most sincerely do we all who have heretofore, in this holy place, 
 united with him in the contemplation of these offers and these, 
 blessings, wish, that the repentance and the faith which God 
 requires, and which God gives, may have brought him to the 
 peace, and the joy, and the hope, and the eternal salvation 
 which are by Jesus Christ. Of the closing scene, all that we 
 have as yet learned is in the following words : " The last hours 
 of the ex-President were serene and happy ; ana in his dying 
 moments he gave evidence of a heart at peace with God and 
 man."* His spirit has returned to God who gave it, at whose 
 bar aloue it is amenable. I give expression to the feelings of 
 our hearts, in justice to ourselves and to the truths of the Bible, 
 
 * Since tl)i« sermon was preach«d, the interestinp history of the last daja 
 •jf President Polk has been mueh more fully made public. 
 
n 
 
 and also for our admonition and spiritual benffit. Let us de- 
 tain these earnest wishes and hopes a moment. They arc based 
 
 on solemn truths — truilis which must not be lost sight of no 
 
 not amid the splendors of the sunset of an honored life and a 
 virtuous character. You have not, my hearers, lost sight of 
 ihem. You do now bring the matter of preparedness for death 
 with all distinctness before you. You se|)arate it from all other 
 circumstances of life. You believe that the hi;^hest honors of 
 the world do not constitute preparation for death, cannot com- 
 mand the acceptance of God; that the President before God is, 
 as such, no more than the befrgar ; that every man, whatever 
 his worldly station, must come up for himself to the ^reat Gos- 
 pel proposal, and penitently in view of sin, and believin^;ly in 
 view of Christ, lay hold upon it; that in dcliiult of this, a man 
 rniyht gain the whole world hut must lose his soul ; in default 
 of this, whatever else a man may look to as a means of repose 
 for eternity, he will find the bed shorter than that he can stretch 
 himself on it, and the covering narrower than that he can wrap 
 himself in it. Oh, let the impression of these truths be now 
 deepened upon our hearts. It is in view of these truths that we 
 perceive the exact meaning and force of tiie preacher's words 
 already quoted, " vanity of vanities, all is vanity." Are there 
 before me men occupying posts of trust and honor, the <'ift of 
 their fellow citizens, or of our republican government ? 1 speak 
 to you. Are you communing with death on this occasion? 
 God has given solemn lessons to those who fill the Presidential 
 chair. The two men who were successively elected to that 
 high seat before the present honored occupant, are both already 
 among the dead. Harrison had just taken possession of it, 
 Polk had just retired from it, when they were summoned before 
 the Supreme Judge of all. In the last eight years, the step has 
 been short from the chair of state to the bar of judgment. I 
 call upon the men of mature age wlm arc present. Perhaps, 
 respected friends, you remember that on the last Sabbath of the 
 Jast year, which was also its last day, an appeal was made f.o 
 
12 
 
 •^nch as you from lliis pulpit — an appeal to those over whose 
 heads grey heirs were scattered here and there — a warning that 
 it was time to act promptly aud decisively on the matter of re- 
 ligion. On that occasion, President Polk v/as sitting in his 
 place among us. Just half a year has passed, and on this the 
 last Sabbath of this short period, our attention is arrested and 
 our hearts are solemnized by the death of him, the most dis- 
 tinguished and honored one of those who in that discourse were 
 particularly addressed. An awe comes over my spirit. 1 am 
 warned that the time for exhorting and for acting may be short. 
 God speaks to you now from the grave of him who was then 
 your fellow hearer. He says, Prepare to die. Watching for 
 your souls as one that must give account, knowing that when 
 your dust too shall return to the earth, your spirits too must re- 
 turn for judgment to the God who gave ihein, 1 repeat the di- 
 vine warning, Prepare to meet your God. Prepare speedily to 
 meet him speedily. Before the next half year shall have run 
 its round, and the last Sabbath oi this year shall throw its light 
 through the windows of this our hallowed house of prayer, who 
 of us — oh, who of us, shall have followed the lamented ex- 
 President to his long home. 
 
 Fifthly. To one more sentiment of our hearts, and to one 
 only, I will give expression — it is that oj sincere and tender 
 sympathy Jor the htreaved consort of the honored dead. And 
 here, truly deep and strong are the feelings of our hearts ; for 
 we not only share in the universal sympathy which this afflictive 
 stroke has excited, but we cherish towards the afflicted object 
 of that sympathy, the affections and the memories of christian 
 love and fellowship. We attempt no estimation of her bereave- 
 ment. We feel that this stroke must have made much of life, 
 present and prospective, a blank — a dreary blank. But pleasant 
 and sustaining are the truths and consolations o^ religion. 
 
 " Religion — richest blessing given — 
 Fountain of all our joye below, 
 Bids mortals lift their eyes to Heaven 
 In sconep ofdnrknoBS and of woe." 
 
It lias alreuci) been said, and those wlu) arc bereaved shoulil 
 remember it, that this life is not designed to be the place of out 
 truest and best happiness. If it were — if in this life only wr 
 had hope, how many of us would say, we of all men arc ihr 
 most miserable ! We have liere indeed no continuing city ; 
 but, the Apostle adds, we seek — he means, not uncertainly, 
 but witli the assured hope of ultimate success — wo seek one to 
 come. " There remaineth a rest for tiie people of God." 
 
 " Beyond tliis valo of tears 
 There is a life above, 
 Unmeasured by the flight of years, 
 And all that lifo is love." 
 
 Heaven will richly compensate for all the privations and sor- 
 rows of life. If our afflictions work in us " the peaceable fruits 
 of righteousness," they will also "work out /or us a far more 
 exceeding and eternal weight of glory." To her, therefore, 
 whom this sudden stroke of divine Providence has deprived of 
 the desire of her eyes, who so long and so lately had a place in 
 our sanctuary and at our communion table, the savor of whosf 
 christian character was as ointment poured forth in the exalted 
 place which she lately occupied ; — to her we tender our christian 
 sympathy ; and we pray that, according to the rich and sure 
 promises of the Bible, God may be her God botii now and for- 
 ever. 
 
I