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PREACHED IN THE

FIEST CHUECH, CHAELESTOWN, MASS.,

SEPTEMBER 17, 1854,

WILLIAM I. BUDING-TON.

PHILADELPHIA:
PRINTED BY ISAAC ASHMEAD.
1854.

A FAREWELL DISCOURSE.

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I'REAUilKl) IN THE

FIEST CHUECH, CHAELESTOWN, MASS.,

SEPTEMBER 17, 1864,

WILLIAM I. BUDINGTON.

PHILADELPHIA:
PRINTED BY ISAAC ASHMEAD.
1854.

Charlestoion, September 25, 1854.
Rev. W. I. Budington,
Dear Sir, At a meeting of the Members of the Congrega
tion connected with the First Church in this City, held on the
24th inst., the undersigned were appointed a Committee to solicit
for the press, a copy of the Sermon preached by you on the after
noon of Sunday, 17th inst.
In performing the duty assigned them, the Committee beg to
express their conviction, that your compliance with this request
will be a source of sincere gratification to each member of the
Society with which you have been so long associated.
With true regard,
Your friends,
James H. Goodrich, ~)
L. A. Huntington, > Committee.
Richard L. Saville, )

Philadelphia, September 28, 1854.
Gentlemen,
I thank you for the compliment implied in
requesting my Discourse for the psess, and if in your judgment it
would be of any service, or even act as a reminder of myself and
the days that are past, I cannot refuse it, and could not, if it were
a still more hasty production than it is. It is but just, however,
inasmuch as it was written amid the distractions incident to my
removal, that in complying with your request, I should give it to
the press, not for publication, but for distribution in the congrega
tion, and among such as feel an interest in our common concerns.
With sincere affection,
Your friend and servant in Christ Jesus,
William I. Budington.
James H. Goodrich, Esq.,
L. A. Huntington, " \ Committee.
Richard L. Saville, "

A DISCOURSE.

2 Cor. xiii. 11.

" Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort,
be of one mind, live in peace; and the god of love and peace
shall be with you."

These beautiful words of the Apostle Paul, so
appropriate to this occasion, express what is in my
heart, and what I wish most of all to say : " Be per
fect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace ;
and" — how sweet the promise! — "the God of love
and peace shall be with you !"
The day to wliich I have often looked forward,
when I should bid adieu to these familiar and much-
loved scenes, when the last prayer and the last sermon
of my pastorship should be delivered, has come — how
unexpectedly and how painfully ! The fifteen years
of my ministry have fled like a dream ; and I wonder
at myself and the position which I occupy to-day.
But it is not my intention to spend this hour in
saddening recollections of the past. Regrets are use
less, and more, they are out of place. As Christians,
we must believe that the future is brighter than the
past has been or can be. And while we yield to
nature her graceful and necessary impulses, we will
check and control them by the subduing and glorious
thought that God reigns, and this is enough to still

8 A FAREWELL DISCOURSE.
our hearts now, and fill with light that boundless
future into which we are advancing.
I would gladly have avoided this duty, partly be
cause I would not say farewell, and partly because it
is unpleasant to allude, in a public manner, to one's
personal concerns. It is difficult to do this so as not
to offend against the proprieties of sacred times and
places. And then it seems to me a just conception of
the ministry of Christ, sinks the individual who min
isters in Him who sends, and the office he appoints.
But I have felt that a few parting counsels might be
of use, and conscience binds me to the discharge of
the duty, in the sacrifice of the feelings that hinder.
I. Let me first say a few words of my ministry, in
respect to its subject matter.
Every earnest recipient of Christianity in a sense
reproduces it; and it was meant that it should be so.
For the religion of Christ is not a stereotyped form,
outside of us, and unchangeable as the everlasting hills ;
it is rather a hfe poured into the life of the world,
transforming and exalting the life of men. No man, I
think, can be a true and living Christian who does not
receive Christianity thus. No man can be a true min
ister of the religion of Christ, who, in addition to this
personal experience, has not wrought over the system
of doctrine he receives, and adjusted it to whatever
else he holds to be true, so as to incorporate it with
his views of Providence and of life, and all his habits
of thinking. It is in this way only that he can re
produce Christianity as a living force for this genera
tion, and apply it to the actual wants of men, and to
the life they are actually living.

A FAREWELL DISCOURSE. 9
But this is no easy work. The middle way of
safety lies in this, as in all other matters, between
Scylla and Charybdis, i. e., between two opposites;
either of which is easy to find, but equally sure to
destroy. On the one hand, it is an easy thing to take
Christianity, as we find it laid down in books, and
received by tradition. But this is no better than a
mechanical operation. It is to repeat what we are
taught — to hand over dead forms and documents —
neither receiving nor imparting quickening power. It
is easy, thus, to serve in the oldness of the letter-
But the true ministry of Christ is " not of the letter,
but of the Spirit; for the letter killeth, but the
Spirit giveth life." "The words that I speak unto
you," said the Master, "they are Spirit, and they are
life." So, again, on the other hand, it were easy to
depart wholly from the written Word, and, under the
plea of progress, take our lessons from reigning sen
timents of the day. But this is to miss altogether
the power of God. In place of applying a remedy to
the wants and woes of men, it is to aggravate them.
There is no meaning in the ministry of the Gospel, and
no occasion for it, unless there be a revelation of the
will and grace of God to man. This revelation it is
the office of the minister to preach, and, with a living
knowledge and experience of it, to apply to living
men, and to the everchanging aspects of human hfe.
This it has been my humble but sincere endeavor
to do — with what degree of success I leave, and must
leave to God, but with the consciousness of great im
perfection. My conscience would not allow me, on
the one hand, to take the results of other men's
2

10 A FAREWELL DISCOURSE.
labors, and preach to you the system of doctrines I
have found drawn out in our venerable creeds ; nor
has it, on the other hand, allowed me to reject them
as filled with the exploded superstitions and errors of
past ages. But receiving them as substantially true
expressions of the " faith once delivered to the
saints," I have not only felt free, but in duty bound
to examine and re-construct them, in the light of
God's Providence, as reflected from my own mind and
your felt necessities, Believing as I do in the ortho
dox interpretation of Christianity, or, in other words,
that the promise of Christ's perpetual presence with
His church, implies so much at least as this, that
the great body of his true disciples, in all ages, should
be kept in the unity of a saving faith, I have endea
vored to preach it, not in the forms in which the piety
and wisdom of other generations embalmed it, but in
those which were truest to my personal convictions,
and best adapted, in my judgment, to bring to bear
upon you the power of a vital Christianity. It has
been the labor of my hfe to preserve, undiminished
and unimpaired, the orthodoxy of our fathers, and to
unite with it whatever the Providence of God has
done for us, to illustrate its life-giving truths, and to free
it from the mis-statements and mis-conceptions which
human infirmity has not unnaturally mingled with it.
In a word, I have not insisted so much upon a sys
tem of theology, drawn from the Bible by learned and
able minds, as upon the Bible itself. And this ex
presses, as well perhaps as I can express it, my con
viction of duty, and my aim as a minister. And I
will add that the Scriptures have grown upon my ad-

A FAREWELL DISCOURSE. 11
miration and love, the more closely I have studied the
real meaning which has been locked in the sacred
page ; and my reverence for the divinity of the book
has increased as I have observed unlooked-for corres
pondencies, and on all sides a wholesomeness of in
struction, and a fulness of wisdom, which are incon-
testible seals of its Divine Authorship. I believe that
I have discharged my duty, my whole duty as a min
ister, in thus striving to make you acquainted with
the meaning of the Bible, rather than those dogmatic sys
tems which bear the signature of great names, but which
are the subject-matter of enduring controversies. My
belief is, that the difficulties which lie in the way of
practical men, inquiring for practical religion, do not
come from the Scriptures themselves, but from those
additions and modifications which men have judged it
necessary to make for the purposes of theological
science. To make my meaning plain, let me instance
the great doctrine of Human Ability and Divine Sove
reignty, the Trinity in Unity, and Regeneration by
the Spirit of God — doctrines by which more difficul
ties have been awakened, and more schisms effected,
than by any or all others ; and yet it is my belief that
these difficulties have not been caused by the doctrines
themselves, as they have been taught in the Scriptures,
but as they have been laid down by men in their for
mulas and systems. I have not preached these doc
trines to you in what is called, although incorrectly,
doctrinal discourses ; and yet I should regard it as a
direct impeachment of the very life of my ministry,
to say that I had not preached these doctrines. , I be
lieve that I have preached them, and preached them

12 A FAREWELL DISCOURSE.
more than they who have chosen the other method,
while by presenting them in practical issues, just as
they lie in the Scriptures, with the shadings and limi
tations in which they are actually found, I think they
have been less liable to the objections of earnest minds,
and to opponents, oftentimes, have not seemed to be
the doctrines they have been wont to reject as alike
unscriptural and unreasonable.
But while this has been my course, and for these
reasons, I have not preached against creeds and sys
tems of theology. On the contrary, I believe them
to be useful and necessary. I would only keep them
in their proper places, which I maintain to be books,
and lecture-rooms, and theological circles, and the
instruction of those more advanced Christians who,
"leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, go on
unto perfection." I wouldmot have them the ordinary
subjects of that Christian pulpit which is the suc
cessor of Christ's seat upon the Mountain side, or the
boat pushed from the shofe from whence he taught
the people the way of life and salvation. My behef
is, that metaphysical doctrines, instead of being a fit
ting introduction for most people to Christianity, rather
block the way ; and that if men would only receive
practical Christianity, and in the way appointed, from
the Scriptures themselves, they would be much better
prepared for metaphysics, and much more likely to
agree as regards them. A people should be indoctri
nated, but first of all and chiefly, in the doctrine of the
Scriptures themselves, and after this, as far as may
be, in those other doctrines which are founded upon
them. In a word, what I insist upon as the minister's

A FAREWELL DISCOURSE. 1<5
great duty and office, is, that he discriminate and
teach his people to discriminate, as sharply as possi
ble, between the simple and saving truths of the
Gospel, in regard to which there ought to be and may
be unity of faith, and all those teachings of men,
whether true or false, with regard to which there may
be, and probably will be, great differences of judg
ment. In this way it is possible, and only in this way,
I believe, to unite fidelity to God's truth, with charity
and skill in rightly dividing the word of life.
II. I have occupied more time with tliis first point
than I intended, and I will pass to another and kindred
subject, viz., my public relations, as a minister, to
other denominations.
Our Protestant communities, throughout Christen
dom, are greatly divided into jealous and contending
sects. This is the great reproach Romanism casts
upon Protestantism, and, in some measure, justly.
Our own population in Charlestown is, to say the
least, as much divided in this respect as any other.
Now, a minister who has an earnest faith, indeed any
faith at all, has a difficult work to do, in combining
charity towards others, with faithfulness to himself
and the Master he serves.
Here, again, the true course lies between extremes;
and either extreme is so easy to find and to follow,
that indolence and easiness of temper, are under great
temptations to take one or the other. If a minister
chooses to be a party-man, he has a plain and beaten
track to pursue; it will take but httle learning, or
talent, or piety, to succeed, and there will be not a few
to applaud. Or in the indulgence of an easy good

14

A FAREWELL DISCOURSE.

nature, he may set lightly by all forms of religious
doctrine, hold that one ism is as good as another, and
by making his own religion a cipher, add the benefit
of his charity to every denomination alike. On the
one side is bigotry; on the other, latitudinarianism.
On the one side is sectarianism ; on the other, is a
meaningless and mischievous charity.
Now, between the two lies the path of an intelli
gent and conscientious minister. He must be frank
in the avowal of his sentiments, and faithful in the
maintenance of them. And with this he must couple
fairness towards the opinions of others, with honor
and affection for their persons.
Far be it from me to imply that I have realized
this in my own ministry. It is enough for me to
state what my principle is, and what my aim has
been. I should be doing injustice, however, to my
grateful convictions, did I not give utterance to my
belief, that it is quite a possible thing to unite faith
fulness to the highest style of an earnest and aggres
sive Christianity, with honor, courtesy, and affection,
in the treatment of men. Indeed, I will go farther
and say, that in order rightly to defend and adminis
ter Christianity in such a community as ours, such a
combination of opposite virtues must take place, and
that a minister's success will depend not alone upon
an earnest advocacy of the truth, but upon the charity
he bears towards the persons of those from whom he
differs. I have always said1, that such a union of faith
fulness to Christ, with affection to men, is a difficult
task, and it is also encompassed with dangers. The
minister may, and commonly will be suspected by over-

A FAREWELL DISCOURSE. 15
zealous friends, and his reputation for soundness may
for a time suffer. But if, like the noble-minded Paul,
it be with him " a very small thing that he should be
judged of man's judgment," he will ultimately rejoice
even in the ordeal of censure through which he has
passed. If at an earlier period of my ministry here, my
reputation for orthodoxy fell under suspicion and re
proach, I cannot now regret the course that occasioned
it, but am rather disposed to look upon it as evidence
that forsaking the beaten track of partizanship, I
endeavored to unite truth with charity.
I have, indeed, nothing to boast of before God ; on
the contrary, it becomes me to humble myself. I
have not been as faithful as I should have been, in
preaching the Gospel, nor as tender and sympathizing
as I should have been towards those whom I hold to
be in error. Much less have I united the two as I
ought. But I do not regret that I attempted such a
union ; on the contrary, if I have done any good in
this community, it is because of such an attempt, sin
cerely made, though imperfectly executed.
I am happy in bearing witness to the uniform kind
ness and respect with which I have been treated in
this community, by all denominations, and not the
least by that portion of our own Congregational body
with whom we are on terms of non-communion, in
spite of a common polity, the endeared associations of
the same order, and the hallowed memories of the
same Puritan ancestry. I have not been conscious
that this friendship has been procured by any with
holding of the truth on my part, or that it has been

16 A FAREWELL DISCOURSE.
intended on theirs, to abate from the vigor of a Chris
tian fidelity. On the contrary, I am persuaded that
I never could have won the friendship of honorable
minds, if I had been capable of such weakness or
duplicity. The position which I have occupied as
the pastor of the most ancient, and, with the ex
ception of the Old South, the only Congregational
church which has retained the original faith, has
necessitated, on my part, a constant and painful study
of the Unitarian controversy. While I have been
forward to ascribe to our Unitarian brethren the
graceful scholarship and eminent virtues by which
they are so much distinguished among us, I am bold
to say no one has been more free than I, to assert and
defend those vital doctrines of Christianity from which
they have publicly and lamentably departed. If I had
gained the esteem and commendation of one citizen, by
withholding or compromising a single doctrine of the
Gospel, I should esteem it a disgrace to my character
as a Christian minister, and even as a man. My chief
pleasure in acknowledging the numberless courtesies
I have received, springs from the persuasion that the
fidelities of an Orthodox ministry do not conflict with,
but rather multiply and heighten the amenities of hfe,
in all neighborly and social relations.
III. The next subject upon which I had designed
to speak respects the choice of my successor.
This is always a severe trial to the intelligence and
virtue of a congregation, and by it the unity of
churches has not unfrequently been broken up into
lamentable schisms. My deep concern in your future
prosperity, my anxiety that you should make a ju-

A FAREWELL DISCOURSE. 17
dicious choice, and that the harmony which has so long
and so happily subsisted among you should not be
interrupted, makes me desirous, now, before any ques
tion of fact has arisen, or any feeling been evolved to
blind your mental perception, to call your attention to
one or two considerations which I deem of essential
importance. I am the more forward to speak upon
this subject, because I fear that a false taste has been
growing in our churches as respects ministerial quali
fications. So eager and absorbing has been the de
mand for popular talents in a minister, that questions
respecting voice, and gesture, and animation, and
rhetoric, have been not only proposed first of all, but
most of all insisted upon. I have no disposition to
depreciate these gifts; I would that I and all my
brethren had them. But in comparison with the well-
trained virtues of the Christian character and the
Christian scholar, they fade away into nothingness, —
nay, to earnest souls, looking up for the word of life,
they sicken and repel, as stones in place of bread.
The two indispensable qualifications of a minister are,
1st, a Christian heart, — that he be no hireling, — that
he seek not yours, but you; and 2d, that he have
good sense, and the learning requisite to instruct you
and your children in the oracles of wisdom. I put
these two qualifications together because they should
be regarded as equally necessary. Not every good
man should be your minister. Nor every wise one.
Tou expect, and rightfully, to be instructed by your
pastor, and it is the appointment of God that you
should not only love him for his goodness, but respect
him for. his worth. You do not need, you ought not
3

18 A FAREWELL DISCOURSE.
to expect a man of shining gifts. But you should be
thankful and satisfied if you obtain a minister, who,
upon trial, commends himself to you as a Christian
man, loving you and the work of Christ, and a man
so endowed by nature and study as to answer to the
apostle's description, " apt to teach."
If in addition to these, the great pre-requisites, your
minister be possessed of the minor qualifications, be
thankful and value him the more ; but if otherwise,
care not for it, remember that you have the substan
tial blessing, and having this you can well lack the
merely ornamental.
If now you agree with me in these views, you will
show it by doing two things, which is all in this regard
I ask you to do.
First, you will all be united in seeking a minister
having the two-fold qualification I have described, and
none of you will be satisfied with any man, however
fascinating in his address, without this. And secondly,
when the majority are satisfied with such a man, you
who may find yourselves in a minority will not make
your minister's deficiency in any of the lesser virtues,
a reason for withholding your concurrence from your
brethren, or your confidence from him.
You will not understand me as teaching that a man
ought to allow a majority or any number of men to
choose a pastor for him who does not possess the
radical qualifications of a minister of Christ. But I
say if this qualification be possessed, it is the duty of
a minority cheerfully to acquiesce. It is a duty
imposed not less by the spirit of democracy than by
the laws of Christ. And they who thus yield their

A FAREWELL DISCOURSE. 19
own preferences to the common will, may, in the end,
find that they have sought their own, not less than
others' good.
Some who did not vote for my settlement here in
1840, have ever been among my best friends and
most active helpers. So it may be again.
IV. I have yet a few words to say respecting the
progress of those improvements which you have lately
begun with so much spirit.
As you are aware, I have taken great interest in
them, and do now rejoice in them as evidence that
you love and honor the services of religion, and instead
of giving to God that which costs you nothing, are
ready to give Him the best you have. I know these
are external improvements, but they are not the less
important on this account. So long as we have souls
in bodies, — spirit allied to matter, a vital and healthful
religion will manifest itself in decorous forms and
attractive houses of worship. I have taken peculiar
delight in this sacred edifice. Its ancient style of
architecture, of which the reigning ideas are a massive
strength and simple beauty, comport well with the
faith and order of our Puritan churches. I hold that
the nurture and gratification of a just taste is not
unworthy of a place among the objects of a Christian's
regard. Nor am I ashamed to confess how much I
have enjoyed beneath these arches, as the rays of the
descending sun have imparted to them an infinite
variety of light and shadow. It is an influence which
like that of nature, moulds without their becoming the
object of thought.
I have looked forward to my Sabbaths here with

20 A FAREWELL DISCOURSE.
pleased anticipations, and my recollections of these
Sabbath-hours will be increasingly pleasant to me, as
I shall picture to myself the subdued light and solemn
stillness of this consecrated spot! Long may you, my
friends, and your children after you, enjoy these plea
sant scenes, and may this house be associated in your
minds, both in this world and others, with the holiness
of worship, and rich disclosures of the revelation of
God! But one thing remains, and this is that these grdunds
be enclosed, substantially and becomingly, and that
this acre of God be planted with trees, that shall serve
to shade the house of His worship, and beautify the
hill consecrated in history, as the burial-place of the
heroic men and women who founded this church and
settled this town^ The first tree a filial piety prompts
you to plant should be an oak, in. memory of that
venerable tree which grew upon this hill, and was
long known as the Charlestown Oak, beneath which
this church assembled of old, and where the Gospel
was long preached. That oak deserves a remembran
cer here, and by the men of this generation. And
perhaps there is no tree, if we except the Cedar of
Lebanon, that better deserves to be regarded as a
sacred tree, for it is associated with venerable memo
ries of the Old Testament history. Will you allow
me also, in this connection, to ask, that while you are
engaged in planting and beautifying this enclosure,
you would also plant a tree for me. It would gratify
me to know that some tree, bearing my name, was
drinking the dews of heaven here, and deriving nour
ishment from this soil, which might flourish as I

A FAREWELL DISCOURSE. 21
decayed, and live long after this frame had returned
to dust.
But I am admonished that it is time to draw these
remarks to a close. I must bid away a crowd of
thoughts ; — these parting minutes must be devoted to
a theme, in comparison with which all others sink
into insignificance. We are about to separate as
pastor and people. But there is a time coming when
we shall meet again. I do not refer now to the occa
sional visits, when I shall hope to see your faces. I
refer to the grand assemblage of the redeemed before
the supreme Shepherd and Bishop. My heart's desire
and prayer to God for you is, that you may be saved ;
and that we may all meet again in heaven. But as an
intelligent and honest believer in the Scriptures, I can
hope for this, only so far as we severally have been
obedient to the Gospel, which I have preached and you
have received. I desire to remember and to be impress
ed with the fact, that the bare preaching of the Gospel
of Christ will not save me, for after having preached to
others, I myself may be a castaway. I can be saved
as you, and only as you can, by faith and repentance,
and that holiness of living into which they grow. I
cannot presume to use the language of the Apostle,
when bidding farewell to his Ephesian brethren, he
took them to record, that day, " that he was pure from
the blood of all men ; for he had not shunned to declare
unto them all the counsel of God." I am too sinful
a man to say this, and my ,ministry too imperfect and
unworthy. But I can " take you to record, this day,"
that I have sincerely, earnestly and affectionately set
before you the way of life by Jesus Christ, and besought

22 A FAREWELL DISCOURSE.
you to be reconciled to God through Him. I can say,
that "I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or
apparel." I know that I cannot be mistaken in this,
that I have not sought yours, but you. I believe, too,
that my ministry has been self-consistent and uniform
in this one great teaching, that the imperative and
sole condition of God's acceptance and eternal life, is
character — that character which is modelled upon
Christ's and which is formed by faith. My anxiety
has not been to have you baptized, or to see you
numbered among Christ's professing people and coming
to his table, although I have sincerely desired this.
But over and above this, and as the one thing needful,
I have insisted upon the religion of the heart, mani
festing itself in the hfe. And with this great lesson
of my ministry I desire to close it, with the prayer to
God, that, if possible, these last words of pastoral ex
hortation may find their way to hearts, to which
hitherto I appeared to have ministered in vain. God has
denied me one great object of my prayer and effort,
which is, that not a few of you who have long
and honorably labored in the bosom of the parish for
the maintenance of public worship, should add to
these services, the higher and more precious tribute
of an humble and spiritual consecration. Dear to me
as is this edifice, the work of your hands, I would
gladly see it levelled to the ground in undistinguish-
able ruin, if in place of it, I could see you, my friends,
^ keeping back no part of the price, but meekly and
gladly giving up all to Christ. I know very well that
not all are Christ's who are of Christ,' that the fine of
division between communicants and non-communicants

A FAREWELL DISCOURSE. 23
in some respects an arbitrary one ; but oh ! I know
at the great body of Christ's friends are with the
Le, and of his enemies with the other, and I would
ive you, on a point so momentous as this, make your
>sition certain and the influence of your example un-
istakeable. I long to see you, not only gladly doing some
dngs, but with humble alacrity doing all that can be
squired of you. Oh ! how little can we do at the
ost for Christ ! And how unworthy the best we can
fer ! I have but one hope now remaining me, in this
!gard, and this has become a strong persuasion with
Le, that he who follows me will be honored where
have not been, and succeed where I have failed.
oming after me and mingling his influence with mine,
b will be enabled to bring fruit to perfection. This is
ly prayer. It will be a consoling thought to me, if I
lall have been to him a John the Baptist, to prepare the
ay, and so be made to share in this blessed instru-
Lentality. But if this be not so with anything I have
one or said, I shall still rejoice in the result by whom
ever it may please God to bring it to pass.
My aged friends-, in bidding you farewell, so near
le confines of eternity, I cannot but beseech yom,
pend not another hour in this evening of your hfe,
ntil you have made your calling and election to
nother life sure. "Be sober, grave, temperate, sound
1 faith, in charity, in patience."
Ye, who are in middle hfe, give to God your
trength, and wait not till the palsy of age is upon
ou and the shadows of approaching night deepen
round vou.

24 A FAREWELL DISCOURSE.
And ye who are full of the fresh hfe and fancies of
youth, learn now your way to the cross, that the
dignity of a Christian sober-mindedness, may be super
added to the beauty of youthful enthusiasm.
Finally : brethren of this ancient church, may God
make you worthy of your spiritual ancestry, and give
you steadfastness in your Christian calling. I was
about to say, take care of this church for my sake —
but I check myself and am reproved, for you have an
infinitely higher and stronger inducement. — the church
is Christ's, and for his dear sake, it is your privilege
to labor and suffer for her ! God be with you at the
family altar, in your weekly meetings for prayer, in
your Sabbath assemblies, and at the communion table.
God be with you in sickness and death, and afterwards
" minister an entrance unto you abundantly into the
everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ." "And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and
to the word of his grace, which is able to build you
up, and to give you an inheritance among all them
which are sanctified."
" The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
My love be with you all in Christ Jesus."
" Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of
good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace ; and the
God of love and peace shall be with you. Amen."

THE END.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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