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dear brethren, talk as we may, and as we must, of other thoughts, and other themes, this is the trial question for us all. And I should ill become my office, and ill express the love which warms my heart for you, and ill discharge the trust with which the kindness of your honoured representatives has honoured me, did I not bid you, in my Master's name, to go, and make your peace with God, through Jesus Christ our Lord; and, in all holiness and righteousness of life, to wait, henceforth, His coming and His kingdom!

II.

A GREAT MAN FALLEN IN ISRAEL.

* A SERMON ON THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT TAYLOR.

2 SAMUEL III. 38.-Know ye not, that there is a prince, and a great man, fallen, this day, in Israel?

IN these expressive words, did the great heart of royal David pay its tribute, to the valiant Abner, slain by the treachery of Joab. There are few minds, familiar with the Holy Scriptures, into which, they have not sprung, as the unbidden comment, on that astounding providence, which has stilled the pulses of the nation; and, to-day, twines every altar, in the land, with the funereal cypress. "Know ye not "-men say, to one another, as the lightning record flashes, through the land, "THE PRESIDENT IS DEAD!" "know ye not, that there is a prince, and a great man, fallen, this day, in Israel?"

Death is the "touch of nature," which, pre-eminently "makes the world, all kin." God did not make it. It came in, with sin. Yet, we may say, and, still, be reverent, that, without it, as men have been, since the

* At the request of the students of Burlington College; July, A. D. 1850.

Fall, He could not live, in His own world. It is the one thing, at which nature quails. The fear of it sways the tumultuous Titan throngs, that, else, would scale the Heavens. And the damp chill, from its black wing, as it sweeps through the land, when pestilence falls on it, like a frost; or when, beside us, but a neighbour dies, is the reminder of our own mortality, and the conviction of His dread omnipotence.

idols. We come to

We marvel, that the

Strange as it is, the snake's old sneer, "Ye shall not surely die," still haunts the human heart. We constantly forget, that, when we clasp the loved one, to our heart, we clasp a skeleton. Age, talents, valour, virtue, rank, pre-eminence, in every age, and everywhere, deck out, for men, their think, that greatness cannot die. bolt should strike the tallest tree. And, when the pastor falls, as that meek saint,* who fed, for forty years, the little flock, that, then, was tended here; or the physician dies, as that old man,† rare in his virtues, as his skill, who, to three generations, plied the healing art, among you, welcome to every hearth; men look, with mute amazement, on each other; and the country startles, that a mortal should have died!

But, chiefly, is the power of this instinctive superstition shown, when death strikes down the princes, among men. Republicans intuitively feel, that some divinity doth "hedge about a king." Who did not feel a shudder crawl across his heart, when that young

*The Rev. Dr. Wharton, Rector of St. Mary's Church, who died in 1833. Dr. Nathan W. Cole, who died in 1848.

princess, on whom the hopes of England hung, all clustered, sank, with her infant, in a grave, which seemed, to all, untimely? untimely? When, lately, the meek widow of a king passed, from the exercise of all the charities of life, into the royal tomb, at Windsor, there were everywhere among us, the tokens of a sympathy, which touched the heart. And, when, nine years ago, our warrior President was borne, in one brief month, from the high homestead of the nation, to the sepulchre, beside the clear Ohio, what wave, in the broad sea, of our whole vast Republic, that was not stirred and tost, as when a water-spout is rent in sunder? "Know ye not"-was then, as now, the instinctive, universal, utterance of the nation's startled heart-" know ye not, that there is a prince, and a great man, fallen, this day, in Israel?"

The worshipping assemblies, of twenty millions, are in harmony, with us, to-day. From one end, to the other, of our broad land, the electric spark has flashed its fearful message, of the nation's loss: till North and South, and East and West, are bending, now, with us, over the new-made grave; in which, the soldier of three wars, the conqueror in all, the patriot hero, the people's President, rests, from his honours, and his arms. As, when the Egyptians came, with Joseph's corpse, up the threshing-floor of Atad, it is "a great and very sore, lamentation." And, it may well be so. For, in the graphic words of David, a man, a great man, and a prince, has "fallen this day, in Israel."

to

A man has fallen. I do not mean a mere, male, hu

VOL. IV.-29

man, individual. One, whom the tailor, rather than the mantuamaker, clothes. A walking thing, that wears a hat. I speak of that, which God meant, when He said, "Let us make man, in our image, after our likeness." Marred, sadly, now, by the concussion of that fearful Fall. But, capable of restoration, through the Cross. And, justifying well, in the renewal of its fair propor tions, and its countenance erect, the sacred record, "God hath made man upright." A man, that has a mind; and uses it. A man that has a heart; and yields to it. A man that shapes his circumstances. A man, that cares not for himself. A man, with the simplicity of a child. A man, with the directness of a child. A with the freshness and earnestness of a child. A man, in justice. A man, in generosity. A man, in magnanimity. A man, to meet emergencies. A man, to make occasions. A man, to dare, not only; but to bear. A man, of love. A man, without a fear. A thunderbolt, in war. A dewdrop, in the day of peace. One, that, against the fearful odds, of five to one, could sway the battle-storm, at Buena Vista. And, then, from the very arms and lap of victory, write to one,* whose gallant son had died, to make its crown, "when I miss his familiar face, I can say, with truth, that I feel no exultation, in our success." Truly, a man, has fallen "in Israel."

man,

And "a great man" has fallen. A great man, first, must be a man. And, then, must find, or make, the occasion, to be great. In every man, that is a man,

* The Hon. Henry Clay.

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