Page:Records of the Life of the Rev. John Murray.djvu/243

Rh Sacred be the scene which immediately succeeded. We do not wish—we attempt not to lift the veil; but we exult in the conviction, that we shall, ere long, follow the emancipated spirit to the abodes of blessedness.

The interment could be deferred only until Monday evening, September 4th. The ebbing attachment of certain individuals now reverted to its pristine channel. Funereal honours were promptly and unanimously decreed. The children of the society, distinguished by a badge of mourning, preceded the body; a long, solemn, well-ordered and respectable procession followed the train of mourners; private carriages were added to those appointed by the society; the body was deposited upon stands in the aisle of the Church; the pulpit and galleries were hung with black; religious exercises were performed; when it was entombed with the ashes of those to whom he had been fondly attached. Every thing, which immediately referred to the sacred, the remains of the deceased, was liberally provided by the religious adherents of the promulgator, and the arrears which would have been due to the family, had the vote of March, 1815, been similar to that of March 1814, were paid, to a single farthing.

AD we talents, we would exhibit a portrait of the deceased: But, besides that we feel ourselves inadequate to a task so arduous, we are not perfectly convinced of its propriety. Friendship might be too warm, and admiration too lavish. His colleague has been his eulogist, and no friend of the deceased will pronounce the panegyric an exaggeration. Perhaps it does not contain a more just, or a more happy paragraph than the following: "Without a second to aid him, you saw him pass along these shores from Maryland to New-Hampshire, like the lonely Pelican of the wilderness, publishing, as with the voice of an angel, the tidings of everlasting life to the whole world, in the name, and through the mission of our Lord Jesus Christ."

It has been said that persuasion dwelt upon the lips of our philanthropist. The pages of recollection furnish many instances of his powerful, and soul-subduing eloquence. We are impelled to select, from the fading Record, two facts, which are well authenticated:—