religion to diffuse its power, or Christianity to offer its counsel and sympathy, there will his removal, whose days, if they had been prolonged, would have been devoted, (as they were ever given whilst he lived among us) to the service of freedom, of religion, of Christianity, bring an actual diminution of the influences that might have been made to bear on the regeneration or the advancement of mankind. It is not this city, nor New England alone, that must feel his death as an immeasurable calamity. Our republic has lost one of its most enlightened and faithful citizens; strong and fearless, yet calm and hopeful, in the defence of justice and the principles of well-ordered liberty. Across the ocean thousands of hearts will lament, as for one whom they hailed as an instructer, or a fellow-laborer. The cause of truth and virtue and piety has lost him who stood foremost in vindicating its claims upon man and society. The church of Christ has lost a teacher whose words sank into men's hearts with a power to convince and persuade, whose soul burned with a desire to unfold the revelations of Divine love which neither changeful circumstances nor personal infirmity could abate, and whose character reflected from its equal surface, resting on the deep principles of its formation, the truths which his lips commended. The age has lost one of its brightest lights, the world one of its true benefactors. And all this we feel, and are made to feel, as we observe these funeral rites. Still on this we must not dwell. Other thoughts should lift our minds into a serener atmosphere than that of grief. It is not on death that we should meditate, when the spectacle before us is not so much of death as of life. As I think of him whose image now fills NO. 187.

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the plane of mental vision, I see him not as insensible, inactive, as separated from the highest interests of human consciousness and action. He rises before me as one whose existence is informed and immortalized by the sentiment which was announced by the Prince of life"Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." His life on earth was a part of his immortal life; and death has only helped to make more distinct the life that was in him, and to show how indestructible were its elements. On that imperishable life, which manifested itself through the perishable connections of the flesh, it becomes us to ponder; that while we trace its character, we may at once pay the only worthy tribute of gratitude for the impression he made on us, and may comfort, strengthen, and instruct ourselves.

Although of that life I cannot speak as I ought or would, my connexion with this place makes it proper for me to direct your thoughts, if possible, towards a right use of our bereavement. That use is to be found in a quickened sensibility to the great purposes for which he lived, and these purposes can be learned only through an attempt to understand his life- - the life which made him what he was on earth, and what he now is where our faith only can follow him.

Of his outward life, the existence which is described in dates and facts, a few words will suffice. He was born at Newport, in Rhode Island, on the seventh of April, 1780. Of the influences exerted on his mind through the impressible years of childhood and youth they can judge, who were acquainted, as were many of us, with her whose rare strength of character must have given to her maternal discipline a power seldom obtained

even in this nearest of relations. The tender reverence with which he regarded that mother in subsequent years was a proof, not only of the depth of his affections, but of the strength of the filial sentiment she had inspired. Even in his boyhood he is said to have exhibited the ear. nest, though cheerful thoughtfulness, and the strict regard to truth, both in word and action, which marked him in later years. After preparation, which was completed at an early age, he entered the college at Cambridge, whence he graduated in 1798, bearing with him the highest honors of the institution, and having distinguished himself by his habits of diligence and his blamelessness of deportment, as well as by the indications of great natural endowment. Upon finishing his collegiate course he accepted an invitation to reside a year with a gentleman in Virginia, as the instructer of his children. He there probably laid the foundation of that feebleness of constitution and liability to disease, which continued through the rest of his life. His mind early selected the ministry as the scene of his future studies and labors; and after his return from the South he pursued the necessary preparation, the result of which was a style of address that at once drew attention to him as a preacher. The pulpit of the society worshipping on this spot being then vacant, he was heard with an interest which induced them to invite him to become their minister. * His compliance with their request, as I have been told, resulted in part from the conviction that his state of health would permit him better to carry out his views of ministerial fidelity with a

* Dr. Channing was ordained over the Federal Street Church and Society, in Boston, June 1, 1803.

small congregation, as this was, than with one much larger, with which he might have been connected. The increase of the society was an immediate consequence of his connexion with it, and his health for a short time proved itself sufficient for the demands of his office. But it was not long before the delicacy of his system justified the anxieties, which were never afterwards allowed wholly to subside. He continued, however, in the assiduous discharge of his professional duties; the congregation became numerous, a new house of worship was erected, his usefulness widened, his influence in the community became more extensive and important, the University where he had pursued his academical studies called him to a seat among her instructers, and to a participation in the direction of her affairs, the theological controversy, which ended in the dissolution of that union in which the Congregational churches of this Commonwealth had walked for nearly two centuries, found him ready to use his pen in support of what he considered the doctrines of a rational and scriptural faith, and the interests of religion seemed more and more to lean on his arm, when the necessity of a voyage to Europe for the benefit of hist health removed him for a season from this sphere of exertion. He probably derived permanent benefit from this absence, but still there was such an habitual want of vigor in his system, that soon after his return he desired an assistant in his ministry; and a colleague was settled in 1824. From that time he continued to officiate in the pulpit with more or less frequency, as his strength permitted, till 1840, when he requested the society to release him from all obligation of professional service, though he desired to retain the pastoral connexion towards them.

As his mind was relieved from the pressure of ministerial engagement, his attention was more and more given to the aspects which society, in its opinions, usages, and institutions, presents to the Christian philanthropist. He was led by his interest in these subjects to communicate to the public, at different times, his thoughts on questions of immediate urgency, involving high moral considerations, and devoted a large part of his time to an examination of the light which Christianity throws upon practical ethics. The summer he always spent in the country, amidst those influences of nature which he esteemed as even more grateful in their effect upon the mind than on the body; and the past season he chose his residence among the mountains that traverse the western section of our State, in whose beautiful seclusion he found a high degree of enjoyment, and a firmer tone of health than he had for a long time possessed. On his journey homeward, by way of Vermont, he was exposed to a temperature unusual at the season, and too severe for him to encounter with impunity; which produced an access of disease, that prevented his proceeding beyond Benning

ton.

Here his illness steadily advanced till it overpowered the vital energy, and what at first were the slight apprehensions of his friends were converted into anxious fears that only gave place to the sorrows of bereavement. He observed the progress of his disease with the calmness that was habitual with him in every situation, expressed a sense of the Divine love even beyond what he had before felt, manifested that exquisite tenderness of affection which gave such beauty to his private life, spoke earnestly of the truth and worth of Christianity, and its certain prevalence over the errors and sins of the world; and thus meeting death, not as one who is taken by surprise, nor