A FRIENDLY VISIT TO THE HOUSE OF MOURNING. BY THE REV. RICHARD CECIL M.A. "In the day of adversity, consider."-ECCLESIASTES vii. 14. NEW-YORK: PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF DEPOSITORY, No. 11 BIBLE HOUSE, ASTOR PLACE. A FRIENDLY VISIT, & c. YOUR present affliction demands something more than the usual forms of condolence. Sorrow which, like yours, cannot be prevented, may yet be alleviated and used for improvement. This is my design in addressing you, and if I seem to intrude upon your retirement, let my motive be my apology. Having felt how much "better it is to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting;" having received my best lessons, companions, and even found comforts in it, I would administer from my little stock of experience; and while I thus endeavour to assist your meditations, I shall rejoice if I may contribute, though but a mite, to your comfort. Were I, indeed, acquainted with the peculiar circumstances of your loss, I should employ particular considerations; but my present address can have only a general aim, which is to acquaint the heart, at a favourable moment, with its grand concerns; to give it a serious impression when softened, and a heavenly direction when moved. Let us, therefore, sit down humbly together in this house of mourning. If "the heart of the wise be found" here, your experience, I hope, will prove that here also it is formed; and let us calmly contemplate some momentous objects intimately connected with it, and viewed with peculiar advantage from it. |