vice and worship of the Triune Jehovah, you are about to receive an ascension gift. O how interesting to you, and your children, this period in the annals of this church. If all the counsel of God is here declared unto you by your pastor, and with the prayerful solicitude and fidelity required, let there be on your part a faithful and conscientious discharge of every personal and relative duty. Realize your deep responsibility to Him who will shortly summon you all to a reckoning. Ever show yourselves the patrons of all that is lovely and of good report. Encourage your pastor to deal plainly and faithfully with you in the sanctuary; in social intercourse, as he warns you publicly and from house to house, as he enters the chamber of sickness to instruct and pray with the dying. And as he engages in the discharge of this whole routine of ministerial duty—and as one, and another, and another of you close your eyes in death, may it be while uttering the language of the dying martyr, Stephen-" Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." And may the affectionate and faithful announcement of the gospel message prove to you all, old and young, "a savor of life unto life." May you so improve the allotted season of your probation with its countless blessings, and consequent responsibilities, as, through grace to be accepted and rewarded on the great day of retribution. "And may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever: Amen." t SERMON, PREACHED AT THE FUNERAL OF THE REV. CHARLES PRENTICE, Late Pastor of the Church in South Canaan, MAY 31, 1838. BY JAMES BEACH, Pastor of the Congregational Church in Winsted. ALSO, AN ADDRESS, PREPARED BY MR. PRENTICE, BEFORE HIS DECEASE, TO BE READ AT HIS FUNERAL. HARTFORD. PRINTED BY ELIHU GEER, 26 STATE-STREET. 1838. |