buried it, and went and told Jesus. Unto Him we may go with the certainty of finding all the sympathy and help which is needful, however great the loss or sorrow; and because He lives we shall live also.

DEATH OF REV. SAMUEL IRENÆUS PRIME, D.D. From the New York Observer, July 23, 1885.

NEVER since the New York Observer was established has it carried to the hearts of its readers such a burden of personal sorrow as it bears to-day, in the intelligence of the death of its Senior Editor, the Rev. SAMUEL IRENEUS PRIME, D.D. That pen to which its readers for nearly fifty years have looked each week for words of counsel and comfort, whose instructions had become to them a part of their very lives, even as the voice of a beloved father, has ceased to write. On Saturday last, soon after noonday, he entered into rest.

For more than a year Dr. Prime has not enjoyed his former vigorous health. Without any loss of the wonderful activity of mind, and elasticity of spirit, and cheerfulness of heart for which he was so distinguished, and which with other endowments made him such a blessing to his friends and to the world, it has been apparent to those nearest to him that the physical frame in which his tireless mind was set was beginning to show signs of serious wear. We do not think that he ever fully recovered from the shock that his nervous system received in the disastrous fire which consumed the offices of the Observer; when, after his own narrow escape, he was compelled helplessly to look on at the peril of his kindred and associates, and when two of the latter, one of whom had served with him more than forty years, perished in the flames. During the past year there has been a more decided weakening of his vital energy. All through the last winter he was more than ever before confined to his house, and it was but seldom that we enjoyed his cheerful and cheering presence at our office. But his pen never ceased to be a medium of commu

nication with our readers, and his Letters, under his familiar signature, IRENEUS, and his editorial articles, were furnished as regularly as they were waited for by tens of thousands of expectant hearts.

On the 4th of June he left the city with his wife to spend two or three weeks at Saratoga Springs and to fulfil an engagement to preach at Ballston Spa on the 7th, the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination and installation as the first pastor of the Presbyterian church at that place. On the 1st of July he attended the Commencement at Williams College, of which he was a Trustee. After tarrying for three or four days with a kinsman at his country home at White Creek, N. Y., and with a friend at Hoosick Falls, he started on Monday for Manchester, Vt., to make arrangements to pass the month of August with his family at that place, where he expected to celebrate, on the 17th, the fiftieth anniversary of his marriage.

For several days he had been suffering occasionally from severe pain in the region of the liver. On his way to Manchester it became so severe that on stepping from the cars and meeting his friend, the Rev. Dr. J. D. Wickham, he asked for a physician, and was introduced on the platform to Dr. Lewis H. Hemenway, who went with him directly to the Equinox House, and who was his faithful and skilful medical attendant until he breathed his last. The attack proved to

be caused by congestion of the liver. It yielded readily to treatment, and before the end of the week he was nearly recovered. In the mean time he was joined by his wife and by his brother, William C. Prime, who had been summoned to his bedside, not from any apprehension that his illness was of an alarming character, but that he might have their presence while he should be confined at the hotel.

On Sunday morning, July 12th, as Dr. Hemenway was leaving the room to attend public worship, Dr. Prime asked him to wait a moment, and attempted to utter a request; but his eyes filled with tears and he said to his brother, “Give me the pencil and paper;" and he wrote, in bed, the following, which he desired the doctor to hand to the pastor of the church:

“To the pastor :

66

A stranger in town being ill desires the congregation to unite with him in thanks to God for his goodness in partially restoring him and in praying for complete recovery."

66

And he added for the eye of the pastor alone: No name to be mentioned."

These were the last lines that his hand ever traced.

In the course of the day he engaged at intervals with his wife and brother in conversation on a variety of topics in which he was always deeply interested. Some of these subjects were: Attending upon divine service on the Sabbath in order to worship God instead of merely to hear a sermon :The increasing evil tendency, especially in New England, of hiring ministers by the year instead of having pastors permanently installed :-He talked with special delight on the oneness of the faith in various Christian churches that are separated by non-essential differences of opinion:—of the modern theory of evolution as opposed to the teachings of the Bible:-of the notion of many physiologists and the practical evil effect of their doctrine, that the brain and not the soul does the thinking, and that man is a machine and not a living spirit inhabiting a physical body. All this conversation was free and social and not at all in the form of discussion or dogmatism. It was in perfect consonance with the calm, delightful, summer Sabbath day, the heaven-sent breezes of which came in at the window and fanned him as he lay waiting for the messenger that was already at the door.

On Sunday afternoon, after sitting up for some time he rose and walked with a firm step to the bed, and lying down quietly, closed his eyes and apparently fell asleep. The doctor entered a few moments after, and, approaching the bedside, spoke to him, but received no answer. The mind which for more than seventy years had been active and communicative, was to hold no more intercourse with the outer world. He recognized those who were around him, but he was never able to converse; he replied to questions only in monosyllables. On Monday morning his daughter, Mrs. Stoddard and

Rev. Dr. Stoddard arrived and were recognized by him, by a significant look.

He lingered in this condition, suffering no pain and giving no signs of active consciousness, growing weaker from day to day until Saturday, the 18th, at a quarter to one o'clock, when the wheel of life stood still, and he passed away so gently and peacefully that it was impossible to tell at what moment his happy spirit left its tenement and went up to join the company of the redeemed in heaven.

We cannot attempt at this time to give any sketch of the life of our beloved associate and head. All that we can do is to acquaint our readers all over the world with the circumstances of the departure of one than whom perhaps no one of his day was better known and more beloved, or had more personal friends attached to him by tender ties and memories of delightful intercourse, or was exerting a wider influence for good in so many lands.

The remains of Dr. Prime were brought to this city, where arrangements were made for the funeral services at the West Presbyterian Church-Rev. Dr. John R. Paxton's. be laid to rest in the Woodlawn Cemetery.

He will

FUNERAL OF DR. PRIME.

THE funeral of the Rev. Samuel Irenæus Prime, D.D., took place on Wednesday, July 22, in the West Presbyterian Church in Forty-second Street, in this city, of which Dr. Prime has been a regular attendant for a number of years.

Although it was one of the hottest days of midsummer, in a comparatively deserted city, the church was crowded with persons who came to show their love for a valued friend and to sympathize with a bereaved family. Among them were many whose names are known all over the land, and there were others not a few, unknown, who came to mourn their friend and benefactor. The proportion of gray-haired men among the congregation was noticeable,

The body, inclosed in a black cloth-covered coffin, was carried up the main isle, while the organ played solemn dirge and the congregation stood. It was followed by the family of the deceased and the associate editors and employés of the New York Observer. The plate upon the coffin bore the simple record:

REV. SAMUEL IRENEUS PRIME, D.D.
Born Nov. 4, 1812.

Died July 18, 1885.

An open Bible formed of white and yellow roses with the inscription in blue violets, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord," Rev. 14: 13, was the only ornament; and this floral tribute came from those who had joined with Dr. Prime a few months before in celebrating his forty-fifth anniversary as the Editor of the New York Observer.

When all were seated, the beautiful poem of Alice Cary,

"One sweetly solemn thought,"

was sung with deep feeling by Miss Henrietta Beebe, who has enjoyed the friendship of Dr. Prime since first as a young girl she began to sing in church and concert in this city. Passages of Scripture were then read by Rev. Dr. Thomas S. Hastings, after which the hymn

"Pilgrims of the night"

was sung by the choir. Rev. Dr. John R. Paxton, the pastor of the church, then delivered the funeral address, as follows:

REV. DR. J. R. PAXTON'S ADDRESS.

It is a great thing to live seventy-three years in this world and thoroughly earn one's grave, and leave a record without a blot, a name without a stain, and a character and career that make the whole country debtor to the dead.

This is literally true of Dr. Prime. We are all in debt to him. When I was a lad in a country village, taking my first wondering view of books and papers, the Irenæus Letters"