one more view of the inanimate form, and then followed it in procession to the limits of the village. There they parted from it and returned to their homes as sheep without a shepherd.

66

Under the care of two of the most respectable inhabitants of South Berwick, the body was conveyed to Boston. On the afternoon of the next day (Thursday), about three hundred persons assembled in the vestry of Park-street church to join in a religious service preparatory to the entombment. Never," says the pastor of the church, "have I witnessed the manifestation of a deeper sympathy. All hearts appeared smitten, and every spirit crushed under the visitation of the Almighty." Several clergymen of the city were present, and three of them officiated in the mournful exercises, reading appropriate hymns and Scriptures, offering prayers to God and addressing the assembly. "At length," writes a former companion of the departed," the crowds of sympathizing friends, after lingering a moment in groups around the coffin, gradually withdrew and the church was almost deserted. Out of Mr. Homer's very large circle of literary friends, many of whom had not yet heard of his death, there were only five who now stood together for their last lingering look. It was hard to part even with the clay, that had been animated by such a spirit. The expression of sharp pain had passed from the features, there was a repose upon the countenance, and the fixed gaze of a moment brought back to the lips their natural smile. We turned away from the loved remains, and the closing of the coffin-lid told us that the face of our friend was hid forever from our eyes. We followed the bearers into the open air, and then into the aisle of the dead,—and stood, silent and sad, until the coffin disappeared within the tomb."

On the Sabbath succeeding the funeral, Rev. Mr. Aiken of Park-street church delineated the character of the deceas

ed in a sermon from Psalm 116: 15, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." Discourses in reference to the event were preached on the same day by Professor Emerson at Andover Theological Seminary, and by several members of the Association with which Mr. Homer had been connected. A few Sabbaths afterward his death was appropriately noticed in the Baptist church at South Berwick. Even then, the lamentation of the audience resembled that which was heard at his funeral. At a still later period, a eulogy was pronounced upon him in the Episcopal chapel near the village where he had labored, and it was still obvious that the fountains of tears had not been dried up. Different notices of his character appeared in several of our religious and political journals, and the grief which is yet felt for his death bears witness to the good impressions of his life. It is the wish of some of his friends that his body had been laid in the burial-ground of his parish, where a broken shaft might rise as an emblem of the life that was so abruptly closed. But perhaps it is meet that he should lie near the baptismal font where he was consecrated to the God of his fathers, and hard by the altar where he devoted himself to the cause for which he died. All this however is of inferior moment; for whether he is to rise encircled by the people of his charge or by the friends of his youth, he will come forth, we trust, clothed in a white robe and with a palm-branch in his hand.

Twenty-four years and less than two months made up the whole period of his life. It has been said, that the very circumstance of his untimely death, may give him a better posthumous influence than he would have exerted if he had outlived the novelty of his ministrations. It was one of his own favorite ideas, that a youthful minister, who leaves a pure memory to be embalmed in the hearts of survivors, can enlist more sympathy for the truth by preaching from the grave,

1

than he could have attracted by spending a long life in the pulpit. It may be true that, in some respects, the usefulness of our friend is increased by the fact that his life has been broken off, but in other respects it is lessened. ` His mind was not a reservoir that had been exhausted, but a fountain that would have continued to flow. It is said that death is gain to him and by his liveliness of sensibility he is well fitted for high enjoyment in heaven. But we never grieve for the dead who die in the Lord; we weep for ourselves only and for our children. It is said that he was ill prepared to endure the jarrings of the church in her militant condition, and perhaps would have turned away in disgust from public life. But time, which modifies all things, would have blunted the keenness of his sensibility, and the pain which he would have received from one source would be more than balanced by the pleasures that would have come in from other sources. From all such topics of consolation we turn away in sickness of heart, and find no repose until we bow down before the Sovereign who has infinite counsels, and all of them infinitely wise. He had reasons for blighting our hopes, and they were such reasons as we are too weak to comprehend. He required perhaps a new ornament for some niche in the temple above, and he took what seemed unto him good. There is no accomplishment of our friend, no treasure of ancient or of modern lore, no aptness for investigation, no refinement of sensibility, no grace of language or of thought, but has already been combined with the essential character of the soul, and will continue to transmit its influence long after tongues have ceased, and knowledge in its earthly form has vanished away. Then let us fall in reverence before that august Being who disappointeth our hopes, and casteth down our high imaginations. In his view the longest life is but one day, and the shortest is a thousand years. He sends us forth on a solemn mission, and be our death sooner or later, we are bound

1 See his Essay on the Posthumous Power of the Pulpit.

to leave behind us some memorial of good. Every moment are our hearts "beating their funeral marches to the grave ;” but as we go onward we may, if we will, look upward, and believe where we do not know, and hope where we cannot believe, and submit where we dare not hope. The voice from the tomb is, that we be prepared to live so long as we are called to labor, and willing to die when the time of our release shall come; rejoicing to linger on the earth, which is after all so goodly to look upon, and choosing rather to depart and to be present with the Lord.

APPENDIX TO THE MEMOIR.

NOTE A. p. 96.

The following are the plans of the four sermons which Mr. Homer wrote, as parts of a series of discourses on the Divine Attributes. The first two were designed to be introductory to the series.

SERMON I.-OBSTACLES TO OUR PROGRESS IN RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE. 2 Tim. 3: 7,—Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

The object of this sermon is to consider some of the more common obstacles to the acquisition of religious truth. Among these may be specified first, incorrect apprehensions of the kind of evidence by which religious truth is to be established; secondly, an unwillingness to admit that there are mysteries in religion which cannot be explained; thirdly, an unwillingness to look at truth as a symmetrical system; fourthly, a disposition to conduct our inquiries under other influences than those of love to the truth, and reverence for its Author; fifthly, a disposition to study truth speculatively rather than practically.

But after all these obstacles have been overcome, truth is a jewel not easily gained; it is a friend jealous of its claims, sparing of its faThe greatest discoverer in natural science described himself as

vors.

only collecting the pebbles on an illimitable shore; and the student of God's eternal mind must make a still more humiliating comparison between his own poor attainments and the infinitude of knowledge that lies beyond. Yet, praised be God, if the field is immense, there is an eternity for its cultivation. The sincere inquirer may often cast his eye forward into a new and blessed sphere of discovery, where the studies commenced in weakness and in ignorance here shall be prosecuted with new and unobstructed faculties forever. "Now we see through a glass darkly. part, we prophesy in part.

Then face to face. Here we know in There that which is perfect shall come, and that which is in part shall be done away."

SERMON II.-SOURCES OF OUR KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. Acts 18: 27,— That they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after him and find him, though he be not far from every one of us.

The object of this discourse is to consider the Sources of our Knowledge of God.

There was

The first source mentioned is, our own moral nature. fabled to be a mirror in a temple in ancient Arcadia which gave back to him who looked into it, not the reflection of his own face but of the Deity whom he worshipped. Such a mirror is every man's soul. (a) The idea of God is essentially involved in the operations of conscience. (b) The instinctive desires of the soul impel us to believe in the existence and superiority of a God. (c) The sentiments of piety lead most clearly and surely to the knowledge of him who is their great object.

The second source of our knowledge of God is found in his works. The reasoning from effect to cause is here admitted to be valid, but is considered inferior to the reasoning that is founded on our moral nature. The third source of our knowledge of God is the Bible. This book confirms what the unaided reason discovers, and reveals some truths which otherwise would have remained unknown to us.

SERMON III.-CONTRAST BETWEEN THE POWER OF GOD AND THAT OF MAN. Psalm 62: 11,-Power belongeth unto God.

The object of this discourse is to show in what respects the power of God differs in kind, rather than degree, from the power of man. It does not differ in all respects.-The power of God is no more adequate than that of man to perform things which are in their own na