and be a fountain which shall originate a stream of evil and wo that may run, widening and wasting, through time and eternity! In those lights, how infinite are the consequences of Sunday schools! They are now giving a tone and a character to the rising generation of the poor, which will tell for ever upon the present and future character of the nation, and also upon the bliss of heaven. That teaching, when well conducted, is a work, the fruits of which will follow holy teachers, wherever they follow the Lamb, in heaven. It will never stop, until all shall know the Lord; and even then, that grand consummation will be, in no small measure, the fruit of it: and thus the reward of all who sow, and of all who reap. In like manner, you may "work a work" for your neighbourhood, which shall impress an imperishable character upon its habits and spirit. You may make and leave it a nursery for holiness, from which you may be regaled every year, until the end of time, even in Paradise, by roses from the wilderness, and myrtles from the desert. Only sow, plant, and water, to the Spirit, and in due season, and through enduring cycles, you shall reap, not only life everlasting, but also the full joy of that life, by entering fully into the joy of your Lord. This is the right improvement of the death of Whitefield. It would be as easy to write fine things upon the subject as to read them; but I envy not the taste, nor the conscience, that could be satisfied with unpractical truths, at the death-bed of the most practical man who has appeared since the days of Paul. I feel that my readers and myself may be Whitefields in something; and therefore I have written, not for fame, but in order to be useful. Accordingly, although you cannot admire, you will remember. This is all I want. CHAPTER XXXI. WHITEFIELD'S FUNERAL. RICHARD SMITH's account of the funeral, like that of the death-bed of Whitefield, needs no commendation; but only some additions. "The Reverend Mr. Parsons, at whose house my dear master died, sent for Captain Fetcomb and Mr. Boadman, and others of his elders and deacons, and they took the whole care of the burial upon themselves, prepared the vault, and sent for the bearers." Smith. Dr. Gillies says, "Early next morning, Mr. Sherburn of Portsmouth sent Squire Clarkson and Dr. Haven with a message to Mr. Parsons, desiring that Mr. Whitefield's remains might be buried in his own new tomb, at his own expense: and in the evening several gentlemen from Boston came to Mr. Parsons, desiring the body might be carried there. But as Mr. Whitefield had repeatedly desired to be buried before Mr. Parsons' pulpit, if he died at Newbury Port, Mr. Parsons thought himself obliged to deny both of these requests." Parsons, in a note to his funeral sermon, says, "At one o'clock all the bells in the town were tolled for half an hour, and all the vessels in the harbour gave their proper signals of mourning. At two o'clock the bells tolled a second time. At three the bells called to attend the funeral. The Reverend Dr. Haven of Portsmouth, and the Reverend Messrs. Rogers of Exeter, Jewet and Chandler of Rowley, Moses Parsons of Newbury, and Bass of Newbury Port, were pallbearers. Mr. Parsons and his family, with many other respectable persons, followed the corpse in mourning. "The procession was only one mile, and then the corpse was carried into the presbyterian church, and placed on the bier in the broad alley; when Mr. Rogers made a very suitable prayer, in the presence of about six thousand persons within the walls of the church, while many thousands were on the outside." After singing one of Watt's hymns, “the corpse was put into a new tomb, which the gentlemen of the congregation had had prepared for that purpose; and before it was sealed, Mr. Jewet gave a suitable exhortation." Par sons. Many ministers of all persuasions came to the house of the Reverend Mr. Parsons, where several of them gave a very particular account of their first awakenings under his ministry, several years ago, and also of many in their congregations, that, to their knowledge, under God, owed their conversion wholly to his coming among them, often repeating the blessed seasons they enjoyed under his preaching: and all said, that this last visit was attended with more power than any other; and that all opposition-fell before him. Then one and another of them would pity and pray for his dear Tabernacle and chapel congregations, and it was truly affecting to hear them bemoan America and England's loss. Thus they continued for two hours conversing about his great usefulness, and praying that God would scatter his gifts and drop his mantle among them. When the corpse was placed at the foot of the pulpit, close to the vault, the Rev. Daniel Rogers made a very affecting prayer, and openly confessed, that under God, he owed his conversion to the labours of that dear man of God, whose precious remains now lay before them. Then he cried out, O my father, my father!-then stopped and wept, as though his heart would break, and the people weeping all through the place. Then he recovered, and finished his prayer, and sat down and wept.-Then one of the deacons gave out that hymn, 'Why do we mourn departed friends?' &c. some of the people weeping, some singing, and so on alternately. The Rev. Mr. Jewet preached a funeral discourse, and made an affectionate address to his brethren, to lay to heart the death of that useful man of God; begging that he and they might be upon their watch tower, and endeavour to follow his blessed example. The corpse was then put into the vault, and all concluded with a short prayer, and dismission of the people, who went weeping through the streets to their respective places of abode." Smith. * This church was then (I hope is now) one of the largest in America. Allen's Dict. "The melancholy news of Mr. Whitefield's decease arrived in London, on Monday, November 5, 1770, by the Boston Gazette, and also by several letters from different correspondents at Boston, to his worthy friend, Mr. R. Keene; who received likewise, by the same post, two letters written with his own hand, when in good health, one seven and the other five days before his death. Mr. Keene caused the mournful tidings to be published the same night at the Tabernacle, and the following evening at Tottenham Court chapel. His next step was to consider of a proper person to deliver a funeral discourse, when it occurred to his mind, that he had many times said to Mr. Whitefield, 'If you should die abroad, who shall we get to preach your funeral sermon? must it be your old friend, the Rev. John Wesley?' And his answer constantly was, 'He is the man.' Mr. Keene therefore waited on Mr. Wesley, on the Saturday following, and he promised to preach it on the Lord's day, November 18, which he did, to an extraordinary crowded and mournful auditory; many hundreds being obliged to go away, who could not possibly get within the doors. "In both the chapel and Tabernacle, the pulpits, &c., were hung with black cloth, and the galleries with fine black baize. Escutcheons were affixed to the fronts of the pulpits; and on each of the adjoining houses, hatchments were put up : the motto on which was-Mea vita salus et gloria Christus.' At the expiration of six months, the mourning in each place of worship, and the escutcheons in the vestries, were taken down. The hatchments remained twelve months, when one was taken down, and placed in the Tabernacle, and the other over a neat marble monument, erected by Mr. Whitefield for his wife, in Tottenham Court chapel, with a space left for an inscription respecting himself after his decease, as he wished to be interred in the same vault, had he died in England. Accordingly the following epithaph was written by the Rev. Ti tus Knight of Halifax, in Yorkshire." In Memory of The Rev. GEORGE WHITEFIELD, A. M. And who now lies in the silent Grave, at Newbury Port, near There deposited in hope of a joyful Resurrection to Eternal He was a Man eminent in Piety, Of a Humane, Benevolent, and Charitable Disposition. And his Success in preaching the Gospel remarkable and He departed this Life, In the Fifty-sixth Year of his Age. And like his Master, was by some despis'd; But theirs shall be the everlasting crown, Not whom the world, but Jesus Christ will own. This tribute is as like Knight, as the following epitaph is like Dr. Gibbons. In Reverendum Virum GEORGIUM WHITEFIELD, Laboribus sacris olim abundantem; nunc vero, ut bene speratur (Auctore THOMAS GIBBONS, S. T. P.) Dum matutinam Stellam, quam dulce rubentem! |