1883.] t)J< [Muhlenberg. 



was his almost constant companion for three months. Tlie next commu- 

 nication was made by his family physician, who remarked at that time, 

 that the only relief for the Doctor would be total cessation from work, but 

 that mode of relief his multiplied engagements, and his conscientiousness 

 did not allow him to adopt. He acted, as far as possible, in accordance with 

 the advice of the physician, and spent the two succeeding long vacations 

 of the years 1881 and 1882 in Canada, returned with his health recruited, 

 but when his double duties in the two Institutions in which he was en- 

 gaged, were resumed, he again lost ground, and it was apparent that the 

 ■disease was preying on the vitals of his system. On his return from the 

 last trip, in answer to a question of one of his friends as to his health, he 

 replied with sadness, as though looking forward to an unfavorable result, 

 " better, but not well. " The truth of this became painfully manifest when 

 he resumed his duties in the University. He was very far from being 

 well. His associates soon observed that his vivacity and vitality, and his 

 powers of endurance were rapidly decreasing. Especially marked was 

 this decline in the daily chapel services. Each succeeding day, through 

 increasing weakness, he brought his chair nearer to the reading desk, un- 

 til the day before he was ordered by his physicians to relinquish all his 

 duties, they were placed alongside of each other, and it was with difficulty 

 he could stand up to perform the devotions. With such Christian forti- 

 tude did he continue to discharge his duties during the progress of the 

 disease to its final issue. His principles would not allow him to forsake 

 his post, until his powers were exhausted. 



The writer now believes, the Doctor was fully conscious of his approach- 

 ing dissolution, for he could not take sufficient nourishment to support 

 life, and, besides this, the tenderness and deep pathos of his prayers, when- 

 ever allusion was made to death, disclosed the thoughts and feelings with- 

 in. The writer conversed with him, for the last time, the day before he 

 completed his official duties. He bade farewell to him, as he thought, for 

 a few days, in front of the University, at the close of the recitations for the 

 day ; it was with difficulty that he moved his exhausted body, yet the 

 writer will never forget the almost angelic tenderness and sweetness of his 

 language and his looks. 



Two days after this he was ordered by his physicians to take his bed, 

 and, contrary to the expectations of all, he declined more rapidly than 

 before, and two weeks subsequently, when the new year 1883 had but 

 commenced, January 2d, amid his sorrowing friends, without much suf- 

 fering, his noble spirit, sustained by the faith and hopes of the Gospel, 

 was conveyed to the bosom of his Saviour, whom he had loved and served 

 so well. 



The removal of such a man must be deeply mourned, for his place can- 

 not readily be filled ; but we may comfort ourselves with the thought, to 

 which the Provost of the University gave utterance in the chapel, two days 

 after his death, that as he was suffering from an incurable disease, he could 

 do no more on earth, his work was done, and well done, he had secured 



PKOC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XX. 113. 4a, PRINTED APRIL 4, 1883. 



