382 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [^793 



ii. 16, ''As Free, and not usmg your Liberty for a cloak of licentious- 

 iicss."' He thus opens. With his figure, his voice, his natural 

 dramatic power, the experiment was safe, as probably it was in the 

 case of the Bishop of Rochester, but it would be perilous indeed 

 to the common preacher: 



Liberty, evangelical and social ! Jewel of inestimable price! Thou 

 blessing, of all blessings the first! Wooed and courted by many; won 

 and wedded by few! Ever near us, yet often at a distance fancied. 

 Through all the modes of faith, by the saint pursued; and in every frame 

 of government by the patriot sought. Oh, thou celestial Good, or, 

 rather, Thou who art the Author of all good, terrestrial and celestial — 

 Supreme Architect of the universe; who, by our great and Spiritual 

 Master, thy Son, hast taught us the true Way of Liberty — the way of 

 being free and accepted through Him! May I now be enlightened 

 and enlivened by a ray from Thee ! 



But now, in the sermons upon the late awful epidemic, there is 

 nothing like this. He was "no actor here," though his style, 

 naturall}^ casting itself into rhetorical forms, still preserves its 

 habitual characteristics. His text is from a series of verses, that 

 is to say, from the 13th to the i8th inclusive, of the 4th chapter 

 of the First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians. 

 Every one remembers them: 



But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are 

 asleep, that j'e sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 



For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even so them also which sleep in 

 Jesus will God bring with him. 



For this we say unto you, by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and re- 

 main unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. 



For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the 

 Archangel, and with the trump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first. 



Then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the 

 clouds, to meet the I^ord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 



Wherefore comfort one another with these words. 



Dr. Smith thus proceeds, solemnly and grand: 



Yes, brethren and sisters! ye bereaved mourners for ])arents, hus- 

 bands, wives, children and dearest relatives, say a solemn Amen, and 

 "comfort one another with these words." For if there be consolation 

 in this world, amidst this suffering scene of man, here it is complete, 

 and revealed to us by a divinely illuminated apostle of Christ ; leading 

 our meditations forward through all the future changes and periods of 

 our existence and condition, as mortals and immortals, "to death, a 



