1793] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 383 



resurrection from the dead, a future judgment, and an eternal world to 

 come." . . . 



The impressions of the dreadful calamity, from which we, who are 

 alive, remain monuments of God's mercy in the midst of his righteous 

 judgments, must have awakened and alarmed the most secure and thought- 

 less among us, and have made us feelingly alive to every sober reflec- 

 tion that concerns our future state and condition, viz. : death, a resur- 

 rection from the dead, a future judgment, and the opening the heavenly 

 paradise — the everlasting kingdom of glory to the redeemed of God — 

 " to those who sleep in the faith of Jesus." For, amidst the shafts of 

 Providence, which have flown so thick around us and amongst us, where 

 is the man or the woman in this assembly whose bosom is not deeply 

 pierced, or whose tears do not this moment flow, for the loss of some 

 of those v/ho were lately nearest and dearest to him or to her— a hus- 

 band, a wife, a father, a mother, a brother, a sister, a son, a daughter? 

 For me — ah! my throbbing breast — deep, deep have the arrows* 

 pierced ; yet be still, in just resignation to his unerring will, who gives 

 and takes away, by whom we live, move, and have our being — be still, 

 while we proceed in the further review of this mournful group of de- 

 parted friends and acquaintance ! Who is there among us who does 

 not recall to memory many younger and stronger than themselves, be- 

 tween whose summons from this life and their commitment to that long 

 home, the grave, few were the days or hours that intervened, while we 

 yet remain, with time and opportunity offered, to examine the past and 

 to think of the future. 



To assist your meditations in this respect, and to mingle comfort in 

 our bitter cup of affliction, I have chosen the words of St. Paul, which 

 have been just read as our text ; a choice which I have the rather made, 

 as the whole volumes of inspiration contain no words more evangelically 

 comfortable or suitable to our present situation ; and, as I trust, the 

 same words and the reflections thereon arising, which, through God's 

 grace, I have found experimentally efficacious to pour balm into my 

 own wounds, while yet fresh and bleeding, will, through the same grace, 

 be acceptable and effectual among you, in tlie like circumstances ! 



The text naturally divides itself into the following heads, each of 

 which will afford subject-matter for at least one discourse: 



ist. Considerations on death ; the nature and cause of his awful 

 terrors ; and how, through Divine assistance, to combat and conquer 

 them ; to allay our sorrows for our departed friends, and prepare for our 

 own departure. 



2d. The certainty of a resurrection of the body from the grave ; 

 showing that death is but a temporary evil, and that our sorrow should 



*The author lost a beloved wife, one of the most accomplished among women; 

 whose memory remains dear to all who knew her. She died October 23, 1793. 



