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sence of God . New constellations roll over Ms head ; but they guide his mind to the same Heaven , which was his hope at home . I see him at the extremity of Africa , adoring God in
the new creation which spread around him , and thanking him with emotion for the new strength which that mild atmosphere communicated . I see him too in the trying scene which followed , when he withered and shrunk like a
frail plant tinder the equinoctial sun , still building piety on suffering , and growing in submission , as hope declined . He does not indeed look without an occasional sinking of the heart , without some shudderings of nature , to a foreign soil as his
appointed grave . But he remembers , that from every region there is a path to immortality , and that the spirit , which religion has refined , wherever freed from the body , will find its
nativecountry . He does not indeed think without emotion of home , —a thought , how trying to a sick and dying man in a land of strangers ' . But God , whom he adores as every where present , seems to him a bond of union to distant
friends , and he finds relief in committing them to his care and mercy . At length I see him expire ; but . not until suffering has done its work of discipline and purification . His end is tranquil , like his own mild spirit ; and I follow him—not to the tomb , for that lifeless bodv is not he—but to
the society of the just made perfect . His pains are now past . He has found a better home , than this place of his nativity and earthly residence . Without 1 he tossings of another voyage , he has entered a secure haven . The fever
no longer burns in his veins—the hollow and deep voice no longer sends forth ominous sounds . Disease and death , having accomplished their purpose , have lost their power , and he
remembers , with gratitude , the kind severity with which they conducted him to a nobler life , than that which they took away . Such is the aspect which this dispensation now wears ; how different from that which it first
presented to sense and imagination ! * Let me pay a short tribute to his memory . It is a duty , which I perform with a melancholy pleasure . His character was one , which it is soothing to remember . It comes over the mind lilve the tranquillizing breath of . spring .
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It asks no embellishment . It would be injured by a strained and laboured eulogy . " The character of ouf friend was distinguished by blandoess , mildness , equableness and harmony . All the
elements were tempered in him kindly and happily . He had nothing of asperity . He passed through the storms , tumults and collisions of human life , with a benignity akin to that which marked our perfect Guide and
Example . This mild and bland temper spread itself over the whole man . His manners , his understanding , his piety , all received a hue from it , just as a soft atmosphere communicates its own tender and tranquil character to every object and scene viewed through it .
" With this peculiar mildness he united firmness . His purposes , whilst maintained without violence , were never surrendered but to conviction . His opinions , though defended with singular candour , he would have sealed with his blood . He possessed
the only true dignity , that which results from proposing habitually a lofty standard of feeling and action ; and accordingly the love which he called fort ! i , was always tempered with respect . He was one of the last men to be approached with a rude familiarity .
" His piety was a deep sentiment . It had struck through and entwined itself with his whole soul . In the freedom of conversation I have seen how intimately God was present to him : but his piety partook of the
general temperament of his mind . It was warm , but not heated ; earnest , but tranquil ; a habit , not an impulse ; the air which he breathed , not a tempestuous wind , giving occasional violence to his emotions . A constant dew
seemed to distil on him from heaven , giving freshness to his devout sensibilities ; but it was a gentle influence , seen not in its falling , but in its fruits . His piety appeared chiefly in gratitude and submission , sentiments peculiarly suited to such a mind as his . He felt
strongly , that God had crowned his life with peculiar goodness , and yet , when his blessings were withdrawn , his acquiescence was as deep and sincere as his thankfulness . —His devotional exercises in public were particularly striking . He came to the me rev seat as one who was not . a
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718 Obituary . —Rev . S . C . Thacher .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1818, page 718, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2482/page/54/
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