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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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happy lot of the widow of Zarephthah , the bhunemmite , and the wife of Jairus , who had their beloved offspring restored to their longing arms , just as the gates of death appeared to have closed upon them for ever , and
contrast their lot with yours . But your grief will be greatly moderated when you recollect that these events are recorded instances of the power of God to raise the dead to life again . And , upon further reflection , you will find
that what seemed at first sight to be calculated to aggravate your sufferings , is in fact adapted not only to soothe them , but to change the voice of wailing into songs of thanksgiving evnd joy . Happy were these favoured
mothers , although they were doomed shortly to part company again , and their intercourse with their children , thus snatched from the grave , might he interrupted by distance , or embittered bv vice . But far happier will
virtuous parents one day become , when rising from the slumbers of death , they shall run to embrace those whom God hath given them , and be re-united in eternal friendship . No selfishness shall cool the ardour of
their attachment , no sorrows shall cloud their intercourse , no follies and imperfections shall call for the voice x > f admonition . Whatever in this world has given pleasure , shall be heightened and perfected ; whatever has caused momentary pain , shall be
eternally banished . Allow me to remind you that the hope of a resurrection is the main pillar of Christianity , " for this is the word of faith" preached by the apostles , " that if thou wilt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus , and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead , thou shalt
be saved . " This great truth the Unitarian doctrine places in the clearest point of view . While other systems disguise the fact of his death , and perplex the evidence of his resurrection , by representing him as God who
cannot die , and as rising by his own inherent power and immortality from the grave , the Unitarian believes him to have been precisely what the apostle ' s argument to the Corinthians supposes
him to have been—simply a man . ] f he were any thing more , his resurrection could be no proof of the possibility and pledge of the certainty of ours . "For since by man came death ,
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by man came also the resurrection of the dead . " Whatever therefore oth ers may tell you of the barrenness of ibfe doctrine , you will ,. I trust , find it fitful iu the richest sources of consolation . You view the Saviour of the
world in the most interesting light possible , as tempted in all points like his brethren , yet without sin ; as having , not figuratively , or nominally suffered ' but as having really un dergone all the piercing griefs of this state of trial , and set us an exam-pie at once of
feeling them acutely and bearing then * manfully . And when you meditate on the character and perfections of God , your thoughts of him will be full of consolation and joy . You do not consider him as having required of you a sinless obedience which he made you incapable of yielding him , or as
making you the subject of his everlasting , implacable wrath for the guilt of another which you had no part in incurring ; but as love , infinite and essential love , revealing itself in the works of nature , but more fully in the dispensation of grace , the free gift of pardon and eternal life , to every sincerely repentant offender .
It is my earnest hope , that while you and Mr . H . meditate on these tliing 3 in the " multitude of your" troubled " thoughts within you , " the " consolations of God" will still "delight your souls . "
Had you this morning consigned to an untimely grave a froward , ungrateful , or vicious child , I might have been at a loss to know in what language of consolation to address you . But to the parents of an amiable , pious and dutiful daughter , a thousand pleasing topics for reflection will readily occur . To have been the authors of her birth ,
instead of being thought of with pain and shame , is a subject of pride and congratulation . A thousand instances of dutiful attachment to her earthly parents , and of reverential love to her heavenly Father , will rush into your minds in your hours of retirement and meditation . And even the last sad
scene of suffering which broug ht her an early victim to grace the triump hs of death , —when it is recollected that disease and approaching dissolution seemed as it were to unlock the
treasures of the pious heart , which modesty had kept concealed , and to convince her sorrowing relatives how well
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270 . The Unitarian Mourner comforted .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1822, page 270, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2512/page/14/
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