Project Canterbury

THE
JOY OF THE SAINTS:

A

DISCOURSE

ON

THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER A.D. MDCCCXLIV.

BEING THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER THE INTELLIGENCE OF

THE DEATH

OF THE

REV. ARTHUR CAREY, A.M.,

An Assistant Minister in the Church of the Annunciation, New York,

BY THE

REV. SAMUEL SEABURY, D.D.,

RECTOR OF SAID CHURCH

"Blessed be he of the Lord who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead."

PUBLISHED BY JAMES A. SPARKS,

109 Nassau street.
1844.

transcribed by Mr Thomas Harbold
AD 2000


AT a meeting of the Vestry of the "Church of the Annunciation," held on Monday evening, the 30th of April, 1844—all the members being present—the following preamble and Resolutions presented by the Secretary, were unanimously adopted.

The Vestry of the Church of the Annunciation, in the City of New York, having received the painful intelligence of the death of the Rev. ARTHUR CAREY, late the Assistant minister in their church, and desirous to testify the deep sense of the bereavement which they have sustained, have therefore—

Resolved, That this Vestry respectfully tender to the afflicted relatives of the deceased, and especially to his excellent father, whose melancholy duty it was to commit to the deep the earthly remains of a beloved and most dutiful son, their unfeigned sympathy and condolence, under this afflictive dispensation of Divine Providence. Earnestly and affectionately do we commend them in this their hour of sorrow to "the grace of our LORD JESUS CHRIST," and under its benign influence to that humble and confiding faith in "the love of GOD" which brings to the wounded and stricken heart the comfort and strength of "the communion of the HOLY GHOST."

Resolved, That although but recently connected with this Parish in the office of an Assistant Minister, the brief services of Mr. Carey deserve to be remembered by us with lasting gratitude. Young in years, yet profound in knowledge, and having evidently drunk long and deep of the pure fountain of Holy Scripture under the guidance of the Church Catholic, and of the Anglican branch thereof in her best and purest days; in his style of preaching, simple, direct, and practical, seeking to inform and guide the judgement, and to purify the heart; in his disposition docile and calm, forbearing and forgiving, yet, when duty required, firm and decided; in his deportment, exemplary and unobtrusive; in his habits, uniformly pious and devout, and possessing a simplicity, sincerity, and perfection of character which are rarely attained by any human being, he has inspired us with a profound respect for his character as a clergyman and a Christian, and left behind him a memory which we shall never cease to cherish with sentiments of reverence and love.

Resolved, That now that the mighty ocean has closed over the earthly remains of our beloved brother, and in the calm retrospect of the events connected with his ordination, we cannot withhold our expression of gratitude to the Bishop of this Diocese for that firmness to which, under God, we have been indebted for the services of him whose loss we now deplore. A more orthodox and pious Christian, a more intelligent and exemplary Churchman, we humbly think, has not existed among us; and while we presume to sit in judgement on those who opposed his admission to the ministry, we cannot but bless GOD for his memory, and thank HIM for having made us members of a Church which has had such men to serve at her altars as ARTHUR CAREY. On motion—Resolved, That an attested copy of the foregoing Preamble and Resolutions be transmitted to John Carey, Esq., the father of the deceased—and to the Churchman, for publication.

On motion of Robert D. Weeks, Esq., seconded by Chief Justice Jones, it was further

Resolved, That the Reverend Rector be and is hereby requested to furnish for publication, in a pamphlet form, a copy of the sermon preached by him on Sunday morning last, on occasion of the death of the Rev. ARTHUR CAREY, the late Assistant Minister in this Church.

Attest.

FLOYD SMITH, Sec'y


THE JOY OF THE SAINTS

ST. JOHN, XVI. 22

"And ye now therefore have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you."

TENDERLY, and as they were capable of bearing it, did the merciful JESUS break to His disciples the fact of His approaching death by the violence of His enemies. Such an event was the reverse of their expectations. They "trusted that it had been He who should have redeemed Israel" from the Roman yoke; and as His nearest friends and chosen followers, they hoped to share the honors of His triumph and to fill the highest posts of power and patronage in His new kingdom. The thought of the favors and benefits which they would then confer on their friends and countrymen, was a source of joy to their guileless hearts. But of the joy which was to spring "out of the deep" of sorrow; of the power which was to be born of suffering, and of the triumph which it would achieve for innocence, and righteousness over malice and violence; of the Universal and Everlasting Kingdom which was to be founded on the Rock of Self—Sacrifice and to flourish on the ruins of the policy and the power and the pomp of this world—or rather of that kingdom which Satan has established in it—of this they had no conception. Their visions were as yet bounded by the dreams and illusions which "the god of this world" had engendered; their notions of power and pomp, of prosperity and grandeur were all unreal and wrong; and the hopes which they indulged were consequently delusive and vain. In this state of mind the death of their beloved Master by the violence of His enemies, would not only shock their affectionate hearts, but would blast their hopes of prosperity and greatness: it would leave them poor and friendless, and expose them to the malice of their Roman enemies, and the scorn of their own countrymen. Of this trial their Master graciously forewarned them by means of such intimations as they could receive. "These things," he said, "I have spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father or me." Unthinking and ignorant men, such was the sad announcement, because they had erroneous views, that is, in fact, no knowledge of GOD and CHRIST would reproach and persecute the saints of Christ; and what added to the disciples' grief and perplexity was the stranger announcement that the departure of their only Friend and Protector would be to them the source of comfort and joy. "Nevertheless," said JESUS, "I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart I will send him unto you” I have many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you into all" the "truth" pertaining to my kingdom. "He shall glorify me; for He will receive of mine and show it unto you:" He will impart to you the same Energy and Life which support me, and so enable you to obtain that peace which the world cannot give, and to achieve that triumph which only the Father can bestow. In order to this end, "A little while, and ye shall not see me; and again, a little while, and ye shall see me; because I go to the Father" to receive from Him and send to you that SPIRIT of Truth and Patience by whose energy "I have overcome other world." To the disciples our Lord's intimation of His Death, Resurrection, and Ascension, was a "proverb," a dark saying, the meaning of which they could not penetrate. The compassionate JESUS saw their perplexity and repeated His warning with the greater emphasis: "Verily, verily I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but other world shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy." And having compared their anguish under the bereavement to the sharpest pains of body, He adds, "But I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you."

All came to pass as JESUS had foretold. He suffered and was crucified, died and was buried; and during the "little while" that He was absent from the bodily eyes of His disciples, they were filled with fear and sorrow. On the third day He rose from the dead and spent forty days with His disciples; and in this "little while," during which He was "again" visible to their bodily sight, He filled their minds with that Health and Joy which no man could take from them. Now at length they understood the world and they knew the true GOD and eternal life. Now they saw that all that is in the world, "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life," all the riches and patronage, all the power and knowledge (falsely so called) which make up the sum of human greatness, "is not of the Father but of the world;" and that "the world passeth away and the lust thereof, while he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." The cruelties and violence of unthinking men, the shouts and ridicule of a fickle and clamorous multitude which before seemed great and formidable, were now seen to be vile and contemptible; since He who had suffered all that the malice of the world could inflict, had, by that very suffering, overcome the wicked one, and recovered for His followers in suffering, that life, that fulness of peace and joy, which abideth forever. Here was opened to them a fountain of power and wisdom and blessedness of which the world knew nothing. Greatness springing from humility; strength made perfect in weakness; joy emerging out of sorrow; victory over enemies obtained by suffering their assaults, and life itself gained through death,—these were the elements of a new kingdom indeed, the very nature of which it is to triumph over the world just in proportion as it is assailed by the world. For forty days did JESUS continue to be personally present to His disciples, instructing them in the mysteries of this heavenly kingdom; a kingdom which is founded in the sacrifice of Himself, which He offered to the ALMIGHTY FATHER, and which is realized in His followers in so far as they, by the energy of the same Word abiding in them, offer themselves "to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice" unto GOD. And when again JESUS left his disciples and ascended to the Father, He sent them, according to His gracious promise, that HOLY SPIRIT which communicated to them also, His Life and Health—His love and truth—His joy and patience—and so enabled them to be "workers together with Him" in the propagation of the same kingdom; "in all things approving themselves as the ministers of God in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by long—suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of GOD, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers and yet true; as unknown and yet well known; as dying and behold" they "live; as chastened and not killed; as SORROWFUL YET ALWAYS REJOICING; AS POOR YET MAKING MANY RICH; AS HAVING NOTHING, YET POSSESSING ALL THINGS."

As usual the other distinctive services of the day combine to illustrate the leading thought of the Gospel, viz.: that the hidden Joy of the Saints enables them to suffer, and by suffering, to overcome the world and enlarge the kingdom of GOD. "Dearly beloved," says St. Peter, in the epistle for the day, "I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims"—travelling through this world to your heavenly rest—"abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul: having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evil doers, they may by your good works which they shall behold, glorify GOD in the day of the visitation . . . . For so is the will of GOD, that with well—doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." The Joy of the Saints did not consist in an exemption from calumny and persecution, but in confuting them with the silent eloquence of a patient and godly life. The exultation of this new kingdom is foretold in the first lesson of the day by the prophet Joel:—"And it shall come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk; and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth from the hand of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim:" who also foretells that its enemies, mystically denoted by Egypt and Edom, shall also be destroyed:—"Egypt shall be a desolation and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in the land. But Judah shall dwell forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation." The kingdom of JESUS, the mystical Judah, would flourish over all opposition; the "innocent blood" of its martyrs would speak shame and confusion to its enemies, and give a new impulse to its growth; and the counsel of its more prudent foes would be that of Gamaliel, recorded in the second lesson of the day:—"And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men and let them alone; for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to naught; but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found even to fight against GOD." And that all those who seek to follow the first disciples as they followed CHRIST, may clean escape this guilt of opposing His kingdom, and help, in their several stations, to spread and enlarge it, the Church teaches us to pray in the collect for the day:—"ALMIGHTY God, who showest unto them that are in error the light of thy truth to the intent that they may return into the way of righteousness, grant unto all those who are admitted into the fellowship of Christ's religion, that they may avoid those things that are contrary to their profession, and follow such things as are agreeable to the same, through our LORD JESUS CHRIST."

What JESUS said to His first disciples may be applied to us, my brethren, as far as our altered circumstances allow. We have the same fleshly lusts to excite us, the same wicked world to frown upon us, the same Tempter, if we let slip the things which we have heard, to beguile us. We, too, are prone to act on an unreal estimate of things; to account that to be good, and wise, and great, which the world esteems as such; to repel injuries by violence; to rely on "an arm of the flesh," on the riches of the world,on the policy of the worldly wise and the power of the worldly great, for the attainment of our ends; to follow after shadows, ignorant or forgetful that the seeming goods which this world spreads before us and which our earthly natures crave, are the shadows, and only the shadows of those real goods, that "better and enduring substance," which our gracious Lord designed for us when he said, "Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." And in proportion as we mistake the shadow for the substance, and seek, however unconsciously, a temporal instead of a spiritual kingdom in the Church of Christ, we corrode our minds with peevish tempers, and wrong wishes, and vain alarms and distressing apprehensions. This spell must, of course, be wholly broken before we can know the true and unfailing source of Health and Joy. Hence we, like the first disciples, have need to weep and lament while the world shall rejoice, in order that our sorrow may be turned into that joy which will survive the world and all the evils which the cruelty of unthinking men and the malice of the Devil can inflict. To this end our Lord has left us "for a little while," with the promise that he will come again and take us to that place which He has gone to prepare for us. But he has not left us helpless or friendless. He has left us the Life and Strength of His Sacrifice of Himself, and the joy and assurance of His Resurrection which attested the acceptance of this Sacrifice. He has left us the same warning and encouragement which He gave to His first disciples:—"In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." He works in us by the same energy of Truth and Patience which wrought in them; and forms us, while we copy His pattern, to the same contempt of the world, the same power of endurance, the same mightiness of faith and love,—in a word to the same self—sacrifice in hope of the same blessed Resurrection which turned their sorrow into joy, and caused their hearts to rejoice with that joy which no man taketh from them. "My brethren," says St. James, "count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations (or trials) knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire lacking nothing."

We are not, indeed, exposed to precisely the same trials which the first Christians encountered. We are not seized and brought before magistrates, and scourged, and imprisoned, and put to death for the profession of our faith. But we live in the midst of the same evil world, and have to brave the same enmity only in a different form. Our lot is cast in an age and country in which our Holy Faith is little understood; is opposed to the interests of some and the prejudices of others; is made the public object of ridicule and scorn; is assailed by misrepresentation and calumnies, and sought to be proscribed and extirpated by an avowed combination of enemies. We have not to contend with Judaism, or Heathenism, or open infidelity; but we have to contend with a subtle and widespread Gnosticism, which has warped the judgement of the "honorable men" and "dried up" the charities of "their multitude," and inclined them to accept so much of what they think to be Christian as is congenial with their own tempers, and to look with supercilious contempt on the doctrine and worship of CHRIST as attested in all ages by His Church. "Therefore my people are all gone into captivity because they have no knowledge; and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst." Bitter indeed, then, would be the lot of the faithful witnesses of Christ, if while the world thus rejoices they were left friendless and alone. But they are not so left. They are blessed with the presence of the same HOLY SPIRIT which dwelt in JESUS and raised Him from the dead, and which wells forth in them, even in this life, that health and joy which no man taketh from them. This joy enables them to endure the taunts and contradictions of unthinking men; makes them willing to be counted outcasts, and to have their names pass into a reproach and a by—word; and sustains them even when they hear CHRIST Himself blasphemed in the ridicule which is poured on His Church and the Holy Mysteries of His institution.

One such faithful witness to Christ whose loss you now mourn, it was lately your privilege, my brethren, to know as a Minister of GOD among you. At the early age of twenty* ARTHUR CAREY had completed the full course of studies required by our church as a qualification for the Holy Order of Deacons in the Church of God. Being under the canonical age, he spent another year in the General Theological Seminary in the further acquisition of sacred knowledge, and was ordained in July last in St. Stephen's Church by the Bishop of this Diocese. The peculiar circumstances connected with his ordination first excited my interest in him and led to the intimacy, which, however brief, will ever be among the most pleasing and melancholy recollections of my life. The expectations which I had formed of him from the accounts of others were great; but, had they been ten fold greater, they would have been more than realized. Mr. Carey was, without exception, the ripest man of his age that I ever knew; and seldom have I conversed with one of any age whose conversation impressed me with a deeper sense, both intellectually and morally, of my own weakness. He was commonly reserved; and he never broke silence on occasions which would lay him open to the imputation of display or an attempt at affect. But when free from such restraints and in the company of those who were warmed by a kindred love of holy things, it was impossible not to admire the deep, pure, and gentle current of his thoughts. On the abstruse subjects of metaphysics, on the profound dogmas of theology, he discoursed with the wisdom of a sage; bringing up from the deep of thought and placing in a clear and intelligible light, truths which the generality even of cultivated minds seldom approach without bewilderment or discuss without confusion: and this with the unconscious ease and simplicity of a child. No man of his years that I ever knew seemed to me so happily and perfectly to combine those opposite traits which Solomon contrasts when he says, "The prudent man concealeth knowledge," and "The lips of the wise dispense knowledge;" and again, "He that hath knowledge spareth his words," and "The lips of the wise are a precious jewel." Many hours have I spent with him both alone and in the presence of others since first I knew him; and never have I heard from him a frivolous or unbecoming expression; but often when discoursing with him on the various fortunes of the Church (a theme on which he loved to dwell), and on those topics of dogmatic and moral theology to the study of which my best days have been given, have I felt that it would be a privilege for me to sit at the feet of that young man; young in years, but old in wisdom.

With all Mr. Carey's knowledge of books, he was not deficient in his knowledge of men. He understood the springs of human action, and betokened the power of a leading mind in influencing and guiding those around him. His quick perception and ready judgement gave him a remarkable insight into the character and governing motives of the various persons with whom he had at any time been brought into contact. He was more used, however, to consider men in the aggregate, and to study the force and operation of different systems of government and religion in moulding their habits of thought and action. The religious influences under which men are bred in our own country he was trained to view in the light of history. To refer them to their elementary sources; to show what portion of them had flowed from a State Establishment which he did not love, what from a self—willed and unruly temper of innovation which he heartily hated, and what from the CHURCH of the Divine Redeemer, was the familiar operation of his mind; and hence, whatever the public might think of him or his sentiments, he could easily and quietly estimate at its just value the weight of its judgement in things pertaining to the CHURCH of GOD. Situated as our church now is, a man's discretion is shown as well in what he leaves unsaid and undone as in what he says and does; in avoiding things which are innocent in themselves but give needless offense, as in vindicating, by word and deed, those essential principles of the church which are at times in danger of being borne down by popular clamor. The force of this sentiment was felt by Mr. Carey, and very remarkably exemplified in his conduct. Nothing dreamy or visionary; nothing rash or precipitate; nothing obtrusive or ostentatious; nothing vain or paradoxical did I ever perceive in his words or actions. In all things he was governed by a solid and practical judgement; never shrinking from the distinct and candid avowal of his sentiments and at times flinging from him every guise of concealment with a lofty and burning scorn, but always ready, in matters which involved no principle, to yield his own preferences to the wishes of his brethren for their comfort and the quiet of the Church. He was the last man who would ever have needlessly put a stumbling—block in his brother's way.

At an age when most men can scarcely be said to have opinions, Mr. Carey's opinions on those theological subjects which may be reasonably supposed to have come fairly under his consideration, had been well digested and matured; as much so, I believe, as they would have been had he lived to the age of fifty. From study and conviction as well as education he was a Catholic; and when I say this, I imply that he did not regard the church as a society which has formed itself on principles (or what it conceives to be such) of Divine Revelation, nor as made up of a number of such societies; but as the BODY OF CHRIST; joined together in the unity of the One Faith in order to the consentient Worship of the ONE GOD of CHRISTIANS; propagated by One mission; informed and animated by the One "GIVER of Life" (the HOLY GHOST" who proceedeth from the FATHER and the SON, and who with the FATHER and the SON together is worshiped and glorified") who communicates the Life of the whole Body to all its members, making them capable in this world of eternal blessedness in the world to come. The interruption of communion among those who have been planted by the same Mission in the unity of the same Faith, Mr. Carey regarded as an existing fact too palpable to be denied; and rather to be deprecated by all as a judgement for past sins that to be seized on as an occasion of mutual strife and invective. His attachment, however, to that Branch of the Heavenly Vine in which it had pleased GOD to graft him, and whose jurisdiction he exclusively acknowledged, was well grounded and firm; and to have its sincerity questioned cut him to the quick. He believed that in her (the Church, I mean, to which he belonged) was faithfully transmitted, in all its essential integrity, the deposit entrusted by CHRIST to His Apostles. In her communion he had found that God was not "far from his health;" and to promote the spiritual health of his fellowmen by ministering at her altars was the end to which he had singly consecrated his life. He loved his church and ours, my brethren, with a filial love; he sought to do all that she enjoined; he coveted nothing which she forbade; he condemned nothing which she approved, and he approved nothing with she obliged him to condemn. If in censuring the distinctive doctrines and usages of another communion—another Branch of the same Vine—he went not beyond the letter of his Church's requirement, and even used his liberty to narrow by mild constructions the breach which there are enough to widen by bitter reproaches, forgive him—in his grave at least, O ye followers of the PEACE—MAKER, forgive him this wrong! For myself I can say, that all my intercourse with Mr. Carey,—and I believe he opened to me on this subject his inmost soul—never excited a suspicion in my mind that he had any sentiment toward the Roman Communion inconsistent with an honest and hearty allegiance to his own church; nor do I at all doubt that, had he lived, he would have continued faithfully and steadfastly to serve at our altars, and, by a patient continuance in well—doing, have put to silence the obloquy of the world.

It is the common testimony of those who have known Mr. Carey, that he was one of the most gentle and guileless of men. He was also an eminently devout and holy man. I am told, and I believe, that he gave three hours of each day (except when prevented by unavoidable interruptions) to private devotional exercises; and that it was his rule to read through the Old Testament three times and the New Testament five times a year. That he was a perfect man I do not say; but he believed Christian perfection to be attainable, and scrupulously used every means which the Church has required or provided in order to its attainment. He kept strictly all the Fasts and Festivals of the Church, and united, whenever he could, in the public services of the sanctuary, not only on Sundays but on week—days; on which, also, as well as on Sundays, he believed the use of the Daily Morning and Evening Service to be binding on the clergy of our Church. There was, however, no austereness in his devotion: he was generally cheerful, and at times not wanting in vivacity. His devotion was not mechanical, or what is sometimes called formal, but seemed to flow from a certain energy of holiness which pervaded his heart and life. You saw it in his common conversation, which though at times discursive and varied, never descended to levity and never even bordered on censoriousness. A harsh or unkind word I never heard him utter of any man. Some of his brethren in the ministry enjoyed a larger share of his respect and confidence than others; but of not one of them did he ever, to my knowledge, express or insinuate an unkind thought; and when others have done so in his presence, and in reference to matters in which his personal interests and feelings were deeply involved, I have known him to expostulate with them in a tone of decision and earnestness which made it impossible to doubt his sincerity. With a latent firmness of purpose which few would have suspected, his intercourse with his friends was yet marked by an unaffected frankness and candor, tempered by meekness and modesty. From those whom he did not account his friends, he could bear everything but praise: this pained him from any quarter, but when it came from those for whose professions of friendship he had no reason to be thankful, it excited in him a pain and indignation which he did not always seek to disguise or restrain; and which he was capable of venting in a burst of impassioned eloquence such as none who saw would ever forget.

The same feeling, my brethren, which first excited my interest in our departed brother, excited yours also. Worldly prudence, indeed, counselled you to avoid him; but you heeded not its dictates: the more the world cast out his name as evil, the more was your heart enlarged towards him; nor did you repress your sympathies until your wish was gratified that he should be placed over you in the Lord. And you found him, as you expected, "Blameless and harmless, a son of GOD, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom he shone as a light in the world, holding forth the word of life." You saw the sober and serious earnestness with which he threw himself into his parochial duties. You saw his faithfulness in the Sunday school, his solicitude for the poor and afflicted, and his love for all the members of CHRIST. You were impressed with the naturalness and quiet solemnity with which on week—days and Holy Days as well as Sundays, he performed the services of the Church. You heard his sermons on every Lord's—day during the short time he was with you, and you know the depth, the simplicity and unction with which he preached to you the Gospel of Christ. But after all, it was not any one thing, so much as the manifest of godliness of this young man, the fire of holiness pervading all that he said and did, and communicating itself to all who heard him, which gave him the hold which he had on your hearts. You were drawn towards him more and more closely every time that he preached, because he drew you nearer to God, and made you better men and better Christians. The mourning** in which you have this day clothed your Church, is a token of that kindness for the dead of which the living, from the time of his coming among you, received so many tender and substantial expressions. For all these I thank you in CHRIST'S behalf, and pray GOD to reward you tenfold into your bosom. "Blessed be he of the Lord that hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead!"

I shall not attempt, brethren, to express the grief which absorbs your minds and mine at the death of this pure and gifted man. We grieve for our own and the Church's sake: for our own, because we loved to commune with him on earth; for the Church's sake, because we think that at this time, especially, when her Catholic principles are despised by some and injudiciously advocated by others, the loss of one who embraced them in their fulness and acted them out in their severe simplicity, cannot be repaired. We feel, too, as if he had been sent on a mission which he was not suffered to fulfil; as if he had been called off from a work which none else was so well fitted to accomplish. But these are matters above our disposal and above our reach. It may be that GOD has withdrawn him from us because we were unworthy of him; and that his withdrawal, by humbling us under a sense of our defects, will further the work which it seems to retard. Doubtless the event is ordered for good. At least, however afflictive to us, the change is profitable for our departed brother. He had commenced a troubled and stormy voyage over the billows of this naughty world; and it is well for him that it was short, and that he has gone before us to the haven of eternal rest. For one so young he had his share of trials; but it is a comfort to know that the trials of his faith wrought in him patience; and to hope that patience had her perfect work, so that he was perfect and entire, lacking nothing. If he were to weep and lament while the world rejoiced, it is a comfort to know that his sorrow was of brief duration, "a little while," and is now turned into everlasting joy. It is well for us, also, to remember that in his brief sufferings for the testimony of God's truth, he experienced no more than our Saviour foretold should be the lot of His faithful followers in this world. Thankful also to God should we be that He has made us members of a Church which has produced such a witness to the truth; one who followed the first disciples as they followed CHRIST, who gave himself to GOD to endure the contradiction of unthinking and violent men, even unto the death on the Cross. It is a new proof that with all our defects and faults, GOD has not forgotten us; that we too, like our departed brother, are able to suffer all things to which God shall call us, because we too like him have "CHRIST in us the hope of glory;" that the same WORD which dwelt in him and wrought in the firm persuasion that the life which he had here was but the shadow of that eternal life on which (we trust) he has now entered, dwells also in us; and that this WORD, if we heed its dictates, will work in us also the firm persuasion which it wrought in him, that riches and honors (or what this world accounts such) are the shadows of "a better and enduring substance" which is promised to the pure in heart: and which may God grant to each one of us for the sake of his Son JESUS CHRIST; To whom in unity with the FATHER and the HOLY GHOST be ascribed all honor and glory now and for ever! AMEN.


* In addition to the above, I annex the following particulars which have been chiefly communicated to me by the worthy father of the deceased.

ARTHUR CAREY was born in the vicinity of London, on the 26th of June, 1822, and was eight years of age when his father removed his family to this country. He remained in this city under his father's roof until he was eleven and a half years old, at which time he was placed in company with his two brothers, under the care of Bishop Hopkins of Vermont, in whose family he resided for three years, and of whose kindness and fidelity to his sacred trust, as well as of the tutors under whom he was placed, he ever retained a grateful remembrance. Besides the usual academic pursuits, he here studied music, drawing, and other accomplishments, in which, however, he attained no great degree of proficiency, and which he discontinued altogether in after years. At the age of twelve years, he signified to his father his desire to devote himself to the ministry, and from that hour never once faltered or varied in his purpose. At about the age of thirteen, he received his Holy Rite of Confirmation at the hands of Bishop Hopkins, and was shortly prepared for his first reception of the Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of CHRIST. In January, 1836, he was admitted into the Sophomore class of Columbia College, from which he graduated in 1839, at the head of his class, delivering, as is customary, the Greek oration on that occasion. Of the Professors of that Institution, he ever spoke in terms of affectionate respect, and had abundant evidence of their regard after he had quitted College. Two of them, it will not seem invidious to say, he counted among his most cherished and anxious friends, from the deep and lively interest which they ever showed in what concerned his welfare. In October, 1839, at the age of 17 years and 4 months, he entered the General Theological Seminary, and on the completion of his course in June, 1842, received the usual testimonial of the Institution. Being at this time only 20 years of age, and desirous to enjoy the Library and other advantages of the Seminary, he continued (with leave of the proper authorities) to reside in the building (having no other connection with the Institution), and to pursue his studies in private, until he was of age for Holy Orders. While connected with the Seminary and residing in it, he conciliated, in a remarkable degree, the love and respect of its able and learned Professors and of his fellow students. On the 2nd of July, he was admitted to the Holy Order of Deacons, in St. Stephen's Church, New York, by the Bishop of the Diocese. In September last, he received a unanimous invitation from the Vestry of the Church of the Annunciation, to become the Assistant of its Rector; an invitation which he at first declined from the desire of a more quiet and retired settlement than the city offered, but which he accepted on its being renewed in the following month. On the second Sunday of October, he commenced the duties of his new station, and continued to discharge them until the 29th of December, on which day he took to his bed of a fever. After two or three weeks the fever abated, and hopes were entertained of his recovery. But the energies of his system did not rally; and he was left in a declining state which, in the judgement of his medical advisors, rendered expedient a voyage to Cuba. For four or five years before, he had been affected with incipient disease of the heart, which, though not very urgent, showed itself in occasional paroxysms, when different exciting causes called it into action. On Sunday, March 17th, he was enabled to ride to church, and to join in the prayers of his beloved people for his safe and prosperous voyage. After this grateful but most agitating service, he conversed for a few minutes with some of his anxious and still lingering flock and, at the doors of the church, laid his attenuated hand upon the heads of some of the Sunday School children, for whom he cherished a most lively and affectionate concern. On the 23rd of March he embarked with his father for Havana. The voyage, though not stormy, was rough and disagreeable; but every discomfort was borne by the sufferer with the same meek and placid resignation by which his life had been distinguished: not a murmur escaped his lips on any occasion of annoyance. On the 1st of April he raised a very small quantity of blood, but not enough to excite any alarm. On the 4th of April, however, he had a return of the same symptom, and continued to bleed from the lungs, though very slowly, for about an hour, when without any apparent diminution of strength, with his eyes open and calmly fixed on his father, without a struggle, or even the slightest perceptible movement of muscle, he expired at the early age of twenty—one years and ten months.

It is impossible to speak in too high terms of the generous conduct of the passengers of the vessel, of one of the owners who was on board, of Captain Joseph Spinney, his mate, and entire crew, as manifested during the whole voyage, and especially at this trying hour. All of them begged the father of the deceased to put their respective interests and convenience entirely out of the question in the determination to which he might come with respect to the disposal of the remains: professing themselves entirely willing to endure the rigid and protracted quarantine (imposed, it seems, in such cases at Havana), and even much more, in case he should resolve on their interment on shore. To part with the body, however, without the melancholy privilege of accompanying it to land, and to commit it to strangers and officers of government, without the certainty of its receiving the rites of Christian burial, was felt to be even a more painful alternative that to consign it to a watery grave: not to add that any other determination would have been but an ill requital of the generous self—denial, kindness, and sympathy with the sufferer, which had been testified by all on board. Accordingly, on the next day (Good Friday), the body was committed to the deep, in the full belief that the Earth and the Sea will simultaneously give up their dead. The Church Burial Service was impressively read by Mr. Grosvenor, a gentleman connected with the Seamen's Friend Society, the subdued and reverent demeanor and tearful eyes of the passengers and crew evincing the hold which the gentleman like manners, and the mild and meek deportment of the deceased, had gained on their hearts. The burial took place about 15 or 20 miles N.E. of the Moro Castle, on the very day that the deceased, had he lived, would have landed in Havana.

** The chancel of the Church was hung in black; this was done by a spontaneous movement on the part of the congregation before the vestry could be assembled: which accounts for the omission of a resolution to that effect in the proceedings of the vestry.

ð The Church teaches us to show our "kindness" for the righteous dead chiefly by recounting before GOD the mercy that their souls, being delivered from the burden of the flesh, are now in joy and felicity; by giving HIM hearty thanks for the good examples they have left now that, having finished their course in faith, they do rest from their labors; and by devoutly beseeching Him that, when the bodies of men shall have been raised and reunited to their souls, we with them may obtain deliverance in the Day of Judgement, and have our perfect consummation and bliss in his eternal and everlasting GLORY through JESUS CHRIST our Lord. In this life a hidden joy which animates their toil and suffering for CHRIST's sake; in Paradise, rest in hope and felicity; and after the Day of Judgement the perfect consummation (in body and soul) of their hope and joy in GLORY—a glory not measured by succession of events, but eternal—such is the progress of the Saints, the progress of Redemption, the progress of the Kingdom of Heaven—the CHURCH of GOD.

› E.g. a laxity of discipline; which subjects us to unhealthy excitements and waste of strength.


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