AT a meeting of the Wardens and Vestry of Trinity Church, March 18th, 1858,

Voted, That Messrs. BERIAH BRADLEY, HENRY E. PECK, and CHARLES R. INGERSOLL be a Committee to convey to the Rt. Rev. JOHN WILLIAMS, D. D., Assistant Bishop of this Diocese, our grateful thanks for his prompt and obliging attention to our wishes, and the wishes of the Parish, in conducting the funeral service of our late revered Rector, Rev. HARRY CROSWELL, D. D., and for his able, eloquent, and most appropriate Sermon on that occasion; and to request him to favor us with a copy of his Sermon for publication.

Voted, That said Committee be directed to cause the Sermon to be printed in an appropiate style, together with the Resolutions of the Clergy, of the Wardens and Vestry of the Parish of the Advent, Boston, of the several Vestries of the Episcopal Parishes of the City, and of such other Churches as may be communicated to us--with such notices of our late Rector as may seem to them appropriate.

Attest,

S. D. PARDEE, Clerk.

NEW HAVEN, March 25, 1252.

Rt. Rev. JOHN WILLIAMS, D. D.,
Assistant Bishop of Conn.

RT. REV. AND DEAR SIR: The undersigned, a Committee of the Wardens and Vestry of Trinity Parish, New Haven, respectfully present to you the enclosed votes of the Vestry. Heartily concurring in the general wishes of the Parish expressed in these votes; hoping for a favorable answer to the request for a copy of your Sermon, we are,

Most respectfully, your obedient servants,

BERIAH BRADLEY,
H. E. PECK,
C. R. INGERSOLL.

MIDDLETOWN, March 27, 1858.

To Messrs. BERIAH BRADLEY, HENRY E. PECK, and CHARLES R. INGERSOLL, a Committee of the Vestry of Trinity Church, New Haven:

GENTLEMEN,--I beg to offer through you to the Wardens and Vestry of Trinity Parish, my sincere thanks for their very kind Resolution of the 15th inst., and also to acknowledge the equally kind manner in which you have done me the favor to communicate it. If I have been able in any way to be of service in connection with the solemn services at the interment of your late honored Rector, it will be a source of melancholy yet real gratification to me.

Were it not that I suppose my Sermon may help in some degree to make up the Memorial which you design to publish, I should be unwilling to see any other printing of it, than the report which has already appeared. As it is, I do not feel at liberty to withhold it, though you must pardon me for saying that I accede to the request for its publication with very great reluctance.

With assurances of my respectful regard, I am,

Gentlemen, your servant in the Church,

JOHN WILLIAMS.

AN almost awful interest attaches to these words. They occur in the last Epistle ever written by the great Apostle of the Gentiles. Immured in a Roman dungeon, in the days of a tyranny when to be so immured was the almost certain warrant of martyrdom, writing to a distant son in the Gospel, he gives utterance to this sublime strain of glorious hope: "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me, a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me in that day."

Far beyond those prison walls his eye was fixed; and though as it glanced onward to the end, it rested for a moment on the Roman magistrate, and the bloody sword, and the gaping crowds, still it was only for a moment; there were things beyond from which it would not be detained; "the tribunal of Nero faded from his sight, and the vista was closed by the judgment seat of Christ."

And, my brethren, even so, to each in his place and degree, may it be granted to all the faithful disciples of the Lord Jesus, thus to look forward, and thus to speak, as the appointed end of life draws on. Not every one, indeed, [5/6] can look back on what St. Paul could. Not to the memory of every one, can there come in that last hour, the thought of labor, and suffering, and achievement, such as his. Still, if the life has been a service of the Lord, and if the service has been living and faithful, then, no matter how limited the sphere, how humble the vocation, though we may not look back on what St. Paul did, we shall look forward to all which he beheld. The weakness of our mortality, shall be uphorne by the faith that nerved his soul; the darkness of our death chamber shall be lighted by the love that illumined his gloomy dungeon; and far beyond the death struggle and the mortal agony, we shall behold with a joy that overpowers them both, the vision of peace, the house of healing, the home of rest, mother of cities, the Jerusalem of heaven.

It can hardly be regarded as pushing or straining beyond its natural import, that part of the Apostle's death song, which I have selected as my text, to say that it had for him, and has for us, a twofold import. He could give utterance to it, both as a man and an Apostle. With us, it may refer both to the people and the ministers of Christ. And in either case, it presents the follower or the minister of the Lord, first as the soldier in the Christian combat; next as the runner in the Christian race; and thirdly, as the trustee or depositary, to whom is committed the deposit of the Christian Faith.

To-day, in this presence, and beside these honored remains, it is right that your thoughts should be called to that view of the text, which connects it with the duties and the labors of the Christian ministry; and in which, its application must be so obvious to every one of us. Still, now and ever, it is true, that the personal and the official application of the Apostle's words, must meet and mingle with each other. Of no minister of Christ can they be fitly spoken, of whom they could not be spoken as an individual man. The pastoral warfare against sin [6/7] and evil, the pastoral labors in the fold, the pastoral teaching of the Faith, however abundant and however zealous to men's eyes, O! how little comfort would they bring to the dying hour of a minister of Christ, how few consoling thoughts and memories could they give to those who stood beside his bier, unless with them there had gone, the personal struggle in that minister's own heart, the personal race in his individual life, the personal faith in his own inmost soul! But here in that aged soldier of his Master, whose mortal remains we are about to commit to the sepulchre, we can feel that they do meet; and, therefore, to us these words may come to day, in all their fullness of consolation, of incitement and of solemn warning.

First in the enumeration, stands the pastoral warfare. It is a common figure; it presents appositely and in a striking way, one phase of pastoral life. And that phase involves its severest, and most wearing labors. For, it is not in the public ministrations of the sanctuary, in the public exhortations to the assembled flock, that this warfare against the corruptions and the temptations of humanity is chiefly carried on. No! It is in the continuous round of unseen labor, in the word spoken in the individual ear, in the private counsel, in the silence of the chamber of sickness and the gloom of the house of mourning, by the wayside, in the hovel of the poor and outcast, in the house of misery and the haunt of sin, that this work is done. It is in the personal communion, when the pastor's heart meets the individual hearts of his people, when the convictions, the struggles, the trials, the hopes and the fears of their hearts are brought to his sympathies, his counsels and his prayers, that his best victories for the Lord are won. Nothing can be substituted for this; no human machinery can be made to take the place of this divine arrangement, with safety to the souls of either priest or people.

No doubt it is a wearisome and trying warfare. It [7/8] makes the ministry an easier thing to leave it out. And yet, to do so, will almost ensure to him who does it, the loss alike of his labor and his soul. Look at St. Paul, standing on Mars Hill, at the very centre of the world's intellectual life, and proclaiming with a sublimer eloquence than ever issued from lips untouched with the fire of inspiration, the truth as it is in Jesus; and then remember, that a whole century went by before there was a Church in Athens, that had a "name to live." Look at him again in Ephesus, laboring for three years in the humblest and most secluded manner; "disputing in the school of one Tyrannus;" going about "from house to horse;" "warning every man and teaching every man;" working, meantime, with his own hands in the lowly occupation of a tentmaker; and then remember, that there, from these labors, in his own life time, a Church arose, flourishing and prosperous, over which his own hands placed Timothy, his son, as its first Bishop, and for whose faith and love he gave unceasing thanks to God.

The rule then, is the rule now. And if as the Apostle of the Gentiles looked back upon his fight, he saw, not here and there one great achievement, and all a blank besides, but surveyed a long, continuous series of such contests as I have described, so any of his successors, in any of the "divers orders" of the Ministry, must, if he hopes to die with visions of the victor's palm before him, be able to look back, in his place and order, on the same good fight for Christ.

But I turn to the second point, the pastoral race. And here, much the same general line of thought applies, as that which has just occupied us. For here, too, most be exercised the same patience, the same watchfulness, the same unceasing diligence, the same care in seizing opportunities, the same subduing of the spirit and forgetfulness of self, that are involved in what has gone before. For, the course, to be well finished, must not be now a furious, [9/10] headlong rushing, and then an indolent and careless lagging, but a continuous, regular advance: with the forgetting of the things behind, and a reaching forward to the things that are before. It is here, if I may so speak, as it is in an earthly battle field. It is not the personal bravery of the soldier alone, that is of service then. Let him work out of line, and out of rule, and the braver he is, and the harder he labors, the more does he impede the plans of contest, and endanger their result. And so, it is not the occasional success of a brilliant effort, or the chance achievement of a sudden impulse, that will most advance the true interests of the Church of God. No! it is the subdued and chastened spirit, which loves to submit its own will, and finds in such submission a higher dignity and a truer independence than in yielding to that will; which works on patiently in the humble round of daily labor; which does not substitute lofty dreams about grand results, for the patient discharge of lowly duties; which remembers how the race is made up of single steps; it is such a spirit that wins the most solid and enduring triumphs for the Cross.
How little is this understood and estimated! Men see Christ's ministers in their daily work, and to them it seems a doing over and over again the same things; a repetition of the same acts and words, with few or no appreciable results. Day after day, and year after year, the pastor is beheld, receiving Christ's little ones into His fold, teaching and training them for heaven, exhorting the sinful and the careless, preaching the word, ministering the sacraments, attending on the sick and dying, providing for the poor, and burying the dead, and still the world, with its hurry and its crash, speeds on; and many who are borne along in its mad whirl, are ready to ask what all this amounts to, and what it means. It means that God's work is being done by the side of man's work, and amid the hindrances of Satan It means that Christ's Minister is finishing his [9/10] course, the fruits and issues of which will he known in that day, when God shall make up his jewels!

We have reached the third point, the preservation of the Faith; THE FAITH; that sacred deposit of divine truth, that "form of sound words," which the Apostle elsewhere commands Timothy to hold fast; those things, which received from him, are to be committed to faithful men, who may be able to teach others. This holy deposit is entrusted to the pastor, for its keeping, as well as promulgation. It is given to him, not to speculate about, not to exercise intellectual ingenuity upon, not to modify, not to adapt to human fancies, not to mingle with human philosophies, but to keep "whole and undefiled," in all its divine completeness, and as he keeps it, so also to promulgate it in the ears of men. If our age, brethren, has one special danger for the Christian minister, it lies here. When the inspired lips of Apostles first gave utterance to the harmonies of the Faith amid the discordant sounds of antagonistic human teachings, when in the freshness of its youth, and the undimmed beauty of its divine original, it stood amid the effete and crumbling relics of human theories, it had for those who heard and saw it, not alone its eternal, living power, but also the charm of novelty. That age has long since passed away; and now it comes to men, as something to which generations on generations have listened; which is anything but new; which, however it may gather fresh lights and shadows from the changes of the world's brief day, still stands the' same forever. It has, indeed, the same divine life, the same undying youth; but to the eyes of the world in a restless and changing period, it seems to wear marks of age; and those eyes readily turn to other things. To be faithful here, then, is a great thing. It demands nerve. It requires courage. It tasks faith. It is easier to play with new fancies about the head, than with this old truth to reach the heart. [10/11] And therefore it is, that here so many fail. "I have kept the faith." What simple words, and yet what meaning ones! Words that comforted St. Paul in his dungeon prison, on the eve of his departure from the world! Words that tell of unflinching fidelity, where faithlessness is easy; of self-restraint, when there are allurements abundant to let the mind wander at its will; of the simplicity of preaching, when the temper of the age is calling for bold and unlicensed speculation; in a word, of the submission of mind and will to the law and stewardship of the Gospel. O! what a contrast on their deathbeds, between one who has kept and taught the "Faith once given to the Saints," and one who has wandered in his own fancies, and preached them, instead of God's glorious truths! What a more awful contrast shall be seen, when, in the day of God, there shall gather round the one, those who shall be His hope, His joy, and His crown of rejoicing; and on the other, the blood of souls, deluded and driven far from Christ and His great salvation, shall set its mark of endless condemnation!

And now, brethren, standing here to-day, in this holy house and beside these mortal remains of a venerated brother--I might rather say, a father--in the Church of God, it is my duty and my privilege, before his kindred after the flesh, his brethren in the Ministry, and the people of his charge, to bear him witness, that he has fought the good fight, that he has finished his course, that he has kept the faith.

And there are no better words of eulogy that human lips could speak, than these.

This is not the place nor time for mere biographical details. Other hearts and other hands will care for them. I speak of Christ's veteran Soldier, who has gone to his welcome rest: of the Priest whom his brethren delighted to honor: of the Pastor who will live in the memory of his flock; and to him I bear the witness, which he would have shrank from bearing to himself.

[12] His ministry was not only a long one, but he was permitted to live and work in it to the very end. Only one Sunday intervened, between the time when his mortal presence left God's earthly temple, and that in which, we trust, his spirit entered Paradise. And through 'all that ministry of three and forty years, how constantly did he seem to labor on the model, and by the plan, which I have just been sketching. It has been said of him, and how truly, "he dwelt among his people." And he dwelt among them, carrying on the pastoral warfare against sin and evil, running the pastoral race for Christ, keeping the faith, just in that patient, untiring self-sacrificing way, which has just engaged our thoughts.

His previous life had proved, that had he chosen, the might have seen what the world would have called a far more brilliant career than this, leading to worldly wealth, and influence, and honor. But he laid all this down at his Master's feet, and took up the pastor's scrip and staff, with a purpose and a singleness, in which he. never wavered. And then, through a ministry that brought him into contact in its ministrations with four generations, he gave himself up to the pastor's labors; working in that one only way which he knew or cared to know, the way which the Church had taught him; trusting it, loving it, and therefore sure of the result. And the result was sure, as it ever is, when in this spirit, and in this way, duty is made the watchword. In the pulpit, as he faithfully kept, so he truly preached the Faith; not here a shred and there a fragment, but the whole counsel of God; that wondrous scheme which brings together God and man; which shows us the eternal Son of God made very man for us, purchasing by the sufficing satisfaction of His one sacrifice upon the cross, the forgiveness of our sins, whereby, through faith, we stand as justified with God, and that gift of the Holy Ghost, whereby, given to a living faith, through the sacraments and means of grace established in his Church, [12/13] we are united to Him, and through Him to the Father. That faith he kept, that faith he taught, entire, unmutilated, undefiled. In the parish, he was the watchful shepherd, and the sheep knew his voice. How untiring he was in his personal ministrations to the poor; how constant in his attendance on the sick and suffering; how careful in grounding Christ's little ones, in the elements of Christian faith and practice. From this round of patient labor and untiring service, nothing took him long away; while the extraordinary physical powers with which God blessed him, made the interruptions of illness few and of short continuance. So he labored, and as I have said, felt sure of the result.

The result came, and it bears a witness that the Church may well be thankful for. "The little one" has literally "become a thousand," and the work of the Lord has prospered in the hands to which it was committed. [I have learned since this was written, that these words were the text of the Sermon, preached by Dr. Croswell, on the occasion of leaving the old Church in New Haven, for the present Trinity Church.] And how much of all this spiritual strength and increase, is not owing to those quiet, unobtrusive labors, which, beginning in that little wooden sanctuary where scarce a hundred families were represented, have ended where the more than tenfold increase gives hope of even a fuller harvest, in years to come! Well, indeed, may we say of him, he has fought the good fight; he has finished his course; he has kept the faith.

Into the sacred precincts of the home and the domestic life I have no right to venture. But who can help rejoicing in the thought, that though an honored place is vacant here on earth, strong ties of love have been re-knit in Paradise? Who can help thinking of that priestly son, so dear to all who knew him, the chronicler of whose pure life, by a strange Providence, was that priestly father? [13/14] The "trembling hand and aching heart" of which the father spoke so tenderly and touchingly, are now at rest, and the communion of the living and the departed is made perfect in the skies.

My brethren of this congregation, to you let me speak in the name of my Master. For the last time you meet, in this sacred place, all that remains on earth of your honored pastor. Up that pathway, which his living foot so often trod, his body has for the last time been borne, and gathered round his coffin, you stand once more beside him dead, as you stood before him living. It is a solemn meeting. There can be but one more solemn one, and that will be when you stand with him at the judgment seat of Christ! What memories, what thoughts, mast be with you now! Some few of you can recall the time when first, in the fullness of his manhood, he came among you. But for most of you, the memories of all your lives are associated with him and his pastoral labors. Those labors are ended now, that voice is hushed for you. You look in vain for that venerable form in its accustomed place, vainly you listen for those familiar tones.

And yet, there is a voice that speaks to you to-day, from the past and from the present; and it may be that words unheeded as they fell from the living lip, will gain power with you, as they seem to come to you from the coffin and the shroud. Are there not those among you, and that at various periods of life, who have shunned the Christian contest, and given no thought to the Christian race, and lightly esteemed the Faith as it is in Jesus? Are there not some of you who can recall counsels, exhortations, entreaties of your deceased pastor, to turn to the life, and the duties and the privileges of the Christian calling, which you have not heeded? Then, to you once more he speaks to-day, not with the uttered word, but by the remembered one. And beside his coffin, and before his sepulchre, I warn you, I beseech you, follow that wise [14/15] counsel. He calls you now by his death, as he once did in his life.

To those of you, whom by God's blessing he has been permitted to behold advancing in the way to heaven, he also speaks to-day by his own example, bidding you to be faithful to the end. Heed that exhortation then, more lovingly uttered now, than it ever was in life; and as he has done, fight your fight, and run your race, and keep the faith. So shall pastor and people in that coming day, bear to each other a witness, from which neither shall shrink away.

My brethren of the Clergy, I feel to-day, as almost never before, the strange "changes and chances of this mortal life." The last time I was called to stand beside the dead, it was to commit to earth a young soldier of our Master, who had not been permitted even to put on the armor of his calling in the Christian Ministry. And now to-day, I meet you here, to pay the tribute of our honor and affection to the veteran of fourscore years, and the Priest, whose years of active service outnumber those of many of our lives. So strangely does death deal with us. So does God warn us wherever in our lives we are, "to work while it is called to-day," because "the night cometh wherein no man can work."

Our venerated brother was associated for almost all of us, with all the memories of our ministerial lives. He had grown gray in the Master's service, when many, I may say when most of us, were sent into the field. And amid all the changes we have witnessed, he has stood as a kind of landmark for us. As years have rolled along, we have still seen him, the faithful sentinel, ever at his post, in sunshine and in storm, in calm and tempest, the watchful warder of the citadel, the careful steward of the mysteries of God.

A ministry so lengthened, so honored, and so blessed, teaches us all, dear brethren, a great and impressive lesson; [15/16] a lesson which that lifeless presence speaks, more eloquently than any words of mine. It recalls to us, what was prayed for us when we were admitted to the lowest in the divers Orders, that we might be "modest, humble, and constant in our ministrations." It recalls to us the solemn exhortation on our advancement to the Priesthood; that we should "never cease our labor, our care and diligence, until we had done all that in us lay," to bring the souls entrusted to our care, "to that agreement in the faith and knowledge of God, and that ripeness and perfectness of age in Christ, that no room should be left among us, either for error in religion or for viciousness of life." It tells us of the pastoral fight well fought, the pastoral course well run, the Faith of Jesus kept. Let us take the lesson then to our hearts, and bear it from the temple of God, and the grave of His faithful servant, to our several fields of duty. Let it rouse the younger to a wise restraint, and a disciplined will; to patience, and self-sacrifice, and faithfulness in the humblest and most unseen labors. Let it nerve the older to stronger efforts and more constant service; so that "our loins may be girded about, and our lights burning, and we ourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord." Blessed, thrice blessed, are such servants!

One duty now remains. And as in doing it, we bear the Priest from these holy precincts from which we scarce can feel that he is gone forever, let it be with less of sorrow than of joy; with fewer thoughts of the grave, than of the glorious homes of those who sleep in Jesus; with less remembrance of partings upon earth, than of unsevered union in the better land; looking from this world up to heaven, and onward to the resurrection of the just; remembering that gracious promise--

HE THAT OVERCOMETH, THE SAME SHALL BE CLOTHED IN \VIIITE RAIMENT; AND I WILL NOT BLOT OUT HIS NAME OUT OF THE BOOK OF LIFE, BUT I WILL CONFESS HIS NAME BEFORE MY FATHER, AND BEFORE HIS ANGELS!

ABEL, of whom these words are spoken, was probably the first person who fell under the execution of the sentence of death. He also stands first in that glorious list of the faithful, enumerated in the chapter from which the text is taken, of whom it is shown, that they lived, and labored, and suffered, and "died in faith." So clearly, at the very beginning of death's sad work in the world, was it indicated, that while "death passed upon all men," yet, "blessed were the dead who died in the Lord." God's faithful servants do not escape the common doom. On the contrary, the righteous Abel dies first, first comes under the sentence pronounced upon sin. Yet, from his death, he speaks of a triumph over death. The faith in which he lived, and worshiped, was a faith in which he died, and by which death is vanquished in the very hour of its mastery. For though dead, he yet speaks of life from the dead. From out the first grave ever opened to receive man's corruptible body, comes forth a voice of hope. It utters a note of triumph. The dead speaks with more than the energy of life. That voice announces,--death through death overcome the victory of the grave broken, [17/18] the sting of death removed. From Abel's time on through all the ravages of the destroyer, all the faithful have died indeed; and yet from out their deaths, they still speak as he does, of hope in the prospect, of support in the agonies, of life beyond the act of death.

And that by which they speak is the same as that by which Abel yet speaketh, viz: by faith. By that strong assurance in the divine promise which regulated their lives, which cheered them in the suffering of this mortal state, which animated their labors, which supported them in their death. By this Abel, though dead, yet speaketh.

But what was the object of that faith, which thus made Abel's life so elevated, and his death so instructive? The verse pretty clearly intimates the object to which Abel's faith was clinging. "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and by it, he, being dead, yet speaketh." The reason why Abel's sacrifice was more excellent, why it was accepted, was, that it was offered in faith. Faith in what? is the question that at once arises. Faith in all God had revealed, is the ready answer, particularly in all He had revealed concerning man's fallen state and a deliverance therefrom. Faith, in other words, in the promise of a coming Redeemer. The faith so highly extolled in this well known chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, was a confident expectation of all God had promised, a firm conviction of the truth of whatever God had revealed, and then, as a consequence, a ready obedience to all God required. Such a faith as this was Abel's, when acting under its powerful influence he brought a lamb, to represent "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world." For even then, it is altogether probable, there had been instituted bloody sacrifices in order to typify the true sacrifice, one day to be offered. At any rate, Abel offered what he had to offer, in a firm reliance on all God had revealed of the [18/19] way in which sin, and the consequences of sin, were to be done away, death and all its burden of mortal toils and pains forever lifted from the shoulders of a groaning race.

How clearly the Almighty had made known to our fallen parents the plan of salvation, we cannot now tell. All that is told, in the concise narrative of Scripture, is the declaration made to the tempter, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Doubtless, in this single verse is contained the substance of much that God then unfolded to our first parents, of His purposes of mercy. And, doubtless, Adam and his wife expected that at some future time one of their descendants should redeem the world, should through death abolish death, and free their fallen race from the power, the pollution, and the punishment of sin.

Abel's faith, then, was faith in a coming Redeemer, however dimly or however clearly the person and the character of that Redeemer were apprehended. A faith in the promise that the serpent's work should be stopped by one in the form of man, however vaguely he may have foreseen the mystery of "God manifest in the flesh." It was the same faith, indeed, with which the Christian now looks back to the cross and tomb of Christ. A faith which took form and definiteness in the lamb which, in accordance with some Divine direction or intimation, he offered, and which offering God accepted. The same faith as that which pervades the Christian's every act of worship, which sustains him in every suffering, which supports him in his death, which blesses his resting place in the grave, and which, from out that grave, speaks to all who mourn his absence in the body, in the language of another faithful saint of that older and dimmer dispensation, "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, and though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God."

[20] And so the death of Christian friends is to us, all vocal of immortality. We have seen Job's ardent assurance verified in the life and death, and rising again of Him who is "the Resurrection and the Life;" who "bath brought life and immortality to light." As we take up the cold body of the departed Christian, and with measured march bear it to its bed of corruption, we may easily seem to hear a voice, more thrilling than ever spoke by those cold lips when in life, "He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and he that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." He is not dead. Abel, the moment he breathed out his last breath, under the violence of his brother, was then set free from the curse of death. That moment his spirit was liberated from its decayed tenement, and that tenement itself laid up in safe reservation against the time when corruption shall put on its first incorruption, and mortal be restored to its pristine immortality. And that faithful Christian whom we have now borne to the grave is not dead, for Christ had' said "He shall never die." And he did not die. The soul is already disenthralled of its mortal bonds, and the body is given over to the safe keeping of Him who is "the Resurrection and the Life." The grain of wheat we cast into the earth, in the seeming dies, but in the reality, when it dies, in our common apprehension of what death is, then it just begins to be quickened; then it just begins to live. So also is it with the corruptible body of man. When it, in the grave, gets rid of its corruptible, then it begins to live, or rather, charged fill of a new principle of vitality, is only waiting for the summons of Him who is "the Resurrection and the Life," to spring up in all the freshness of its immortal youth.

It is not, however, wrong, nor is it unmanly, for Christians to weep at the ravages of death. We are not yet so above this world of appearances, as to grasp completely the hidden verities, and at the first view, to look full over [20/21] into the realities of the world unseen. While in this illusory existence, the shadow of death has to the earthly eye all the awfulness of a real king of terrors, and we, like chil4ren in the twilight, have to reason, and fortify our hearts against spectral forms and unreal horrors. And then, this heart of ours that beats out its allotted moments of life, is a heart of flesh and blood, and tender and sensitive, as it is, is often too impetuous in its gushes of wounded affection, instantly to subside at the calm biddings of a clear and far-reaching, heavenly faith; nor, we say, is it wrung it should be so. He who combined in its highest perfection the throbbing tenderness of the human, and the calm, passionless serenity of the divine nature, He who was perfect man, as well as very God, himself gave vent to groans and tears at the grave of His friend. "See how He loved him," was the ready and sufficient apology for such display of grief from the Son of God himself. No wonder then, if "the disciple is not above his Master" in his ability to repress the gushing tear, or still the heaving sigh, or check the spreading loneliness of the bereaved heart. Jesus sanctified the overflow of natural sorrow, and allowed the burdened soul to bow awhile beneath the rod. But it must be for a time only. It must be only till the mist of tears begins to be dispelled, and the eye of faith gets a view again of things unseen, to which death is the portal, and the certainty of the eternal blessedness secured by death to him whose temporary withdrawal we lament, gets possession of our hearts. Then sorrow must give way to hope, and tears to glorious expectation, as we hear again the voice beside every believer's grave, as at the grave of Lazarus, "I am the Resurrection and the Life; he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and he that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die," joined with that other cheering assurance, that the Son of man uttered, as it were, beside His own grave: "Because I live, ye shall live also."

[22] Fortified by such abundant consolation and support, we may now resolutely face the bereavement under which not simply his family, in the earthly relation, mourn, but in which a whole parish and community lament for the departure of our long loved and venerated pastor. It may be well to indulge for a moment the sad reflection that these walls, that never till now have failed to hear his voice on the holy day, shall no more re-echo to sound of prayer or praise, of instruction or admonition, from his lips; that his hoary head, his "crown of glory," shall never again remind us of that "way of wisdom "in which it was always found; that his hands, that for forty years and more have, at this altar, broken the bread of life and blessed the cup of salvation, shall never to you again distribute the memorials of a common Savior's love. Such is the sad reality. And the natural eye sees its sadness expressed in the drapery of mourning which this holy temple takes on to mourn for the departure, from these earthly courts, of its first and ever constant and faithful priest and minister.

And in the spiritual house the garment of heaviness is everywhere found. For more than forty years he has gone in and out among you, testifying the gospel of the grace of God. Unlike the short and changing pastoral relations of too many parishes around, you have enjoyed the lifelong services of one who was indeed a father. His life was all devoted to you; all in its duration, all in its energies. Long before most of you arose in the morning to your worldly task, he was uniformly at his heavenly work, preparing the stores of wisdom, new and old, which, like a wise steward, he brought forth in their due season. In the nearly or quite two thousand families, that at different times have come under his parochial care, he ever felt the interest of a father. And nothing has so moved the heart of him who now stands in his place to speak inadequately of his merit and his memory, nothing has so moved his [22/23] heart with the feeling of the peculiar sacredness of such a long-continued pastoral relation, as the repeated declarations made to him, since his death: "He has been a true father to me;" "he has been everything to our family." Tales of trials cheered by his sympathy, of early inquirers after spiritual peace, guided by his wisdom, of souls instructed and saved by his ministry, of death made welcome in its approaches, of mourners comforted by his prayers, of whole households taught, encouraged, elevated to a true Christian respectability; such tales of sacred memory, with which this whole parish abounds, and every one of its older families treasures up, are the crowning glory of a long and laborious life. They show the aged man of God, ripe as he was in the fullness of his own spiritual graces, coming again from his sowing the precious seed, to which he went forth toiling and weeping, coining again with joy, "bringing his" full "sheaves" of glory "with him."

It is a strange fact in the constitution of man, that intense joy and grief so closely resemble each other, and that tears are the irrepressible symptoms of both. And so it seems hard in the throbbing, bursting emotions, with which we dwell upon the holy, earthly life and labor now drawn to a close, and the glorious spiritual life upon which our beloved pastor is entering, it seems hard to tell always whether grief or exultation rides upon the swelling wave of feeling. So near akin is joy to grief, particularly in such spiritual moods as these, that the transition is easy. May God teach you all the lesson, now that the heart is softened and made tender, of bringing everlasting peace out of this temporary sadness, and cause your grief now to ripen to the fullness and the depth of that pleasing, penitential sorrow, which is the first foretaste of the "joy unspeakable and full of glory."
True, you will miss him on his systematic round of watching, and of care, but the memory of what he was [23/24] may abide with you always. Friends will die, and his voice no longer utter words of consolation. They will be buried out of sight, and the next day you will look in vain for his appearance, as of old, to bring light to your desolated home, and comfort to your bereaved heart. Yet his words must ere this, if you have rightly prized them, have become like household words, remembered, treasured; and it will require no great effort to hear him repeating them again, not as things believed and hoped for simply, but as realities of which he now has the certain experience. No more will you join with him in the Communion of Saints here, but the thought that he is only just behind the veil, with you still, will quicken your perception of that glowing thought, he so often dwelt upon--

"Angels and living saints and dead
But one communion make."

And so may sadness give place to rapture, and absence of body be superseded by presence of spirit, and teals of grief be changed to tears of joy, as faith becomes more powerful than sight. So everywhere shall we hear his voice, as the voice of an angelic visitant, here in this sacred house, at this holy table, at our firesides, at the bed of sickness, at the graves of friends, at his own grave, bidding us, in tones more impressive and persuasive than ever he uttered while living, to "endure as seeing Him who is invisible." So from his death still continues to speak to us, our venerated father--and may God grant that, thus speaking, his voice may be regarded, even by some who for ten, twenty, or forty years even, sat unmoved beneath his faithful preaching of the Gospel of Christ.

And this is the last topic connected with this mournful, and yet pleasing theme, on which we will now dwell.

It certainly is the saddest of all the solemn and sorrowful thoughts awakened by this dispensation of God's providence, that to so many his ministry has been all in vain. [24/25] Oh! sadder than the mournful echoes of a funeral bell, more soul-sickening than the sound of the cold earth rattling upon the closed coffin, more awful than the silence and darkness of the grave, more distressing than the loneliness of church and parish, and the desolation of hearth and home, is the bare idea that that long and laborious labor of love has failed thus far, and probably will forever fail, to win many, who were the objects of his pastoral instruction, warning, and prayer, to a reception of Christ's salvation. It is a delight to recount how the bounds of God's Church were enlarged, souls gathered into the covenant, and trained up for eternal life, but it is an appalling thought, even for a moment suffered to enter the mind, that probably many more have been under the same ministry, preparing themselves for everlasting misery. Oh! consider, whoever ye are to whom his long service of the Gospel has as yet been but the savor of death, consider how this withdrawal by God of His messenger should startle you t His death, "full of grace and glory," is no earnest to you of your own happy exit from probation. Does it not seem rather the sealing up of that probation, when God takes away the ambassador by whom for so many years He has bidden you to accept the Gospel invitation, and bidden all in vain? His entrance upon his rest is no comforting encouragement of your rest with hint in Paradise. Oh! does it not seem rather the closing of the doors of salvation upon you, when God removes the minister who, for forty years, has instructed you in the way of life, and who, in the combined power of precept and example, has so long in vain

"Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way?"

Particularly do I exhort those who are fast approaching, or have already past the bounds of threescore years and ten, and especially you who, by reason of strength, have reached the age of fourscore years, to which your deceased pastor had nearly attained, and who are still without a true [25/26] interest in Christ's salvation, who have gone almost through time, and yet have made no provision for eternity, to heed this last warning of your pastor, who now speaks to you from the grave. The last year has made fearful work in the little band of seniors, of whom, three years ago, he said: "they seem like the last shaking of the olive tree, or the gleaning grapes, when the vintage is done." How few now are they who still remain, and with what a slender grasp do they retain their hold on life. It will be no surprising thing, nay, will it not be almost a thing of course, that within the next three years his contemporaries and seniors shall have entirely passed away? Oh! if there remains aught to do in this great matter of your salvation, it must be done quickly. Your sun of life is at the horizon. But a few feeble rays more, and it goes down in the darkness of death. Take heed that it he not the night of death eternal!

And, in conclusion, I know of no words in which to urge upon you all attention to the voice of him who, though dead, still speaks to you, than the words iii which, three years since, he bade you profit by his living ministry. Imagine these words coming up from his grave, or rather, coining down from Paradise, and with these tender recollections of labor and care thronging in upon your hearts, in these sombre courts listen again to his earnest admonition: "When you feel and realize that time is rolling on, that our allotted days are passing away, that our years are brought to an end as a tale that is told, that our mntnal labors here on earth mast, ere long, terminate, and that the great account by which we are to stand or fall at the final day, is soon to be closed, will not these considerations quicken you to a more immediate sense of your duty? And will you not resolve, by the help of God, so to act in future that the ministers who watch for your souls, as they that must give account, may do it with joy and not with grief." [Pastoral Letter, p. 13.]

APPENDIX.

[From the New Haven Journal and Courier, March 17, 1863.]

FUNERAL OF REV. DR. CROSWELL.

THE mortal remains of Dr. CROSWELL were consigned to the grave yesterday afternoon, and the general outpouring of the people to pay the last tribute of veneration, exceeded any similar manifestation we have ever witnessed in New Haven. Long before the hour appointed for the services, the whole of Trinity Church, (the largest in the city,) except the portion reserved for the especial attendants upon the funeral, was densely crowded, and very many were obliged to go away without being able to obtain a foothold within the audience room. The church was shrouded in mourning. The lower part of the immense chancel window was covered with black; from the capitals of the tall pillars, the black cloth hung to the floor, the front of the galleries was covered with it; two series of black festoons were carried around the walls; the chancel and all its furniture were covered with it, and the organ loft also presented the tokens of grief. The lowering sky deepened the gloom which seemed to pervade the church and to strike a responsive chord in the sympathy of the audience, which awaited in silence the hour for the commencement of the ceremonies.

At about half past two, the tolling of the bell announced the approach of the mourners from the residence of Dr. CROSWELL. Bishop WILLIAMS, attended by Bishop SOUTHGATE of Boston, Rev. Dr. EATON of Boston, and Drs. BEARDSLEY and LITTLEJOHN and Rev. Messrs. BENEDICT, BREWSTER, HUNTINGTON and KELLOGG of New Haven, attired in surplices, met the corpse at the porch, borne on a bier by Rev. Drs. MEAD of Norwalk, Tons of Stamford, Con of Bridgeport, HALLAM of New London, GOODWIN of Middletown, CLARK of Waterbury, Rev. Messrs BENNET of Guilford, and VIBBERT [27/28] of Fair Haven, who were in their black gowns, and were followed by the family and relatives of the deceased, some thirty-five of the Clergy, and the Vestry of Trinity, St. Paul's, St. Thomas', Christ, St. John, St. Luke's, and St. Paul's Mission Churches of this city. The organ commenced a low dirge, and the procession moved towards the chancel, Bishop SOUTHGATE reading the sentences at the commencement of the Episcopal Burial Service, beginning with "I am the Resurrection and the Life." The bier being placed in front of the chancel, and so much of the procession as could find room, being seated, together with a large number of resident Clergymen of other denominations who were present, the choir sang the anthem of the Burial Service, taken from the 39th and 90th Psalms.

The Rev. Dr. LITTLEJOHN read the Lesson, after which the Rev. Mr. BENEDICT gave out a portion of the 13th selection of Psalms, which was sung by the choir. Bishop WILLIAMS then pronounced an admirable sermon from II Timothy, chapter iv, 9th verse: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."

At the conclusion of the sermon prayers were offered by the Rev. Dr. BEARDSLEY, and the audience were offered the opportunity to pass through the aisles and take a last look at the deceased. This occupied more than an hour, there being many hundreds anxious to avail themselves of the privilege. The body lay in a long, deep, oblong box of flack walnut, cushioned with satin. It was dressed in the officiating robes of a clergyman, and on the breast rested a garland of camelias, with evergreeens. The face retained a perfectly natural expression of repose, though somewhat thinner than when the deceased had last appeared before his congregation. The coffin was studded with silver screws, and a silver cross was inlaid in the lid. Near the coffin stood the baptismal font, filled with white blossoms and green leaves. It was affecting to witness the eagerness of the audience to take a last look at their Rector or friend, and to see the traces of emotion which the sad spectacle called out. There were the high and the low, the rich and the poor, the white and the black, all participating in the same grief, all silently witnessing to the universal grief at the loss of a man so well beloved. We have heard it frequently said in the last few days, "the poor will miss him most," and it was among persons whose [28/29] dress and manners gave token of humble circumstances, (and there were many of them,) that there seemed to be the strongest feeling of grief--none more sincere, perhaps than the colored members of his Church, who we were glad to see uniting on a common Christian ground in the expression of a common sorrow.

After the audience had passed in view of the corpse, the procession again formed and proceeded to the old Cemetery, where the last services were performed by Bishop WILLIAMS and Rev. Messrs. BENEDICT and BREWSTER, the Quartette Choir of Trinity Church singing the verse from Revelations, beginning, "I heard a voice from Heaven, saying."

Thus closed the impressive and solemn services of the day. The following is a list of the Episcopal clergy present at the funeral, being forty-eight in all:--Rt. Rev. Bishop WILLIAMS, Rt. Rev. Bishop SOUTHGATE of Boston, Rev. Dr. EATON of Boston, Rev. Dr. VAN ICLEECK of New York, Rev. Dr. MORGAN of New York, Rev. Dr. PITKIN of Albany, Rev. Drs. RICHARDSON, LITTLEJOHN, BEARDSLEY, MEAD, CLARK, HALLAM, TODD, GOODWIN. Rev. Messrs. PURVES, CARDER, FISHER, GARFIELD, SCOTT, SHEARS, TOWNSEND, FLAGG, and TUTTLE of New York, ZELL, DEWEY, DESHON, JACOCKS, SHEPHERD, VIBBERT, BENNETT, COIT, BRYANT, HITCHCOCK, EVEREST, DAVIES, OLMSTED, HARRIMAN, PRESCOTT, PUTNAM, COVELL, FITCH, PYNCHON, HOLLEY, MORTON, HUNTINGTON, KELLOGG, BENEDICT, BREWSTER.

[From the New Haven Daily Register, March 13, 1858.]

DEATH OF REV. DR. CROSWELL.

The death of this good man, for several days expected, occurred this morning, March 13, at 10 o'clock; and the announcement of it produced a solemn sensation in our community, where his faithful ministrations, unpretending godliness, universal kindness, and great dignity of character, for nearly half a century, had won for him an admiration and respect, as general as it was deserved. For many years he was the only Episcopal clergyman in our city, and to his faithfulness must be mainly ascribed the rapid growth of the Church in our midst. Possessed of a heart that beat with the [29/30] utmost kindness for his fellow men, a rare intuitive knowledge of human nature, and great observation, he was equally useful, by the bedside of the sick, as the religious comforter, or the friendly adviser, and gifted beyond most men, in his capacity for administering consolation to the dying, and comfort to the bereaved, through the blessed offices of his holy calling. By night or day--in sunshine or in storm--he was at the pillow of the sick and the grave of the dead, as his services were requested--and as readily at the abodes of want and poverty, as at the gates of the affluent. Wherever he went, he was hailed as a messenger of love and hope, and as sent of God. From his lips, the beautiful service of the Church came as from one inspired, imparting a double influence from his majestic and venerable appearance, and his peculiarly impressive manner. He has lived through a life of usefulness, to a ripe old age, and fallen like a good soldier of the Cross, in the "full armor" of his Divine Master, and been gathered to the reward of his labors. His sepulchre will arrest the steps of thousands who have enjoyed his kindness, to drop a blessing and a tear upon the good man's grave. It will be the task of those better fitted, to furnish a proper biography of his life and services. But as we are of those who have known his great kindness in seasons of affliction, as well as of rejoicing, we have ventured to place our humble tribute of our love and veneration upon his tomb.

Rev. Dr. CROSWELL was born in West Hartford, in this State, in June, 1778, and at the time of his death was nearly eighty years of age. In 1814, he was ordained a Deacon in St. John's Church, New York, and after spending a few months in charge of Christ Church, Hudson, N. Y., he was called to the Rectorship of Trinity Church, New Haven, and entered upon the discharge of his duties in January, 1815, in which he continued over forty-three years, until the day of his death.

P. S.--Since the above was in type, we have been handed the following, from the pen of one of the parishioners and friends of the deceased.

This community again mourns at the death of a distinguished, venerable, and universally respected Christian minister. The Rev. HARRY CROSWELL, D. D., has departed this life. He died on this morning, the lath inst., at the advanced age of about fourscore [30/31] years, after a confinement of but a few days. It was a week ago last Sunday, that he attended church, and officiated in the services as usual, in the morning and afternoon. No one of the congregation then thought it was the last time his venerable form would be seen there. He was, however, it is believed, then seriously ill, but his devotion to the cause of his Divine Master enabled him on that occasion, to overcome "the ills that flesh is heir to." On his return home from church, he yielded to his bodily infirmities, as if to say, "not my will, but thine be done." It was evident from that time, the hand of death was upon him. Like a veteran soldier of the Cross, he has fallen with his armor on.

Dr. CROSWELL entered the ministry later in life than is usual. He was brought up a printer, and in his early manhood was the editor of a talented and influential newspaper, first in Hudson, and then in Albany, N. Y. It was when thus situated, and when surrounded by worldly f1ientls, and in the midst of worldly attractions, to which most men would have yielded, that he turned his thoughts to the solemn subject of Religion, and the Christian duties that rest on our race. He soon withdrew entirely from secular pursuits, and devoted his vigorous intellect and manly talents to a thorough and systematic preparation for the ministry. From that time to his death, he has never attended a public meeting except for religious purposes, or given a vote in any political election. He was ordained about 45 years ago, by the late Bishop HOBART, of New York, according to the usages and requirements of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Soon after, in the winter of 1815, he was called to the Rectorship of Trinity Church in this city. The parish then consisted of but about 100 families, and their church edifice was a modest wooden building of moderate dimensions, situated in Church street, near the corner of Chapel.

From this beginning, and from this hive, if the expression may be allowed, and during the ministry of this excellent man, have proceeded the several large and flourishing congregations of the Episcopal denomination, now in New Haven. He has probably baptized more persons, united more in matrimony, and officiated at more funerals, than any other clergyman that ever lived here. No man in this community ever devoted himself to his calling with a firmer faith, or labored with more untiring diligence, in his ministerial duties.

[32] Whether in the church, or out of the church--whether impressing on the minds of his hearers the pure precepts of Christianity from the pulpit, or comforting the sick at the bed-side in humble prayer, he never faltered. In the dwellings of the destitute, the afflicted and broken-hearted, he was a frequent visitor; wherever, indeed, it was known to him that consolation could be administered, the words of kindness and Christian encouragement be made acceptable, or good could be done, there he directed his footsteps. As a preacher, Dr. CROSWELL was eminently practical and impressive. His style was easy, vigorous, never elaborate, always pure and finished, occasionally eloquent. Respected, venerated, and beloved, he has ceased from his labors in a good old age. Though taken from those for whom, and among whom, he labored so long and so well, his good name, and his good deeds, will be cherished with affectionate regard, by them and by their children's children, long after the hand which pays this humble tribute to his memory and his worth, will have crumbled into dust.

[From the New Haven Daily Palladium, March 13, 1858.]

OBITUARY.

The Rev. HARRY CROSWELL, D. D., Rector of Trinity Church in this city, departed this life at ten o'clock this morning, March 13th, at the ripe old age of 79 years, 8 months and 27 days.

Dr. CROSWELL was born at West Hartford, Connecticut, June 16th, 1778. He received his early education under the care of the venerable Rev. Dr. Perkins, as his Pastor, and of Dr. Noah Webster as his schoolmaster. The first years of his manhood were devoted to secular pursuits; and in that period of strong political excitement, Dr. CROSWELL occupied a prominent place. In 1802, he became Editor and proprietor of a newspaper at Hudson, N. Y., called "THE BALANCE," which is even now preserved as an interesting and valuable work of reference. The trenchant wit and pungent sarcasm of his editorials, and especially his article in a paper called "THE WASP," brought him into collision with "the powers that be," and the able speech of Alexander Hamilton at his [32/33] trial, and in his defense, was, we believe, the last forensic effort of that distinguished man. Dr. CROSWELL afterwards removed to Albany, where he was also connected with a political newspaper; and he exhibited in this department of labor, a talent and power which would have enabled him to wield vast influence, had he made politics his permanent field of labor. But he became dissatisfied with the pursuit; and in 1812, conformed to the Church, and turned his attention to the study of theology. He was baptized in St. Peter's Church, Albany, N. Y., July 19, 1812; and on the following Sunday received the rite of Confirmation. He was admitted to Deacon's Orders, by the Rt. Rev. Bishop HOBART, May 8, 1814, in St. John's Church, New York city; and on the following Sunday commenced ministerial labors in Christ Church, Hudson, N. Y. On the 1st of January, 1815, he commenced his services in this city, in an old wooden building standing in Church street; and was instituted into the Rectorship of the Parish on the opening of the new Trinity Church, Feb. 22d, 1816. He was admitted to Priest's Orders in Christ Church, Middletown, June 6, 1815, by the Rt. Rev. Bishop GRISWOLD. The honorary degree of A. M. was conferred upon him by Yale College, in 1817; and of D. D., by Trinity College, in 1831. At the close of the forty-first year of his ministry in New Haven, Jan. 1st, 1856, he had officiated personally at 2,553 Baptisms, at 837 Marriages, and at 1,842 Burials.

A full sketch of the late Dr. CROSWELL's life and character will, we presume, be given to the public. In this city, where he is associated with the earliest recollections of so many, it is scarcely necessary to say that the familiar form of the Christian gentleman of the old school, will be missed by all; and there are multitudes of the poor, who will feel that they have lost their best friend. In native shrewdness, sagacity, and judgment; in masterly power of self-control, and in the power of controlling others without effort, and apparently without design; and in conversational talent, he was one of the most remarkable men whom we ever knew.

As a preacher, his style of writing was pure, chaste, and neat. We have sat many years under his ministry, and never heard him utter a misapplied word or a slovenly sentence. He was always instructive; and during the latter years of his life, seemed, at times, to be more than usually earnest and impressive.

[34] As a Pastor, Dr. CROSWELL'S usefulness was preeminent. His knowledge of human nature, his gentleness of manner, and his Christian faithfulness, made him more than welcome to the chamber of sickness and the hearth of the desolate; and many a tear will be shed that the messenger of mercy to so many of the sorrowing, has at length fallen. Emphatically, Dr. CROSWELL "dwelt among his own people." Nobody ever heard of him at a fashionable watering place, or traveling about the country as a public lecturer. He was uneasy away from his Parish; and happy, only in his appointed work. And to this oneness of purpose, may, to a large extent, be attributed the almost unparalleled growth of the Church in this vicinity, from the little band of one hundred and twenty families, when he came to New Haven.

As an author, the fruits of his labor have been numerous. Several of them were anonymous; but all bear the marks of his clear head, his severe taste, and unfaltering fidelity to CHRIST and the Church. A full account of these belongs to another place.
Dr. CROSWELL was at his post on Sunday, Feb. 28, all day; and up to that time, had been unfailing in his attendance at the Lenten Services; and he was also busy in preparing his annual Class for Confirmation, at the Bishop's anticipated visitation.

His disease was complicated and remediless. Though apparently enjoying the best of health, and having a stout physical frame and a robust constitution, yet for many years be has struggled with an organic difficulty which has at times been excruciating to a degree known only to his near friends. During a portion of his last sickness, his mind was bewildered; but lucid intervals were granted, when the strength awl "confidence of a certain faith," and "the comfort of a reasonable, religious, and holy hope," were fully evinced. He died at last like a Christian veteran, whose work is done and well done.

The Church where he has so long officiated, and where his memory is so deeply embalmed, is draped in the sable weeds of mourning; and the sadness of the large congregation on Sunday morning, showed the respect and affection which belong to the aged and faithful Pastor.

Dr. CROSWELL, for a long course of years, occupied the most important posts of usefulness and trust in the councils of the [34/35] Church, both in his own Diocese and in the Church at large. Few men in his Communion were more widely known, and his death will be universally mourned as a public loss.

[From the New Haven Journal and Courier, March 15, 1858.]

THE DEATH OF DR. CROSWELL.

DIED, in this city, March 13, 1858, at 10 o'clock, A. M., Rev. HARRY CROSWELL, D. D., Rector of Trinity Church.

Dr. CROSWELL was born in West Hartford, Conn., June 16, 1778, of Congregational parents. In his youth, he was clerk in a country store in Warren, which he soon left to learn the printer's art, in the office of his brother, in Catskill, N. Y. While very young, be evinced his aptitude for composition in anonymous and most acceptable contributions to the newspaper published in the office where he was learning his trade. These communications led, when traced to him, to his employment as Editor of the only newspaper then published in Catskill. In this place he married, Aug. 16, 1800, Miss Susan Sherman, of New Haven, whose virtues commended her to his love for more than half a century.

Soon after his marriage, he removed to Hudson, and established a newspaper called the "BALANCE," which, as early as 1804, became a "leading paper" of great influence and wide circulation. It was conducted with great ability and independence; and the tact and talent of the Editor drew the attention, and secured the confidence and friendship of a circle of remarkable men--chief of whom was Alexander Hamilton. That gentleman made in his behalf a speech, memorable as the greatest forensic effort of the greatest mind of his age, and which led to that constitutional immunity of freedom, that the truth, properly uttered, cannot be a libel.

By the persuasion of his political friends, who regarded him as "a gentleman of talents and great power as a political writer," he was induced to remove to Albany, in 1809, where his paper obtained a wide reputation; but owing to the condition of parties, then breaking up, it failed to be profitable, and was, after a short trial, and in a most touching and eloquent valedictory, discontinued.

[36] In the political wars of that day, Mr. CROSWELL was intimately associated with the most eminent men of the time--men distinguished for their ability, their public services, and high principle. And it was in that society that he learned to distrust all partisans, for he saw clearly the tendency of all party ambition to lead to the use of sorrowful and defiling means to secure the best and worthiest ends; and turning from the war field of politics to a higher and holier warfare, he never looked back.

At Albany, Dr. CROSWELL's attention was turned to the subject of the Christian ministry; and a careful examination led him to conform to the Episcopal Church, and to prepare to enter its ministry. In 1814, he was ordained Deacon in St. John's Church, New York, by Bishop HOBART. After preaching a few months in Hudson, he was, on the resignation of Mr. WHITLOCK, in Oct. 1814, invited to become Rector of Trinity Church, New Haven, which office he assumed, then in Deacon's Orders, Jan. 1st, 1815. He was subsequently ordained Priest, by Bishop GRISWOLD, and was instituted Feb. 22, 1816, in the new church, which had been consecrated the previous day.

For over forty-three years, Dr. CROSWELL devoted himself assiduously to the arduous labors of a large and steadily increasing Parish. How effectual those labors have been, a brief statement will show. The Parish, which included not only the Town, but a wide, if sparsely settled, adjoining country, numbered, at the beginning of his ministry, about 130 families; in 1828, it had increased to about 500 families. At the time of the separation of St. Paul's, formerly a Chapel of Trinity, the families numbered between 700 and 800. For the first thirteen years, be labored alone; but in 1828. Rev., now Dr. HAWKS, was called to his assistance, and, soon after, St. Paul's Chapel was erected, and was continued as a "Chapel of Ease," until 1845. Notwithstanding there are now eight Episcopal Churches within the original limits of Trinity Parish, the Parish retains a stable congregation of about 500 families. In a period of forty-one years, he administered 2,553 baptisms, married 837 couples, and officiated, alone, at 1,842 burials.

As a preacher, Dr. CROSWELL excelled in a clear, vigorous, polished style, admirably fitted to convey instruction--which was the great purpose of all his sermons. His views of the doctrines of the [36/37] Scriptures were accurate and solid, and he urged them in a method so clear and logical, and in language so pure and simple, and often with a pathos and tenderness so touching, that none could listen without being instructed, nor without being "pricked in his heart." He presented the claims of the Episcopal Church, and its views of the teachings of Scripture, as to doctrine and discipline, with great clearness and simplicity--never as a partisan of the Church--hut in the proper discharge of his duty to enlighten and confirm his own people. He was a conservative, not a speculative, but a truly Christian Churchman; and, though always ranking with the High Church, he fell into none of the errors, and cherished none of the bitterness or arrogance sometimes ascribed to that party. He had an acute knowledge of human nature, which, with a generous spirit, enabled him to present, without personality, but with great power, the roost practical lessons.

He was for many years Delegate to the Triennial Conventions, and one of the Standing Committee of the Diocese; and, in whatever office he occupied, his firm, wise, and sagacious advice, was always sought, and was ever influential. He had a large acquaintance, among men of all professions, and had earnest friends and reverent admirers in all places and in all ranks of life. His parishioners, accustomed to his kind attentions and counsel, relied upon him as a safe and discreet adviser in all difficulties, not only of doctrine and conscience, but in the conduct of business, and in troubles the most serious and delicate. He did not love to expose delinquencies; it was his chief desire and aim to reform and restore the wanderer. His cheering visits to the sick, his kind admonitions to the erring, his ceaseless charity to the needy, and his consolations to the afflicted, made him as a father to his people. His personal demeanor, always dignified, but gracious, scrupulous in the observance of all proprieties, but so simple and quiet in his way as to avoid all formality, won the confidence and encouraged the timidity of all who approached him.

His conversation was in the highest degree instructive and attractive. His retentive memory of the events of a long life, shrewdly observed, made him rich in anecdote, while his keen, but unoffending wit, his generous appreciation of others, and happy adaptation of topic to their habits and interest, with a faculty of rich [37/38] illustration, charmed his friends; and with all his dignity and use to society, he was a man of true modesty, and of sensitive delicacy. By nature, he was retiring, and seemed to avoid notice, so as sometimes to be thought cold, which was far from his true nature, which was sympathetic, affectionate, and firm in attachments.

Dr. CROSWELL was orderly, neat, and systematic in all his habits. He rose uniformly at four o'clock, and completed his allotted task of study before nine; and the rest of the day was carefully economized in the discharge of his pastoral cares--and so uniformly and regularly was his work performed, that he always seemed at leisure, for nothing behind hurried him. And with all these labors, he yet found time to prepare an admirable Compend of Daily Prayer, a most tender Memoir of his Son, and other works well known and largely used in the instruction of the Sunday Schools of the Church, which institution he first introduced in this city, if not in this country, as an auxiliary in his great business of teaching.

Such a man cannot depart without leaving a great void in a community; and the solemn toll of the bell, which, in accordance with a usage universal at his settlement, announced his departure, at the ripe age of eighty, carried sorrow into and awakened loving memories in every neighborhood within reach of its funeral voice. His majestic figure, and massive head crowned with silver hair, will never again rise behind the chancel rails on the eyes of his admiring congregation; but the vacancy will be long peopled with pictures of scenes innumerable, of those great events of life there ritualized in Baptism, or Matrimony, or the solemn Burial Service. The congregation left behind him are the children of his early flock, and will mourn him as the child mourns his father.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE VESTRIES.

AT a meeting of the Wardens and Vestry of Trinity Church, New Haven, on the occasion of the death of the Rev. HARRY CROSWELL, D. D., late Rector of this Parish, held Saturday evening, March 13, 1858, the following votes were unanimously passed:

It having pleased Almighty God to remove, by death, the Reverend HARRY CROSWELL, D. D., the late Rector of this Parish--

Resolved, That while we bow with humble submission to the Divine will under this afflicting dispensation, we desire to express our heartfelt thankfulness, that we have been permitted, for so many years, to be benefited and blessed by the eminent, faithful, exemplary, and fatherly services of our late venerable and beloved Pastor, and our abiding grief at his removal from us.

Resolved, That when we reflect, that at the period of his being called to the Rectorship, more than forty-three years ago, there were only about one hundred families of the Episcopal denomination within the limits of New Haven, and that our own Parish now numbers more than three hundred families, and that during the same time several other large Episcopal congregations within the same limits have been organized and blessed with prosperity, we feel more sensibly impressed by his distinguished usefulness and the Divine favor which has so continuously sanctioned and sanctified his ministerial labors.

Resolved, That we tender to his afflicted family the assurances of our constant and cordial sympathy in their bereavement, and of our great grief at the severance of the ties over which they mourn--consoled by the reflection, that what is now accounted their and our loss, is the great gain of him whose absence they and we deplore.

Resolved, That Messrs. Beriah Bradley, Henry E. Peck, and Philip S. Galpin, be a Committee from this Vestry to superintend the funeral solemnities, and to confer with, the family in reference to the same.

Resolved, That this Vestry will, in a body, attend the funeral of our Rector, and wear the usual badge of mourning.

[40] Resolved, That the Clerk be directed to furnish a copy of the foregoing resolutions to the family of the deceased, and that the same be published in the daily papers of this city.
Extract of Record.

Attest,

S. D. PARDEE, Clerk.

At a Special Meeting of the Wardens and Vestry of St. Paul's Church, held in consequence of the death of the Rev. HARRY CROSWELL, D. D., March 14, 1858, the following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted:

WHEREAS, It has pleased Almighty God to remove from our midst, by death, the Rev. HARRY CROSWELL, D. D., Rector of Trinity Church in this city; and whereas, a large part of the congregation we represent, were once under his pastoral care, and still, after the lapse of many years, cherish a lively remembrance of his faithful services;--therefore,

Resolved, That in his death we have mourned the loss of a Minister of Christ, who, during nearly half a century of unbroken official service, exemplified the highest qualities of the Christian character, and adorned, by his pastoral devotion and fidelity, the sacred Priesthood of the Church.

Resolved, That to his laborious and faithful pastorate, and to his able and judicious defense of the distinctive principles and usages of the Church in times of opposition and prejudice, (now fortunately no more,) we ascribe a large measure of the present strength and prosperity of our communion in this city.

Resolved, That as the official representatives of St. Paul's Parish, we hereby express our grateful and abiding sense of the value and success of his labors in planting and ministering to the congregation which has finally matured into this Parish.

Resolved, That, together with this expression of our profound sorrow at the dispensation over which they are called to mourn, we tender to his surviving relatives our sincere sympathy.

Resolved, That we attend in a body the funeral of the venerated Rector of Trinity Church, on Tuesday next.

[41] Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be conveyed to the family of the deceased, and that another be entered upon the Records of the Parish.

Resolved, That the above be published in the daily papers of the city.

Attest,

SAM'L B. GORHAM, Clark.

At a meeting of the Rector, Wardens, and Vestry of St. Thomas' Church, New Haven, held March 13, 1855, the death of the Rev. Dr. CROSWELL being announced, the following preamble and resolutions were adopted:

WHEREAS, the Rev. HARRY CROSWELL, D. D., for more than forty years the beloved, faithful, and devoted Rector of Trinity Church in this city, "now rests from his labors, and his works do follow him;"

Therefore, resolved, That in the midst of our sorrow for this afflicted dispensation of our Heavenly Father, we bless His holy name for the long life and usefulness of His servant, for his unwearied watchfulness and fidelity in his duties as a Christian minister, and for his firm and steady bearing of the ark of Christ's Church, here in darker days.

Resolved, That we hold in grateful remembrance the kind and encouraging words which he spoke to us in the beginning of our Parish, his warm wishes for our progress and prosperity, and that as a mark of respect for his memory, we will attend his funeral in a body.

Resolved, That we tender to his afflicted family and flock our sincere and affectionate sympathy, and trust that they nay derive consolation in this hour of their bereavement, from the supports of that religion so often pointed out to them by him whose departure we now mourn.

Resolved, That the foregoing preamble and resolutions be entered upon the records of the Vestry, and that the Clerk be directed to transmit copies of the same to the family of our venerable and deceased friend, and to the Wardens and Vestry of Trinity Church.

HARRY PRESCOTT, Clerk.

[42] At a special meeting of the Wardens and Vestry of Christ Church, convened upon the decease of the Rev. Dr. CROSWELL, the following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted:

FORASMUCH as it has pleased Almighty God to remove from our midst the Rev. Tinny CROSWELL, D. D., Rector of Trinity Church, we, the Vestry of Christ Church, desiring to record our feelings of sadness under this dispensation, and our testimony to the virtues and labors of this distinguished Minister of the Church, do

Resolve, That we cherish with affectionate remembrance his eminent devotion to the service of Christ; his untiring diligence in promoting the interests of the Protestant Episcopal Church; his wise counsels; his prudent administration of authority; and his generous regard for the stranger and the destitute;--

That we sympathize deeply with his family, bereaved of a father so loving and beloved, and with Trinity Church, deprived of its Pastor so eminent for Christian worth and Christian labors;--

That we will attend his funeral, wearing the usual badge of mourning, and communicate this expression of our profound sorrow and grateful appreciation to his family, and to the Assistant Minister and Vestry of Trinity Church.

Attest,

RICHARD F. LYON, Clerk.

At a special meeting of the Wardens and Vestry of St. John's Church, convened on the occasion of the decease of the Rev. HARRY CROSWELL, D. D., late Rector of Trinity Church, in this city, the following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted:

FORASMUCH as it has pleased Almighty God to take to his reward our Father in the Church of Christ, the Rev. HARRY CROSWELL, D. D., we, the Vestry of St. John's Church, desiring to express our filial bereavement and affection, do

Resolve, That we feel that a great and good man has passed away from our midst; one long and widely venerated as an earnest and devoted servant [42/43] of God, upon whom we have ever looked with grateful remembrance and high esteem.

Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with his bereaved family and Parish, and that while we with them look up after his ascending spirit, we eau exclaim, with all Elisha's affectionate regard, "My Father, my Father! the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof."

Resolved, That we will attend his funeral, wearing the customary badge of mourning, and communicate this expression of our sympathy to his family and the Vestry of Trinity Church.

Attest,

EDWARD BROMLEY, Clerk.

Preamble and Resolutions adopted by the Wardens and Vestry of St. Luke's Church.

WHEREAS, It has pleased Almighty God, in the afflictive dispensation of His Providence, to call the soul of the Rev. HARRY CROSWELL, D. D., from his scenes of labor and usefulness on earth, to the enjoyment of that heavenly and glorious rest which remains for the people of God; therefore, be It

Resolved, by the Wardens and Vestry of St. Luke's Parish, That in this mournful bereavement we mingle our weepings with the faithful of the Church of Christ, throughout the country and the world, for the loss of one of the most devoted stewards of our Divine Master, and one of the ablest counselors of His Church on earth.

Resolved, That in our grief we do not sorrow for the dead as those who have no hope, but rather with an assured confidence and a reasonable and holy hope that our temporal loss is his everlasting and eternal gain.

Resolved, That we feel ourselves to be under increased obligations to bear this testimony to the illustrious virtues of the deceased, because we recognize in him, under God, the first spiritual guide and founder of our struggling Parish of the Church of Christ.

Resolved, That as a further testimony of our profound respect for the deceased, that this Vestry will attend his funeral obsequies in a body at the appointed time and place.

[44] Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the family of the deceased, to the Assistant Rector of Trinity Church, and to the Wardens and Vestry of that venerable Parish.

Signed,

H. S. MERRIMAN, Clerk.

New Haven, Conn., March 15th, 1858.

At a meeting of a large number of the Clergy in Trinity Church, New Haven, after the Funeral of the Rev. HARRY CROSWELL, D. D., the Rt. Rev. JOHN WILLIAMS, D. D., took the chair, and called the meeting order. The Rev. Mr. RICHARDSON was appointed Secretary.

A Committee was appointed to draft Resolutions expressive of the feelings of the Clergy in relation to the solemn event which had brought them together. The following were named by the Bishop: The Rev. William Cooper Mead, D. D., the Rev. Ambrose Todd, D. D., the Rev. Gordon S. Coit, D. D., the Rev. A. N. Littlejohn, D. D., and the Secretary.

The following resolutions were reported, which were unanimously adopted:

WHEREAS, It hath pleased Almighty God to take out of this world the soul of our venerated Brother, the Rev. HARRY CROSWELL, D. D., Rector of Trinity Church, New Haven, therefore,

Resolved, That we how in submission to this event, which has removed from our companionship the oldest Rector and one of the oldest Presbyters of this Diocese; and one greatly trusted and honored for many years in the councils of the American Church.

Resolved, That we recognize specially and with devout gratitude to God, the long continued and efficient services of the Rev. Dr. CROSWELL to the Church in this Diocese; who was well-instructed and sound in the Faith; loyal to the Church and jealous of her honor; wise in counsel; untiring in labor; and who was eminently instrumental in building up the Church to its present position of strength and prosperity.

Resolved, That we will carry with us to our several fields of labor and trial, the memory of the rare virtues which adorned his private and public [44/45] character; and that in his removal we are both warned and encouraged to renewed fidelity in our Master's work.

Resolved, That we hereby tender to the afflicted family of the deceased, the assurances of our deep sympathy; and also, that we are with them mourners in their bereavement.

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be furnished to the family of the Rev. Dr. CROSWELL, and to the Vestry of Trinity Parish, and also that they be published in the daily papers of the city, and in The Calendar and the Church Journal.

JOHN WILLIAMS, Chairman.

N. S. RICAHARDSON, Secretary.

Trinity Church, New Haven, March 16, 1858.

BOSTON, Mass., Parish of the Advent, March 14th, 1858.

At a meeting of the Rector, Wardens and Vestry of the Parish of the Advent, holden this day at the Church immediately after evening service, the Rector announced the death of the Rev. HARRY CROSWELL, Doctor of Divinity, and late Rector of Trinity Church, New Haven--whereupon the following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted:

WHEREAS, We have been informed of the death of the Rev. HARRY CROSWELL, D. D., the father of the first Rector of this Parish, at the full age of fourscore years; therefore, be it

Resolved, That we cannot grieve as at the death of an ordinary friend, for one who is called home at his advanced age, and ripe not only in, years and in honors, but also in all the graces which so well become the profession and the practice of the Christian Priesthood, in which he had served laboriously and fruitfully for nearly a half century.

Resolved, That, in the case of one who has thus departed in the communion of the Catholic Church, in the confidence of a certain Faith, an holy Hope, and in perfect Charity with all men, from the active exercise of his Priesthood on Earth to that holy rest in which, with his sainted son and the [45/46] souls of all the Faithful, he is in joy and felicity awaiting the consummation of all things, we see that the reasons which forbid us to mourn, also incite our sympathies for the Church at large, and especially for the Diocese and the particular Parish where his services were mostly rendered, and therefore must have been most justly appreciated.

Resolved, That we can estimate the value of those services, in some degree, by the remembrance of the strength and support which this Parish has ever derived from his friendship and cooperation, and also from the eminent endowments of his lamented son, our late Rector, who exhibited the highest qualities of a Christian Priest, as they had been formed in him by the grace of God, through the example and training of his honored father.

Resolved, That conscious of the void which his death will leave in all ecclesiastical, social, and private circles, in which he lived and labored, we hereby tender to the bereaved family and friends of the deceased, and also to the Parish from which he has been taken, our fullest and most heartfelt sympathies; and that as a mark of our respect for him, a Committee, consisting of the Right Reverend Rector of this Parish, the Reverend Asa Eaton, D. D., on behalf of our Clergy, and John P. Tarbell, Esq., and George C. Shattuck, M. D., the Wardens of the Parish, and Frederick H. Stimpson, Esq., of the Vestry, be authorized and requested to proceed to New Haven, to represent this Parish at his burial--and that they be instructed to present an attested copy of these resolutions to the Wardens and Vestry of Trinity Church, New Haven, and also to the immediate family of the deceased.

Attest,

HENRY M. PARKER, Parish Clerk.

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