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A
SPEECH OVER
A
GRAVE.
[DISC.
XL,
And
many
a
parent
of
a pious
household
in
that
day,
when they
shall see
their
sons and
their daughters around
them,
all
arrayed
with the beams
of
the
Son
of'righteous-
ness,
shall echo with
holy
joy
to
the voice
of the
blessed
Jesus,
"
Lord,
here
am I,
and the
children
which
thou
hast
given
me
;"
HHeb.
ii. 13.
"I
was
afraid,
as,
Job
once
might
be
when
his
friends suggested' this fear
;
I
was
afraid
that
my
"
children
had sinned
against God, and
he.
shad
cast them away for
their transgression
;"
Job
viii.
4.
But
I
am now
convinced, when he
seized
therrí
from
my sight, he only
took them
out of
the
way
of
temptation
and danger, and concealed them for
a season
in
his
safe
hiding -place
I mourned
in
the day-time
for
a
lost
son
or a
lost
daughter,
and
in
the
night
my
couch
was
bedewed with
my
tears
I
was
scared
with
midnight
dreams
on
their
account,
and the
visions
of
the grave
ter
-
rified me
because
my
children
were
there
:
I
gave
up
myself
to
sorrow
for
fear
of
the
displeasure.of
my
God
both against
them
and' against
me
:
But'
how
unreason-
able
were these sorrows
?
How
groundless
were
my
fears
?
How gloriously am
I
disappointed
this blessed
morning
?
I
see my
dear
offspring called
out of that
long
retreat
where
God
had concealed them,
and
they arise
to
meet the
divine call.
I
hear
them answering
with
joy
to
the
happy
summons. My
eyes
behold them risen
in
the
image
of
my
God
and
their God
;
they
are
near
me,
they stand
with
me
at
the
right-hand of
the
Judge
;
now
shall
we
rejoice
together
in the
sentence
of
eternal
bless-
edness
from the lips
of
my
Lord,
my
Redeemer and their
Redeemer." Amen.
Among
my
papers
I
have
found a speech spoken
at
a
grave, which
I
transcribed almost
fifty
years
ago,
and
.which
deserves to
be
saved from perishing.
It
was
pronounced
many
years
before
at
the funeral of
a
pious
person,
by
a minister there present, supposed
to
be
the
Rev. Mr.
Peter
Sterry;
and the subject
of
it being
suited
to
this
discourse,
I
thought
it
not improper
to
preserve
it
here.
"
CHRISTIAN
friends, though
`
sin
be
entered into
the
world,
and
by sin
death,
and
so
death
passed upon all
men, for
that
all
have
sinned;'
.Rona.
v.
1g..
yet it
seems