These works, it is said, do follow them. All that the world calls great, or pursues with avidity, we are doomed, at the hour of death, to leave behind us. Our wealth will not follow us; our dignities and honours will not follow us. In this sense we brought nothing into the world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out; but if we die in the Lord, the works which we have done for his name’s sake, will go as witnesses on our behalf, to testify the grace of God which was in us, and the manner in which we dedicated our talents to his honour and praise.
The meaning of the expression is, that although we are justified “freely, by God’s mercy, without our deserts, through true and lively faith,” [19] yet shall we receive, at the last day, a gracious recompense according to our works. To this purport, many passages might be cited from the sacred writings; and these, not merely of a general nature, but referring to particular instances of piety, both in doing and suffering according to the will of God. Do men, for example, revile and persecute us, and say all manner of evil of us falsely for Christ’s sake? Rejoice, saith our Lord, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. Do we sow plenteously? We shall reap also plenteously. Are we diligent in the work and labour of love? God is not unrighteous to forget it. Do we turn many to righteousness? We shall shine as the stars for ever and ever. We may state it as the fair inference from these, and a variety of other considerations, that the more faithfully we improve the talents committed to our trust, by employing them to the end for which they were given, the more patiently we endure tribulation, and the more zealously and perseveringly we devote ourselves, in the spirit of christian love, to the glory of God, and the good of our fellow-creatures, the greater, in some mysterious sense, shall be our reward at the resurrection of the just.
Among the individuals who have been raised up in these latter days, for the benefit and consolation of mankind, few can be mentioned who have either been engaged in works more important, or who have brought to the task abilities more remarkable, integrity more perfect, and devotedness more entire and unremitted, than your lamented Minister. In speaking of him to his own congregation, to those who, besides being acquainted with his public labours, enjoyed the advantage of his personal ministry, and beheld him amidst the charities of private life, I may be supposed to address myself to a partial audience; but the very circumstance of the following observations being delivered in the place where he was best known, and where his character could be most fairly appreciated, will be some pledge, at least, for their general truth and correctness.
My first recollections of your late Pastor carry me back to the early period of my residence in the University of Cambridge. At that time, I had no personal acquaintance with him; but it was impossible even then to listen to his sermons without being impressed with the persuasion that he was a man of no common abilities, and of no ordinary character. [21] The history of many following years in which he discharged the various and important duties of a parochial Minister, warrants the assertion, that had he continued in such a situation with competent leisure, he could not have failed to stand in the first rank among his brethren. So long as the opportunity was afforded him, his parochial labours were indefatigable; and there are many individuals still living who can bear witness to his success.
But he was called to appear chiefly in a different character: and, by a course of circumstances, which it is here unnecessary to detail, his name has, for the last eighteen years, been associated with some of the most extensive operations of christian benevolence. In ceasing to be the minister of a parish, he became more entirely the servant of the public.
When his ardent and charitable mind first interested itself in the cause of the British and Foreign Bible Society, he little anticipated, I believe, either the formidable nature of the service which he undertook, or the continually growing demand which it would urge upon his time and attention. Happily, however, if it required extraordinary endowments, it found in him a person suited to the task, and willing to spend and be spent in the promotion of its christian object. I know of no qualification demanded by that Institution of its Secretary, which he did not remarkably possess; nor of any emergency that befel it, in which he did not rise to the level of the occasion: and when to this it is added, that the progress of the Society afforded ample scope for his various powers, and that, perhaps, in no other situation could they have been so fully called forth, or employed so beneficially to mankind; it seems reasonable to conclude, that Providence smiled upon his undertaking, and sanctioned the prosecution of it.
The conviction, indeed, that there exists a directing providence, over-ruling for its own high purposes the pursuits and occupations of men, when they, perhaps, little suspect it, might lead us to observe, with some interest, the way in which he had previously become qualified for this particular appointment. It is of great importance to the welfare of the Society, that its Secretary should be well acquainted with modern languages. Your deceased Minister had not only a singular facility in acquiring this knowledge, but it so happened, that in his early travels, he had cultivated that talent, and had made himself familiar with the manners, and habits, and modes of thinking, which prevail in different parts of the Continent. Little did he anticipate, when engaged in these pursuits, to what account they would be turned! And little would any one have imagined, while looking at the youthful traveller, that he was thus training, however unconsciously, to be the effective agent of a Society, which should, ere long, arise to embrace, within the sphere of its benevolence, every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people: and that in the very countries which he now visited to gratify a laudable curiosity, he should hereafter appear as its accredited representative.
Those who may hereafter furnish us with a complete description of his character and talents, will have much to tell, which, in this brief sketch, I can scarcely notice. They will speak of the fertility of his imagination; of the quickness of his perception; of his lively and innocent wit; of the soundness of his judgment; of his almost intuitive knowledge of character; of his extemporaneous and commanding eloquence; of the facility with which he could turn his mind to any subject proposed to him; of his unwearied diligence and unconquerable resolution: and, particularly, of that cheerfulness of disposition, and that frankness, candour, and urbanity, which seemed to be interwoven with his nature. But upon these and similar topics I have no leisure to dwell. The great excellence in his character to which I would most particularly advert, is the consecration which he made of all his talents to the best and noblest objects.
In early life he had shown no disinclination to lend himself to pursuits unconnected with religion: and it is said, that, like many of his young contemporaries, he took a strong interest in political questions. But from the period of which I now speak, and for some years previous to it, he had ceased, in any sense of the word, to be a party man. To the king he was a loyal subject, and the radical and blasphemous spirit of the day he beheld with feelings of serious concern: but on questions purely political, I know not that I ever heard him deliver an opinion: he was occupied by higher things: he determined to have nothing else in view than the glory of God, and the benefit of mankind.
For this object he lived; and it is not too much to say, that for this object he died. Nor can we be surprised, that his strength eventually proved unequal to the abundance of his labours.