DISCOURSE. "Behold the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff; the Judge, prudent and ancient; the honorable man, and the counsellor." ISAIAH ii. 1, 3. WITHIN a few days our country has lost one of its greatest and best men,-one who was universally respected and beloved. When such a mind has passed from the earth, so full of wisdom and life, enriched by the treasures of widely-gathered knowledge, and in the very midst of enjoyment and usefulness, the faith by which we pierce into futurity grows almost to vision. We instinctively feel that such a mind has been lifted to other spheres of action, that its varied powers are still vigorously employed, that wisdom and goodness yet stretch out before it like an infinite kingdom, opening boundless fields for continued research. Perhaps at no time is the idea of absolute death so utterly impossible. We cannot but think of such a mind as still living; loving, thinking, acting. The universe has other spheres for its more full development, and the Father of spirits has removed it to those more exalted stages of being for higher |