TO MOURNERS,

SUFFERING THE LOSS OF ENDEARED CONNEXIONS.

THIS VOLUME

IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED,

BY

THEIR COMPANION IN TRIBULATION,

AND SYMPATHISING FRIEND,

THE AUTHOR.

ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE FIRST EDITION.

MORE than two years ago, the Author published a volume entitled DEATH ON THE PALE HORSE. In that treatise, the last Enemy is presented in his most solemn and fearful aspects. Although intended to benefit persons differing in age, character, and religious attainment, it is chiefly designed to arrest the attention of the careless, to awaken serious thought in the minds of the young, and to produce a vivid impression of invisible and eternal realities.

So far the writer has not laboured, nor has his volume been published, in vain. He has had some pleasing testimonies to its usefulness, in directing the attention of the living to the fact of their frailty and mortality, and in carrying forward the thoughts of the dying to the results of their last great change. As a general manual for mourners, however, he has found it defective. It is true, that the great mass of mankind require to be roused from their lethargy, and

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stimulated to duty. Inconsideration is the disease of our nature; and powerful motives need to be applied to awaken us from the stupor into which sin, and the world, have thrown us. Providences, the most affect

ing and alarming, will not work on the human mind alone. The truth must be addressed to the conscience, and brought home, with all its freshness and energy, to the heart, before the sufferer can feel the powers of the world to come, and improve his day of visitation. To persons of this class of character, the treatise on Death is calculated to be useful. But there is another description of mourners, for whose instruction, and consolation, the writer is anxiously concerned; -persons, on whose minds the scenes of death have produced a strong and vivid impression, and who earnestly desire to obtain advice and comfort;-persons who, in the bitterness of their grief, are exclaiming, "Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye, my friends, for the hand of God hath touched me." To such the following pages are principally addressed.

The volume now presented to the mourner has some claim on his attention and regard, as it is the fruit of personal experience in the season of domestic anguish. When the author discloses the Sorrows, and depicts the Exercises, of the bereaved, he throws open the

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window of his own heart; when he enforces their Duties, he recommends the line of conduct which he himself has been solicitous to pursue; and when he points to Resources, and administers Consolation, he declares the things "which he has heard, which he has seen with his eyes, which he has looked upon, and which his hands have handled." His official character, as minister of the Liverpool Necropolis, has afforded him daily opportunities of conversing with the bereaved. At such seasons, there has been little reserve. sorrowful, in the very act of communicating to others their grief, seem to find a temporary relief. An advantage has thus been given to the writer, in applying himself to this subject, which has fallen to the lot of few. In the improvement he has made of it, he is conscious of many defects; but "he has done what he could."

The

Although the work is addressed to those who are suffering from bereavement, there are general principles advanced which may be applied, in the way of instruction and consolation, to every case of individual or domestic calamity. Whatever may be the cause of our distress, it is our duty to listen to the voice that speaks, to make a wise improvement of the trial, and to manifest a proper temper under it.