Memoir of the Late REV. Henry Acton, of Exeter

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1846. Excerpt: ... the Rev. Dr. Perry, with whom, as with all to whom he had borne that relation, he had lived on terms of cordiality and friendship. The text was selected from the address of the dying patriarch Jacob, to his son Joseph,--" Behold I die; but God shall be with you;" and the preacher exhorted his hearers to regard these words, as words of consolation and hope under the mournful circumstances which had brought them together, and which so much required the soothing and supporting influences of religion. "Little did I think," said he, "when, one short week ago, I addressed you from this place, that I should now appear in the character of a mourner, to regret with you the departure of one with whom it was my privilege to labour; that it would be now my painful task, not indeed to increase your sorrow by weak enfeebling words, but with an aching heart to seek and to administer such strength and consolation as our Heavenly Father, merciful even in his heaviest dispensations, gives to all men liberally who seek it with the earnestness of faith. "We stand in need of support and consolation; for it is no common, no easily reparable loss that we have sustained,--no common man who so lately lived and moved among us,--and no common part did he play in the sphere in which God had placed him. "Of the circumstances of his past life, it seems to me unnecessary to speak at large before this audience; for with you his life may be said to have been passed, for you he has laboured in the closet, and by your hearths he has spent many of his hours of ease and relaxation, a welcome and an honoured guest. I trust and believe that the more important periods of his history are graven in indelible characters on your hearts. "It redounds greatly to his honour, and tends greatly to incre...