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DISCOURSE

DELIVERED AT THE FUNERAL OF

MRS. RACHEL LEWIS,

Who departed this Life, January 17, 1819, Aged 59 years.

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DISCOURSE.

PSALM 73, 26.

MY FLESH AND MY HEART FAILETH: BUT GOD IS THE
STRENGTH OF MY HEArt, and mY PORTION FOR EVER.

I HAVE selected these words as a directory for my address to you upon this occasion, because they afforded so much consolation to our disceased Friend, while closing the last period of her life. This Psalm was composed by David, and sent to Asaph for the public use of the Sanctuary; and, from the language of the text, I presume, it was written, either in some severe illness, or under decline in his last days. The fretful temper which David indulged on seeing the prosperity of the wicked, and which he has so frankly acknowledged in the Psalm, is a proof of the imbecility of the mind when under affliction, and more commonly so in the decline of

days; when objects, whether real or imaginary, too often produce a painful discomposure. In the text however, he has strongly expressed those keen feelings which are incident to the infirmities of advanced life; as likewise those kind supports which are to be derived only from the Lord our Saviour.

Let us first enter into the COMPLAINT. My flesh and my heart faileth.-And then, explain the RELIEF. The Lord is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

THE COMPLAINT. My flesh faileth. My flesh, the whole animal body; or that part, usually denominated flesh, covered with skin, and which forms a covering for the bones, and a sort of bed in which the veins and arteries are placed in order to perform their respective offices all these fail. In consequence of this, the appetite and strength decline; the usual moisture is reduced; the circulation of the blood is more cold and languid; the lungs debilitated in their action; and the whole system becomes a burden; and, at last sinks into the grave. The moral reasons for all this destruction of the human fabric are, man is born in sin; the seeds of mortality are sown within him, which produce the variety of diseases, and these bring forth the fruit of death, according to the just sentence of God for transgression, dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return. Contemplating the decay of bodily strength, we perceive that it is sometimes occasioned by long continued sickness,

aided by external afflictions: both which were the lot of Job, and formed the subject of his extreme complaints. Indeed, with very few exceptions, as in the case of Moses, whose strength and faculties continued unimpaired to the last, a gradual decay of flesh is an unavoidable attendant on old age; the strongest description of which, may be read in the last chapter of Ecclesiastes. These infirmities and pains can be realized only by those who feel them; having an indiscribable sensation attached to them altogether different from those we endure in the previous stages of our lives. Such calamities, for the want of experience, the young know not how to pity, nor the physicians' skill to effect a cure.* Painful as may be the decline of the body this forms but the lesser part of the complaint of David; for says he, my heart faileth. By this is intended a decline of the animal spirits, which are produced by the circulation of the blood flowing from the heart as a fountain, enlivening, or dépressing the senses, in proportion to its own state and degree of activity. To this languor of the vital fluid may be materi

* It is to be lamented that the diseases of the aged have seldom been a subject of medical attention until the physician himself had so far advanced to the vortex of age, as to be incompetent to prescribe for himself, or others. Writers, not a few, have recommended this branch of study to the attention of the faculty and although no medicine can preserve from death, it is more than probable that remedies may be found to soothe the infirmities, and meliorate the pangs of the aged; and we cannot but express our ardent wish, that to this subject, the attention of able and experienced physicians may be directed.

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