A DISCOURSE

ON

THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

OF THE

HON. WILLIAM CRANCH, L. L. D.,

LATE

CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

DELIVERED

In the Unitarian Church, Washington City,

ON

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1855.

BY

MONCURE D. CONWAY,

MINISTER.

PUBLISHED BY A VOTE OF THE SOCIETY.

WASHINGTON, D. C. :
FRANCK TAYLOR.

ON THE DEATH OF HON. WILLIAM CRANCH.

BY S. G. BULFINCH.

Weep not for him, whose lengthened days
Have kept him from his well-earned rest.
Now his tired head he gently lays
Upon the Father's loving breast.

Weep not for him, long since he sighed,
Recalled to life from opening bliss;
Then, meekly yielding to abide,

He copied that bright world in this.

Weep not for him, though never closed
The earth o'er features more revered,
Though ne'er in death's calm sleep reposed
One more to all the good endeared.

Wise, learnéd, thoughtful, pure, and kind,
The soul of honor, heart of love,

The noble form, the taste refined,
And the firm faith that looks above;

Such was he; yet, O mourn not him!

Thanks that his light around us shone! Thanks that his eye, to earth grown dim,

Undazzled views the sapphire throne!

DISCOURSE.

PSALM i, 3.

He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,

That bringeth forth its fruit in its season;

Its leaf also shall not fall;

And whatsoever it beareth shall prosper.

Yes, these are the images which best address us to-day-the living water, the fruitful tree, the unfading leaf. Let us cease now and forever to speak of death! There is no death. Even the body, seeming so pale and dead, has only commenced its entrance into manifold forms of life, and shall presently smile in a flower, or tingle in the thought of some human brain. Let death be forever forgotten! Only evil can die, and that really never lives. What seems to be dissolution, decay, is really but the entrance of the immortal life. Even the dry leaf, rotting on the mountain, hath, we are told, its own life force, "else how could it rot?" Speak we then of LIFE! There lies the real depth and thrill. Men speak of the mystery of death; but the real fact pressing on them is the miracle and mystery of Life, which is thus started into relief and emphasis by a momentary denial of it in cessation. Oh, friends, I see to-day, that there is nothing but LIFE-immortal, all-conquering, beautiful life; that the stars in their orbits, the circuit of the blood in systole and dia