A SERMON
PREACHED IN
CHRIST CHURCH, HARTFORD,
JANUARY 29th, 1865;
IN COMMEMORATION OF
THE RT. REV.
THOMAS CHURCH BROWNELL, D. D., LL. D.,
THIRD BISHOP OF CONNECTICUT,
AND
PRESIDING BISHOP OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH
IN THE UNITED STATES.
BY
HIS ASSISTANT AND SUCCESSOR.
PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE VESTRY OF CHRIST CHURCH.
HARTFORD:
BROWN & GROSS.
1865.
SERMON.
PROVERBS, xi: 11.
By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted.
It is a law of the Divine government of the world, that the temporalblessings granted to the righteous, and the temporal punishments sentupon the wicked, are shared in by others than the individuals speciallyconcerned. We realize this perhaps, more distinctly, and it comes hometo us more solemnly, in the latter case than in the former. For so itis, that the punishments of the Almighty always impress us more than hismercies. The occasional thunder-bolt awes us as the daily sunlight doesnot; the sweeping storm we wonder at as we do not at the gentle rain anddew; death is more solemn to us than the continued life. We feel God'shand in the first-named of all these things, we are apt to forget it inthe last.
And yet the progress of the world gives us as many proofs thatthe blessings given to the righteous are shared in by others thanthemselves, as that the punishments sent to the wicked extend beyondthose on whom, especially, they come. And God's[Pg 4] word is as full ofinstances illustrating the one truth, as it is of those illustrating theother.
For if we find in Jerusalem, Samaria, Babylon and Egypt, the innocentsuffering with, and because of the guilty, so too we find not Lot alone,but his family with him, rescued from the city of the plain; not Josephonly, but his brethren also, and even his Egyptian lord, blessed andprospered; not Elijah only, but the family of the widow of Sarepta,miraculously supported through the famine: not St. Paul alone, but "allin the ship, two hundred, three score and sixteen souls," preserved fromwreck and destruction.[A]
[A] Bishop Heber.
These instances, and there are many like them, illustrate and prove thelaw of God that the temporal blessings which are sent upon the righteousflow over, as one may say, upon others besides themselves. And, Beloved,do not the very instincts of our nature respond to, and recognise thislaw? Do we not rejoice in the presence among us of a godly man, evenif our eyes rarely behold him; and is there not sorrow of heart and amore than ordinary feeling of vacancy when such an one is taken fromus? And in either case, whether we joy or sorrow, is there not more inour hearts than a mere recognition of the value of example, counsel,guidance,[Pg 5] which is given in the one case, and in the other is takenfrom us? Do we not on the one hand feel, that we have among us a heraldand a pledge of the blessings from the Lord, blessings which shalllight our