And all you, who have listened to him with teachableness and sincerity, who have caught from his lips the word of life into your willing ear, and laid it up in your heart, take comfort and be thankful. You have not profited as you might, as you would now fain have done: you lament your infirmities and corruptions; your minister lamented his: but the Lord loveth sincerity, and pardoneth the transgressions of His people. You value your past privileges; and you adore that divine goodness, which made them profitable to your salvation. You dwell, not with the tear of sharp regret for a ministry slighted, for opportunities unregarded and lost; but with tears of grateful love, in the remembrance of one, who was ordained by God to lighten your darkness, and to be the messenger of peace to your soul. And while you are gathering here the plentiful fruits of righteousness, you are looking forward to the far more glorious harvest in the end of the world; looking to the day, when the shepherd and his flock shall stand together for presentation before the eternal throne; and he shall say, “Lord here am I, and those whom thou hast given me.” O my brethren, no sheep of his, no true member of the Lord’s flock, shall be forgotten on that day. The world knows them not; the earthly shepherd himself may not have known them all: but “the Lord knoweth them that are His.” Rich or poor, honoured or despised, loved or hated among men, if they have lived unto the Lord and died unto the Lord, the Lord will confess them at last, will infallibly select them every one out of an assembled world, and set them on His right hand. “Them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.” Be this my sleep, come soon, come late: Be thine the time, good Lord, and mine the blessing. Lord, hear my prayer; I make but one: “Let me but die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.”