Excerpt from Memorial Address Read at the Funeral of John Angier Shaw, in the Meeting House of the First Congregational Society in Bridgewater, October 8, 1873

Deepest sympathies. Often have they been greatly moved before. Life is in the ap pointment of God. Death is in the appoint ment of God. The presence of a wise Providence is seen in them both. But in proportion to the purity and culture of our affections is the effect of them more or less forcibly felt by us. The blossom of infant life, that is just expanding and creating hopes of growth and maturity, gives to the mind and heart of a thoughtful and true parent emotions of a grateful nature, such as are only experienced by those who sustain a similar relationship. And when the grave is opened to receive the venerable form of one who was entitled to our love and rightly deserved our respect, it is impossible but that our sensibilities should be tenderly touched, for so we are graciously consti tuted. Jesus, our great Exemplar, wept atare alike in charge and at the disposal of the Supreme Arbiter of all events. God is equally wise and good in giving and in taking away. He is unchangeable in all his attributes, and perfect in his administration. On this thought alone can the prayer of resignation rest, Thy will be done. Sudden death, viewed in the light of di vine Providence, is certainly not to be dep recated. Death, when it cuts down in a moment the thoughtless, the worldly-minded, the undutiful child of mortality, may well, and does indeed, in accordance with the admonitions of both natural and revealed religion, excite emotions directly opposite to those that we experience at the unlocked for departure of the true, the faithful, the God-loving, and the man-loving friend of our hearts and brother of our humanity. Were it to be left to our choice, however, - might we be permitted reverently to in.

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