REV. ROBERT R. ROBERTS,

LATE SENIOR BISHOP OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

BY REV. C. W. RUTER,

OF THE INDIANA

CONFERENCE.

246

CINCINNATI:

PRINTED AT THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN, 311 MAIN-STREET.

R. P. Thompson, Printer.

1843.

ADVERTISEMENT.

SHORTLY after the death of the lamented Bishop ROBERTS, a meeting of the preachers of the Madison district, Indiana conference, was called, to take some notice of this bereavement of the Church. At the meeting sundry resolutions were passed; and, among others, one requesting the presiding elder of the district to preach the funeral sermon of Bishop Roberts within the bounds of each charge in the district.

The following is the substance of a sermon preached in the city of Madison, Indiana, on the 6th of June, 1843, in pursuance of the above request; and subsequently in other charges in the district, with a few variations.

Although the author regrets that the sermon is not more worthy of the great and good man whose death has called it forth; yet he is induced, by the request of the quarterly meeting conferences of the district, and by a desire to contribute something to the memory of our much loved Bishop, to submit it for publication, hoping that God may condescend to bless, even this humble effort, to the edification and comfort, in some small degree, of a bereaved Church.

Vevay, Ia., July, 1843.

THE AUTHOR.

FUNERAL SERMON

ON THE

DEATH OF BISHOP ROBERTS.

"David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep," Acts xiii, 36.

THESE words, in connection with the context, were doubtless designed to prove that Christ, and not David, was heir to many of the promises made to David in the Scriptures. This view of the text is well worthy of consideration; but it is not the intention thus to employ it on this occasion. It is our object simply to consider it as it describes a character, and asserts a fact.

In pursuance of this design, we shall,

I. Notice the character of David as drawn in the text: "He served his own generation by the will of God."

II. Consider the fact asserted: "He fell on sleep."

III. Apply the subject to the occasion.

On the first two propositions we shall be designedly brief, that we may have more time to employ in speaking directly to the subject which has called us together at this hour.

I. Our first business is to notice the character of David as drawn in the text.

David, the son of Jesse, of an obscure family in the tribe of Judah, and the inconsiderable village of Bethlehem, was born in the year of the world, according to our best chronographers, about 2919: before Christ 1085 years. He was the youngest of eight sons, and was the keeper of his father's sheep. It is supposed that he was anointed by Samuel, when he was about fifteen years of age, and that he slew Goliah when in his twenty-third or twentyfourth year. He became king of Judah after the death of Saul; and about seven years thereafter, king of all the tribes of Israel, when he was about thirty-seven years of age. He died when seventy or seventy-one years of age, having reigned in Hebron seven years, and in Jerusalem thirty and three years; thus constituting a reign of forty years.*

* See Clarke in loco.