Call number
Publication
Princeton, NJ: Printed by John T. Robinson, 1845. Pb, 16 p.; 23 cm.
Physical description
16 p.; 23 cm
Notes
This funeral sermon by Dr. Charles Hodge may be accessed in PDF format here: https://bit.ly/3k2USuQ
Named person: Albert B. Dod [24 March 1805 - 20 November 1845]
OPENING WORDS:
"A very undue importance is often given to the exercises and expressions of men in their dying hours. If they depart in peace, and still more if they avow distinctly their faith and confidence, it is considered enough to outweigh the opposing evidence of a misspent life. Few men felt the truth of this remark more than Professor Dod. He often said, and said deliberately to a friend, "If you should survive me, I wish you to judge of me and my sentiments from my life, and from what I say in health; rather than from what I may say upon my death bed." He knew too well that the emotions had neither in their nature, nor in the modes of their manifestation, marks of character sufficiently distinctive, to enable us to distinguish certainly the genuine from the spurious. There may be a sorrow, which is not repentance; a confidence which is not faith; a joy which comes not from the Holy Ghost. He knew that the only satisfactory evidence of the correspondence of our feelings with the truth, is the power of that truth in forming the character and governing the life. With regard to no man, therefore, would it be more inappropriate, to give to his dying testimony and professions any higher value than justly belongs to them. That value however is very great. Death is a great searcher of the heart. It puts it to the question with a solemnity and authority, which rarely fail to extort the truth. What is said may be taken as the honest witness of what is felt. Death brings with it also so much of the light of eternity that every thing is seen as it was never seen before. The soul is never in so favourable a position to estimate things aright, as when about to rise to a higher state of being. The ancients therefore were accustomed to consider the dying inspired, and their sayings were regarded as prophecies. The very instinct of our nature leads us to cherish the last words, actions and looks of our friends as the most precious, because the most trustworthy testimony of their feelings. Hence the dying expressions of affection are never forgotten by those to whom they are addressed."
Named person: Albert B. Dod [24 March 1805 - 20 November 1845]
OPENING WORDS:
"A very undue importance is often given to the exercises and expressions of men in their dying hours. If they depart in peace, and still more if they avow distinctly their faith and confidence, it is considered enough to outweigh the opposing evidence of a misspent life. Few men felt the truth of this remark more than Professor Dod. He often said, and said deliberately to a friend, "If you should survive me, I wish you to judge of me and my sentiments from my life, and from what I say in health; rather than from what I may say upon my death bed." He knew too well that the emotions had neither in their nature, nor in the modes of their manifestation, marks of character sufficiently distinctive, to enable us to distinguish certainly the genuine from the spurious. There may be a sorrow, which is not repentance; a confidence which is not faith; a joy which comes not from the Holy Ghost. He knew that the only satisfactory evidence of the correspondence of our feelings with the truth, is the power of that truth in forming the character and governing the life. With regard to no man, therefore, would it be more inappropriate, to give to his dying testimony and professions any higher value than justly belongs to them. That value however is very great. Death is a great searcher of the heart. It puts it to the question with a solemnity and authority, which rarely fail to extort the truth. What is said may be taken as the honest witness of what is felt. Death brings with it also so much of the light of eternity that every thing is seen as it was never seen before. The soul is never in so favourable a position to estimate things aright, as when about to rise to a higher state of being. The ancients therefore were accustomed to consider the dying inspired, and their sayings were regarded as prophecies. The very instinct of our nature leads us to cherish the last words, actions and looks of our friends as the most precious, because the most trustworthy testimony of their feelings. Hence the dying expressions of affection are never forgotten by those to whom they are addressed."