NOTE. MR. JAMES FREEMAN CURTIS, Superintendent of the Boston and Worcester Rail-road, was suddenly deprived of life, on the morning of April 13th, 1839, at the age of forty-two years. He died, it may be safely said, in possession of the confidence of the community, and the love of all who knew him. The following discourse was delivered as a tribute to his memory, and a call on the thoughts of the surviving, but not with the remotest view to publication. As, however, it was requested for the use of members of his family, it has been willingly surrendered to their disposal, in the hope that it may afford some comfort to those who mourn, and some assistance hereafter in enabling his children to trace the features of their father's character. DISCOURSE. PROVERBS XIII. 22. A GOOD MAN LEAVETH AN INHERITANCE TO HIS CHILDREN'S CHILDREN. THE assertion of the text is true in two senses; in its literal and temporal sense, and in its higher and more refined sense; and it is more completely and without exception true, in the latter sense than in the former. It is true in general, that a good man will leave a temporal inheritance to his children and his children's children. It may be a large, it may be a small inheritance; but in all probability it will be sufficient to the children's need, and, having been obtained rightfully, and not by wrong and robbery, it will in all probability be enduring. For it often seems to those who watch the course of things in this world, as if a mark were set by Providence on the gains of ungodliness, which stamps them for certain waste and dispersion. But still it must be allowed, that there are many exceptions to the rule, that a good man will leave a temporal inheritance to his family. It is not a rule which we should be willing to abide by, in all cases, as a test of goodness. Many good men die poor, though never forsaken; and their seed have no temporal inheritance from them, though they may not be brought to beg their bread, an event which neither God nor man will suffer. By some one or more of those vicissitudes of life, which come indiscriminately to the good and the bad, that portion of the world's wealth which the good man has laid by in store for himself and his children, may be invaded and taken away; or he may not be gifted with those qualities which enable one to acquire and retain what is called property; or he may be summoned by death, before he has had time, with all requisite qualification, to gather up a property. However good, therefore, a man may be, there is no certainty that he will leave behind him a temporal inheritance. This must be allowed, and by us it will be allowed most willingly and even cheerfully; for in it there appears to us no less than an intimation from above, that the goods of this world are not of the first value, and no less than a divine caution, that we should not regard and pursue them as such. They are uncertain, unstable, and not to be relied on, because they must be kept in their proper place as altogether secondary objects of regard and pursuit. are not the constant effect of virtue, because virtue must be vindicated in her throne, as sufficient to herself, and it must be shown that of herself she is They |