THE LATE REV. W. WILSON
Several of our subscribers having expressed an anxious wish to preserve some memorial, however imperfect, of the very eloquent and impressive address delivered at the grave of the Rev. W. Wilson, whose interment, being the first in the newly constructed cemetery, in the formation of which he was one of the chief promoters, excited such general interest, we have used our endeavours to gratify the wish, and are happy to be able to present our subscribers with an accurate report from a friend who was present at the ceremony.

Address delivered in the Cemetery, at Newbury, April 6th, 1850, on occasion of the interment of the Rev. William Wilson, twenty years Pastor of the Presbyterian congregation in that town, by the Rev. Edmond Kell, M.A. :—

"It is a solemn thought, my brethren, that this ground is now for the first time open as the repository for the dead—that the friend we are committing to the grave is the first of that long line of human beings of this, and of generations yet unborn, who will be successively brought here as their final resting place on earth. In this spot, as yet untrodden by the mourner's step, will the heart of man often be lacerated by all the sad varieties of grief. Here will the widow shed her lonely tears; here will the bereaved husband mourn for her who was dear to him as his own soul; here will the orphan pour forth his broken plaint of woe; here will the sorrowing brother or sister consign to the cold earth those who were united to them by nature's holy bonds; here the pious pastor will, with a heavy heart, bring to the grave those for whose noblest interests he has laboured, and in whose spiritual warfare he has felt the deepest sympathy and here too will that pastor himself be brought when his anxious cares have ceased, and ‘ those who sow and those who reap,’ are gathered to their final reward.

“It is a singular coincidence which cannot but strike every inhabitant of this town, that the honored individual, whose intelligence and public spirit more than that of any other person, assisted to establish this Cemetery, should the first to be interred beneath its sod, consecrating as it were by the catholicity of his spirit, and the sweet memory of his virtues, the hallowed precincts within which he rests —a pure and humble and loving spirit, still alluring us to press forward to the realms of bliss.

"And, friends, it is a glorious thought amidst all the sorrows which swell our hearts, whilst standing on this last abode of mortality, that hence too the heart shall return lightened—that here the tear shall be wiped away—that flood of rich consolation, flowing from the Gospel, shall here be poured forth over the desolate and arid heart, and the voice of Jesus be heard above every other voice proclaiming, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.’ ‘In my Father's house are many mansions; If it were not so I would have told you. I go to to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.’ When the image of that blessed Saviour rising from the tomb shall present itself to the moistened eye, and shall chase away the dark visions of despair with which worldliness and unbelief had beclouded the spirit, the declaration of the angels to the women at the sepulchre, ‘He is not here, for he risen,’ shall ring its gratulations through the spirits of the bereaved in strains of sweetest melody, and wake a thrill of exulting extasy in many a bosom.

"Christian mourners! weeping over the description of the sweetest and tenderest ties, remember who has said ‘Thy brother shall rise again,’ and refuse not to be comforted. Christian friends ! whom affection for the departed has drawn here as with the magnet's power, to take the last lingering look of the vanishing earthly relics of your friend, stay your tears. There the joyous hope of a blessed re-union hereafter, which is anchored far beyond the storms of this transitory world. Call to mind who has said ‘Because I live ye shall live also.’ Christian stranger! if any such be present who may have been led hither by motives of curiosity, or respect for the deceased, be persuaded to take a deeper interest in that religion which points to immortality, and while you drop a tear of sympathy over one so loved, cherish—fervently cherish, a Faith which can thus assuage life's bitterest griefs, and cull the flowers of hope even from the rank clods of the grave. Gather, gather, fellow mortals, from meditations on the departed, a more abiding conviction of the transitoriness of time, of the frailty of this world's pleasures compared with those of an eternal state and the necessity of laying up for yourselves treasures which are ‘incorruptible and cannot fade away.’ Let an ardent resolution be formed to devote life's fleeting hours to a more earnest discharge of duty. O! let the lesson of mortality come home to you as it bids you realize the power of religion in your own souls, as it calls upon you ‘to awake to righteousness and sin not’—to fight the good fight of faith, and to lay hold on eternal life.

"Another solemn warning has just been given you. A minister in the prime of life of varied talent, of extensive knowledge, of mature experience, genuine simplicity of manners, of deep piety, expanded benevolence—one who could ill be spared from our Spiritual Zion removed from the midst of us—his sun gone down at noon, ere that full lustre had shone forth which his friends fondly anticipated before the close of his course. He hath passed from us, but ‘He being dead, yet speaketh.’ Let his faithful admonitions—the ‘word's of truth and soberness,’ perchance not fully heeded heretofore, plead with you for religion with double power, now that the earthly voice of him you loved will nevermore be heard. Let the remembrance of these virtues which gained for him the affection of so large a circle of friends, and which we trust through the pardoning mercy of God have been accepted in Heaven, stimulate an earnest desire to run with greater alacrity the race set before you.

"Go not away from this grave fellow mourners! without some more quickening impulse—some holier resolve to become indeed ‘the Children of God.’ Arrest your steps while you waft on high the solemn aspiration that you may live under a more pervading sense of the responsibilities of life, and may feel more deeply the tie which binds you to immortality and to God. Thus shall we shew love for him whose dear remains we are now to close in from human sight. Thus shall we evince that we were worthy of his friendship, whose life, through good report and through evil report, was spent for others' weal; and thus when our lives last sands, like his, are run, we may humbly trust to close our eyes with the same well grounded hope of glorious Resurrection. O may God in mercy grant that many holy lesson may be learnt this spot sacred henceforth as the last home of all of man that can mingle with the dust. Especially may those who have thronged on this occasion to pay the last tribute of affectionate respect to a beloved friend, receive salutary impression which time shall not efface; and be permitted at the final account to hear the transporting words, 'Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’ "

REVD. WILLIAM WILSON

On the 29^th ult. at Newbury, after a long and painful illness, much esteemed and beloved, the Rev. Wm. Wilson, aged 51, for twenty years pastor of the Presbyterian congregation in that town.

Also

OBITUARY – NEWBURY

THE LATE REV. W. WILSON

The religious community of which the above lamented minister was so long a distinguished ornament, has sustained a loss of no ordinary a degree by his demise, and not only this branch of the community, but every class in his immediate vicinity: the promotion of the moral and social improvement of all grades, the cultivation and extension of literature, and the amelioration of the position of the uneducated, were amongst his labours, and formed the grounds of his exertions.  Of public schemes for the benefit of the town, he was a warm promoter:- with him the idea of the formation of a cemetery originated, and singularly enough, the first interment which will take place there, will be his own.

MRS WILSON - mother of the Revd Wm Wilson

On Monday evening last died, at Coomb’s farm, near this city, of a decline, in the 40^th year of her age, Mrs. Wilson, wife of Mr. Wm. Wilson, currier, of this city, but late of Dartmouth.