* * * *

"I shall conclude my sermon (extended, I am afraid, already to an
unreasonable length), by reciting to you a very short and beautiful
apologue, taken from the Rabbinical writers. It is, I believe, quoted
by Bishop Taylor in his _Holy Living and Dying_. I have not now access
to that book, but I quote it to you from memory, and should be made
truly happy if you would quote it to others from memory also.

"'As Abraham was sitting in the door of his tent, there came unto him
a wayfaring man; and Abraham gave him water for his feet, and set
bread before him. And Abraham said unto him, Let us now worship the
Lord our God before we eat of this bread. And the wayfaring man said
unto Abraham, I will not worship the Lord thy God, for thy God is not
my God; but I will worship my God, even the God of my fathers. But
Abraham was exceeding wroth; and he rose up to put the wayfaring man
forth from the door of his tent. And the voice of the Lord was heard
in the tent--Abraham, Abraham! have I borne with this man for three
score and ten years, and can'st thou not bear with him for one
hour?'"[95]

This sermon was published by request, and the preacher apologized in the
preface for "sending to the press such plain rudiments of common charity
and common sense."

The beginning of 1829 was darkened by what Sydney Smith called "the first
great misfortune of his life." On the 14th of April, his eldest son Douglas
died, after a long illness, in his twenty-fifth year. His health had always
been delicate, but, in spite of repeated illnesses, he had become Captain
of the King's Scholars at Westminster,[96] and a Student of Christ Church.
His epitaph says--"His life was blameless. His death was the first sorrow
he ever occasioned his parents, but it was deep and lasting." On the 29th
of April his father wrote--"Time and the necessary exertions of life will
restore me;" but four months later the note is changed.--

"I never suspected how children weave themselves about the heart. My
son had that quality which is longest remembered by those who remain
behind--a deep and earnest affection and respect for his parents. God
save you from similar distress!"

And again:--

"I did not know I had cared so much for anybody; but the habit of
providing for human beings, and watching over them for so many years,
generates a fund of a