Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 7.djvu/172

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��THE GRANITE MONTHLY.

��the blood and guilt of slavery, as the great body of the church and clergy were not. Subsequently Mr. Rogers left the church for its persistence in fellowshipping slavery and slave-holders — clergymen as well as other men. As has been already told, Mr. Farmer never joined the church. Some of us can see plainly enough his good rea- sons why.

And when he died, Mr. Rogers had recovered from his fearful illness and wrote thus of him in the Herald of September i, 1S3S :

Dr. Farmer Dead ! "VVe were amazed as well as deeply afflicted at the death of this distinguished and most excellent man. His departure surprised us, in- valid as he long has been, and feeble as W'as his hold on life. So insensible are we to the frailty and uncertaintj' of mor- tal existence ! "\Ve have lost a highly valued personal fiiend, as well as our cause a faithful, devoted and invaluable advocate. \\ e could weep for ourselves as well as for the poor slave who does not know his loss. But it is not a time to weep. Survivors on the field do not pause in thick of the fight to lament comrades or. chieftains falling around them.

The departed Farmer lived and died a devoted abolitionist. We proclaim this amid the notes of his requiem and the tolling of his knell, in the ears of the scorner of the su2Ji:)licating slave and of bleeding liberty. Admirers of his dis- tinguished worth, his admirable industry, his capacity, his usefulness, his blameless life, who felt awed at his virtues, while he lived almost invisible among men, mingling with the busy throng of life scarcely more than now his study-worn frame reposes in the grave — know all and be reminded all, that Farmer was in zeal, in devotion, in principles and in measures not a whit behind the very chiefest abolitionist. No heart beat mgre ardently than his in the great cause of human lights ; or more keenly felt the insults, the inhumanity and the ruffian persecutions heaped upon its friends. How deep was his mortification at the brutal and ignoble treatment of the gen- erous and gifted George 1 hompson ! And with what agonizing solicitude did his heart throb, as the life of that inno- cent, most interesting and wonderful stranger was hunted in our streets I How

��freely would he have yielded up his own sickness-wasted form to save his friend ! Scorners of the slave, sneerers at the negro's plea, ruthless invaders (whoever you are) of the hearth of hospitality and the sanctities of Hosie, we j^oiut you to the fresh grave of Farmer. To the grave of Joseph Horace Kimball, too, his beloved brother — that yomig, mar- tyred heart, who still pleaded among you, unheeded but faithfully, the cause of the suffering and the dumb, when his ^ oice was hollow with consumption — whose mild eye still beamed with remembrance of those in bonds, when lustrous with the hectic touch of death !

And the following was by his friend and fellow worker in Anti-Slavery, Temperance and all good enterprises, George Kent, Esq., then of Concord :

The silver cord of life is loosed, and dust

returns to dust ; Heaven has reclaimed of selfish earth a

high and holy trust ; A brother and a friend has gone to joiii

the glad employ Of ransomed souls secure in bliss, refined

from earth's alloy.

1 he memory of the just is blest — so shall

thy memory be Green in our hearts, thou friend belov'd,

till earthly shadows flee ; When merged in substance things of

time eternal shall become, Our hope shall be to meet again in

Heaven, our happy home.

But while sojourning here below, we

cannot cease to weep, It is the privilege of woe, its vigils thus

to keep ; To grieve that one of gifts so rare is

sunnnoned from our sight, But mourn in hope, and trust with him.

who doeth all things right.

Fair Science mourns a votary gone, of

power and will to aid Her struggling sons in quest of light in

Academic shade; And History's muse, her harp unstrung,

pours forth the sad bewail. Of ancient lore that none remain so well

to tell her tale.

A sorrow like no other grief, is felt that

one so good. Of zeal so strong and heart go warm for

human hrothtrUootU

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