society for ameliorating the condition of the Africans.

He continued to preach until he had reached his eighty-third year. His
last sermon was delivered on the 16th of the tenth month, 1803, and his
death took place in the twelfth month following. He died calmly, in the
steady faith of one who had long trusted all things in the hand of God.
"The language of my heart is," said he, "let God be glorified by all
things, and the best interest of His kingdom promoted, whatever becomes
of me or my interest." To a young friend, who visited him three days
before his death, he said, "I am feeble and cannot say much. I have said
all I can say. With my last words, I tell you, religion is the one thing
needful." "And now," he continued, affectionately pressing the hand of
his friend, "I am going to die, and I am glad of it." Many years before,
an agreement had been made between Dr. Hopkins and his old and tried
friend, Dr. Hart, of Connecticut, that when either was called home, the
survivor should preach the funeral sermon of the deceased. The venerable
Dr. Hart accordingly came, true to his promise, preaching at the funeral
from the words of Elisha, "My father, my father; the chariots of Israel,
and the horsemen thereof." In the burial-ground adjoining his meeting-
house lies all that was mortal of Samuel Hopkins.

One of Dr. Hopkins's habitual hearers, and who has borne grateful
testimony to the beauty and holiness of his life and conversation, was
William Ellery Channing. Widely as he afterwards diverged from the creed
of his early teacher, it contained at least one doctrine to the influence
of which the philanthropic devotion of his own life to the welfare of man
bears witness. He says, himself, that there always seemed to him
something very noble in the doctrine of disinterested benevolence, the
casting of self aside, and doing good, irrespective of personal
consequences, in this world or another, upon which Dr. Hopkins so
strongly insisted, as the all-essential condition of holiness.

How widely apart, as mere theologians, stood Hopkins and Channing! Yet
how harmonious their lives and practice! Both could forget the poor
interests of self, in view of eternal right and universal humanity. Both
could appreciate the saving truth, that love to God and His creation is
the fulfilling of the divine law. The idea of unselfish benevolence,
which they held in common, clothed with sweetness and beauty the stern
and repul