aylor, followed by an earnest prayer by Rev. Addison
P. Foster, Roxbury, Mass.

EULOGY BY REV. DR. GILBERT.

It would be impossible for the officers and friends of this Society
to convene on this occasion and not feel profoundly the absence of
one whose presence for so many years has done so much to fill these
occasions with the spirit of welcome, of lofty animation, joyance,
cheer and renewed courage.

Last Christmas the "sweet chariot" of God "swung low," and our
brother Powell was suddenly taken up from these great services here
to other and larger tasks and joys in the heavens. A life so radiant
and beneficent on earth, what must it be now that it has been
translated, and transfigured into the celestial?

Among the richest inheritances of any people is that of the living
names and ever living influence of its noblest men and women. Even
though they have joined "the choir invisible," they still remain, a
possession and a power for all time. For there are no influences more
real, if any that are stronger, than the silent-working influence of
personal ideas; and whoever it is that helps to ennoble our ideal
conceptions of character, and to make these clearer and more vivid,
does us a vital service for which we may fitly be thankful, both to
God and to them. This American Missionary Association is already rich
in its "inheritance in the saints."

It is no exaggeration to say, although it is very much to say, that
James Powell had come to be the most peculiarly and widely beloved
man in our denomination. That this was so was not owing to any one
quality, but must have been due to a singularly happy combination and
balance of qualities. Every one thought of him as a man having a
genius for popular eloquence. But he had also as truly unique gifts
and graces for personal friendship. Without a particle of cant, he
possessed profound religious faith and devotion. He walked with God
and had no gifts which were not consciously devoted to his service.
At the same time he was intensely human. He never affected to be
ethereal. He was a son of man, a child of nature. And he touched life
at many points. His sympathy was immensely more than mere pity. He
was instinctively, as well as religiously generous. Open hearted,
open minded, genuine to the core, quick, sensitive, responsive,
impulsive, enthusiastic; whatever he did, he did with a will and
noble zest. Happy in a certain "divine sense of victory and success,"
he also de