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dispensed alms, but charity therewith, for real charity was the counsel
accompanying the gift; the gentle admonition which strove to remove
squalor, which recommended neatness, and awakened in the destitute a
sense of self-respect and self-dependence.
The law of kindness is on her
tongue," has always appeared to me the highest encomium bestowed on the
typical woman of the Scriptures, as portrayed in the last chapter of the
incomparable book of Proverbs. And because Bluma Hart employed her
tongue mercifully to the last week of her existence, when that organ refused
its accustomed office, therefore do I deem my task at this hour pleasurable,
though confessedly sad-aye, very sad; for in proportion as the character of
persons who leave our midst is entitled to commendation, so is the loss which
the community experiences at their departure deeply felt and not easily
supplied.
The indigent, whom this good Jewess cared for in the name of the
venerable institution she represented, will lament her absence; the congre-
gation, doomed to add another to the list of the many whose decease it has
recently deplored, will sensibly feel the new void created. Still, to the
family of the upright one, the memory of her righteous deeds will be a
soothing balm at this moment of their poignant grief, and always, hereafter,
will it remain a cause of their just boast, and joy, and glory on earth, and a
rainbow of promise of a blessed reunion in heaven.
O everlasting Father! Pour down thy celestial consolations, and let
them abide with a bereaved household. May peace be enthroned in their
midst; tranquility dwell in their hearts; and for the dear object who has
departed hence, we beseech thee, O compassionate Lord! as her body will
be hidden from sight, so may her shortcomings be covered up beneath the
ample folds of thy paternal benignity. But let her virtues as a daughter,
as a sister, as a friend, as a dispenser of charity, stand eternally before thy
presence, and win for her undying spirit the delights of Paradise. May the
living, recalling the life of thy handmaid, Bluma Hart, reverently exclaim:
"Gracefulness is deceitful, and beauty is vain; the woman that feareth the
Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruits of her hands, and let her
own works praise her in the gates."
AMEN.