The service at the house, 34 Story-street, Parkville, was conducted by T. Bagley. H. T. Smith led in prayer. Two verses of "Sun of my Soul" were sung. G. P. Pittman read the Scripture. After the singing of two verses of "Sleep on, beloved," A. R. Main closed with prayer.

      A large company of brethren preceded the hearse on foot. Amongst them were the preachers of the Melbourne and suburban churches. The employees of the Austral Publishing Company walked on either side of the hearse. There was a great concourse of brethren and friends in the cemetery. The officers of the Swanston-street church acted as pall-bearers. T. Bagley conducted the service at the grave. After the singing of "Rock of Ages," M. W. Green led in prayer. P. A. Dickson read the Scripture, and H. G. Harward delivered an address. He said:--

      It is with conflicting emotions we look into this open grave, here in this silent city of the dead. We are glad that the wearied body is now at rest, and free from the intense pain by which it has been so long racked; we are sad because we are called upon to part with one "whom we have loved long since, and lost awhile." The world is poorer because A. B. Maston will never more mingle in its life and service; the abode of the Redeemed is [101] richer because his spirit has returned to God who gave it. It is easy to eulogise the dead. Love may not only place the flowers upon the lifeless body, but also weave the garlands by which all the faults and failings of the past life are covered up. The departed needs no encomium of mine. His life is his message to us all.

      Bro. Maston owned and read many volumes, but he was a man of one Book. The Bible was a lamp unto his feet and a light unto his path. He was a man mighty in the Scriptures. And from that sacred record we could take many separate passages by which to portray the life that he lived in the flesh. But I know of none more appropriate than the message of Paul--"For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Phil. 1:21). "The Christ" was more than a Scriptural phrase or theological formula. He was a living personal reality to our brother. No twenty centuries separated him from his Lord. He ever liveth. And Bro. Maston could exclaim, "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth." "I know whom I have believed." For this reason Christ was the inspiration of his life. Few know the intensity of the suffering through which the body we now lay to rest has passed. Thank God few are called upon to suffer as he suffered. And yet all have marvelled at the patience with which the suffering was borne, the devotion given to business through all these years, and the cheery greeting extended to all who came under his influence. Whence the secret of this? Christ. The inspiration of the Divine Life enabled [102] him "to suffer and be strong." "His strength was made perfect in weakness." He glorified in his infirmities, that the power of Christ might rest upon him. Christ, too, was the Object of his life. For a quarter of a century, Bro. Maston has laboured in these Australian States. His consuming passion has been the cause of Christ. For that he lived. The supreme object of all his service has been the glorifying of the Lord in the establishing and extending of primitive Christianity. As evangelist, editor, publisher, with voice and pen, he has contended earnestly for the faith once for all delivered unto the saints. He has laboured, and we are entering into his labours. "Many do not live as though they expected to die; and therefore do not die as though they hoped to live." To live, for Bro. Maston, was Christ, and to die was gain.

      For the departed the resurrection of Christ was the triumph of humanity over sin and the grave, the reversal of the sentence--the soul that sinneth it shall die. To him "Death was but the drooping of the flower that the fruit might swell, and the grave itself but a covered bridge, leading from light to light through the brief darkness." What gain has come to the one who has fallen asleep! The end of all sin. Freedom from misery and pain. The perfection of all graces, and the completion of his happiness. "Death is the liberator of him whom freedom cannot release, the physician of him whom medicine cannot cure, and the comforter of him whom time cannot console." We sorrow, but not without hope. We part now, [103] but soon will come the joy of reunion. Valiant has been the warfare, earnest the service, and faithful the trust. Sure will be the reward.

      Two verses of the hymn "Sleep on, beloved," were sung, and J. Pittman engaged in prayer. [104]

[LABM 101-104]