Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

through storms of persecution raised by the powers of darkness to overwhelm it. I ask for its early enemies, when the world seemed leagued against it, and I am shewn their I ask for its friends-and, "lo, a great multitude, which no man can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues, before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands." I ask for the Leader of this innumerable host-and am answered by a universal shout from heaven and earth-" blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever." I ask how it is that, while other systems decay, and other kingdoms vanish, the kingdom of Christ should not only survive, but grow stronger by age, and more glorious by conflict-and I am told that it is because He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever—and because He stamps His own immutability on everything which belongs to Him.

Let this bereavement, then, endear to you the presence and the promises of Him whose glory it is that He changeth not. Is He dear to you? You will confide in Him all the more entirely for the supporting grace which He afforded to your departed pastor. You will remember that whatever you saw in him to admire was derived from Christ. Is the Saviour dear to you? You will evince it at the present crisis, by cherishing a supreme anxiety for the welfare of His cause here-consulting His will in every step you take respecting it-and placing it more entirely than ever under His immediate guidance.

There are those who deeply share in the sympathy of this assembly-the bereaved widow, and the mourning children of the departed. And I would say to them, whether they are present or absent-Jesus wept. And there is a sense in which even now He mingles His tears with yours. Oh, let His sympathy assuage your sorrow-and His Gospel blend it with hope. Your husband, your father, is not dead, but sleepeth-and the day will come when your Lord will say,

"I go that I may awake him out of sleep." "Believest thou this?" Then your separation is not final-your union is only for a time suspended. At the coming of the Lord you shall again be gathered together unto Him-and together you shall approach the throne of the Lamb-and together cast down your crowns at His feet. And so shall you ever be with the Lord.

He

But let me not conclude without addressing a remark to the members of this congregation generally. Ask yourselves, I entreat you ask yourselves with the seriousness of men that know they must give an account-What has been the effect of all the instructions and hallowing influences which have been brought to bear upon you while enjoying the labours of your departed minister? No more shall you hear the voice which has so often and earnestly invited you to Christ, and warned you to flee from the wrath to come. is gone. Do you realize the fact? He is gone! For the last time he has besought you in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God. No more will you hear him plead for you at a throne of grace. But at another throne you will meet him. Think what a meeting that will be, if you be found still careless and impenitent, after all his warnings, exhortations, and entreaties! What! shall your faithful, and earnest, and affectionate pastor, rise up in the judgment to condemn you? Shall he who has often pleaded your cause with God, and even with yourselves, but pleaded it in vain, appear at that awful day against you, to silence every entreaty for forgiveness-every appeal to mercy-by reminding you how you were commanded, and besought, and threatened, and invited. with every form of persuasion and of argument—but were bent on your ruin, and refused to turn unto God? My fellow-sinner, your death may supply the next warning to this congregation. Oh, may the death of your minister do what his instructions never effected-awaken you to a deep concern for the salvation of your soul! How many a conviction have you stifled-how many a purpose and solemn

vow, which his entreaties had led you to form, have you broken-frustrating his best efforts, and blasting his fondest expectations! Will you grieve, too, the Spirit of the living God? Will you provoke Him to depart from you? God grant that the death of your minister may prove the occasion of your life.

Finally, brethren, let this event remind us that an unchanging Saviour is the only appropriate refuge for the immortal soul. Everything else is in a state of fluctuation and change. Time?—with our dear departed brother, time is gone for ever. Friends?-his death reminds us that their breath is in their nostrils, and that the tie which binds them to us will soon be dissolved. The world-and its riches, honours, pleasures-are they not incessantly changing hands? —is not mutability inscribed on them all? But why do I speak of change on so small a scale? It is a small thing that our brief days are speeding away. Where are now the years before the flood-the men whose lives stretched out through centuries? It is a small thing even that thrones, and dynasties, and empires pass away from the page of history-even the works of God around us, and above us, evince the same symptoms of decay, the same tendency to dissolution. "For the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat-the earth also, and-all the works that are therein, shall be burnt up." Amidst this universal ruin is there nothing permanent, nothing immutable? Yes, He who made them all— "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." 'Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thy hands: they shall perish, but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up; and they shall be changed; but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.” And is it true also of us, who are surrounded by those fading and passing worlds, that our years will not fail, our duration will not end? Ten thousand ages

after this earth has been consumed, and these heavens have been dissolved, shall we be alive-still in need of a refuge, a habitation, and a home? "Lord, thou hast been the dwelling-place of thy people in all generations! Lord, to whom shall we go but unto thee? thou only hast the words of eternal life." And Thou art gone to prepare a place for us. There, all that is great is imperishable, all that is lovely blooms without decay. Around the throne which He occupies, bands of the blessed have already collected. Our fathers and our brethren are there. And as they prove anew the preciousness of Christ, they beckon us to follow. Oh, be followers of them "who, through faith and patience have inherited the promises." Fight the good fight, finish your course, keep the faith, and a crown shall be bestowed upon you in that day, and not upon you only, but upon all them also that love His appearing. Commit your soul into His hands, and it will be as safe as Omnipotence can make it. Take refuge in His grace, and temptation shall not overcome, sin shall not destroy, death itself shall not injure you. Join yourselves to Him, and nothing shall be able to separate you from the love of Christ. You shall know in whom you have trusted, and feel persuaded of your safety. You shall be enabled to await the approach of death with tranquillity; and to anticipate with joy the blessed day when your bodies shall be raised and fashioned like unto your Saviour's glorious body; and when, with all the sainted friends who have gone before you into eternity, you shall approach together the throne of the Lamb, and together cast down your crowns at His feet. Oh, to be so interested in Christ! so filled with the hopes and consolations of the Gospel! Blessed Jesus, these are the gifts of Thy grace; let these precious hopes and consolations be ours! Amen.

SERMON XV.

JACOB'S DREAM.

GENESIS XXviii. 16, 17.-" And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house or God, and this is the gate of heaven."

THE narrative of which this language forms a part is doubtless familiar to you all. Jacob had just quitted his father's tent at Beer-sheba, to journey to distant Padan-aram, to his mother's father. Having obtained the birth-right by stealth, he had departed hastily to avoid the murderous anger of Esau his brother. Dark and pungent must have been his reflections as he pursued his solitary way-his only possession the staff in his hand-an exile from the land his anxiety to obtain which had involved him in the treachery that now compelled him to quit it. His first day's journey, of about forty miles, had come to a close. The setting sun found him in a solitude far from city or tent. As the stars came forth, he selected a spot, and-as probably in that soft climate he had often done before-collected and placed a few stones, against which he might recline and sleep.

"And he dreamed, and, behold"-not a vague, shadowy, ordinary dream, but a vision clear, significant, sublime, preternatural—“ a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and, behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above it," and addressed him. By the ladder, I apprehend, we are not to understand the ordinary structure which that name denotes. The idea would be mean, and on many

« AnteriorContinuar »