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and comfort; but at present, it is only the last of them on which I intend, and that but briefly, to dwell. Before entering upon the solemn and affecting theme of this service, it may not be unprofitable for us, and certainly cannot be inappropriate, to contemplate for a little what is here revealed as to the real character and meaning of death to the believer. Summoned this day to contemplate the character and worth of a good man who has recently been removed from amongst us, let us, in the first instance, pause a little and consider THE GOOD MAN'S GRAVE.

The truth, then, on which I would for a short time fix your thoughts at present is this:-As in the time of harvest, a sheaf of corn, having reached its full maturity, is, by command of the proprietor of the field, cut down, and carried into his garner, that it may serve the purposes for which he caused it to grow; so is the death of a good man the removal of him, in accordance with the will of God, from a scene in which his longer continuance would be like the leaving of ripened grain unreaped upon the field to perish by the blasts and frosts of winter, to a sphere in which the faculties, capacities, and habits, that have been matured and filled by the husbandry of earth, shall not only be sustained entire, but be turned to the noblest uses in the service of the Lord of all.

It will need little argument to show that a truth like this presents an important, a comforting, and an elevating thought. When we confine our view exclusively to such lessons as our natural reason teaches, there is something at once perplexing, humiliating, and appalling, in the prospect of death. The natural desire of all living things is to live on. The suspension of the ordinary functions of life, the separation of soul and body,—the return of the latter to dust and nothingness, and the passing of the former, naked and alone, into an untried and spiritual state of being, is what creatures such as we are recoil from anticipating. We can ill conceive what new and strange forms of life will be experienced by us in that unpenetrated state of existence, into which we shall thus be introduced. We can ill brook the thought that these bodies which have so long engaged so much of our care and attention here, should become food for worms, and moulder into dust. It takes an effort of no common kind to separate ourselves from our bodies, and to feel assured that the degradation that awaits them cannot reach us; that as they are ours, not we, the ruin, and the corruption, and the loathsomeness, of which they are to become the

subjects, shall in no wise affect us. And withal it seems a strange thing to us this death,-a perplexing and a puzzling problem, this incessant flux of being,-this tide of existence ever rolling, surge after surge, from a mysterious unknown behind, to a no less mysterious unknown before. Why should a living creature ever be constrained to die? Why should an intense love of life be kindled in our bosoms, only to be extinguished like a torch that is buried in the dust? Why do we thus long for immortality only to be exposed to the bitter mortification of knowing, that of all things in this world the most certain for each of us is, that, sooner or later, our life must close? Why is it that we should be made to rejoice in every accession to the number of living beings around us, so that mothers forget their pangs, and fathers are ready to shout for joy, and the whole circle of friendship is made to reverberate congratulations, when a child is born into this world, when, after all, it is but another trophy prepared for death,-another victim made ready for the remorseless tomb,-another light kindled, only sooner or later to expire amid tears and griefs deeper and more heartfelt than all the joys which hailed its dawn? Why is it that the associations we are formed to desire and to establish with persons and things around us here, should be destined thus ruthlessly to be broken by a resistless fate? And after all that we have learned, and known, and felt of the objects which surround us on earth, why is it that this violent disruption of our being should take place, and that we should be so completely withdrawn from earth, that our only subsequent relation to it is to arise from the narrow spot on its surface where our mortal frame is to find its place of ruin and decay?

It is hardly possible but that some such thoughts and questionings as these should pass through the minds of all who meditatively survey the position of man as a living, a loving, and an associative being, yet continually exposed to the ravages of a resistless foe, by whom life is destroyed, love wounded, and all earthly associations broken; and where the knowledge which the Bible conveys is absent from the mind, the only result of such reflections must be, still deeper perplexity, from the pain of which the only medium of escape is stoical apathy, or the excitement of business or of pleasure. But where such truths as those suggested by my text, and which form part of that glorious revelation by which "life and immortality are brought to light," are received into the mind, they cannot fail to relieve its perplexity, to restore its balance, to silence its doubts, and to calm its

fears; for they teach us to look upon life not as a vexing scene of hopes that are formed only to be disappointed, of aspirations that are awakened only to be crushed, of affections that are drawn out only to be blighted, but as the prelude to a higher and nobler state of being, where every wish that is pure and lovely shall be satisfied, where the loftiest longing of the soul after the grand, the beautiful, and the good, shall be attained, and where all the ties that bind heart to heart in a holy unity shall be strengthened and rivetted with indissoluble firmness.

What might have been the rule of man's continuance in this world, had Adam never sinned, it is impossible for us to say, and needless to conjecture. We may with some considerable degree of certainty, conclude, that the condition in which man was first formed, was not that in which he would have for ever continued. The capacities for enlarged knowledge, and the aspirations after higher attainments with which he was endowed, would, in the course of time have carried him beyond the limits of the present state of things, and rendered his removal to some more elevated sphere essential to his happiness. The fact, moreover, that the human race increases by continual propagation, a fact by which, so far as can be ascertained by us, we are distinguished from all the other tribes of God's intelligent creatures, and in consequence of which it would appear as if it were the purpose of the Creator that the largest portion of his intelligent creatures should consist of those who have been partakers of human nature,—— seems incompatible with the supposition that all who should in this way come into being, were destined to remain for ever in the present limited and contracted locality. The transference, doubtless, of successive generations from this earth to some other sphere of existence, formed part of the original plan of man's formation; but in what way this was to have been effected, we can with no certainty conclude. It may have been by some silent and imperceptible removal, like that by which Enoch passed away from the abodes of living men, and was not, for God had taken him. Or it may have been by some bright and glorious rapture, like that of Elijah, when, in his chariot of fire, he ascended in the view of his wondering followers to the heavenly glory. Or it may have been by some process of gradual refinement, whereby the grosser particles of our material nature were to be sublimated until it became too ethereal to abide on earth, and having, like the resurrection body of Jesus Christ, been rendered

independent of the ordinary laws of matter, may have been capable by an effort of volition, to have risen upon the bosom of the air, and so soared away to some other region in the boundless domain of God. But be this as it may, of this much we are assured, that had man continued in his original state, it had not been by the degrading, the humiliating, the painful process of death, that this change should have been effected. This mode of our removal from our present state, as the Scriptures plainly and unequivocally declare, is the result of that altered condition of our affairs which was introduced when Adam fell. By him "sin entered the world, and death by sin, and so death hath passed upon all men, because all have sinned." * It is not that this repulsive event formed any part of our original being; it is not that God has made us with those strong and irrepressible tendencies towards an immortal state of existence, and yet at the same time doomed us to dissolution and ruin; it is not that he has so closely linked both soul and body together, that the full perfection of neither can be enjoyed, save when both are united, and yet destined them to a violent and long continued disruption. No. It is because between the Creator and his work, a hostile and destructive power has intervened, which has marred the beauty, and disordered the harmony, and interrupted the continuity of that which He made "very good," that this dreadful change has become necessary. Moral evil has brought physical suffering in its train; and because man has lost the image of God which he originally possessed, he has lost also that immunity from shame, sorrow, and pain, which, along with that image, he enjoyed.

Viewing death, then, simply as the medium through which man passes from this to another state, the question necessarily arises, In what relation the two terms of existence, which lie on either side of this point of transit, stand to each other? Had a question of this sort to be asked in the case of an unfallen being, there would be no difficulty in answering it. Of such a being, the entire existence must necessarily be one of holiness, of happiness, and of progressive excellence, and consequently his transference into another state of being would only be a passing from a lower to a higher, from a narrower to a wider sphere in the same grand course of light, and joy, and love. But with a fallen creature, it is obvious,

*Rom. v. 12.

the question is not so to be answered.

Mere natural reason may suffice to teach, that circumstances which have so completely altered the general character of the present state as to make that which was originally a scene of unbroken peace and purity, a scene of pain, and grief, and sin, must also materially affect the relation in which this state stands to that by which it is to be succeeded. We learn accordingly from Scripture, that, apart from the remedial scheme of the gospel, the present state is immeasurably better, and happier, and nobler than that which lies beyond it; and that to the man who passes into that state with all his sins upon him, there remaineth nothing but the blackness of endless degradation and hopeless exclusion from all that is great, and good, and blessed. Through the gracious plan of redemption, however, this gloomy prospect becomes completely altered to those by whom its provisions are sincerely embraced. To such this world becomes once more, in spite of all its griefs, and sins, and pains, preparatory to a scene of perfect holiness, unbroken felicity, and ever expanding intelligence. The soul, washed from the guilt of sin in the blood of Jesus Christ, regenerated by the power of the Spirit of God, and morally renovated by the influence of right principle, nd holy truth, recovers from the degradation into which it had fallen, becomes instinct with holy aspirations and godly desires, craves entire emancipation from the presence and the power of sin, becomes assimilated once more to the image of God, and, thus fitted for the society of the sinless, is by the hand of death transferred to the very presence of the Eternal, to circle, like an orb of glory, around the Living Centre of the universe.

To such persons, death, though it cannot but be a solemn, ceases to be a terrible, or a sorrowful event. They are cut down, but it is as a shock of corn fully ripe; the longer continuance of which upon the field, would only prove injurious. They are brought to the grave, but it is in the maturity of their time, when the period allotted to them by Infinite Wisdom had fully expired, and the work that had been assigned to them had been fully accomplished. They pass from the activities and society of earth, but it is to enter upon higher scenes, to mingle in purer occupations, to enjoy a more elevated communion. Their bodies moulder into dust, but it is that the o'erwearied frame may rest till it is summoned to enter, with the glorified spirit, upon a career of service, of attainment, and of glory, as far transcending any thing that earth can realize, as the meridian bright

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