XXVI. "YOUR FATHERS, WHERE ARE THEY? AND THE PROPHETS, DO THEY LIVE FOR EVER?"-ZECH. i. 5. N preaching on this text I could almost wish we were assembled in some country church - its tablet-hidden walls eloquent with memories of our dead, and beyond them their quiet resting-places. Many, no doubt, who worship in spots like that, ignore and lose the lessons which they teach, but there are those for whom it is otherwise. This morning many a cottage-garden has yielded its choicest blossoms for the wreath or cross of flowers, at church-time laid with sighing tenderness on the well-remembered grave. This morning many a heart has caught and acknowledged the warning of the hallowed acre, "In the midst of life we are in death." Among such surroundings we can understand with what force the solemn question could be pressed, "Your fathers, where are they?" But the question is in itself so solemn that we hardly need the aid of token or circumstance to fasten it on our minds, and to evoke the answer. They are gone, generation by generation they have passed away-the tale of their life told, the account of it to be rendered. Each, in turn, had his talent to use-his time to measure. Each, in turn, was an influence, for good or for evil. Now they are gone; we are in their places; and we by-and-by must make room for others. They have written their own brief histories, and we are writing ours. Man's history is soon written. But there are two questions here: "Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?" And if we are to hold to our text we must review our transient life, not so much in its entirety as in its relation to God's human ministers. We, in our stoles, representing the yoke of divine service laid on our shoulders, have at least a twofold claim which we may urge upon you-we are priests and we are prophets. Upon the first title I am not careful now to |