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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15485-h.zip b/15485-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..459b5f4 --- /dev/null +++ b/15485-h.zip diff --git a/15485-h/15485-h.htm b/15485-h/15485-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..74cb335 --- /dev/null +++ b/15485-h/15485-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3649 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Catharine, by Nehemiah Adams. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + text-indent: 1em; + } + p.noindent { + text-indent: 0; + } + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .citation { /* author citation at end of blockquote or poem */ + text-align: right; + font-variant: small-caps; + } + + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem p {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem .i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem .i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Catharine, by Nehemiah Adams + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Catharine + +Author: Nehemiah Adams + +Release Date: March 28, 2005 [EBook #15485] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CATHARINE *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Shimmin, Karina Aleksandrova and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h1>CATHARINE.</h1> + +<h4>BY THE AUTHOR OF</h4> + +<h3>"AGNES AND THE LITTLE KEY."</h3> + +<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0;"> +[Transcriber's Note: Nehemiah Adams] +</p> + +<div style="height: 3em;"><br /></div> + +<h6>THIRD THOUSAND.</h6> + + + +<h6> +BOSTON:<br /> +J.E. TILTON AND COMPANY.<br /> +LONDON. KNIGHT AND SON.<br /> +1859.<br /> +</h6> + +<h6> +Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by<br /> +J.E. TILTON and CO,<br /> +In the Clerk's Office of the District Comm. of the District of Massachusetts.<br /> +<br /> +PRINTED BY<br /> +GEORGE O. RAND & AVERY.<br /> +<br /> +ELECTROTYPED AT THE<br /> +BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY.<br /> +</h6> + +<hr style='width: 45%' /> + +<p class="center"> +TO THE<br /> +YOUNG LADIES OF MY CONGREGATION,<br /> +FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES OF<br /> +CATHARINE,<br /> +AND TO EVERY FATHER,<br /> +HAVING<br /> +A DAUGHTER IN HEAVEN,<br /> +These Pages<br /> +ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS" />CONTENTS.</h2> + +<ol style="list-style-type: upper-roman;"> +<li><a href="#I">MORE THAN CONQUEROR</a></li> +<li><a href="#II">THE FEAR OF DEATH ALLEVIATED</a></li> +<li><a href="#III">THE SEARCH FOR THE DEPARTED</a></li> +<li><a href="#IV">THE SILENCE OF THE DEAD</a></li> +<li><a href="#V">THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY</a></li> +</ol> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%' /> + +<h1>CATHARINE</h1> + +<hr /> + + +<h2><a name="I" id="I" />I.</h2> + +<h3>MORE THAN CONQUEROR.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>Is that a death-bed where the Christian lies?</p> +<p>Yes,—but not his: 'Tis death itself there dies.</p> +</div></div> + +<p class="citation">Coleridge.</p> + + +<p>She was not an infant—an unconscious subject of grace. But the Saviour +has led through a long sickness, and through death, a daughter of +nineteen years, and has made her, and those who loved and watched her, +say, We are more than conquerors. To speak of Him, and not to gratify +the fondness of parental love, to commend the Saviour of my child to +other hearts, and to obtain for Him the affections of those to whom He +is able and willing to be all which He was to her, is the sole object of +these pages. Listen, then, not to a parent's partial tale concerning +his child, nor concerning mental nor bodily suffering, but to the words +of one who has seen how the presence of Christ, and love to Him, can +fill the dying hours with the sweetest peace, and even beauty, and the +hearts of survivors with joy.</p> + +<p>Wishing to dwell chiefly on the last scenes of this dear child's life, +the reader will not be delayed by any biographical sketch. Nine years +before her death, when she was between ten and eleven years of age, she +gave the clearest evidence that she was renewed by the Holy Spirit. We +had since that time been made happy by the growing power of Christian +principle in her conduct, the clearness and steadfastness of her faith, +her systematic endeavors to live a holy life, her deep regret when she +had erred, and her resolute efforts to improve in every part of her +character.</p> + +<p>Through a long sickness, with consumption, for two years and three +months, she felt the soothing power of unfaltering Christian hope, +which was evidently derived from a very clear perception of the way to +be saved through Christ, and complete trust in the promises made to +simple faith in him.</p> + +<p>He who gave me this child, and crowned my hopes and wishes by the +manifest signs of his love towards her, merits from me a tribute of +gratitude and praise to which I desire and expect that eternity itself +may bear witness. They who read the story, which I am about to relate, +of her last few days, and think what it must be for a father to see his +child made competent to meet so intelligently and deliberately, and to +overcome, the last enemy, and, in doing so, helping to sustain and to +comfort those who loved her, will perceive that it is a gift from God +whose value nothing can increase. Bereavement and separation take +nothing from it, but, on the contrary, they illustrate and enforce our +obligations. For since we must needs die, and are as water that is +spilled upon the ground, which cannot be gathered up again, such a death +as this amounts to positive happiness by the side of a contrasted +experience in the joyless, hopeless death of a child, or friend. But +without further preface, I proceed to the narrative.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Never before had it fallen to my lot to bear that message to one who was +sick, "The Master is come, and calleth for thee." In previous cases of +deep, personal interest, this has been unnecessary. But in the present +case there was a resolute purpose, and an expectation, of recovery, till +within a week of dissolution, and, on our part, a belief that life might +still be lengthened. Such cases involve nice questions of duty. Where +the patient has evidently made timely preparation to die, it is needless +to dispel that half illusion which seems to be one feature of +consumption—an illusion which is so thin that we feel persuaded the +patient sees through it, while, nevertheless, it serves all the purposes +of hope. To take away that hope where no beneficial end is to be +secured, is cruel. A mistaken, and somewhat morbid, sense of duty to +tell the whole truth, and a conscientious but unenlightened fear of +practising deception, sometimes lead friends to remove, from a sick +person, that power which hope gives in sustaining the sickness, in +prolonging comfort, and in helping the gradual descent into the grave. +When a sick person is resolute and hopeful, it is surprising to see how +many annoyances of sickness are prevented or easily borne, and how life, +and even cheerfulness, may be indefinitely extended. But when hope is +taken away, or, rather, when, instead of looking towards life with that +instinctive love of it which God has implanted, we turn from "the warm +precincts of the cheerful day," and look into the grave, it is affecting +to see how the disease takes advantage of it, and sufferings ensue which +would have been prevented by keeping up even the ambiguous thoughts of +recovery. Sick people have reflections and feelings which exert an +influence upon them beyond our discernment, and which frequently need +not our literal interpretations of symptoms, and our exhortations, to +make them more effectual. But where there is evidently no preparedness +for death, and the patient, we fear, is deceiving himself, no one who +has suitable views of Christian duty will fail to impress him with the +necessity of attending to the things which belong to his peace, even at +considerable risk of abridging life.</p> + +<p>Waiting, therefore, for medical discernment to signify when the last +possible effort to lengthen out the days of the sufferer had been made, +one morning I received the intimation that those days would, in all +probability, be but very few. After the physician had left the house, +and I had sought help and strength from God, I lost no time, but took my +place at the dear patient's side, to make the announcement.</p> + +<p>God help those on whom he lays such duty. The hour had virtually come in +which father and child must part, and the father was to break that +message to his child. But how could mortal strength endure the effort?</p> + +<p>Before I left my room for hers, there came to my mind these words—"But +now, thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed +thee, O Israel, Fear not, for I have redeemed thee; I have called thee +by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will +be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when +thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall +the flame kindle upon thee." Trusting in that promise, I sat down, as it +were, over against the sepulchre, to prepare my child for her entrance +into it,—nay, for her departure into heaven.</p> + +<p>The gradual arrival of the truth to her apprehension, through questions +which she began to ask, and my answers to them, finally led her to +inquire if I supposed she could not live long. I told her that the +physician thought that she was extremely weak, and that we must not be +surprised at any sudden event in her case. She said, without any change +of countenance, "Why, father, you surprise me; I thought that I might +get well; is it possible that I cannot live long? I have thought of +recovering much more than of dying... It seems a long space to pass over +between this and heaven, in so short a time. I wonder how I can so +suddenly obtain all the feelings which I need for such a change." These +expressions I wrote down immediately after the interview. I told her, in +reply, that she had been living at peace with God through his Son; that +it had hitherto been her duty to live, and to strive for it; but now God +had indicated his will concerning her, and she might be sure that God +will always give us feelings suited to every condition in which he sees +fit to place us.</p> + +<p>On seeing her again towards evening, I found that the expression of her +sick face—the weary, exhausted look of one grappling with a stronger +power—had passed away, and, in exchange, there was peace, and even +happiness. She began herself to say, "When you told me this forenoon +that I could not live, it surprised me; but I have come to it now, and +it is all right. Every thing is settled. I have nothing to do—no fear, +no anxiety about any thing. More passages of Scripture and verses of +hymns have come to my mind to-day, than in all my sickness hitherto." +Wishes respecting some family arrangements were then expressed, +particularly with reference to the younger children, and these wishes +were uttered in about the same tone and manner as though we were parting +for a temporary absence from each other. The mother of my youngest child +had, at her death, given her in special charge to this daughter, and she +wished to live that she might educate her. She made the transfer of her +little trust with calmness, and then her "Good night" was uttered with a +gentle playfulness, like that of her early days.</p> + +<p>Nor was her frame of mind an excitement, or a fictitious experience, to +end with sleep. The next forenoon she renewed the conversation. She +said, "In the night I awoke many times, and always with this thought—I +am not going to live. Instead of fear and dread, peace came with it. +Names of Christ flowed in upon my mind; and once I awoke with these +words in my thoughts—'And there shall be no night there.' Now I know +that I am to die, I feel less nervous. I have a calm, unruffled +feeling." She expressed some natural apprehensions, only, about the +possibility of dissolution not having occurred when we should suppose +that she was no more. I told her how kindly God had ordered it that we +do not all die together, but one by one, the survivors doing all that +the departed would desire—which satisfied her, and removed her only +fear.</p> + +<p>She asked leave to make a request respecting her grave; that, if any +device were placed upon the stone, it might be of flowers, which had +been such a joy and consolation to her in her sickness. She named the +lily-of-the-valley and rose buds. "I love the white flowers," said she. +"If you think best, let them be represented in some simple way... One +great desire which I have had was to assort some leaves of flowers into +forms for you. As my bouquets fell to pieces; I gathered the best +petals, and leaves, and sprigs, and I have them in a book;" which, at +her request, I then reached for her. I turned the pages. The book was +full of beautiful relics from tokens of remembrance which kind friends +had sent to her, and among them were some curiously mottled, green and +rose-colored, petals, which she had designed for a wreath, on the first +page of the little herbarium, which it was her intention to prepare; and +then, with great hesitancy, and protesting their unworthiness, she +repeated these simple lines, which she had composed for an inscription +within the wreath. I wrote them down from her lips:</p> + + +<p class="smcap">To my Father.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>These flowers, which gave me such comfort and hope,</p> +<p class="i2">I pressed, in my sickness, for you;</p> +<p>Accept them, though faded; they never will droop;</p> +<p class="i2">And believe that my heart is there too.</p> +</div></div> + +<p>They who showered these tokens of their regard upon her, will be +pleased to know that their gifts did not wholly perish, but that they +will constitute an abiding memorial of her friends, as well as of her.</p> + +<p>"I know," she continued, "that I am a great sinner; but I also believe +that my sins are washed away by the blood of Christ." The way of +justification by faith was clear to her mind. She knew whom she +believed, and was persuaded that he was able to keep that which she had +committed to him against that day.</p> + +<p>In her whispering voice, which disease had for some time so nearly +hushed, she said, "I shall sing in heaven." Her voice had been the charm +of many a pleasant circle. But she added, "I shall no more sing—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>'I'm a pilgrim, and I'm a stranger;</p> +<p>I can tarry, I can tarry but a night.'"</p> +</div></div> + +<p>And in a moment she added,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>"Of that country to which I am going,</p> +<p>My Redeemer, my Redeemer is the light."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>"Some people," she said, "wish to die in order to get rid of pain. What +a motive! I am afraid that sometimes they get rid of it only to renew +it. There was—" And here she checked herself, saying, "But I will not +mention any name," a feeling of charitableness and tenderness coming +over her, as though she might be thought to have judged a dying person +harshly.</p> + +<p>The day before she died, as I was spending the Sabbath forenoon by her, +she breathed out these words:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>"O, how soft that bed must be,</p> +<p>Made in sickness, Lord, by thee!</p> +<p>And that rest, how soft and sweet,</p> +<p>Where Jesus and the sufferer meet!"</p> +</div></div> + +<p>In almost the same breath, she said, "O, see that beautiful +yellow,"—directing my attention to a sprig of acacia in a bunch of +flowers; all showing that her religious feelings were not raptures, but +flowed along upon a level with her natural delight at beautiful objects. +To illustrate this, I have mentioned several of the incidents already +related.</p> + +<p>She spoke of a young friend, who has much that the world gives its +votaries to enhance her prospects in this life. I said, "Would you +exchange conditions with her?" "Not for ten thousand worlds," was her +energetic reply. "No!" she added; "I fear she has not chosen the good +part."</p> + +<p>Sabbath afternoon, the mortal conflict was upon her. The restlessness of +death, the craving for some change of posture, the cold sweats, the +labored respiration, all had the effect merely to make her ask, "How +long do you think I must suffer?" That labored breathing tired her; she +wished that I could regulate it for her. "How long," said she, "will it +probably continue?"</p> + +<p>I told her that heaven was a free gift at the last as well as at first; +that we could not pass within the gate at will, but must wait God's +time; that there were sufferings yet necessary to her complete +preparation for heaven, of which she would see the use hereafter, but +not now. This made her wholly quiet; and after that she rode at anchor +many hours, hard by the inner lighthouse, waiting for the Pilot.</p> + +<p>The last words which she uttered to me, an hour before she died, were, +"I am going to get my crown." I wondered at her in my thoughts, (O, help +my unbelief!) to hear a dying sinner so confident. I said to myself, "O +woman, great is thy faith." She knew that her crown was a free gift, +purchased at infinite expense; a crown, instead of deserved chains, +under darkness. All unmerited, and more than forfeited, yet she spoke of +her crown, because she believed with a simple faith, taking Christ at +his word, and being willing to receive rewards and honors from him +without projecting her own sense of unworthiness to stay the +overflowings of infinite love and grace towards her. So that, in her own +esteem as undeserving as the chief of sinners, thinking as little as +possible of her own righteousness, and being among the last to claim any +thing of God, she could say with one who would not admit that any +sinner was chief above him, "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown +of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at +that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his +appearing."</p> + +<p>Between two and three o'clock on Monday afternoon, January 19, she was +quietly receiving some food from the nurse, when suddenly she said, "The +room seems dark." She then made a surprising effort, such as she had +been incapable of for some time, and reached forward from her pillow, +saying, "Who is that at the door?" The nurse was with her alone, and at +her side, the family being at the table. Coming to her room, we found +that she was apparently sinking into a deep sleep, as though it were +only a sleep, profound and quiet.</p> + +<p>I asked her if she knew me.</p> + +<p>She made no answer.</p> + +<p>I said, "You know Jesus." A smile played about her mouth. We rejoiced, +and wept for joy.</p> + +<p>I then said, "If you know father, press my hand." She gave me no +sign—that smile being her last intelligent act.—And so she passed +within the veil.</p> + +<p>I was able to relate all this from my pulpit the Sabbath after her +decease, not merely because the period of the greatest suffering under +bereavement had not come, but chiefly because the consolations of the +trying scene, and hopes full of immortality, had not lost their new +power. I was therefore like those who, on the first Christian Sabbath +morning, "departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy, +and did run to bring his disciples word."</p> + +<p>It is intimated above that the greatest suffering at the death of a +friend does not occur immediately upon the event. It comes when the +world have forgotten that you have cause to weep; for when the eyes are +dry, the heart is often bleeding. There are hours,—no, they are more +concentrated than hours,—there are moments, when the thought of a lost +and loved one, who has perished out of your family circle, suspends all +interest in every thing else; when the memory of the departed floats +over you like a wandering perfume, and recollections come in throngs +with it, flooding the soul with grief. The name, of necessity or +accidentally spoken, sets all your soul ajar; and your sense of loss, +utter loss, for all time, brings more sorrow with it by far than the +parting scene.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>She who was the sweet singer of my little Israel is no more. The child +whose sense of beauty made her the swiftest herald to me of every fair +discovery and new household joy, will never greet me again with her +surprises of gladness. She who, leaning upon my arm as we walked, +silently conveyed to me such a sense of evenness, firmness, dignity; she +whose child-like love was turning into the womanly affection for a +father; she who was complete in herself, as every good child is, not +suggesting to your thoughts what you would have a child be, but filling +out the orb of your ideal beauty, still partly in outline; her seat, +her place at the table, at prayers, at the piano, at church; the sight +of her going out and coming in; her tones of speech, her helpful spirit +and hands, and all the unfinished creations of her skill, every thing +that made her that which the growing associations with her name had +built up in our hearts,—all is gone, for this life; it is removed like +a tree; it is departed like a shepherd's tent.</p> + +<p>And all this, too, is saved. It survives, or I would not, I could not, +write thus. There comes to my sorrowing heart some such message as the +sons of Jacob brought to their father, when they said, "Joseph is yet +alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt."</p> + +<p>Jesus of Nazareth has been in my dwelling, and has done a great work of +healing. He has saved my child; saved her to be a happy spirit; forever +saved her for himself, to employ her powers of mind and heart in his +blissful service; saved her for the joyful welcome and embraces of her +mother, and of a second mother, who laid deep and strong foundations in +her character for goodness and knowledge. He has saved her for me, +through all eternity. She will be my sweet singer again; she will have +in store for me all the wonderful discoveries which her intense love of +beauty will have made her treasure up, to impart, when the child +becomes, as it were, parent, for a little while, to the soul of the +parent in heaven, new-born. I said to her, a day or two before she died, +"Those mothers will show you things in heaven; for we read, '<em>And he +shewed me</em> a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding +out of the throne of God and the Lamb.'"</p> + +<p>But John mistook this heavenly saint for an angel, so glorious was his +appearance, and he fell down to worship him, but was told, "See thou do +it not; for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, +and of them which keep the sayings of this book." Then what will she +herself be, when these eyes behold her again? And what will she have +treasured up to tell me? she, who always brought rare things for me from +the woods and the shore, surpassing those of her companions. If He who +redeemed her, and has presented her faultless before the presence of his +glory with exceeding joy, will bestow that nurture and culture upon her +which are implied in leading her to living fountains of waters, what +will she be? and how good it will seem that she left earth so early, +since it was the will of God, to enter upon such a career of bliss!</p> + +<p>A few years ago, I appropriated a wedding gift from a friend to the +purchase of a guitar for her, as a birthday gift in her early sickness. +To assist her in learning to play upon it, I first gained some knowledge +of the instrument. We kept it in its case in my study; and sometimes, on +coming home, and feeling in the mood of it, I wished to handle it, and +instead of unlocking the case to see if the instrument were there, I +would knock upon it; and straightway what turbulence of harmonies rang +from all the strings. Now, it is so with every thing connected with her +memory; every thing associated with her, even though outwardly sombre +and dreary, like those black cases for musical instruments, being +appealed to, or accidentally encountered, sings of her still, with a +troubled and a pathetic, pleasing music.</p> + +<p>In her very early childhood, she and two of the children were sick with +a children's epidemic. The crisis had passed; an anxious day with regard +to one of the children had been followed by entire relief from our +fears. As we sat at table that evening, we heard music from the chambers +of the sick children; we opened the door and listened. This daughter was +singing, and the chorus of her little school song was, "All are here, +all are here." She did not think of the signification which those words +had to our hearts. It was one of those household pleasures which have so +much of heaven in them. I can sometimes hear her singing to me now, +from those upper skies, in the name of the four who have gone there from +my dwelling, "All are here, all are here." She bequeathed her guitar, +but her voice and hand now join with "the voice of harpers harping with +their harps."</p> + +<p>We sometimes think that they miss great good who depart from us in early +years; that one who has arrived at the entrance to the world's great +feast must be sadly disappointed to be led away, never to go in. Now, it +is true that we must not shrink from the battle of life; we must take +upon ourselves, if God ordains it, the great jeopardy of disappointment +and sorrow, and the chance of life's joys; we must each stand in his +lot; we must send children forth into the harvest of the earth for +sheaves, and whether they faint and die under their load, or deck +themselves with garlands,—still, let them be laborers together with +God, and let us not seek exemption for them. But if God ordains their +early translation to heaven, what can earth afford them in the way of +pleasure, granting the cup to be full and unalloyed, to be compared with +fulness of joy? Fair maidens in heaven,—and O, how many of them has +consumption gathered in!—fair maidens there are like the white flowers, +which are sacred to peculiar times and scenes. How goodly must be their +array! What a perpetual spring tide of vivacious joy and delight do they +create in heaven. It is pleasant to have a child among them.</p> + +<p>It has been my privilege to see, in this child, an example of true +preparation for death, which begins before the expectation of dying +brings the least discredit, or breath of suspicion, upon our motives in +attending to the subject of religion. Preparation for death consists in +justification by faith, extending its influence into the whole +character, to bring us under the rule of Christ. The fruit of this is +friendship with God, the confidence of love, knowing whom we have +believed, with the persuasion of our having committed to him an infinite +trust, and that he will keep it with covenant faithfulness. So when +death comes and knocks at the door, it is true the heart beats quicker, +as it is apt to do whoever knocks there; for, to give up one's hold on +life, to turn and look eternal things full in the face, to think of +meeting God, and of having your endless condition fixed, summons the +whole of natural and acquired fortitude; and only they who have an +unseen arm to lean upon at such a time, endure in that trial. Then past +experience comes in with her powerful aid: "I have fought a good fight;" +"the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps;" "remember, O +Lord, how I have walked before thee." Thus there is something to make +you feel that your justification, by free grace, has the evidence +afforded by its fruits; and the preparation to die may be likened to +that of which the Saviour speaks when he says, "He that is washed +needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit." I have seen +it, have watched it, have studied it, in the dying scenes of this child. +Hers was not the experience of the sinner, pulled suddenly from the +waves by a hand which he had for a long time, nay, always, spurned; but +her dying was an arrival at the end of a voyage, the coming home of a +good child to long-expecting hearts and arms. We said one to another +around her dying bed,—yes, we had composure to say, as we watched that +parting scene, that fading cloud, that sinking gale, that dying wave, +that shutting eye of day,—"Think of such a poor, helpless, dying +creature, if, in the sense intended by those words, she should 'fall +into the hands of the living God.'" And we glorified God in her. Never +did I see and feel more deeply, by contrast, the folly of trusting to a +death-bed repentance, to repair the errors of a wasted life. It is a +deliberate attempt at fraud upon the Most High; it is folly; for the +risk is fearful, and could we obtain salvation, how mercenarily!—and +what a memorial would it be in heaven of loss, instead of being "a crown +of righteousness!" They who are all their lifetime ignorant, being +unfortunately deprived of opportunity for religious instruction, may +with wonder and joy accept the surprising news of pardon, through +Christ, on a dying bed, and soar to the same heights with apostles in +their praises of redeeming love. But if we hear of salvation by Christ +all our life long, and know our duty, but prefer the pleasures of sin +for a season, and think that in the swellings of Jordan we shall find +peace and safety, our conduct deserves all the opprobrious names which +are heaped upon it by inspired tongues and pens. We who are parents must +teach our children that religion does not consist merely in being +pardoned, and, if pardoned, no matter whether early or late; but that it +is the first, the constant, the all-pervading rule of life, God and his +service the chief end of man, and that the pleasures of religion are the +sweetest pleasures, hallowing all others which are innocent, and leading +us to reject those, and only those, which would be unsuitable or +injurious, even if religious custom did not forbid them. We must know +this, and practise upon it, ourselves; else, how can we expect the +children to believe it?</p> + +<p>The exceeding relief which a timely preparation for death by an early +consecration of herself to God, imparted to this child and to us, was +felt in this, that she and we had no distressing thoughts at her total +inability, for a long time, to join in prayer with others, or to be +conversed with in any way that excited much feeling. The diseased +throat, where, as we all know, our emotions, even in health and +strength, make such interference with our comfort, prevented her from +joining in any religious exercises, because she would then be liable to +the excitement of feelings which, in the way just intimated, would have +injured her. With such affections of the bronchial passages, efforts of +mind which are not spontaneous are sometimes agony. Connected endeavors +to follow conversation and prayer were impossible, and she told me, on +saying this, that she took great comfort from a remark, in a book, +addressed to a sick person—"Do not think, but pray." She prayed much +herself; her thoughts, too, were prayers, in certain cases. Now, in that +weakened condition, what could she have done, and what would have been +her father's feelings, had she not, in health and strength, arrived at +such a state of religious knowledge and experience as to remove anxiety +for her spiritual welfare, and to make us feel that she had Christ in +her, the hope of glory? When the cry was made, "Behold, the bridegroom +cometh," she arose and trimmed her lamp, and had oil in her vessel with +her lamp. Wealth could not purchase the relief and satisfaction which +this gave to her friends;—so truly is religion called the "pearl of +great price;" so literally true are the Saviour's words, "But one thing +is needful." It is the greatest blessing which a young person can bestow +on Christian parents, to be a Christian; and what its value is to +surviving parents, ask those who sorrow as they that have no hope. When +a young Christian comes to die, he testifies that he lost nothing, but +gained every thing, with eternal life, by being a Christian in his early +years. I can imagine what this child would say to one and another of her +young friends who may read these pages, and how she would seek to +persuade them, as the first great duty of their existence, and for their +best good here, and for their everlasting peace, to choose the good +part, which will never be taken away from them.</p> + +<p>Her funeral was a scene from which many went away rejoicing in God; and +not a few date new progress in the Christian life from it, by means of +the new and striking illustration which they there had of the Saviour's +power and love. The Choir struck the key note of heaven in their opening +strains, by chanting, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive +power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and +blessing." They gave us, too, her favorite song, by which she was +remembered in several circles, at home and abroad, before she was sick, +and the words of which, now, seem to have had a prophetic meaning from +her lips:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>"I'm a pilgrim, and I'm a stranger;</p> +<p>I can tarry, I can tarry but a night;"—</p> +</div></div> + +<p class="noindent">which was sung at the funeral with a sweetness which added much to the +associations with it in our minds; and in the closing hymn, how strange +it seemed, at a funeral, to hear the singers, though by our own request +and though in accordance with all which had passed, bid us</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>"Proclaim abroad his name,</p> +<p>Tell of his matchless fame,</p> +<p class="i2">What wonders done!</p> +<p>Shout through hell's dark profound,</p> +<p>Let the whole earth resound,</p> +<p>Till the high heavens rebound,</p> +<p class="i2">The victory's won;"—</p> +</div></div> + +<p class="noindent">and to hear them, as they cried one to another, saying,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>"All hail the glorious day,</p> +<p>When, through the heavenly way,</p> +<p class="i2">Lo, He shall come;</p> +<p>While they who pierced him wail;</p> +<p>His promise shall not fail;</p> +<p>Saints, see your King prevail;</p> +<p class="i2">Come, dear Lord, come."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>For those ministrations of love and tenderness in the last, sad offices +to the dead, which no wealth could buy, repeated now by some of the same +hands several times in my dwelling, there are no words of gratitude +adequate to the great debt of love. The mothers of my church, who met +weekly with her mother for prayer, remembered her child, and provided +nurses for her, to her own unspeakable comfort and our great relief. +Friends and strangers, touched with her protracted sickness, poured +blessings around her couch; fruits, in their season, and when out of +their season, of what almost unearthly beauty! and flowers which, with +the fruits, made that sick room seem like the garden which the Lord +planted in Eden. Such have been the alleviations of pain and suffering, +the comforts, and even the pleasures, and above all the rich spiritual +consolations and joys, and the more than conquering faith of the dying +hour,—such a union in all this of Jesus and his friends,—that I have +made the case of the ruler of the synagogue mine, of whom, as he went to +his afflicted house, it is said, "And Jesus arose and followed him, and +so did his disciples." They will go wherever Jesus leads the way; and he +will lead the way wherever there is a lamb to be folded in his bosom.</p> + +<p>There were not wanting those who lent me their sepulchre, in the city, +for a season—a kindness always peculiar and affecting, but also needful +in this instance, because of the great snows which made the roads to +Mount Auburn impassable for several days. Nor can I forget that, when +Saturday evening closed upon us, words and tokens of kindness came from +the younger members of my congregation, who had provided for the last +earthly things which the precious dust of their young friend required; +and so they seemed to bid me rest from all care and thoughtfulness, upon +the "Sabbath day, according to the commandment." All which should +increase my feelings of sympathy and kindness for the sick, and +especially for the sick poor, whose rooms, and whose dying hours, and +whose griefs, are oftentimes in such contrast to those into which divine +and human loving kindness seem striving to pour their abundant +consolations. As the family retired from the dying scene, and were +weeping together, a father came to my door, in that great snow-storm, to +say that his son, the young man, not a member of my congregation, whom I +had several times visited, was near his end, and would like to see me. +Stranger comparatively though he was, and impassable as the streets were +by any vehicle, and almost by foot passengers, my gratitude for the +sweet and peaceful end of my own dear child, and for her undoubted +admission to the realms of bliss, was such, that, within an hour or two, +I forced my way to a distant part of the city, to assist another +departing spirit for its flight. This heart has no more fortitude, nor +has it less of natural affection and sensibility, than ordinarily falls +to the lot of men; hence those consolations must have been great, that +support and strength equal to the day, that hope concerning my child an +anchor sure and steadfast, which enabled me thus to go from her clay, +just cold, to aid a passing spirit in obtaining like precious faith with +hers, and the same inheritance. My motive in thus lifting a little of +the veil, or in placing a light behind the transparency, of my private +feelings, I trust will be seen to be, that I may comfort others with the +comfort wherewith I was comforted of God.</p> + +<p>But there awaits me a blessing, with a joy, surpassing all that has gone +before. "My daughter is even now dead; but come and lay thy hand upon +her, and she shall live." From her grave, which was soon made by the +side of kindred dust, Jesus will raise her up at the last day; her voice +will come to that body; her youthful beauty will be reestablished by +her likeness to Christ's own glorious body; she will lean upon my arm +again; the separation and absence will enhance the joy of meeting; we +shall say, How like a hand-breadth was the separation! We shall see +reasons full of wisdom and love for the sickness and the early death. We +shall part no more. All this has more than once made me say, and sing,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>"O, for this love, let rocks and hills</p> +<p class="i2">Their lasting silence break,</p> +<p>And all harmonious human tongues</p> +<p class="i2">The Saviour's praises speak."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Young friend, you will need him as the great Physician, the Friend in +sorrow, the Forerunner in the dark passages of life, the Conqueror of +death, the Lord our Righteousness, and, all endearing names in one, +Immanuel, God with us.</p> + +<p>Parents, you will need him for your children. Children, you will need +him when father and mother, one or both, have forsaken you, or, if +alive, can only make you feel how little their fond love can do for you. +When the name of <em>father</em>, cannot rouse you, nor your cold hand return +the pressure of your father's hand, you will need a nearer, dearer +friend, in the person of Him who loved you, and gave himself for you.</p> + +<p>It has been one of the richest joys of my pastoral life, that I have +sent to her mother in heaven her child, whom God had prepared for so +early a departure out of this world. This ministry of reconciliation has +been blessed to the salvation of my child. It should make me love the +children of my pastoral charge more than ever, seek to gather them into +the fold of Christ, that whole families, each like a constellation, may +rise together in the firmament of heaven; and, in the mean time, that +the members of every household, as they desert us one by one, may call +back to us, and say, for the departed, "All are here."</p> + +<p>God takes a family here and there, in a circle of acquaintances and +friends, and greatly afflicts them; and thus he teaches others. As we +look, therefore, upon the afflicted, we ought to say,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>"For us they languish, and for us they die;</p> +<p>And shall they languish, shall they die, in vain?"</p> +</div></div> + +<p>God is the same when he takes away the child, as when he laid that gift +in our hands. Perhaps, indeed, the removal is really a greater exercise +of love than the gift. It must seem good and acceptable in the sight of +God, if, when we are bereaved, we employ ourselves occasionally in +rehearsing before him the circumstances in his past goodness, which, at +the time, made it exceedingly sweet and precious. Our debt of obligation +for it is not yet fully paid; nor is it diminished at all by the removal +of the blessing. Instead of abandoning ourselves to grief, we do well if +we commune with God more frequently respecting his signal acts of favor +in connection with the lost blessing.</p> + +<p>But the memory of lost joys is always apt to depress the mind +inordinately. We question whether it is really better to have</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4">"loved and lost</p> +<p>Than never to have loved at all."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Taking a future life into the account, surely no doubt can remain as to +that question; but one who has really loved, will not be long in coming +to the same conclusion, irrespective of the future. Must God abstain +from making us exceedingly happy, because, forsooth, we shall be so +unhappy when, in the exercise of the same goodness and wisdom which +dictated the gift, he sees it best to take it away? If we love him more +than we love his gifts, then the removal of them will make us love him +more than ever.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>"Though now He frowns, I'll praise the Almighty's name,</p> +<p>And bless the source whence past enjoyments came."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>We often hear it said, that every thing which happens to us is for our +good, even in this world.—Many things happen to men, even to +Christians, which are plainly not for their good in this life, though +all things will, eventually, work together for good to them that love +God. Some things, then, even here, are intended to be life-long sorrows +and trials. Their object is reproof and constant admonition. We need +another state of existence to explain the present. If that future state +does not prove that earthly discipline has had its designed effect, the +sorrows of this life show that God can bear to see us suffer, even when +he foresees that no good will result to the sufferer. For while men +suffer excruciatingly under bereavements, these sufferings often fail to +make them better. God foresees all this. Hence God is able to look upon +suffering which he sees will not be for the good of the afflicted.</p> + +<p>If, now, his design in our trials (which pierced his heart before they +reached ours) is utterly frustrated by our sins, the question will +arise, whether the God who can bear to see us suffer for our good, +which, nevertheless, he foresees will not be effected, will not be able +to see us suffer as the fruit of our sins, and of our resistance to his +designs. One who has endured much mental suffering cannot have failed to +see, that God's parental relation to us is not analogous to that of +parent and child among men. It terminates in the relations of governor +and of judge; being, indeed, from the first, included in those +relations. This is not so in our earthly relationship. God sees men +suffer as no earthly parent could; he inflicts pain as no earthly parent +should. All is for our profit; but if that object fails through our +perverseness, we are instructed, by our experience, that if God can look +on mental anguish and not relieve it, because he seeks an ulterior good, +the punishment of sin, the natural and just consequences of disobedience +to the great laws of the universe, may be, in their extended impression, +another ulterior good, which will warrant the same mental sufferings +after death, and forever.</p> + +<p>Could I be permitted, therefore, I would take by the hand every bereaved +father whom so great an affliction as the death of a child has not +succeeded in bringing into a state of preparation for heaven, and kindly +ask how he expects to bear a final and endless separation. "If thou hast +run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou +contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou +trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of +Jordan?" God describes to his ancient people one of the great sorrows +which will happen to them, if they forsake him, in their separations, by +captivity, from their children: "Thy sons and thy daughters shall be +given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with +longing, for them all the day long; and there shall be no might in thy +hand." Pains of absence, sudden convulsions of feeling at the remembered +looks, form, words, and motions of a loved one, sometimes are as when +men feel the earth quaking under them; and then, again, they entirely +prostrate us, for the moment, like a tornado. Homesickness in a foreign +land,—an ocean stretching between us and the objects of our love—is +an admonition to us with respect to future, endless separations. The +hopeless death of a child has sometimes had the effect to change the +long-established faith of a parent with regard to future retribution; +all the acknowledged principles of interpretation, all the results of +meditation and prayer, the theory of the divine government which has +been built up in the soul, till it became identified with personal +consciousness, the whole analogy of faith,—all, have been swept away by +the overmastering power of parental love for one who, when he died, left +his friends to sorrow as they that have no hope. Now, supposing a parent +to fail of heaven, and to retain his instinctive parental feelings, the +endless separation between him and his family will be a source of sorrow +which needs only to be kept up, by an ever-living memory, to constitute +all which is pictured in the boldest metaphors of inspired tongues and +pens. A father in disgrace, or under ignominy, suffers intensely when +he sees or thinks of his children, provided his natural sensibilities +are not destroyed. A father punished, hereafter, by his Redeemer and +Judge, a father banished from the company of heaven, knowing that his +family are there, and that if his influence had had its full effect, +they would all have perished with him,—or a father with a part of his +children with him in perdition, the wife and mother with one or more of +the children in heaven,—is a picture of woe which nothing but timely +repentance and faith in Christ may prevent from being a reality in the +experience of some who read these lines. Can it be true, as Bishop Hall +says, that "to be happy is not so sweet a state as it is miserable to +have been happy"? O man, if you have a child in heaven, think that, +among the sweet influences of divine love, there probably is no more +powerful motive to draw your affections towards God, than that glimpse +which you sometimes seem to have of this child's face, on which heaven +has traced its lineaments of peace and bliss; or that sudden whisper of +a gentle, child-like voice, now and then heard by the ear of fancy, +persuading you to be a Christian. Do not let the world, or shame, or +procrastination, lead you to resist such efforts of almighty love to +save you. He who has had a child saved by Christ, and will not be +himself a Christian,—what more can God do to save him?</p> + +<p>The breaking up of our homes is one of the mysteries of God's +providence. The last thing, perhaps, which we might suppose would be +allowed, is, the removal of a mother from a family of young children. +This being so frequent, we cease to wonder at any other dispensations; +we conclude that separations are to be made, regardless of any and every +seeming necessity and endearment. "Sirs, I perceive that this voyage +will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading and ship, but +also of our lives." The conviction is forced upon us that there is +another world, for which we must make all our calculations. "There is a +better world," said the distinguished William Wirt, after the death of +his daughter, in 1831,—"there is a better world, of which I have +thought too little. To that world she has gone, and thither my +affections have followed her. This was Heaven's design. I see and feel +it as distinctly as if an angel had revealed it. I often imagine that I +can see her beckoning me to the happy world to which she has gone. She +was my companion, my office companion, my librarian, my clerk. My papers +now bear her indorsement. She pursued her studies in my office, by my +side, sat with me, walked with me, was my inexpressibly sweet and +inseparable companion,—never left me but to go and sit with her mother. +We knew all her intelligence, all her pure and delicate sensibility, the +quickness and power of her perceptions, her seraphic love. She was all +love, and loved all God's creation, even the animals, trees, and plants. +She loved her God and Saviour with an angel's love, and died like a +saint."<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1" /><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1" /><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Kennedy's Life of William Wirt—letter to Judge Carr.</p></div></div> + +<p>About the same time, he writes to his wife,—</p> + +<p>"I want only my blessed Saviour's assurance of pardon and acceptance to +be at peace. I wish to find no rest short of rest in him,—Let us both +look up to that heaven—where our Saviour dwells, and from which he is +showing us the attractive face of our blessed and happy child, and +bidding us prepare to come to her, since she can no more visibly come to +us. I have no taste now for worldly business. I go to it reluctantly. I +would keep company only with my Saviour and his holy book. I dread the +world, the strife, and contention, and emulation of the bar; yet I will +do my duty—this is part of my religion."</p> + +<p>In December, 1833, another daughter died; but he writes,—</p> + +<p>"I look upon life as a drama, bearing the same sort, though not the +same degree, of relation to eternity, as an hour spent at the theatre, +and the fictions there exhibited ... do to the whole of real life. Nor +is there any thing in this passing pageant worth the sorrow that we +lavish on it. Now, when my children or friends leave me, or when I shall +be called to leave them, I consider it as merely parting for the present +visit, to meet under happier circumstances, when we shall part no +more."<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2" /><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2" /><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> Kennedy's Life of William Wirt—letter to Judge Cabell.</p></div></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"All my children," said the venerable John Eliot, of Roxbury, "are +either with Christ or in Christ." Happy, happy man! The little ones, +blighted soon by the touch of death, surely are with Christ; "for of +such is the kingdom of God." The cherub boy, and the blooming, broken +flower, the young daughter,—the young man in his strength, the young +maiden in her beauty,—are there. As we commune together, in the pages +which follow, on themes touching this subject, God grant that every one +who has not yet gladdened the heart of parent, and pastor, nay, of that +infinite Friend, our Saviour, by the surrender of the heart to God, and +every father and mother who is yet unprepared to join the growing circle +of the family in heaven,—('how grows in Paradise their store!')—may, +as we reach the last page, find that with cords of a man, with bands of +love, He who made Pleiades, and Arcturus and his sons, has united them +in eternal fellowship with their departed loved ones, through faith in +Christ. This, while it hallows the remainder of life with the rich, +mellowed beauty of the changing leaf, and ripening grain, and shortening +days, lays the foundation of that perfect happiness for which our homes +are intended to prepare us; their joys alluring, their separations +pointing, us to heaven.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="II" id="II" />II.</h2> + +<h3>THE FEAR OF DEATH ALLEVIATED.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>Yea, and moreover this full well know I:</p> +<p>He that's at any time afraid to die</p> +<p>Is in weak case, and (whatsoe'er he saith)</p> +<p>Hath but a wavering and a feeble faith.</p> +</div></div> + +<p class="citation">George Wither.</p> + + +<p>Unless we know the customs of the wandering shepherds with their flocks, +one verse in the twenty-third Psalm, so often quoted in view of death, +appears abrupt, but otherwise appropriate and very beautiful. One of a +flock is expressing his confidence in God, his Shepherd: "When I have +satisfied my hunger from the green pastures, he makes me to lie down in +them; and the still, clear streams are my drink." Then a thought occurs +which appears as though a dying man were speaking, and not a sheep: but +it is still the language of a sheep. Keeping this in mind, let it be +remembered that the shepherds wandered from place to place to find +pasture. In doing so, they were sometimes obliged to pass through dark, +lonely valleys. Wild beasts, and creatures less formidable, but of +hateful sight, and with doleful voices, made it difficult for the flocks +to be led through such passages. There was frequently no other way from +one pasturage to another but through these places of death-shade, or +valleys of the shadow of death,—which was a term to express any dark +and dismal place.</p> + +<p>Now, let us imagine a flock reposing in a green pasture, and by the side +of still waters, conversing about their shepherd, their pastures, and +streams. One of them says, "In the midst of all this peace and +contentment, there is a thought which spoils my comfort. We cannot stay +here forever; we are to go, presently, beyond the mountains; they say +that there are valleys, in those regions, full of dangers. My +expectation is, that we shall be torn to pieces. My enjoyment of these +pastures and waters is nearly destroyed by my forebodings about those +valleys."</p> + +<p>Another of the flock replies, "Have we not an able, faithful, +experienced shepherd? Have we not seen his ability to defend us in past +dangers? Is he not as much concerned for our defence and safety as +ourselves? While he is my shepherd, I shall not want.—Yea, though I +walk through those valleys of death-shade, I will fear no evil; for he +is with me; his rod and his staff they comfort me."</p> + +<p>The shepherd carried with him two instruments—the staff, for his own +support, and to attack a beast or robber; and the crook, or rod. By this +crook, the shepherd guided a sheep in a dangerous pass, placing the +crook under the sheep's neck, to hold him up and assist his steps. When +a sheep was disposed to stray, the shepherd could hold him back with his +crook. When the sheep had fallen into the power of a beast, the crook +assisted in drawing him away. A good sheep loved the crook as much as +the staff,—to be guided, as well as to be defended. Both of the +shepherd's instruments were a great comfort to the sheep, while passing +through a frightful and dangerous valley.</p> + +<p>The interpretation usually given to the words, "thy rod and thy +staff"—as though they meant "thy gentle reproofs and thy severe +rebukes"—is erroneous. A sheep would hardly tell his shepherd that his +chastising rod, and the heavy blows of his staff, comforted him. The +meaning is, It is a comfort to me to feel the crook of thy rod helping +me in trouble, and to know that thy staff is my defence against wild +beasts.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Through fear of death, many who are truly the followers of Christ, are, +nevertheless, all their lifetime subject to bondage. On whatever +mountains, into whatever pastures, and by whatever streams, their +Shepherd leads them, they know that there is a valley into which they +must go down, and the imagined darkness and horrors of the place make +them continually afraid.</p> + +<p>A fear of death, without doubt, is frequently permitted, as a means of +religious restraint. Some, who have wondered at this trial all their +life long, find that its influence is great in keeping them near to the +Shepherd and Bishop of their souls. If a flock could reason, no doubt +the shepherd would make use of the fears of the sheep, in many +instances, to keep them from going astray. If one of them were inclined +to wander, it would be natural for the shepherd to caution that sheep +against the dark valley, warning him of its terrors, and making him feel +how necessary it would be to have a shepherd there, with his crook and +staff. It may be that apprehensions with regard to death are the most +powerful means, with some, of keeping them from going astray, and of +holding their minds to the contemplation of spiritual things.</p> + +<p>It has often been observed that those Christians whose fears of death +were very great for a large part of their life, frequently die with +triumph. The reality is not such as they feared; they found support and +consolation which they did not anticipate.</p> + +<p>One of the most trying anticipations with regard to death, in the minds +of many, long before the event arrives, is, separation from those whom +we love. And yet, there is probably nothing in human experience more +remarkable, than the singular resignation, and even cheerfulness, with +which some, who have had every thing to make life desirable, have left +all and followed Christ when he came to lead them through the valley. +The young wife and mother, in her dying hours, becomes the comforter of +her husband; she turns and looks at the infant who is held up to receive +her farewell, and the mother alone is calm, sheds no tear, gives the +farewell kiss with composure. "Thy rod" is supporting her; "thy staff" +is keeping at bay the passions and fears of the natural heart. So a +widowed mother leaves a large family of young children, with a peace +which passes all understanding. And the father of a dependent family, +which never could, in a greater measure, need a father's presence, looks +upon them from his dying bed, and says to them, with the serenity of the +patriarch, "Behold, I die; but God shall be with you." Nothing is more +true than this, that dying grace is for a dying hour; that is, we +cannot, in health and strength, have the feelings which belong to the +hour of parting; but as any and every scene and condition, into which +God brings his children, has its peculiar frames of mind fitted to the +necessity of each case, we need not make the useless effort to practise +all the resignation, and experience all the comforts, which come only +when they are actually needed. We do not often hear the first part of +the following passage quoted; but in such rocky and thorny paths as we +are often made to pass through, how good it is to read: "Thy shoes shall +be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be." If God is +our Shepherd, he will cause us to pass, one by one, through the valley +which is before us, leaving some most dear to us on the hither side. +Suppose that when a shepherd is employed in removing his flock from one +mountain to another, through a valley, one of the flock should mourn his +separation from companions, or from its young. The shepherd would say, +"You cannot all pass together; leave your companions and the young to +me; I will restore them to you on the other side." He might also +remonstrate and say, "Am I not, as their shepherd, interested in +protecting and removing them? You can add nothing to my strength and +wisdom; let me take you safety through the valley, and trust me to do +the same for them."</p> + +<p>The ancient shepherd was specially careful of the lambs; he carried them +in his arms, and sometimes folded them beneath his shepherd's coat. We +can imagine the feelings of some of a flock when, leaving them at a +short distance, but within sight, the shepherd would take a lamb, carry +it down into the valley, and disappear with it for a little while. With +all their confidence in their shepherd, some of the flock would manifest +uneasiness at the separation, especially if the valley looked dark and +dangerous. If it were the only lamb of its mother, it was natural for +that mother to be distressed, and to lament. Though the young creature +had gone safely to the other side, and was at play in the new pasture, +and the mother believed it, this could not always quiet her. The good +Shepherd has taken some of our lambs through the valley. They are safe +upon the other side. They have joined the flock of Christ. Let us give +our lambs to the Shepherd's care, to bear them through the valley, +whenever he sees fit that they should be removed. We must all pass +through that valley. If, from special love to our young, he will see +them safely on the other side before he calls for us, we will intrust +them to Him who claims our confidence by saying to us, I am the Good +Shepherd. One of the prophecies concerning Christ reveals that tender +love and care, on his part, for children, which characterized him while +on earth: "He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his +bosom."</p> + +<p>The fear of death is owing, in many cases, to the dread of dissolution.</p> + +<p>The previous sickness prepares the soul and the body for their +separation, so that, in very many cases, it is the greatest relief to +die. We are, perhaps, mistaken if we suppose that those Christians who +are in great bodily pain in their last hours, suffer in mind. The +effects of death on the frame do not necessarily disturb the +tranquillity of the soul. The body may be in spasms while the soul is at +peace; and the reverse is true;—as in nightmare, when the mind is +distressed while the body sleeps. A Christian has nothing to fear in +this respect. To die will not be—as in full health we suppose it is—a +violent rending asunder of the soul from the unyielding grasp of the +body; but the preparation of the mortal frame for dissolution, by the +sickness, however rapid, also fits the mind for the event. Even in +cases of death by accidents, this appears to be true.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>But many feel that to die is to be transferred suddenly, and with +violence, into strange scenes, which must overwhelm and distract the +senses. It seems to them that it must be like being whirled instantly +into a distant, unknown city, and waking up amidst the confusion and +strangeness of that place. We cannot believe that such is the experience +of dying Christians. It would rather seem that there is, at first, a +perception of spiritual forms, of ministering spirits, whispering peace +to the soul, and assuring it of safety, and bidding it fear not. It is +said of angels, "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to +minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" When can we need +their ministry more, than in the passage from this world to the world of +spirits? Perhaps the disclosure is made of some departed friends; and +the fancy of those who thought that they saw beloved ones beckoning them +away, may have had its foundation in truth. There is much of +probability in that well-known piece, "The dying Christian's address to +his soul;"—and no part of it is more probable than this:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>"Hark! they whisper; angels say,</p> +<p>Sister spirit, come away."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>It is not improbable—it seems accordant with divine goodness—that such +methods should be employed to relieve the anxiety of the departing +spirit. Sometimes the dying Christian has declared that he heard +enrapturing music. It is possible that voices were employed to soothe +him to sleep, and to soften the transition, from the full consciousness +of life, to the revelations of the heavenly world. Perhaps the effect of +disease upon the organs of hearing was such as to produce something like +sounds, which, in a joyous state of mind, were pleasurable. During the +siege of Jerusalem in 1836, the wife of an American missionary sung +while dissolution was actually taking place. The tones of her voice, +they said, seemingly more than mortal, were far different from any +thing which they had ever heard, even from her. God is often pleased to +use these natural effects of dissolution on the body, to comfort the +passing spirit of his child. Whether visions or real voices are actually +seen or heard, is of no consequence, so long as the soul has a rational +and assured hope. Some means are unquestionably used in every case to +make the dying believer feel that he is safe. He is not compelled to +wait in uncertainty and fear for a moment. His fears are anticipated; he +is among other friends, the moment that he grows insensible to those who +watch his departing breath. Neither are we to suppose that heaven breaks +upon the senses of the spirit with such an overpowering brightness, as +to excite confusion and pain. No doubt the revelation is gradual and +most pleasant. Perhaps the celestial city appears at first in the +distance, having the glory of God most precious; the approach to it is +gradual; voices are heard afar off, and from the convoy of ministering +spirits, such information and instructions are received as prepare it +for the full vision of heaven. Every thing is calm and serene; the light +is attempered to its new and feeble vision. He who makes the sun to rise +by slow degrees, and does not pour straight, fierce rays upon the waking +eyes even of sinful men, certainly will not torment the soul of his +child with any such revelations of unseen things as will give pain. The +same care which has redeemed and saved him, will order all these things +in covenanted love.</p> + +<p>Some of the preceding thoughts are well expressed in the following +anonymous lines, written on seeing Mr. Greenough's group of the Angel +and Child ascending to Heaven:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +<span class="smcap">"Child.</span> +<div class="poem" style="margin-left: 5em; margin-top: -1.25em;"><p>Whither now wilt thou proceed?</p></div> +<span class="smcap">Angel.</span> +<div class="poem" style="margin-left: 5em; margin-top: -1.25em;"><p class="i2">Come up hither; I will show thee.</p> +<p>Follow me with joyful speed;</p> +<p class="i2">Leave thy native earth below thee.</p></div> +<span class="smcap">Child.</span> <div class="poem" style="margin-left: 5em; margin-top: -1.25em;"><p>Stop! mine eyes cannot contain</p> +<p class="i2">Such a wondrous flood of light.</p></div> +<span class="smcap">Angel.</span> <div class="poem" style="margin-left: 5em; margin-top: -1.25em;"><p>Come up hither. Thou shall gain,</p> +<p class="i2">As thou risest, stronger sight.</p></div> +<span class="smcap">Child.</span> <div class="poem" style="margin-left: 5em; margin-top: -1.25em;"><p>Lost in wonder without end,</p> +<p class="i2">Joyful, fearful, longing, shrinking,</p> +<p>Lead me, O thou heavenly friend;</p> +<p class="i2">Keep a trembling child from sinking.</p> +<p>O, I cannot bear this glory!</p> +<p class="i2">Angel brother! how canst thou?</p></div> +<span class="smcap">Angel.</span> <div class="poem" style="margin-left: 5em; margin-top: -1.25em;"><p>I will tell thee all my story;</p> +<p class="i2">I was once as thou art now.</p></div> +<span class="smcap">Child.</span> <div class="poem" style="margin-left: 5em; margin-top: -1.25em;"><p>When some sorrow did befall me,</p> +<p class="i2">Or I felt some strange alarms,</p> +<p>Then my mother's voice would call me,</p> +<p class="i2">To the shelter of her arms.</p> +<p>Now what bids my heart rejoice,</p> +<p class="i2">Clasped in arms I cannot see?</p> +<p>Hark, I hear a soothing voice</p> +<p class="i2">Sweetly whispering, Come to me.</p></div> +<span class="smcap">Angel.</span> <div class="poem" style="margin-left: 5em; margin-top: -1.25em;"><p>Yes, it calls thee from on high;</p> +<p class="i2">Come to God's most holy mountain;</p> +<p>Thou hast drunk the stream of life;—</p> +<p class="i2">I will lead thee to the fountain."</p></div> +</div> + + +<p>Some dread the thought of being out of the body and finding themselves +spirits. This is wholly without reason. The soul will not suffer from +losing this body of sin and death; it will have as perfect a +consciousness, it will know where it is, and what is passing before it, +as seems to be the case in a vivid dream when the bodily senses are +locked in slumber.</p> + +<p>As to the natural repugnance which we have to the thoughts of burial and +the grave, it is probable that the soul of a redeemed spirit thinks and +cares as little concerning these things, so far as painful sensations +are concerned, as we do about our garments when we are falling asleep. +The vesture which we formerly wore gives us no solicitude. It is +wonderful to hear the sick, long before they die, give directions, or +express desires, respecting their burial. So far from thinking of the +grave as a melancholy place, no doubt the departed spirit will often +think of it in the separate state with pleasure, as the place where it +is hereafter to receive a form like Christ's; and the thought of +resurrection adds greatly to the joys of heaven.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>There is something still which affects the minds of many Christians with +fear as they think of dying; and that is, their appearing before God. +They cannot imagine the possibility of seeing him without distraction; +his infinite majesty, and their own sense of unworthiness, make them +afraid.</p> + +<p>But who is God? Is he the Christian's enemy? Will he sit like a king on +his throne, and see his subject come trembling into his presence? Is +this the God who loved him? Is this the Saviour that died for him? Is +this the Holy Spirit who awakened, converted, sanctified, comforted him, +and promised to present him faultless before the presence of his glory +with exceeding joy? God will not have done so much to bring him to +heaven, and, when he comes there, make his appearance before his throne +a matter of fear and uncertainty. He who fell on the neck of the +returning prodigal and kissed him, will not keep him at a distance when, +with the best robe, and the ring, and the shoes, he comes into his +father's house. Our first apprehensions of God will be happy beyond our +present comprehension. What an image have we, in these words, of a man +helping a child, by the hand, through a dangerous or dark way: "For I +the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; +I will help thee." If "I will be with thee," is the reason, which he +himself assigns why we should not be afraid, why should we fear to come +into his presence?</p> + +<p>As to a consciousness of guilt, there is no doubt that he who falls +asleep in Jesus, with reliance on his blood and righteousness, will +immediately, at death, receive such a consciousness of being purified +from all taint of sin, as now is beyond our conception. In the language +of Scripture, we shall be presented faultless before the presence of his +glory with exceeding joy. For the sake of Christ, in whom we trust, we +shall be received and treated as though we had never sinned; we shall +say, in the full assurance of pardon, righteousness, and peace with God, +without waiting for the question to be asked in our behalf, "Who is he +that condemneth?" "It is Christ that died."</p> + +<p>And if this be so, as it surely is, why may not Christians in this world +before they die, nay, from the first hour of justification by faith in +Christ, triumph thus in him? Why should their remaining sinfulness, +their poor, frail, erring nature, which they must carry with them to the +grave, prevent them from having the same joy in God through our Lord +Jesus Christ, by whom also we have received the atonement? Every true +believer in Jesus Christ is warranted in having the same consciousness +of pardon and peace with God, now, as after death; the justifying +righteousness of Christ is as powerful now as it will be then. Some tell +us, "Live a sinless life, and you may have this perfect peace." That is +self-righteousness. It will not be a sinless life which, in the moment +after death, will make us to be openly acknowledged and acquitted; it +will be the righteousness of Jesus Christ which is by faith; and he who +has faith in that righteousness may, living as well as dying, here as +well as in heaven, say, 'There is, therefore, <em>now</em> no condemnation to +them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after +the spirit.'</p> + +<p>There are several things which may reconcile us to the thought of dying:</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>All the people of God since the creation, with two exceptions, have +died. Of the two who were excepted, neither of them was his only +begotten Son. Those whom God has loved peculiarly have not been exempted +from the stroke of death. Shall we ask exemption from that which, all +the good and great have suffered? Let me die the death of the righteous. +If he must find the grave, there will I be buried. We would not go to +heaven but in the way which prophets, apostles, martyrs trod. The +footsteps of the flock lead through the valley; we will seek no other, +no easier, way.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Surely we should be willing to follow our great Forerunner. He tasted +death for every man; and he could enter into his triumph only by dying. +We should be more than resigned to follow our blessed Lord into the +tomb. Christ conquered death by dying; we shall be more than conquerors +in the same way. If we suffer great pain, we cannot suffer more than +Christ suffered on our account. Sufferings borne in the spirit of Christ +are counted as sufferings borne for Christ. "If we suffer, we shall also +reign with him." "If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also +glorified together."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Death is a part of the penalty of sin. We should, therefore, submit to +it, giving up our bodies to be destroyed, in fulfilment of that sentence +which we have so justly incurred—"and unto dust shalt thou return." He +who hates sin, and condemns himself for it, and is willing to have +fellowship with Christ in his sufferings for it, as it is most +graciously represented that we may, will bear the execution of God's +righteous sentence with a willing mind.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Death is the perfecting of our redemption. It is the last act of +redeeming grace. When the Saviour, who says, "I have the keys +of—death," (i.e., no one can die but at the time and manner prescribed +by me,) takes us out of the world, it is to finish the work of our +personal salvation. All the circumstances attending it will be as +deliberately appointed, and as carefully watched and directed, as the +first great act of grace towards us in our regeneration. He, too, who +has provided such pastures and streams for us here, in removing us to +living pastures and to living streams, will, of course, see that we go +safely through the valley which must be passed to reach them. It will +not be a new thing to Christ to see us die. He has watched the dying +beds of millions of his friends, he has had great experience as a +Shepherd in bringing them through the valley.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>See that chamber in yonder mansion, where all the comforts, and some of +the luxuries, of life, have contributed to prepare for some mysterious +event. The garden of Eden failed to possess such joys as are there in +anticipation, and are soon to be made perfect. Every thing seems +waiting, with silent but thrilling interest, for the arrival of an +unknown occupant. And there is raiment of needle-work, and of fine +twined linen, and gifts of cunning device, from the looms of the old +world, and from graceful fingers and loving hearts here, every want +being anticipated, and some wants imagined, to gratify the love of +satisfying them. And now God breathes the breath of life, and a living +soul begins its deathless career, amidst joys and thanksgivings, which +swell through the wide circles of kindred and acquaintanceship. The Holy +Spirit, in the process of time, renews and sanctifies the soul through +the blood of the everlasting covenant; and having, through life, walked +with God, the day arrives when the spirit must return to God who gave +it. You saw how it was received here, at its entrance into the world. +You have seen what the atonement, and regeneration, and sanctification, +and providence, and grace, have done for it, and with what accumulated +love the Father of Spirits, and Redeemer, and Sanctifier, must regard +it. And now do we suppose that the shroud, and coffin, and the funeral, +and the narrow house, and the darkness, and the solitude and corruption, +and the whole dreary and terrible train of death and the grave, are +symbols of its reception into heaven, the proper pageantry of its +arrival and resting place within the veil? Believe it not! If God +prepared in our hearts such a welcome for the infant stranger, that even +its helpless feet were thought of and cared for, surely when those feet, +wearied in the pilgrimage of the strait and narrow way, arrive at +heaven's gate, it must be, it is, amidst rejoicings and ministrations of +love to which earth has no parallel. Let kings and queens prepare a +royal room for the new-born prince: "In my Father's house are many +mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a +place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come +again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be +also."</p> + +<p>Could we look into that place, as it stands waiting for its occupant +from earth, we should behold sights which would instantly clothe even +death with beauty, and make it seem now, as it will seem then, a blessed +thing to die.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>To miss of dying would no doubt be a calamity. Dying will be an +experience to the believer which will be fraught with inestimably good +things; that is, the act of dying, and not merely the being dead. It is +no doubt as necessary to the nature of the soul, to its psychology, its +soul-life, as the changes of the worm, chrysalis, and butterfly, are to +the insect. And thus, as in all other things, where sin abounded, grace +much more abounds, and even death, like a cross, is turned into a +ministration of infinite blessing.</p> + +<p>It is not unsuitable for a dying Christian to consider, that he is +compassed about with a great cloud of witnesses, who themselves have +died, and who are watching his departure. We ought to die with such +faith in Jesus, such confidence in God, such confident expectation and +hope, that they will rejoice to see us conquer death. Our last conflict +should be fought in a manner worthy of the company and scenes into which +we are immediately to pass.</p> + +<p>We should not anxiously seek to remove entirely from any one, in the +course of his life, his fears with regard to death, except as we may +substitute faith for those fears. God probably intends them now for the +increase of faith. Moreover, when the event of death happens, it will be +mingled with so much mercy as to make the Christian smile at his fears. +The exhortation of the apostle in view of his great discourse of death +and resurrection is noticeable: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye +steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; +forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord."</p> + +<p>There are cases in which the clouded faculties, or delirium, prevent +the full enjoyment of a peaceful, happy death. Such cases seem painful +to friends, but the Shepherd knows when it is best to hide the face of a +sheep which he carries through the valley, and that it is sometimes +better for the sheep to pass the valley in the black and dark night, +than when daylight, by revealing the horrors of the place, would excite +fear. All this may safely be left to those hands which spoiled death of +his sting, and to that love which is stronger than death. Wherever, and +whenever, and in whatever manner we may die, it will be under the care +and direction of Him who will no more see us in the power of the enemy, +than a strong and faithful shepherd would suffer a beloved member of his +flock to fall into the power of the lion.</p> + +<p>The last lines of a hymn by Doddridge—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>"Then speechless clasp thee in my arms,</p> +<p>The antidote of death"—</p> +</div></div> + +<p class="noindent">are altered, by some compilers, who substitute the word <em>conqueror</em> for +<em>antidote</em>. But the author saw the truthfulness of his own chosen +language, though the word in question be not convenient for musical +expression. When we are already stung by a poisonous creature, we take +something which proves an antidote to the effect of the sting. This +medicine is not so much a conqueror, as an antidote; for the poison is +not developed. But the sting is inflicted, and before the poisonous +injury is felt, the antidote prevents it. These words of Christ +correspond to this: "Verily, verily I say unto you, If a man keep my +saying, he shall never see death." How often we behold this verified! +The spectators "see death," in his approach, in his effects; they weep +and tremble, while the dear patient does not "see" it; for something +else absorbs his thoughts, fixes his attention; he is stung, indeed, by +the monster; but Christ is an antidote to death, causes it to pass by +without inflicting pain upon the mind, or in any way hurting its victim. +Dr. Watts illustrates and confirms all this:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>"Jesus, the vision of thy face</p> +<p class="i2">Hath overpowering charms;</p> +<p>Scarce shall I feel death's cold embrace,</p> +<p class="i2">If Christ be in my arms."</p> +</div></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The piece of paper which would suffice to write the twenty-third Psalm +upon it, would not be large enough for a common title deed; and yet that +Psalm, if it expresses our experience, is worth infinitely more than is +conveyed, or secured, by all the registries of deeds under the sun. We +are each of us to see a time when we shall feel the truth of this. If +but these first few words of the Psalm are true in my case, if "the Lord +is my Shepherd," all the rest of the Psalm is a record, a promise, a +pledge, of past, present, and future good.</p> + +<p>There are six things declared by Christ to be characteristic of the +relation which he and his people sustain to each other, as Shepherd and +the sheep:</p> + + +<ol><li>"My sheep hear my voice;</li> +<li>And I know them;</li> +<li>And they follow me;</li> +<li>And I give unto them eternal life;</li> +<li>And they shall never perish;</li> +<li>Neither shall any pluck them out of my hand."</li> +</ol> + +<p>Here we find directions to duty, as well as promises of future good.</p> + +<p>Since it is more important how we live than how we die, and since death +is merely the arrival at the end of a journey, the beginning, progress, +and history of the journey determining what the arrival is to be, we +shall do well to dismiss our borrowed trouble with regard to the manner +of our departure out of the world, and be solicitous only with regard to +the right discharge of present duty. We read, "Precious in the sight of +the Lord is the death of his saints." The death of every child of his +is, with God, an object of unspeakable interest; his own honor is +concerned in it; its influence on survivors is of great importance; it +will be among the means by which God accomplishes several, it may be +many, purposes of providence, but especially of his grace. "No man +dieth to himself." Great interests are involved in his death, beyond +his own personal welfare. Now, if we have lived for God, he will make +our death the object of his especial care, and will honor it by its +being the means of promoting his glory. Instead, therefore, of gloomy +apprehensions as to dying, we should cherish the noble wish and aim that +Christ may be magnified in our body, whether it be by life or by death. +If our life has been a walking with God, <span class="smcap">"Thou art with me"</span> will be a +perfect warrant, now, and in death, to <span class="smcap">"fear no evil."</span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="III" id="III" />III.</h2> + +<h3>THE SEARCH FOR THE DEPARTED.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>No bliss mid worldly crowds is bred,</p> +<p>Like musing on the sainted dead.</p> +</div></div> + +<p class="citation">Bishop Mant.</p> + + +<p>We seek in vain, on earth, for one who has gone to heaven. Though better +informed as to the objects of our love than they who lingered about the +deserted tomb of the Saviour, and were asked, "Why seek ye the living +among the dead," we nevertheless find ourselves, in our thoughts, +searching for them; so difficult is it at once to feel that they are +wholly and forever departed. There is an affecting and beautifully +simple illustration of our thoughts and feelings, in this respect, in +the search which was made for Elijah after his translation. Fifty men of +the sons of the prophets went and stood to view afar off, when Elijah +and Elisha stood by the Jordan. Elisha returned alone, and these men +could not feel reconciled to the loss of their great master. They were +not persuaded that he had gone to heaven, no more to return; they sought +leave to seek him, and to recover him: "Peradventure," they said, "the +Spirit of the Lord hath taken him up and cast him upon some mountain, or +into some valley." Elisha peremptorily refused to grant them leave. They +were importunate; and when, at last, it would, perhaps, seem like +obstinacy in him, or like jealousy of their superior love for Elijah, to +forbid the search, which at the worst would only be fruitless, he +yielded. Three days they explored the valleys, ransacked the thickets, +groped in the caves, traversed hills, followed imaginary trails and +footprints, but found him not. When they came again to Elisha, "he said +unto them, Did I not say unto you, Go not?"</p> + +<p>We cannot become accustomed at once, nor for a long time, to the absence +of our friend. If his death was sudden, or if it took place away from +home, or during our absence, we expect to see him again; if a vehicle +stops at the door, the heart beats with an instantaneous hope which dies +with its first breath, bringing over us a deeper and stronger refluence +of sorrow. We catch a sight of articles familiarly used by a departed +friend; they are identified with little passages in his history, or with +his daily life: is it possible that he is altogether and forever +disconnected from them? They are the same; those perishable things, +those comparatively worthless things, having no value at all except as +his use of them made them precious, retain their shapes and places; but +where is he? and must not he return and abide, like them?</p> + +<p>No, he is gone to heaven. The places which knew him shall know him no +more forever. Those things, which have an imperishable value in being +associated with his memory, are, to him, like the leaves of a past +autumn to a tree now filled with blossoms. The mention of every valued +possession once indescribably dear to him, would awaken but slight +emotions; even the recent history of the dwelling which he built and +furnished, would be no more to him than the rehearsal to a grown person +of that which had happened to a block house, or card figure, which +amused his childhood. We walk and sit in the places identified with our +last remembrances of the departed; but he is not there; we hallow the +anniversaries of his birth and death; but he gives us no recognition; we +read his letters; they make him seem alive; his voice, his smile, his +love are there; and when we have finished, nature, exhausted with its +weeping, sighs, "And where is he?"</p> + +<p>He is gone to heaven. Even the earthly house of his tabernacle is +dissolved; that part of him which was all of which we were cognizant by +our senses, is no more. We could not recognize it; to the earth, out of +which it was taken, it has, by slow degrees, returned,—as though every +thing earthly, belonging to him, 'must needs die, and be as water spilt +on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again.' We travel to his +birthplace; there is the house where he was born; we meet those who grew +with him side by side; we are among the scenes which were most familiar +to him; he planted those trees; he collected those pictures; there is +his portrait, he rested here, he studied, he worked, he rejoiced, he +wept, in these consecrated places; but did we go thinking to find him +there? "Did I not say unto you, Go not?"</p> + +<p>We shall surely make him real to our thoughts, if not to our senses, +where he lies buried. But we may as well stand upon the sea shore, where +we had the last look of a sea-faring friend, and think that those +waters, and those sands, and that horizon, will restore him. They only +serve to open farther the path of his departure; they lead our thoughts +away to dwell upon him where we imagine him to be. Nowhere does heaven +seem more real than at the grave of a friend; for we know that he has +not perished, and as we stand on that verge of all our fruitless search +and expectation, we are compelled to fix him somewhere in our thoughts; +but as he is nowhere behind us, we look onward and upward.</p> + +<p>Our desire for departed friends, however natural and innocent, if it +resulted as we sometimes would have it, would prove to be unwise.</p> + +<p>Suppose that those "fifty strong men" had found Elijah, or in any way +could have prevented his translation to heaven. With exultation, they +would have led him back across the Jordan to the company of their +friends, amidst the thanksgivings of the people. But, alas! for the +prophet himself, this would have been his loss, even had it proved to be +their gain. The opening Jordan, cleft in twain by his rapt spirit, +pressing its way to the skies, had returned to its course; and now the +fords of the river, with its rocky bed, would have required his laboring +feet to grope their way back to his toil; or the arms of men, instead of +the chariots of fire and horses of fire, would have borne him again to +the dull realities of life; and there, rebuking Ahab, and fleeing from +Jezebel, punishing the prophets of Baal, and upbraiding the people of +God in their idolatries, fasting and faint under junipers, or covering +his face with his mantle at the still small voice of the Lord his God, +he would again have prayed, "O Lord God, take away my life, for I am no +better than my fathers." 'Let me not wait longer for my promised +translation; let me die as my fathers did; for wherein am I better than +they?' So weary had he grown of life. Blind and weak do these fifty +strong men seem to us, in searching for this ascended prophet, this +traveller over the King's road in royal state, one of the only two who +might not taste of death; the companion, in heaven, of Enoch, with a +body which fills all the ransomed spirits there with joyful expectation, +because it is a pledge and earnest of "the adoption, to wit, the +redemption of their bodies." If, amid the new wonders and raptures of +the heavenly world, he had had one moment to look down upon those +"fifty strong men," as they searched for him, he might well have used, +in cheerful irony, something like his old upbraidings of the priests +near Baal's altar: "Search deeper, ye 'strong men,' in the thickets and +caves; peradventure I sleep in the brakes, and must be awaked; call, +with your fifty voices together, that I may be startled from my trance; +will ye give over till ye bring me back to Jericho? Will ye search but +three days? Shall I lose the remnant of my life on earth?"</p> + +<p>And while they grew weary and discouraged, and concluded that, if he +should be found, it might be in the far distant hills of Moab, or the +wilds of Philistia, or they knew not where, and went back with hearts +unsatisfied, and debating whether he were yet a wanderer upon earth, or +whether so impossible a thing as they deemed his translation to heaven, +without dying, had taken place, the glorified Elijah was with Abraham, +Isaac, and Jacob, with Moses, Joshua, Samuel, and David. But even +Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like him. There, with a body +like unto Christ's own future glorious body, he sat, with but one +compeer—Enoch, and he, transcending all the hosts of the redeemed in +the foretasted glories of the resurrection. Adam, by whom came death, +sees in him that which he himself is to share, when by one Man, also, +shall come the resurrection from the dead. Abel, whose feet first trod +the dark, cold stream, leaving his murdered body behind him, beholds +with love and wonder him who passed the river of death ("that ancient +river!") without dying. Even the Word beholds in him an earnest of his +own incarnation, resurrection, and ascension from Olivet. To-day, our +loved ones in heaven look upon him, and say, as Peter did at this +prophet's visit on Tabor, (when he spoke of tabernacles there—"one for +Elias,") "Master, it is good for us to be here." But we, like the "fifty +strong men," would find them and bring them back; and, like Peter, +would build tabernacles to retain them. The family circle is gathered +together at some birthday or festival, and, perhaps, we long for the +departed, and think that they long for us; and we would bring them back, +and place them in their deserted chairs. We are "strong men" in the +power of grief, and in our wishes; but the search for Elijah is the +counterpart of our vain desires and most unreasonable sorrow.</p> + +<p>When our friends have gone to heaven, it is not apt to be heaven, so +much as earthly sorrow, which fills our minds. Happily, we have been +taught to believe, and we do generally believe, that the souls of the +righteous enter immediately into glory; that their happiness is perfect, +though not completed; they are as happy as disembodied spirits can be; +unspeakably happier than they were here, but still not in full +possession of those sources of pleasure which they will receive when +their bodies are raised, and their whole natures are made complete. But +"to die is gain;" it is "to depart and to be with Christ, which is far +better;" it is entering "into the joy of their Lord." That dreary +thought of sleeping after death till the day of judgment; the idea that +Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, became insensible at death, and that the last +thing which Jacob, for example, knew, was Joseph's kiss, and the next +thing which he will know will be the archangel's trump, the interval of +many thousands of years being a perfect blank in his existence, is so +unlike the benevolent order of God's providence in nature and grace, +that it cannot gain much credence with believers in the simple +representations of the Bible. What a mockery Elijah's translation seems, +upon that theory! Whither was he translated? Did the chariots of fire, +and the horses of fire, convey him to a dreamless sleep of thousands of +years? Was that pomp, that emblazonry, all that fiery pageant, a +deception signifying nothing but that the greatest of prophets was to +begin a stupid slumber, which, this day, under a heaven with not one +redeemed soul in it, and in a world where there is every thing to be +done for God and men, holds him, and every other dead saint, in a +useless suspension of his consciousness, and, indeed, for so many ages, +annihilation? Poor economy in the dispensation of overflowing love to +intelligent beings,—we say it with submission,—does this seem to be; +nor can we think that, in the case of Elijah, it was this which was +heralded by horses and chariots of fire. Chariots and horses are emblems +of flight; but if sleep were descending upon the hero of the prophetic +age, twilight would more appropriately have drawn her soft veil over +nature, birds would have begun their vespers, clouds would have put on +their changing, pensive colors, while cadences of music, breathed by the +winds, would have shed lethargic influences into the scene. Inspiration +does not trifle with us by really meaning such a preparation for a sleep +of ages, and yet informing us, in so many words, that "the Lord would +take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind." No; going to heaven is not +going to sleep, and going to sleep is not going to heaven. Sleep and +death are used figuratively for each other, according to the laws of +language, which describes appearances without regard to scientific +truth, as in speaking of the sun's rising, for example, and the going +down of the sun; but to fall asleep in Jesus is to awake in heaven; to +be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. This we all +believe; and may we never be moved away from this cheering, animating +hope. Yet how little power has this belief and hope upon our feelings +and conduct! for our Christian graces partake of the same imperfection +which characterizes our whole nature; the soil is poor in which they +grow; the seasons are short, the climate cold; they do not reach +maturity. It is instructive to notice how men who have had the very best +advantages, and the greatest knowledge, are, nevertheless, prone to +unbelief. Christ appeared to his disciples, and upbraided them because +they believed not them which said he was risen. Their incredulity +strikes us as marvellous. They were not the first, nor the last, whose +want of faith is a marvel. These sons of the prophets in Elisha's day +were equally slow to believe. They themselves had said to him, "Knowest +thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head to-day?" +Elisha came back to them from the scene of the translation. Of course he +told them what had happened, describing minutely the whole of that +preternatural scene; he probably related the conversation which Elijah +had with him as they walked; and this inspired companion of the departed +prophet, having himself no doubt that Elijah had gone to heaven, so +instructed these sons of the prophets. But how hard it is for the things +which are unseen and eternal to seize and hold our minds! how readily we +yield to surmises, rather than admit the clear disclosures of spiritual +things! Straightway these sons of the prophets, who should have retired +each to his secret place, for contemplation and prayer, and, in the +solemn assembly, should have directed the thoughts of each other and of +the people to the instructive lessons suggested by the departure of +Elijah to heaven, were making up an exploring party, to prove that their +illustrious chief had met with some disaster in being left forlorn upon +some mountain, or in a valley; that the spirit of God had entranced him, +and that his weary feet, instead of treading the pavement of heaven, +were ensnared in some dark place; and so, in pity for him, and with +filial love, they would seek him, and bring him back to Jericho!</p> + +<p>If we had clear and strong faith, our joy at the thought of a glorified +spirit, however necessary its presence to us here, would transcend all +our sorrows; the streaming beams of sunshine would irradiate our +weeping; we should think more of his happiness than of our discomfort. +Instead of departed spirits falling asleep, it is we who have a spirit +of slumber. O that we might walk by faith with glorified spirits before +the throne, instead of remanding them,—as it seems we sometimes would +do, if we could,—to the ignorance and infirmity of our condition.</p> + +<p>Our feelings towards the departed are the same as towards other +prohibited things. Many are continually seeking for pleasures which God +has taken away, or is purposely withholding from them. Let any one look +at the history of his feelings, and see if his state of mind be not one +of perpetual expectation of some form of happiness yet to arrive; an +ideal of bliss, some prefigured condition, in which contentment and +peace are to abide; while the discovery that he is not to have it, would +make him inconsolably miserable. Our search for lost joys, or for those +which God is not prepared, or not disposed, to give us, and the +happiness which he desires rather to give us, and to have us seek, are +severally represented to us by this search for Elijah, and by Elijah +himself, who is, meanwhile, at God's right hand. At his right hand are +pleasures forever-more; but some, in the ardor and strength of their +affections, are seeking for that which they will never obtain, and that +is, happiness independent of God. Some tell us that they mean to make +the most of life, and to be happy while they live; therefore, begone, +reflection! religion is not for the spring-tide of youth; mirth and +merry days are for the young; soberness and the russet garb of autumn +belong to the decline of life, which certainly to them, they think, is +far off;—as though every material necessary for their last, long sleep, +may not at this moment be in the warerooms and shops; as though they +could boast themselves even of one to-morrow, and knew what the +to-morrows of many years would bring forth. The Bible is against their +way of thinking and manner of life; and to push aside the Bible in our +search after any thing, is a certain sign of being in the wrong. And all +this with the mistaken belief that to love God, and to be loved of him, +is not the greatest, the only satisfying good,—the God that framed the +voice for that music which charms a circle of friends, and made those +curious fingers, and gave them all that cunning skill which sheds +delight on others, and empowered that heart to swell with such +conceptions of earthly pleasure;—and that to love him, and be loved by +him, is the direst necessity of our being, to be postponed as long as +possible, and then to be accepted as a last resort and the less of two +evils. Where is the Lord God of Elijah, the God of all power and might, +the God of all grace and consolation, the God of our life, and the +length of our days? Banished from the world which these friends have +made for themselves; an intruder into the charmed circle in which the +wand of fancy has enclosed them; a dreaded power standing over them, to +snatch away the only bliss which they ever expect to enjoy. O gilded +butterflies, made for a few days of sunshine, and doomed to perish at +the first touch of frost! had they no souls; were there no hereafter, no +heaven, no hell; if it would not be as desirable to be happy millions of +years from to-day, as now; if they were not including all their hopes +and efforts to be happy within a handbreadth of time, and liable to lose +even that,—the wise man might stop with saying, "Rejoice, O young man, +in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and +walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes;" but +the infinite future compels him to add, "but know thou, that for all +these things God will bring thee into judgment." Such are the motives by +which, in their present condition, and with their present views, they +are most likely to be affected; yet some of them, we are glad to say, in +their best moods, are also affected and influenced aright when we tell +them that, even if our existence terminated at death, the joys which are +now to be found in loving and serving God, are better than the pleasures +of sin for a season.</p> + +<p>There is not one of us who has not lost a friend, a schoolmate, a +companion of early life, one who has disappeared from our side, a +frequent associate in the business of life, or one whom we have been +accustomed to see in the places of business; and perhaps a member of our +family circle.</p> + +<p>Now, it is profitable to consider that the same thoughts which we have +of them, others will ere long have concerning us. What would make us +satisfied and happy to know respecting them? What are we glad to say of +their preparation for an eternal state? What would we have had that +preparation be? In what respects better or different? Where do we love +to assign them their places? And what is it pleasant to believe are +their thoughts of us, of earth, of eternity, of the gospel, of this life +as a season of preparation for heaven? We shall soon be the subjects of +the same contemplations in the minds of others. The hosts of that long +procession, of which we are the part now passing over the stage, are +urging and pressing us from behind, and we must go down, as others have +before us,—our love, our envy, our hatred perish,—and we no more have +any portion in all that is done under the sun.</p> + +<p>We must give up happiness as the great aim and end of existence, and, +instead of it, take this for our supreme endeavor and chief end—the +conscientious performance of our duty to God, and to others. We are +never really happy till we cease to expect happiness from the things of +this world. As soon as we begin to be satisfied with God, and find that +to think of God, to love him, to trust in him, to serve him, is +happiness enough, we attain to solid peace; and then, turning and +following the sun, all desirable pleasure pursues us and solicits us, +like our shadows, the more eagerly and steadily the more that we flee +from them, and the less that we turn ourselves to them. We never can be +happy by searching for happiness; but when we give up this search, and +duty becomes the motto of life, we are inevitably happy. God must +satisfy us—his personal love to us, communion with him, the +contemplation of his character, ways, and works; in short, the +consciousness of having him for a personal friend, disclosing all our +thoughts to him, looking to him and waiting for him in all things, and, +as the Bible expresses it, "walking" with him. Then he makes our wants +his care; and while he leads us through strange paths which we should +not have chosen, it is to bring us, at the last, into a condition which +will make us happy chiefly from the reflection that God himself +appointed it. Disappointments, of which we were forewarned, and which we +had every reason to expect, embitter that life whose only sources of +happiness are confined to this world, and do not relate to God. Making +him the supreme source of our happiness, we give up undue sorrow for +departed friends, feeling that they are removed from all need of our +commiseration, and all power to afford us comfort and help, any further +than their example and remembered words instruct us. We shall then be +chiefly concerned to know and to do the will of God, to watch over the +interests of our souls, preparing for life, with its important duties, +and storing up those recollections which are to occupy our thoughts in +the review of life beyond the grave. We shall bear in mind that we, too, +are to have survivors, to whom it will be the greatest favor if we leave +a good assurance, based upon their remembrance of our piety, that we are +happy, thus constraining them to follow us to heaven. We shall do well +if we habitually say, as Elijah said to Elisha, "The Lord hath sent me +to Jordan;" and that we are one day to be taken up and conveyed to that +same heaven whither Elijah went, and from which he came to meet Christ, +and to speak with him of his decease, which he should accomplish at +Jerusalem. What if we knew that some day, not far distant, flaming +chariots and horses, over our dwelling, would wait to bring us home to +God? The ministering spirits are already designated who are to perform +this office for those who are heirs of salvation. What, then, are we +searching for among the dark, gloomy valleys of sorrow, or on the hills +of earthly vision? If our friends are with Christ, we must be prepared +to be with him, or lose their society; and that loss will be worse than +the first.</p> + +<p>Sometimes we feel as though we were sailing away from our departed +friends, leaving them behind us. Not so; we are sailing towards them; +they went forward, and we are nearer to them now than yesterday; and the +night is far spent; the day is at hand. If life, or any undue portion, +be spent in grief which unfits us for duty, we shall see, in heaven, how +much better it would have been had we had more faith, and had lived more +as then we should desire our surviving friends to live, quickened and +strengthened by the assured hope of our being in heaven, and by the +expectation of meeting us there.</p> + +<p>But there is one kind of sorrow and desire for departed friends which, +in its consequences, is greatly to be deplored. Some refuse to become +decided Christians, because their friends, they think, were not +believers in the faith which these surviving friends are now persuaded +is the truth. To embrace this truth, as essential to salvation, it is +felt, will be to condemn these departed friends; and some have, in so +many words, declared that they preferred to share the fate of their +companions, or children, who gave no evidence of having accepted the +gospel, as it is now viewed by these survivors.</p> + +<p>How sad would be such a catastrophe as this: The departed friend, in the +secret exercises of his mind, and by the good Spirit of God, may have +been, at the last hour, prevailed upon to accept the offers of salvation +by a crucified Redeemer. He gave no intimation of this, owing, perhaps, +to bodily weakness, or to fear and distrust; but, through infinite +mercy, he was saved by faith in the Lamb of God. The surviving friend, +persuaded of the truth, refuses to comply with it, and loves the +departed friend more than Christ, or truth and duty; and then, dying, +finds that the departed friend is saved, through that very faith, which +the other refused from idolatrous attachment to the departed; and now +they are separated; whereas, had the survivor forsaken all for Christ +and the truth, he would have had a hundred fold in this world, and, in +the world to come, would have found that friend whom he would, as it +were, have forsaken for Christ's sake and the gospel's. It is safe, it +is best, for each of us to do his duty, to walk by the light afforded +us, and not to make a creature our standard, nor our chief good.</p> + +<p>If we meet certain of our friends at the end of their search after +pleasure, having forgotten their God and Saviour, and see them +disappointed, and utterly destitute of any thing to make them happy +forever, and all because they would not forego their chase after +unsatisfying pleasure,—there is many a faithful Christian friend, whose +example and advice they disregarded, who could then reply, "Did I not +say unto you, Go not?"</p> + +<p>In the name of some unspeakably dear to you, we say, "We are journeying +unto the place of which the Lord said, I will give it you; come thou +with us, and we will do thee good; for the Lord hath spoken good +concerning Israel."</p> + +<p>Our friends, who have gone to heaven, ought not to be invested, in our +thoughts, with such melancholy associations as we are prone to connect +with them. To die is gain. Trouble, and sorrow, and the dark river, +interpose between us and heaven; but in the prospect which has opened +before the eye of the redeemed spirit, there is nothing but widening and +brightening glory. We must not seek for consolation at their departure +by bringing them back, in our thoughts, to our dwellings, but by going +forward, in faith, ourselves, to their dwelling. There is much to +encourage and help us in doing so, in the following lines, which may be +read with profit upon each anniversary of a friend's departure to +heaven, until surviving friends read them at the returning anniversaries +of our own entrance into the joy of our Lord:—</p> + +<p class="smcap">"A Year in Heaven.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">A year uncalendared</span>; for what</p> +<p class="i2">Hast thou to do with mortal time?</p> +<p>Its dole of moments entereth not</p> +<p class="i2">That circle, mystic and sublime,</p> +<p>Whose unreached centre is the throne</p> +<p class="i2">Of Him, before whose awful brow,</p> +<p>Meeting eternities are known</p> +<p class="i2">As but an everlasting now.</p> +<p>The thought removes thee far away,—</p> +<p class="i2">Too far,—beyond my love and tears;</p> +<p>Ah, let me hold thee, as I may;</p> +<p class="i2">And count thy time by earthly years.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">A year of blessedness</span>; wherein</p> +<p class="i2">Not one dim cloud hath crossed thy soul;</p> +<p>No sigh of grief, no touch of sin,</p> +<p class="i2">No frail mortality's control;</p> +<p>Nor once hath disappointment stung,</p> +<p class="i2">Nor care, world-weary, made thee pine;</p> +<p>But rapture, such as human tongue</p> +<p class="i2">Hath found no language for, is thine.</p> +<p>Made perfect at thy passing, who</p> +<p class="i2">Can sum thy added glory now?</p> +<p>As on, and onward, upward, through</p> +<p class="i2">The angel ranks that lowly bow,</p> +<p>Ascending still from height to height</p> +<p class="i2">Unfaltering, where rapt spirits trod,</p> +<p>Nor pausing 'mid their circles bright,</p> +<p class="i2">Thou tendest inward unto God.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">A year of progress</span>, in the love</p> +<p class="i2">That's only learned in heaven; thy mind</p> +<p>Unclogged of clay, and free to soar,</p> +<p class="i2">Hath left the realms of doubt behind,</p> +<p>And wondrous things which finite thought</p> +<p class="i2">In vain essayed to solve, appear</p> +<p>To thy untasked inquiries, fraught</p> +<p class="i2">With explanation strangely clear.</p> +<p>Thy reason owns no forced control,</p> +<p class="i2">As held it here in needful thrall;</p> +<p>God's mysteries court thy questioning soul,</p> +<p class="i2">And thou may'st search and know them all.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">A year of love</span>; thy yearning heart</p> +<p class="i2">Was always tender, e'en to tears,</p> +<p>With sympathies, whose sacred art</p> +<p class="i2">Made holy all thy cherished years;</p> +<p>But love, whose speechless ecstasy</p> +<p class="i2">Had overborne the finite, now</p> +<p>Throbs through thy being, pure and free,</p> +<p class="i2">And burns upon thy radiant brow.</p> +<p>For thou those hands' dear clasp hast felt,</p> +<p class="i2">Where still the nail-prints are displayed;</p> +<p>And thou before that face hast knelt,</p> +<p class="i2">Which wears the scars the thorns have made.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">A year without thee</span>; I had thought</p> +<p class="i2">My orphaned heart would break and die,</p> +<p>Ere time had meek quiescence brought,</p> +<p>Or soothed the tears it could not dry;</p> +<p>And yet I live, to faint and quail</p> +<p class="i2">Before the human grief I bear;</p> +<p>To miss thee so, then drown the wail</p> +<p class="i2">That trembles on my lips in prayer.</p> +<p>Thou praising, while I vainly thrill;</p> +<p class="i2">Thou glorying, while I weakly pine;</p> +<p>And thus between thy heart and mine</p> +<p>The distance ever widening still.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">A year of tears to me</span>; to thee</p> +<p class="i2">The end of thy probation's strife,</p> +<p>The archway to eternity,</p> +<p class="i2">The portal of immortal life;</p> +<p>To me the pall, the bier, the sod;</p> +<p class="i2">To thee the palm of victory given.</p> +<p>Enough, my heart; thank God! thank God!</p> +<p class="i2">That thou hast been a year in heaven.</p> +</div></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV" />IV.</h2> + +<h3>THE SILENCE OF THE DEAD.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>Dear, beauteous Death, the jewel of the just.</p> +<p class="i2">Shining nowhere but in the dark,</p> +<p>What mysteries do lie beyond thy dust,</p> +<p class="i2">Could men outlook that mark!</p> +<p>He that hath found some fledged bird's nest, may know,</p> +<p class="i2">At first sight, if the bird be flown;</p> +<p>But what fair field, or grove, he sings in now,</p> +<p class="i2">That is to him unknown.</p> +</div></div> + +<p class="citation">Henry Vaughan.</p> + + +<p>The silence of the dead is one of the most impressive and affecting +things connected with the separate state of the soul. We hear the voice +of a dying friend, in some last wish, or charge, or prayer, or farewell, +or in some exclamation of joy or hope; and though years are multiplied +over the dead, that voice returns no more in any moment of day or night, +of joy or sorrow, of labor or rest, in life or in death.</p> + +<p>The voices of creation return to us at periodical seasons. The early +spring bird startles us with her unexpected note; the winter is over and +gone. But no periodical change brings back the voices of departed +friends. A member of the family embarks on a long voyage; but, be it +ever so long, if life is spared, the letter is received, in which the +written words, so characteristic of him, recall his looks and the tones +of his voice. Years pass away, and the sound of his footsteps is at the +door again, and his voice is heard in the dwelling. But of the dead +there comes no news; from the grave no voice, from the separate state no +message. With our desire to speak once more to the departed, and to hear +them speak, we feel that they must have an intense desire to speak to +us. We wonder why they do not break the silence. There is so much of +which they could inform us; it would be such a relief, we think, to have +one word from them, assuring us that they arrived safely, and are happy, +and, above all things, granting us their forgiveness for the sins which +now have awakened sorrow. But we wait, and look, and wonder, in vain.</p> + +<p>When we think of the number of the dead, this silence appears +impressive. Their number far exceeds that of the living. Could they be +assembled together, and could those now alive be set over against them, +upon an immense plain, to a spectator from above we should be a small +company in comparison with them. Should they lift up their voices +together, ours could not be heard. Yet from that vast multitude we never +hear a voice,—not even a whisper,—nor see a sign. Standing in a +cemetery a few miles distant from the great city, you hear the low, +muffled roar from the streets and bridges, reminding you of the living +tide which is coursing along those highways. But with eight thousand of +the dead around you in that cemetery, and a world of spirits, which no +man can number, just within the veil, you hear nothing from them. No one +comes back to tell us of his experience; no warning, nor comfort, nor +counsel, ever reaches our ears. Whatever our trouble, or our joy may be, +our need or prosperity; however long and painful the absence of the +departed may have been; however lonely we may feel, wishing for some +word of remembrance and love; and though we visit the grave day by day, +and call on the name of the departed, and use every art of endearment to +pierce the veil between us,—there is the same determined, cold, lasting +silence. "To go down into silence" is a scriptural phrase for the state +of the dead.</p> + +<p>Our feelings seek relief from those vague, uncertain thoughts respecting +the dead which we find occasioned by the gentle manner in which death +most frequently occurs. The breath is shorter and shorter, and finally +ceases, yet so imperceptibly, that, for a moment, it is uncertain +whether the last breath has expired. There is no visible trace of the +outgoing of the soul. Could we see the spirit leave the body, we should +feel that one of the mysteries of death is solved. Could we trace its +flight into the air, could we watch its form as it disappeared among +the clouds, or melted away in a distance greater than the eye can +comprehend, we should not, perhaps, ask for a word to assure us +respecting the state of the soul. But there is no more perfect +delineation of the appearances which death presents to us, than in the +following inspired description: "As the waters fail from the sea, and +the flood decayeth and drieth up, so man lieth down and riseth not; till +the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their +sleep." We see the lying down, the fixedness of the posture, the utter +disregard, in the cold remains, of every thing which passes before them; +and these remains are like the channels of a river, or the flats of the +sea, when the tide has utterly forsaken them. The soul is like those +vanished waters, as to any manifestation that it continues to exist.</p> + +<p>We miss the departed from his accustomed places; we expect to meet him +at certain hours of the day; those hours return, and he is not there; +we start as we look upon his vacant place at the table, or around the +evening lamp, or in the circle at prayers. No tongue can describe that +blank, that chasm, which is made by death in the family circle, or the +variations in the tones of sorrow and desire with which those words are +secretly repeated, day after day, and night after night: "And where is +he?"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Is there any assignable cause for the silence of the dead?</p> + +<p>We cannot, with certainty, assign the reason for it, and we do not know +why the dead are not suffered to reappear to us. We can, nevertheless, +see great wisdom and use in this silence, and in our perfect ignorance +respecting their state.</p> + +<p><em>It is the arrangement of divine Providence that faith, and not sight, +shall influence our characters and conduct.</em>—It would be inconsistent +with this great law if we should see or hear from the dead.</p> + +<p>The object of God, in his dealings with us, is to exalt the Bible as our +instructor. If men were left to visions and voices, in which there is so +much room for mistake and delusion, the confusion of human affairs would +be indescribably dreadful. Every man would have his vision, or his +message, the proof, or the correctness, of which would necessarily be +concealed from others, who might have contrary directions, or +impressions; and human affairs would then be like a sea, in which many +rivers ran across each other.</p> + +<p>It would not be safe for departed spirits to be intrusted with the power +of communicating with the living. Though they know far more than we, yet +their information is limited; and, especially, if they should undertake +to counsel us about the future, as they would do in their earnestness to +help us, we can easily see that, being finite as they are, and unable to +look into the future, they might involve us in serious mistakes, either +by their ignorance, or by the contrariety of their information. Far +better is it for man to look only to God, who sees the end from the +beginning, with whom is no variableness, and who is able, as our anxious +friends would not be, to conceal from us the future, or any information +respecting it, which it would be an injury for us to know. Should we be +informed of certain things which will happen to us years hence, either +the expectation of them would engross our attention, and hinder our +usefulness, or the fear of them would paralyze effort, and destroy +health, if not life. Borrowed trouble, even now, constitutes a large +part of our unhappiness; but the certain knowledge of a sorrow +approaching us with unrelenting steps, would spread a pall over every +thing; while prosperity, far in the prospect, would tempt us to forget +our dependence upon God, and would weaken the motives to patient +continuance in well doing for its own sake.</p> + +<p>Then, with regard to any assurance which the dead would give us about +truth and duty, we need not their help. For the dead can tell us +substantially no more than we find recorded in the Bible. They would +describe heaven to us, and speak of future punishment. But suppose that +they did. What language would they use more graphic, or more +intelligible to us, than the language of the Bible? Whatever they said, +we should feel obliged to compare it with the Scriptures; if it should +be according to them, we do not need it. Besides, the appearance to us +of departed friends, would, in many cases, only operate on our fears. +But the Bible pleads with us by many gentle motives, as well as by +warnings and terrific descriptions, and sets before us numberless +inducements to repent, which the whole world of the dead, uninspired, +could not so well furnish. The appearance and words of a spirit would +excite us, and make us afraid; we could not feel and act as well, under +such influences, as we can under the calm, dispassionate, convincing, +and persuasive influences of the Bible. One of the most intelligent and +cultivated of women, the wife of a missionary in Turkey, in her last +sickness, having heard her husband read to her several times, from the +Pilgrim's Progress, respecting the River of Death and the Celestial +City, at last said to him, as he was opening the book, "Read to me out +of the Bible; that soothes me; I can hear it for a long time; but even +Bunyan agitates me."</p> + +<p>As much as we suppose it would comfort us to have intercourse with the +dead, it is easy to see that the great law of the divine government, by +which faith, and not sight, is the appointed means of our spiritual +good, would be violated, could the dead speak with us. We are to trust +in the mercy and the justice of God. This we could not so well do, if we +knew things about which, now, we are obliged to exercise faith. The +inspired Word, the only and the all-sufficient rule of faith and duty, +is a better guide than the voices of the dead.</p> + +<p>An interesting illustration of this is given by one who witnessed the +appearance of departed spirits on a certain most interesting occasion. +Two illustrious men, of the Jewish line, appeared and spake with +Christ. The person of the Saviour experienced a remarkable +transfiguration, assuring his human soul of the joy set before him; the +presence of the celestial spirits, also, confirming his assurance +respecting the separate existence of souls, and the whole transaction +being designed to strengthen the faith of the disciples, and of the +world, in the Saviour.</p> + +<p>But what comparative value does one of the inspired witnesses of this +scene give to this heavenly communication, these voices of the dead, and +this visit from the heavenly world? Does he build his faith upon it, as +upon a corner stone? No; but after telling us, in glowing language, +respecting this most wonderful and impressive scene, he says, "We have +also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take +heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, +and the day star arise in your hearts." That sure word,—"more sure" +than the testimony of departed spirits, or than voices from the other +world,—is the Bible; for he immediately adds, "For the prophecy came +not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they +were moved by the Holy Ghost." The testimony of departed spirits, even +of Moses and Elijah, might be, after all, only "the will of man;" but in +the Bible men have spoken as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.</p> + +<p>As to its being a comfort, in any case, that departed friends should +speak to us, it is doubtful whether it would prove to be so. Suppose +them to utter words of endearment; this would open the fountains of +grief in our souls afresh. Suppose them to tell us that they are safe +and happy; it would be far better for us, in many cases, to hope +respecting this, than to know it; the knowledge of it might make us +careless and too confident about ourselves; we should be less inclined +to shun the errors of these friends, to guard against their +imperfections, and to fear lest a promise being left us of entering into +that rest, any of us should seem to come short of it. One of the most +inconvenient and uneasy states of mind, is that of insatiable +curiosity—longing to know that which is concealed, dispirited at the +delay of information, refusing effort except under the spur of absolute +assurance. Far better and more healthful is that state of mind which +performs present duty, and leaves the rest to the unfolding hand of +time; which disdains that prying, inquisitive disposition which is all +eye and ear, which lives on excitement, which has no self-respect, nor +regard for any thing but to know something yet unknown. If God suffered +the dead to speak to us, we should always be on the watch for some sign; +we should be unfitted for the common, practical duties of life; we +should be superstitious, visionary, fanatical, timorous. As it is, how +eager we are to pry into the future, or into things purposely hidden +from us! If it were certainly known that one had communication with the +dead, or if we had good reason to expect such communications, labor +would be neglected, faith, prayer, hope, confidence in God would +decrease, the Bible would be undervalued through a superior regard to a +different mode of revelation, and we should live, as it were, among the +tombs. A morbid state of feeling would pervade our minds, and the world +would be full of enchantments, necromancy, and cunning craftiness. +Blessed be God for the silence of the dead! We are glad that our weak +and foolish hearts, so prone to love the creature more than the Creator, +are broken off, by the impenetrable veil of death, from all connection +with the departed. The salutary influences of death on survivors would +be greatly lessened, if our connection and communication with them were +continued. God is our chief good, not our friends, nor our children; he +shuts them up in silence from us, to see if we can say, "Whom have I in +heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides +thee." The painful effect upon our feelings, and upon our nervous +system, of separations from departed friends, is involuntary and +natural; but to cherish our griefs, to spend much time in melancholy +moods, or in poring over the memorials of the departed, so as to excite +and indulge morbid feelings, is not Christian nor wise.</p> + +<p>While this is true, and there is much immoderate and irrational grief, +the disposition, with many, is to forget the dead as soon as possible, +and forever. Some need to think far more of the deceased. They should +remember that the dead are alive; that no doubt they think of them; and +that, instead of being separated farther and farther from the deceased, +by the lapse of time, they are every day coming nearer and nearer to +them, and they must meet again.</p> + +<p>It is well for us frequently to remember that the silence of the dead is +no true exponent of their real state. Incoherent and wild as the +thoughts and feelings sometimes are, under the distracting influence of +affliction and death, and all uncertain as we are about the departure of +the soul, we are not left without sure and most satisfying information +respecting the separate state.</p> + +<p>There is no annihilation. The life of the soul is not extinguished like +the flame of a lamp. Existence is not that lingering, twinkling spark +which it seems to be in the moments preceding death. To be absent from +the body, for a Christian, is to be present with the Lord; to die is +gain; to depart, and be with Christ, is far better. When the dust +returns to the earth as it was, the spirit ascends to God, who gave it. +The soul is more vigorous and active than when shut up in the body, +because a higher form of life is required in being with God and angels. +We are told that the pious dead are "the spirits of just men made +perfect." All imperfection arising from bodily organization, as well as +from our fallen state here, has ceased, and the soul has become a pure +spirit, in a spiritual world, engaged in spiritual pursuits. Memory is +awake; every perceptive faculty is in perfection; the soul that sees far +distant places, in a moment, in sleep,—that holds converse with other, +but absent, minds, while the body is sealed in slumber,—not only does +not need the present body to make it capable of perception, but when +escaped from this material condition, and from dependence upon these +bodily senses, which now are like colored glass to the eyes, it will be +far more capable than before; though the spiritual body, at the last, +will advance it to a still higher condition. Its judgment is sound, its +sensibilities are quick, its thoughts are full of unmixed joy. But we +probably could not understand the nature of its employments, nor its +discoveries, nor its sensations, any further than we now do from the +word of God. We have no record, nor tradition, of any disclosures made +by Lazarus, or the widow of Nain's son, or the dead who came out of +their graves at the crucifixion, and went into the Holy City, and +appeared unto many. The only way to account for this seems to be, to +suppose that they told nothing of what they had seen or heard. Had they +made any disclosures of the unseen world, those disclosures would never +have been forgotten. They would have been preserved in the memories of +men, to be handed down from age to age. Paul himself had no very +distinct recollection of what he had heard and seen in Paradise; for he +says that he could not tell whether he was in the body or out of the +body. We think in words, which at the time are intelligible, but we +often fail when we try to produce them; so that Paul's expression, very +singular in each part of it,—"heard unspeakable words,"—may refer to +the impressions made on his own mind in his revelations, as not possible +to be clothed in speech. It may have been with him, upon his return to +the body, and with the risen dead, as it was with Nebuchadnezzar, who +knew that he had dreamed, and the dream had made powerful impressions on +his mind, but the dream itself had departed from him. Now, if the bodily +senses, or the soul while in the body, cannot comprehend so as to +express what has been seen in heaven, it is doubtful if we could +understand it if it should be revealed by a spirit from heaven. The +Bible has probably given us as definite information about heaven as we +could possibly understand—certainly as much as God judges best for our +usefulness and happiness. But we must probably learn an unearthly +language, and, in order to this, unearthly ideas, before we can +understand the things which are within the veil. The modes of +communication in heaven between people of strange languages, whether by +a common speech, or by the power given to the disciples at the day of +Pentecost, or by intuition, are not made known to us; but this wonderful +faculty of language, holding an intermediate place between spirit and +matter, has, of course, a corresponding faculty in the world of spirits. +It is, no doubt, an inconceivably pleasurable source of enjoyment. This +increases the sublimity which there is in the silence of the dead, and +its impressiveness. For what fancy can conceive of the communications, +from heart to heart, in that multitude where every new acquaintance is +the occasion of some new joy, or wakes some thrilling recollection, or +leads to some interesting discovery, and gives some fresh objects of +love and praise! The land of silence surely extends no farther than to +the gates of that heavenly city. All is life and activity within; but +from that world, so populous with thoughts, and words, and songs, no +revelation penetrates through the dark, silent land which lies between +us and them. Our friends are there. Stars, so distant from us that their +light, which began its travel ages since, has not reached us, are none +the less worlds, performing their revolutions, and occupied by their +busy population of intelligent spirits, whose history is full of +wonders. Yet the first ray denoting the existence of those worlds, has +never met the eye of the astronomer in his incessant vigils.</p> + +<p>The silence of the departed will, for each of us, soon, very soon, be +interrupted. Entering, among breaking shadows and softly unfolding +light, the border land, we shall gradually awake to the opening vision +of things unseen and eternal, all so kindly revealing themselves to our +unaccustomed senses as to make us say, "How beautiful!" and instead of +exciting fear, leading us almost to hasten the hand which is removing +the veil. Some well-known voice, so long silent, may be the first to +utter our name; we are recognized, we are safe. A face, a dear, dear +face, breaks forth amidst the crayoned lines of the dissolving night; a +form—an embrace—assures us that faith has not deceived us, but has +delivered us up to the objects hoped for, the things not seen. O +beatific moment! awaiting every follower of them who, by faith and +patience, inherit the promises—dwellers there "whither the Forerunner +is for us entered."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>As we are soon to be utterly silent towards surviving friends, and the +world in which we now live, we should use our speech as we shall wish we +had done when we are silent in death. Any counsels, instructions, +records, explanations, communications of any kind, which we would make, +we should be diligent to perform. All the loving words, and tokens of +affection, which we may suppose we shall hereafter desire to +communicate, we shall do well habitually to bear in mind, and let them +influence our feelings and conduct, day by day. In times of sickness, of +separation, of absence, at happy returns, our feelings towards familiar +friends and members of the family are such as might well be the +standard, and pattern, of our general intercourse, especially when we +think that the days will come when we shall highly prize and long for +that intercourse, which now we have such opportunity to enrich with +sweet and fragrant recollections, occasioning no pang of regret, nor +sting. It is well to remember that, one day, we must part, and to let +that anticipation intensify our love, and add charms to this daily +companionship, which may soon appear to be a privilege which we did not +sufficiently prize.</p> + +<p>The time will come, when, to many a beloved survivor, a word or sign, +breaking the silence of the departed spirit, and giving some assurance +that it is happy, would, perhaps, be the means of dispelling a life-long +sorrow—would lift a crushing burden from the heart. The time to prepare +that assurance, so that it shall come with most effectual power, is now, +in days of health, when the evidences of our piety shall not be +attainted by a suspicion of constraint and insincerity, arising from +late repentance and an apparently forced submission to God. Our +recollections of a departed Christian friend, of whose salvation his +pious life makes us perfectly assured, come over us like the soft +pulsations of a west wind in summer, laden with the sweets of a new-mown +field; or like the clear, streaming moonlight in the brief interval +between the broken clouds; or like remembered music, which some +accidental word of a song has startled from its place and diffused +through the soul. Thus departed Christian friends are the means of +unspeakable happiness to survivors; thus "their works do follow them;" +and we should make large account of this when we are weighing the +question whether we will now, or in the closing hours of life, so +fearfully uncertain, begin to love and serve God.</p> + +<p>The question which earth asks respecting one and another, "Where is he?" +is no doubt repeated in heaven: Have you met him in any of these +streets? Did you see him on yonder hills? Angels, returned from other +happy worlds, have you heard of him? Where is he? He is conscious, +intelligent, receiving sensations from objects around him as vividly as +ever. But, Where is he?</p> + +<p>Of others, the question could be answered by ten thousand happy voices, +"All is well." With regard to many, the silence of the dead, forbidding +our inquiries, is the only thing which, in any measure, composes the +grief of friends. But as to our Christian friends, we have no more +reason to inquire with solicitude respecting them, than concerning the +Saviour himself. "I go to prepare a place for you,"—"that where I am, +there ye may be also." The dying Christian may truly say to his friends, +as the Saviour did to his: <span class="smcap">"Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know."</span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="V" id="V" />V.</h2> + +<h3>THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>What though my body run to dust?</p> +<p class="i2">Faith cleaves unto it, counting every grain</p> +<p>With an exact and most particular trust,</p> +<p class="i2">Reserving all for flesh again.</p> +</div></div> + +<p class="citation">George Herbert.</p> + + +<p>It is good to think of Michael, the archangel, disputing with the devil +about the body of Moses. The dispute was over a grave. The Most High had +himself performed the funeral rites of his servant; for, we read, "The +Lord buried him." We naturally think of the archangel as placed in +charge of the precious dust.</p> + +<p>Some great commission, connected with the resurrection of the dead, +appears to be held by the chief spirit of the angelic world. "For the +Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of +the archangel, and the trump of God." The burial of each and every body +which is destined to the resurrection of the just, is, therefore, not +improbably an object of interest with him who, under the God-man, will +have the supervision of the last day. With a view to that harvest of the +earth, he will now see the furrows made, the seed planted, the hill +prepared. He will have a care that every thing lies down, whether by +seeming accident, or by violence, or by design, in just the place from +which the arranging mind of Him who is Lord both of the dead and of the +living, has appointed it to come forth. Every circumstance attending +that event, the great object of hope in heaven and on earth,—our +resurrection,—is of sufficient importance to be the subject of thought +and preparation on the part of Christ, himself the first fruits of them +that slept.</p> + +<p>The care of the patriarchs concerning their burial places is like one of +those premonitions in an antecedent stratum of geology, or species of +animals, of a coming manifestation;—a prophesying germ, a yearning, +created by Him who, with all-seeing wisdom, establishes anticipations +in the moral, as well as in the natural, world, concerning things with +regard to which a thousand years are with him as one day.</p> + +<p>Not on earth alone, as it seems, is an interest felt in the death and +burial of the righteous.</p> + +<p>For when the leader of Israel in the wilderness went up to the hill top +to die, the two great angels, of heaven and hell, met and contended over +his grave.</p> + +<p>Denied the privilege of burial in the promised land, Moses may have +appeared to Satan so evidently under the frown of God, as to encourage +his meddlesome efforts to inflict some injury upon him, through dishonor +done to his remains. Perhaps he would convey them back to Egypt, a gift +to the brooding vengeance of the Pharaohs, who would gratify their anger +by preserving that body in the house of their gods;—thus showing their +spiteful satisfaction at the disappointment of the prophet whom Jehovah +would not permit to enter that promised land, in hope of which the +great spoiler had led away the bondmen of Egypt.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the devil would gratify the desire of some idolatrous nation, +craving new objects of worship, by leading them to canonize this Hebrew +chief; and thus make of the lawgiver and prophet of Israel a false god.</p> + +<p>Perhaps he could even prevail on some of the Israelites themselves, if +not the whole of them, to worship this revered form; or might he but +have the designation and the custody of his grave, he would, perhaps, +fix it where it would be most convenient for the nation to assemble, at +stated times, for some idolatrous rites.</p> + +<p>But the great vicegerent of the resurrection was there. To him the body +of a saint is suggestive of the last day; it is a special assignment by +Christ, an official trust, to the archangel. Bodies of saints are, +therefore, most precious to him. Particles of the precious metal are not +more precious to the miner, pearls to the diver, ivory to the +Coast-merchant, and the shell-fish to the maker of Tyrian purple. The +body of each saint is an unfinished history of redemption; a destiny of +indescribable interest and importance belongs to it. Any subaltern angel +may have charge of winds and seas, of day and night, of summer and +winter; but only the archangel is counted meet to have charge, and to +keep watch and ward, over the bodies of saints as they sleep in Jesus.</p> + +<p>"He disputed about the body of Moses." It was a dispute characterized on +the part of the archangel more by act than word. Words are hushed in +great encounters. Debate with a pirate, a body-snatcher, would be folly; +no arguments, therefore, were wasted, on the top of Nebo, by Michael, +over the grave of Moses. "The Lord rebuke thee," was his retort; his +heavenly form stopping the way, his baffling right arm hindering the +accursed design, were the invincible logic of that dispute.</p> + +<p>O prince of angels, watchman, herald, master of the guard, at the +resurrection of the just,—comptroller, now, of that treasury which +receives and keeps their precious forms,—from whose lips that signal +is to come which millions on millions are to hear, and live,—what +images of glory and terror fill thy mind in the anticipation of that +moment when thy dread commission is to be fulfilled! Is not that +"trumpet" sometimes taken into thy hand? Dost thou not place it to thy +lips, but quickly lay it aside, and patiently and joyfully watch the +swelling number of the graves of saints? Funerals of those who fall +asleep in Jesus, to thee are pleasant scenes; they are spring-work, +planting times, for thy harvest, O chief reaper! While, with bursting +hearts, we turn from the new-made mound, one more glorified body, in +anticipation, is added to thy charge.</p> + +<p>Smiling at our sorrow, in joyful thought of the change to be witnessed +in and around that sepulchre when the family circle shall there put on +incorruption, thou canst not pity us except as we pity the brief sorrows +of children. If the devil should approach that spot, to work some +unknown, and, to us, inconceivable, harm to that body,—be it the body +of the humblest saint, one of those little ones who believe in Jesus, or +of those infants whose angels do always behold the face of God,—thou, +mighty cherub, wouldst be there, and, if need be, with a band of angels, +"every one with his sword upon his thigh, because of fear in the night;" +and Nebo and its "dispute" would reappear. Poor, dying, mouldering body! +hast thou the archangel himself for thy keeper? Not only so:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>"God, my Redeemer, lives,</p> +<p class="i2">And often from the skies</p> +<p>Looks down and watches all my dust,</p> +<p class="i2">Till he shall bid it rise."</p> +</div></div> + + +<p>Nor is it strange, since we read, "The body is for the Lord, and the +Lord for the body." "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the +Holy Ghost which is in you?"</p> + +<p>To rise from the dead seems to have been something more to Paul than +going to heaven, or than being in heaven. He knew that he was to spend +the interval between death and the resurrection in heaven; but beyond +even this, he had a joy which he felt was essential to the completeness +of the heavenly state.</p> + +<p>See the proof of this in the following words: "If by any means I might +attain unto the resurrection of the dead."</p> + +<p>Since he was destined, like all of Adam's race, to come forth from his +grave, he needed to make no effort whatever merely to rise from the +dead; that was inevitable, and irrespective of character. Besides, he +represents this object for which he strove as something which required +effort, which cannot be said of merely rising from the grave.</p> + +<p>Paul had been permitted to know, by personal observation, what the +rising from the dead implies. Caught up into Paradise, we may suppose +that he had seen the patriarch Enoch, and the prophet Elijah, with their +glorified bodies; the presence of which in heaven, we may imagine, has +ever served to enhance the happiness of that world, by holding forth, +before the eyes of the redeemed, the sign and pledge of their future +experience when they shall receive their bodies. For it is not +presumptuous to suppose that the sight of Enoch and Elijah has been, and +will be, till the last trumpet sounds, a source of joyful expectation to +the inhabitants of heaven, leading them to anticipate the final day with +intense interest, as the time when they will be invested, like those +honored saints, with all the capacities of their completed nature, which +nature, while the body lies buried, is in a dissevered state. If Paul, +when in heaven, saw and felt the power of this expectation in the minds +of glorified saints, no wonder that the resurrection of the body seemed +to him, ever after, to be the crown of Christian expectation and hope.</p> + +<p>More than all, he had seen the man Christ Jesus, in his glorified body; +who on earth had said, "I am the resurrection and the life"—himself an +illustration of it, whom alone the grave has yielded up to die no more. +He is, therefore, to saints in heaven, a far more interesting object +than Enoch and Elijah, who never died. "For now is Christ risen from the +dead, and is become the first fruits of them that slept." This sight, of +Christ in heaven, must have had unutterable interest for Paul, from the +assurance that Christ will "change our vile body, that it may be +fashioned like unto his glorious body;" for "we know that when he shall +appear," Paul himself tells us, "we shall be like him; for we shall see +him as he is." This knowledge, obtained in the heavenly world, may have +led the apostle to think of the resurrection as the crown of all his +expectations and hopes.</p> + +<p>It is noticeable that the writers of the New Testament, and Jesus +himself, refer chiefly to the resurrection and the last day as sources +of comfort, and also of warning. Now this is made a principal ground of +belief, with many, that there is either no consciousness between death +and the resurrection; or, that none have gone to heaven, nor to hell, +but to intermediate places, seeing that final rewards and punishments +are, in so many instances, wholly predicated of the last day.</p> + +<p>But those who believe that the souls of the righteous are, at their +death, made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory, see +proof, in all this prominence which is given to the last day, and to the +resurrection, that the sacred writers regarded the resurrection and +final judgment as the great consummation, towards which souls, in heaven +and in hell, would be looking forward with intense expectation and +interest; that neither will the joys of heaven nor the pains of hell be +complete, till the account of our whole influence upon the world, +extending to the end of time, is made up, and the body is added to the +soul. When Paul comforts the mourners of Thessalonica, he bids them to +"sorrow not as they that have no hope; for," (and now he does not speak +of heaven, and of souls being already there, as the source of +consolation, but) "if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so +them, also, that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him;" and he +proceeds to speak of the resurrection,—not of the speedy reunion of +friends after death, but of the departed as coming with Christ at the +last day. This, instead of being an argument against the immediate +departure of souls to heaven, arises from the desire to employ the +strongest possible proof that the pious dead are not only safe, but are +greatly honored. "Resurrection" was an abounding subject of thought, +argument, and illustration in those days; the state of the dead between +death and the last day, is comparatively disregarded by the apostles, +while their minds were full of the great question of the age—the +Resurrection. This fullness of thought and constant occupation of mind +about the resurrection, as the cardinal doctrine of Christian hope, +explains the apparent belief of the apostles, in some passages, that the +final day was near. This the apostle Paul expressly denies, in the +second chapter of the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. But a greater +event, looked at in the same line of vision with an intermediate and +smaller object, will, of course, have the prominent place in our +thoughts. The less will be held subordinate to the greater; perhaps we +shall seem to underrate the less, in our exalted conceptions of that +which rises beyond and above. We shall see, as we proceed, why the +expectation of the last day seemed to occupy the thoughts of apostles as +the paramount object of expectation.</p> + +<p>It is perfectly obvious that, at the resurrection, the bodies of the +just will be endued with wonderful susceptibilities and powers. This is +rendered certain by the great mystery of godliness,—God manifest in the +flesh. The greatest honor which could be conferred upon our nature, and +the greatest testimony to its intrinsic dignity, and to its being, in +its unfallen state, in the image of God, is bestowed upon it by the +incarnation of the Word. True, there was a necessity that the Redeemer +should be made like unto us, however inferior human nature might be in +the scale of creation; still, unless there had been such intrinsic +dignity and excellence in our sinless nature, as to make it compatible +for the second Person in the Godhead to be united with it, we cannot +suppose that this union would have been permanent; it would have +fulfilled a temporary purpose, and then have ceased.</p> + +<p>Perhaps we slightly err if we think of Christ's assumption of human +nature as, in any respect, an incongruous act of humiliation. For man +was made in the image of God; so that when Christ was made flesh, +without sin, he took upon himself that which, in some sense, was +congruous with his divine nature. His humiliation consisted, in part, in +his doing this; but more especially in his doing this for such a +purpose—for sinners; "in his being born, and that in a low condition, +made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of +God, and the cursed death of the cross, in being buried and continuing +under the power of death for a time." Had there been no inherent +congruity between our nature and the divine, the human nature of +Christ, having accomplished its purpose of suffering and death, would +have been left in the grave. "But now is Christ risen from the dead;" +the body and the human soul, which were disunited when he hung upon the +cross, now constitute the same man, Christ Jesus. "The only Redeemer of +God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, +became man, and so was, and continues to be, God and man, in two +distinct natures and one person, forever." The latter part of this +answer of the Assembly's Shorter Catechism is thus substantiated by the +New Testament: "When he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall +see him as he is." In other words, he will be, when he appears, that +which he now is—will remain the same until his second coming. After +that, he will remain as he was before: "Jesus Christ, the same +yesterday, to-day, and forever." He is represented as holding an eternal +relation to the redeemed in his glorified nature: "The Lamb which is in +the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto +living fountains of waters." We might, indeed, suppose that the man +Christ Jesus would have an eternal recompense for his sufferings and +death in an everlasting union with the Godhead; nor can any one think, +with satisfaction, of a severance between his two natures, and of a +consequent humiliation, or deposition, of that human nature, which, at +the great day, will, for so long a time, have sustained such a +connection with the divine nature. For our present purpose, however, +which is to show the intrinsic dignity of the human nature, it would be +enough that it has been in such connection with the Godhead, and has +passed through such scenes, and sustained such vast responsibilities. +This is sufficient to prove that human nature is intrinsically capable +and great; and, indeed, it reveals to us as nothing else does, the real +dignity of our nature. Some, who have rejected the doctrine of Christ's +two natures, have written much and eloquently with regard to man's +greatness in creation. They, however, missed the very thing which +chiefly proves it; for all who believe in the Deity of Christ have a +proof and illustration of this great theme which trancend all others.</p> + +<p>This idea, of future capability and exaltation for human nature, as +proved by the Saviour's incarnation, is brought to view in the second +chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The second Psalm is there quoted +as speaking of man: "Thou hast put all things under his feet." "But +now," the apostle says, "we see not yet all things put under him;" man, +as a race, has not reached his full destiny of glory and honor; but, in +the person of Christ, human nature has taken possession of its future +inheritance. We see not yet all things put under man, as a race; but "we +see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering +of death, crowned with glory and honor;"—a sign and pledge of our +destiny.</p> + +<p>To the mind of Paul, the sight, in heaven, of what he was to become, set +forth by the glorified person of the Son of God, his Saviour and +infinite Friend, no doubt made the resumption of the body, at the last +day, the most desirable experience of which it was possible for him to +conceive. Paradise, with all its social pleasures, gates of pearl, +streets of gold, every thing, in short, external to him, must have +seemed, to the apostle, not worthy to be compared with the glory which +was to be revealed in him. An intelligent man is far more interested in +his own personal endowments, than in the accidental circumstances of his +situation. Every one, who is not degraded in his feelings, would prefer +to be enriched with natural, moral, and intellectual powers, rather than +be the richest of men, or an hereditary monarch, with inferior talents +and worth. To such a man as Paul, the possession of his complete, +glorified nature, at the resurrection, must, for this reason, have +seemed far better than all the pleasures or honors of the heavenly +world. That completed nature would constitute him a being wholly +perfected, invest him with a likeness to the Son of God, bring him into +still nearer union with that adorable Redeemer, who, Paul says, loved +him and gave himself for him, and for whom, he says, he had suffered the +loss of all things. The sight of the man Christ Jesus wearing Paul's +nature in a glorified state, no doubt lived and glowed in his memory +after his return to earth, and made him think of the resurrection as the +event, in his personal history, to which every thing else was +subordinate. He shows the interest which he felt in this event, when, +writing to the Romans, he says, "And not only they,"—that is, "the +creatures," or creation,—"but ourselves, also, which have the first +fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting +for the adoption, to wit, the redemption, of our body." In his address, +at Jerusalem, before his accusers and the people, he cried out, "Of the +hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question." It was +uniformly a prominent topic of his thoughts.</p> + +<p>It is by no means impossible, nor improbable, judging from analogy, that +there may be, in the human soul, faculties which are slumbering, until +a glorified body assists in their development. Persons born blind have +the dormant faculty of seeing; the gift of the eye would bring it into +exercise. So of the other senses, and their related mental faculties. +With a glorified body, then, truly it doth not yet appear what we shall +be; but the thought itself is rapture, that our souls at present may be +as disproportioned to their future expansion, as the acorn is to the oak +of a century's growth, which is infolded now, and dormant, in the seed.</p> + +<p>The addition of a body to the glorified spirit will, therefore, be a +help, and not an encumbrance. For we are not to suppose that the soul, +after having been for centuries in a state superior to its present +condition, would retrograde, in returning to the body. A common idea +respecting a body is, that it is necessarily a clog. True, by reason of +sin and its effects, it is now a "vile body;" and Paul speaks of it as +"the body of this death." But, even while we are in this world, a body +is an indispensable help to the soul. The disembodied spirit, probably, +is not capable of sustaining a full, active relation to a world of +matter; a material form is necessary to make its powers serviceable +here. This being so, there is certainly reason, from analogy, to suppose +that the addition of a spiritual body to the glorified soul will not +necessarily work any deterioration to the spirit. At all events, we +cannot suppose that the bliss of heaven will be suffered to diminish, by +remanding the emancipated spirit into connection with any thing which +will subtract from the state to which it will have arrived. There is a +law of progress in the divine government, by which the intelligent +universe will be forever advancing. We are to be changed "from glory to +glory;" not from a greater glory to a less, but into the same image with +Christ.</p> + +<p>It is the opinion of some that every created being has a corporeal part, +and that God alone is perfectly a spirit. However this may be, it is +evident that the souls of believers after death, though advanced far +beyond their present earthly condition, and though they are "with +Christ," and though to die is gain, and though they are in the heaven of +heavens with Christ, (which is where the penitent thief went, and where +Paul had his revelation, and where Christ went when he died;—for Paul +uses the words "third heavens," and "Paradise," interchangeably,) are, +nevertheless, incomplete as to their natures, "waiting for the adoption, +to wit, the redemption of our body." Where in the Bible are we led to +suppose that they are detained in an inferior region, or that there are, +at most, only two redeemed human beings now in "heaven," viz., Enoch and +Elijah, or probably not even they? But a corporeal part, we may suppose, +is necessary to the fullest participation in the employments and +enjoyments of the spiritual world. Light requires atmosphere to modify +it for the human eye, which otherwise could not endure its brightness. +So it may be that a corporeal part is necessary to modify many of the +things which are unseen and eternal, that they may be apprehended by the +soul. Let no one say that matter must obstruct or dim the senses of the +soul; that a body must act as a veil to the spirit, and shut out much +knowledge. It is not so here. Matter helps us in the acquisition of +knowledge, as, for example, glass in optical instruments. The telescope, +with its lenses, gives the eye vast compass; the microscope gives it a +power, equally wonderful, of minute vision. True, in these cases it is +matter helping matter—glass assisting the eye; the analogy is not +perfect between this and the aid which the spiritual body may afford the +soul. But, if we remember that there is to be progression in the powers +and faculties of our nature, and that if a body is added to the +glorified spirit, it must be to assist it, to put it forward in its +acquisitions and enjoyments, we cannot resist the belief that the +addition of the new body to the soul will be a vast accession of power +and capability. If the eye and the mind can receive such aid from the +telescope here, who knows that the eye of the glorified body may not be +itself a telescope, increasing in its capability with the progress of +its being.</p> + +<p>We may have some view of what the glorified body must necessarily be, in +thinking of it as a fit companion to the glorified spirit. The soul +having been in heaven for ages, and having grown in all spiritual +excellence, the body, to be a help to such a spirit, to be an occasion +of joy, and not of regret, must, of course, be in advance of our present +corporeal nature. What must the body of Isaiah, and of David, be, at the +resurrection, to correspond with the vast powers and attainments of +those glorified spirits? We could not believe, certainly we could not +see, how these bodies of ours could be made capable of such union, were +it not that, in the man Christ Jesus, we see our corporeal nature +capable of such transformation as to make it compatible for his human +mind, and indwelling Deity, to receive it into their ineffable union.</p> + +<p>All this being so, we may, in some measure, conceive of the feelings +with which the souls in heaven anticipate the resurrection; and we cease +to wonder why Paul speaks of his resurrection as the great object of his +desire—not merely to be in heaven, but, being in heaven, with Christ, +to be in possession of a completed nature, like Christ's.</p> + +<p>From the grave where it was sown in corruption, it will come forth in +incorruption; sown in dishonor, it will be raised in glory; sown in +weakness, it will be raised in power; sown a natural body, it will be +raised a spiritual body. It was "bare grain" when it fell into the +earth; but the corn, with its stalk, and leaves, and the curious ear, +with its silk, and its wrappings, the multiplication of the "bare grain" +into such a product, are an illustration of the apostle's words,—"Thou +sowest not that body that shall be;" hence, he argues, say not, +incredulously, "How are the dead raised, and with what body do they +come?" God giveth the grain a body as it hath pleased him; he can do +the same with regard to that part of man's nature which is committed for +a while to the earth. Let not the natural difficulties connected with +this subject make us sceptical. There are no more difficulties connected +with a grave than with a grape vine. Those distant twigs, on that dry +vine, begin to bud and blossom; grapes form upon them; it is filled with +clusters. Is there any thing in the resurrection more strange than this? +Twice, inspiration says to a man, "Thou fool!"—once, to a godless, rich +man, and, once, to him who is sceptical about the resurrection of the +body.</p> + +<p>When the glorified spirit and the glorified body meet, the moment when +the investiture of the soul with its spiritual form takes place, and the +forcible divorce of the soul and body is terminated by new, strange +nuptials, there must be an experience which now defies all power of +imagination. We may have known, in this world, all the thrilling +experiences of which our natures here are capable; we shall also have +seen and felt what it is to awake in heaven, satisfied with Christ's +likeness; and all the new-born joys of heavenly sensations will have +seemed to leave us nothing to be experienced which can bring a new +rapture to the heart; yet when the body is raised, and the triumphant +spirit comes to put it on afresh, it will be an addition to all the past +joys of the heavenly state. As we look on one another, and see, in each +other's beauty and glory, an image of our own; as we remember how we +visited the graves of loved ones, and what thoughts and feelings we had +there, and then see those graves yielding forms like Christ's; as we see +the Saviour's person mirrored in ours on every side, and behold the +living changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, there will be an +exceeding great joy, such, perhaps, as the universe had never before +known. But to each of us the most perfect joy will be his own +consciousness, existence being then a rapture such as we never +experienced. Then the bird is winged, the jewel is set in gold, the +flower blooms, the harp receives all her strings, the heir is crowned. +No wonder that Paul said, looking through and beyond heaven, "If by any +means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead."</p> + +<p>Perhaps we now think of the last day with dread, as a day of +consternation. It is not always that we can think of the heavens on +fire, the earth dissolved, the dead arising, and the judgment +proceeding, without some feeling of dismay. But in heaven, we shall long +have anticipated that day as the day of our complete triumph. The grave +will, till that time, have imprisoned one part of our nature. The curse +of the law will not have passed away entirely, and in every respect, +till all which belongs to us is redeemed from every natural, as well as +moral, consequence of sin. It will be an expectation of unmingled joy to +see this accomplished. The approach of the day will fill us with more +pleasure than the arrival of any other wished-for moment. We shall come +with Christ to judgment. "Them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with +him." We shall have a part in the glory of Christ, and be associated +with him; for, "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?" +"Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" What curious interest there +will be to receive back from the dust of the earth the dishonored, +corrupted, mouldered, wasted, perished body. In the Saviour, even, we +shall not have seen all the wonders of the resurrection from the dead; +for, "He whom God raised saw no corruption;" but we shall be raised from +corruption. To be clothed upon with that house which is from heaven, to +be a completed, perfected human being, will be, up to that time, the +greatest possible manifestation to us of divine wisdom and power.</p> + +<p>The new body will bring with it sources of enjoyment which will be a +vast addition to the previous happiness of heaven. There will be perfect +satisfaction in every one with his own body—no consciousness of +defects, of deformity, of weakness. Comparisons of ourselves with others +will not excite dissatisfaction and envy; every one will be perfect of +his kind, and will differ in some things from every other, and will be +an object of love and admiration with all. We are astonished here with +the intellectual, oratorical, vocal powers of others, with their +knowledge, their talent, their skill; but there we shall no doubt be +filled also with astonishment at our own powers and acquisitions, and +thus we shall be more capable of appreciating and enjoying the +endowments of others. God is pleased to raise up one and another, from +time to time, with great powers to charm their fellow-creatures; and +thus he would lure us on to heaven, teaching us how much we can enjoy, +and how much we shall lose if we are not saved. Those who are deprived +of very many intellectual and social pleasures here, which they could +appreciate as well as their more favored friends, will soon have it made +up to them. By the likeness of their glorified nature to the human +nature of Christ, they are to be intimately associated with him forever. +This, of itself, is an assurance and pledge, that their heavenly +happiness will not be measured by their relative inferiority to their +brethren in this world. To a benevolent mind it is a great joy to think +of good people, who are deprived, in this world, of education and +culture, entering upon a career of boundless knowledge, rising to the +highest pitch of mental development, and enjoying it all the more for +their former disadvantages in their probationary state. "And, behold, +there are last which shall be first." Distinctions made here by +knowledge will be transient, like gifts of prophecy, and tongues; for it +is in this sense that it is said, "whether there be knowledge, it shall +vanish away." And when we look upon those dear children of God who have +long suffered under bodily deformity, and "have borne, and have had +patience, and have not fainted," we love to think of their glorified +bodies, and of that rich zest in the possession of them which will be +both the natural consequence, and the gracious reward, of their +patience; nay, we love to think that some special, personal beauty, some +peculiar grace and glory, may be given them by Him who so delights in +compensatory acts in nature, in providence, and in grace.</p> + +<p>Was it not the object of the transfiguration, in part, to give the human +soul of Christ such an idea of his future glory in heaven, as to +strengthen him for his agony and death? Yes; for the heavenly visitants +"spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." That +anticipation of his glorified nature was a part of "the joy set before +him." Let Christ on Tabor, and faith, do for us, with regard to present +bodily sorrows and sufferings, that which the transfiguration did for +Jesus in the days of his humiliation. "Who shall change our vile body, +that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the +working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself."</p> + +<p>Through the long interval of death and the separate state, the +anticipation of the last day and of the resurrection will, no doubt, be +to the wicked a predominant source of terror. While the joyful +anticipations of it, in heaven, will be like the advancing steps of +morning, when there begin to be signs, in the tabernacle for the sun, of +that bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and of that strong man +rejoicing to run a race, and every thing will be astir with the notes of +preparation for that day, for which all other days were made, the +approach of it will be, to the lost, a deepening gloom, its arrival the +settling down of interminable night. Instead of entering into their +bodies with transport, as the righteous do, they will each be like a +prisoner removed from one jail to another with new bars and bolts. If it +be not unreasonable to suppose that the appearance of the body will +conform to the character, and if the bodies of Isaiah, and Paul, and +John must be seraphic, to correspond with their experience and +attainments, what must the bodies of the wicked be! They will have spent +centuries in sinning, and suffering, debased in every part, the image of +God supplanted by the image of him whose service they preferred to that +of a holy God and Saviour. What a moment will that be, when the sinner's +grave is opened by the last trumpet, and a hideous form rises to receive +a frantic spirit! "The harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers +are the angels." "As, therefore, the tares are gathered and burned in +the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall +send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all +things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into +a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." "And +many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to +everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." There +will be separations at the graves of those who lay side by side in +death; many a tomb will yield up subjects both for heaven and for hell; +the differences in character, between the regenerate and unregenerate, +will there be made conspicuous in the correspondence of the risen body +to the soul, according as the soul shall have arrived at the grave from +a state of joy or of woe. Arrests will be made, there will be forcible +detentions, overpowering strength, disregard of entreaties, remorseless +rendings asunder of families, unclasping of embraces, and an +indiscriminate mixture of all classes among the wicked, indicated by the +command, "Bind ye the tares together, in bundles, to be burned." Nor +will this be worse for holy angels to witness, than it was to see those +sinners turn their backs on the Lord's supper, year after year. They +could treat their Saviour's dying agonies, and his blood, with perfect +neglect and contempt, through their love of the world and sin; now they +eat the fruit of their own way, and are filled with their own devices. +Our treatment of the Saviour will return upon our own heads. What a +change will be made in the ideas which many sentimentalists had of holy +angels, when they see them executing the terrible orders of their King! +and what an illustration it will give of the severity of justice,—the +rigors of its execution being compatible with the pure benevolence of +holy angels, because of God. We are constantly admonished that the +punishment of the wicked will be a great part of the proceedings on that +day. It is called "the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." +"Behold, the Lord cometh, with ten thousands of his saints, to execute +judgment."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>All this serves to invest the death of a dear Christian friend, in our +thoughts, with inexpressible peace and comfort. He, with his Redeemer, +can say, "My flesh, also, shall rest in hope." If we are confident that +a friend is gone to be with Christ, death is, even now, swallowed up of +life; and now the thought of what the soul is to inherit, both before +and after the resurrection, and its contrast with the experience of the +lost, should make us joyful in tribulation. True, we cannot, by any +artifice or illusion, make death itself cease to be a curse. Full of +beauty and consolation as it may be,—nay, we will call it +triumphant,—yet nothing saddens the mind, for the time, more than the +sight of true beauty. In heaven things beautiful will not make us sad; +nor will the remembrance of a past joy, which so inevitably has that +effect upon us here. We are beholding a sunset. Day is flinging up all +its treasures, as though it were breaking to pieces its pavilion forever +and scattering the fragments; and now, when all seemed past, one more +flood of glory streams over the scene, but only for a moment; then comes +a last touch of pathos, here and there, like a more distant farewell, a +whispered good night. Have tears never come unbidden, do we never feel +sad, at such a time? Is not the whole of life, past, present, and to +come, then tinged with sombre hues? and all because the dying day +expires with such beauty and peace. Not so when a storm suddenly brings +in night upon us. Then we are nerved and braced; we hear no minor key in +the voice of the departing day. It is perfectly natural, therefore, to +weep over our dead, even when every thing in their departure is +consolatory and beautiful. It is interesting to observe that it was even +when he was on his way to raise the dead body of his friend, and thus to +comfort the weeping sisters, that "Jesus wept."</p> + +<p>Let us more and more love the Christian's grave. Angels love it. Two of +them sat in the tomb where the body of Jesus had lain—they loosed the +napkin that was about his head, and "wrapped" it "together in a place by +itself;" and when Jesus had left the place, instead of following him, +they lingered, to comfort the weeping friends on their arrival at the +sepulchre. Can it be Michael, guardian of the dead Moses and his grave, +on "the great stone" which has been rolled "from the door of the +sepulchre"? Is he thinking how he will one day hear the command, "Take +ye away the stone" which covers all who sleep in Jesus? As the cross is +hallowed by the death of the Son of God upon it, the grave is hallowed +for the believer through the Saviour's burial. There are three places +which must possess intense interest for a glorified friend. One is his +home; another is his seat in the house of God; and another is his grave. +Let us cherish it. We do well to visit such a spot. Sometimes +approaching it with sadness and fear, we go away with surprising peace; +looking back for a last view of the stone, and feeling towards the spot +as we do when we are leaving little children in the dark for the night, +unutterable love, we find, has cast out fear. Those graves are treasures +which heaven has made sure, "sealing the stone, and setting a watch." Of +those who still live, we are not certain that, in the providence of God, +they will henceforth be an unmingled source of comfort; but they who are +in those graves are garnered fruits, are finished works, are each like +the rod of Aaron laid up in the ark, which "bloomed blossoms and yielded +almonds." All else which is dear to us on earth may seem changeful, or +changed; the property may have disappeared, the home may have been +broken tip, the plighted faith and love may have been recalled; the +whole condition of life may have been altered: but we visit that burial +spot, and there is permanence; that fast-anchored isle has defied the +surges and roaring currents; the grave seems beautifully constant; it +has not betrayed our confidence; it is not weary of its precious charge; +it has kindly staid behind to permit and encourage our griefs when all +else may have fled. The winter's snows have fallen, the tempests have +beaten, there; and now, this April or May morning, it is as steadfast +and quiet as when the slumber there began.</p> + +<p>Great honor is paid to the dead in giving them precedence to the living +at the last day. "The dead in Christ shall rise first," that is, before +the living are changed;—they shall rise, and after that, in a moment, +in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, the living will be +transformed; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised +incorruptible, and we shall be changed. This is said in order to comfort +those who mourn the death of Christian friends,—intimating such care on +the part of their Redeemer, that the apostle is directed to tell us "by +the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain to the coming +of the Lord, shall not" have precedence of "them that are asleep." It is +declared that the change of the living will be effected "in a moment, in +the twinkling of an eye." This must be a matter of pure revelation; for +it could not have been foretold, from any apparent probabilities, +whether it would happen instantaneously or by degrees. It is suited to +impress the mind with the power and majesty of Christ, inasmuch as this +is to be one of the great acts connected with his second coming, and as +really an exercise of his omnipotence as the raising of the dead. For he +is "Lord both of the dead and of the living."</p> + +<p>"And the sea shall give up the dead that are in it." Many a form of a +believer is waiting there for the redemption of the body. Nor has it +escaped the eye of the great archangel. Wrapped in its rude shroud, or +decomposed and scattered, or in whatever way seemingly annihilated, +personal identity still attaches to it, and the all-seeing eye watches +every thing which is essential to that identity, as easily as though the +body were in the grave with kindred dust. That the power of God in the +resurrection may be fully illustrated, and that some may be preeminent +witnesses in their own persons of that mighty power, perhaps it will +appear that they were permitted, for that purpose, to be devoured, or to +dissolve and to waste away in the sea. If they who came out of great +tribulation are arrayed in white robes among the righteous, we may look +for some special sign of glory and joy in those who receive their +bodies, not from the sheltering grave, but from the sea, and from the +very frame of nature, into which their bodily organization will, in one +way and another, have been incorporated. O the unspeakable wonders and +raptures connected with the resurrection, both as it relates to our own +experience, and to the illustrations which the resurrection will afford, +of the divine wisdom and power. No wonder, we say, that Paul esteemed +it the height of Christian privilege, that he, as a redeemed human +being, "might attain unto the resurrection of the dead."</p> + +<p>It is an innocent fancy, if it be not worthy of a better name, that the +great attention which has been given of late years to new cemeteries, +now in such contrast to the old graveyards, whose reckless disorder so +perfectly expressed abandonment to sorrow and unresisting surrender to +the last enemy, is a symptomatic token of growing faith in the great, +general heart of the Christianized part of the race, with regard to that +consummation of all things, the resurrection of the dead.</p> + +<p>As at sea there is, within certain degrees of latitude and longitude, an +uphill and a downhill, made by the convexity of the globe, we, perhaps, +may have reached the meridian of the great voyage, and may have begun to +feel the inclination which will set us forward more swiftly to the end. +The power of the great consummation will be waxing stronger and +stronger. Men are looking to the cemeteries as places where great +treasures went down, or were abandoned, and they begin to think that +some great restoration awaits them. These costly and beautiful +cemeteries, which men are preparing, are like Hiram's contributions to +the building of the temple; they foretell some great thing; they have a +look not only of expectation, but of design, not merely of faith, but of +hope. With a truly liberal regard to the decoration of those burial +places with costly works of general interest, in the department of art, +we shall do well to make provision, by statute, for the perpetual repair +and preservation of every enclosure, and every grave, the whole body +corporate thus pledging itself, as far as possible, to each incumbent, +that his last resting place shall be the care of the perpetuated +fraternity to the end of time.</p> + +<p>And when the prophecies are accomplished, and the stone cut out of the +mountain without hands has filled the earth, and the apostasy which is +to follow the general prevalence of religion, has deluged the world +with blood, and Satan, loosed a little season, is triumphing in his +maddened career, and the graves are full, and the souls under the altar, +with their importunate cry, can no longer wait for the avenging +arm,—then shall be seen the sign of the Son of man coming in the clouds +of heaven, with power and great glory.</p> + +<p>As we commit a Christian friend to the earth, and as we visit his +resting place, let us think that now, the anticipation of the rising +from the dead is, to him, the great object of personal expectation and +hope. The time is not far distant, when, in heaven, we, in like manner, +shall be filled with that expectation, as we look down upon the places +where our bodies await the signal of the resurrection.</p> + +<p>Let not the image of our friends, as sick and in pain, occupy our +thoughts. "For the former things are passed away." Their language, as +they call back to us, is, "As dying, and behold, we live."</p> + +<p>We who have children and friends that sleep in Jesus, and who expect +ourselves to be, with them, and with one another, children of the +resurrection, will soon know each other in the presence of Christ. We +shall have become reunited in the presence of each other to our loved +and lost ones. The great question then will be, How did we fulfil God's +special and benevolent designs in our trials? If we revisit scenes of +deep affliction where death and the grave usurped their dread power over +us for a season, we shall remember our misery as waters that pass away. +In hope of this, we will patiently and joyfully labor and suffer. "The +night is far spent; the day is at hand."</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> + +<p>On a pleasant morning in April, three months from the time of her +decease, the mortal part of the dear child whose name gives this book +its title, was removed from its temporary resting place in the city, to +her grave in the family cemetery. As the hands of her father, which +baptized her, laid her to rest in her sweet and peaceful bed, and the +simple stone, with her chosen "lilies of the valley and rose buds" +carved on it, was set up,—the gift of one whose consanguinity was made +by him the delicate ground of claim to do this touching and abiding act +of love,—it seemed as though, in some sense, there had already been +brought to pass the saying which is written, "Death is swallowed up in +victory."</p> + +<p>But in the night, a gentle April shower fell; and as the thoughts were +carried by it, spellbound, from the chamber where she was born, to her +newly-made grave,—that night being the first of her sleeping there,—it +seemed very plain that, though Death had been conquered, the Grave still +kept possession of the field.—Christ "will be thy destruction," O +Grave, as he has been "thy plagues," O Death! The early rain seemed to +have made good haste in visiting the fresh mound and the flower seeds +already placed there, conspiring with them to cover the grave speedily +with emblems of the resurrection, as though, with confident boast and +exultation, they would, beforehand, say, "Where is thy victory?" Simple +thoughts and fancies, which we hardly dare utter, have wonderful power, +in great sorrows, to change the whole current of the feelings; for while +that soft shower was heard, falling on the grave, it seemed as if a +heavenly watcher was in care of the place; and so, leaving them +together, it was easy and pleasant to fall asleep.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>And now, seeing that there is not one experience in this volume which is +not, or may not be, enjoyed, and surpassed, by every dying saint, and by +surviving friends, and as the narrative is thus saved from all just +thought either of ostentation, or of setting forth a discouraging +standard of experience, may the book find protection from those who, +knowing the innocent weaknesses, and, at the same time, the blessedness, +of those who mourn, will kindly appreciate the motives with which it is +written. For more than a year the narrative has been laid by, from +indefinable reluctance at the thought of publication. But this +affliction, which was, at first, like the bulb of the hyacinth with its +white, pendulous roots in water,—those symbols of hope and pledges of +growth,—has now bloomed and become fragrant with such comforts and +consolations, that we venture to set the plant in our window, perchance +it may meet the eye of one and another as they walk and are sad. Perhaps +it may, here and there, win love and praise for Jesus. "He hath done all +things well."</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Catharine, by Nehemiah Adams + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CATHARINE *** + +***** This file should be named 15485-h.htm or 15485-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/4/8/15485/ + +Produced by Robert Shimmin, Karina Aleksandrova and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Catharine + +Author: Nehemiah Adams + +Release Date: March 28, 2005 [EBook #15485] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CATHARINE *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Shimmin, Karina Aleksandrova and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +CATHARINE. + +BY THE AUTHOR OF + +"AGNES AND THE LITTLE KEY." + +[Transcriber's Note: Nehemiah Adams] + + + +THIRD THOUSAND. + + +BOSTON: +J.E. TILTON AND COMPANY. +LONDON. KNIGHT AND SON. +1859. + +Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by J.E. TILTON +and Co., In the Clerk's Office of the District Comm. of the District of +Massachusetts. + +PRINTED BY +GEORGE O. RAND & AVERY. + +ELECTROTYPED AT THE +BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY. + + + + +TO THE +YOUNG LADIES OF MY CONGREGATION, +FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES Of +CATHARINE, +AND TO EVERY FATHER, +HAVING +A DAUGHTER IN HEAVEN, +These Pages +ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. + + + + +CONTENTS. + +I. + +MORE THAN CONQUEROR, 9 + +II. + +THE FEAR OF DEATH ALLEVIATED, 58 + +III. + +THE SEARCH FOR THE DEPARTED, 89 + +IV. + +THE SILENCE OF THE DEAD, 119 + +V. + +THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY, 144 + + + + + +CATHARINE + + + + +I. + +MORE THAN CONQUEROR. + + Is that a death-bed where the Christian lies? + Yes,--but not his: 'Tis death itself there dies. + +COLERIDGE. + + +She was not an infant--an unconscious subject of grace. But the Saviour +has led through a long sickness, and through death, a daughter of +nineteen years, and has made her, and those who loved and watched her, +say, We are more than conquerors. To speak of Him, and not to gratify +the fondness of parental love, to commend the Saviour of my child to +other hearts, and to obtain for Him the affections of those to whom He +is able and willing to be all which He was to her, is the sole object of +these pages. Listen, then, not to a parent's partial tale concerning +his child, nor concerning mental nor bodily suffering, but to the words +of one who has seen how the presence of Christ, and love to Him, can +fill the dying hours with the sweetest peace, and even beauty, and the +hearts of survivors with joy. + +Wishing to dwell chiefly on the last scenes of this dear child's life, +the reader will not be delayed by any biographical sketch. Nine years +before her death, when she was between ten and eleven years of age, she +gave the clearest evidence that she was renewed by the Holy Spirit. We +had since that time been made happy by the growing power of Christian +principle in her conduct, the clearness and steadfastness of her faith, +her systematic endeavors to live a holy life, her deep regret when she +had erred, and her resolute efforts to improve in every part of her +character. + +Through a long sickness, with consumption, for two years and three +months, she felt the soothing power of unfaltering Christian hope, +which was evidently derived from a very clear perception of the way to +be saved through Christ, and complete trust in the promises made to +simple faith in him. + +He who gave me this child, and crowned my hopes and wishes by the +manifest signs of his love towards her, merits from me a tribute of +gratitude and praise to which I desire and expect that eternity itself +may bear witness. They who read the story, which I am about to relate, +of her last few days, and think what it must be for a father to see his +child made competent to meet so intelligently and deliberately, and to +overcome, the last enemy, and, in doing so, helping to sustain and to +comfort those who loved her, will perceive that it is a gift from God +whose value nothing can increase. Bereavement and separation take +nothing from it, but, on the contrary, they illustrate and enforce our +obligations. For since we must needs die, and are as water that is +spilled upon the ground, which cannot be gathered up again, such a death +as this amounts to positive happiness by the side of a contrasted +experience in the joyless, hopeless death of a child, or friend. But +without further preface, I proceed to the narrative. + + * * * * * + +Never before had it fallen to my lot to bear that message to one who was +sick, "The Master is come, and calleth for thee." In previous cases of +deep, personal interest, this has been unnecessary. But in the present +case there was a resolute purpose, and an expectation, of recovery, till +within a week of dissolution, and, on our part, a belief that life might +still be lengthened. Such cases involve nice questions of duty. Where +the patient has evidently made timely preparation to die, it is needless +to dispel that half illusion which seems to be one feature of +consumption--an illusion which is so thin that we feel persuaded the +patient sees through it, while, nevertheless, it serves all the purposes +of hope. To take away that hope where no beneficial end is to be +secured, is cruel. A mistaken, and somewhat morbid, sense of duty to +tell the whole truth, and a conscientious but unenlightened fear of +practising deception, sometimes lead friends to remove, from a sick +person, that power which hope gives in sustaining the sickness, in +prolonging comfort, and in helping the gradual descent into the grave. +When a sick person is resolute and hopeful, it is surprising to see how +many annoyances of sickness are prevented or easily borne, and how life, +and even cheerfulness, may be indefinitely extended. But when hope is +taken away, or, rather, when, instead of looking towards life with that +instinctive love of it which God has implanted, we turn from "the warm +precincts of the cheerful day," and look into the grave, it is affecting +to see how the disease takes advantage of it, and sufferings ensue which +would have been prevented by keeping up even the ambiguous thoughts of +recovery. Sick people have reflections and feelings which exert an +influence upon them beyond our discernment, and which frequently need +not our literal interpretations of symptoms, and our exhortations, to +make them more effectual. But where there is evidently no preparedness +for death, and the patient, we fear, is deceiving himself, no one who +has suitable views of Christian duty will fail to impress him with the +necessity of attending to the things which belong to his peace, even at +considerable risk of abridging life. + +Waiting, therefore, for medical discernment to signify when the last +possible effort to lengthen out the days of the sufferer had been made, +one morning I received the intimation that those days would, in all +probability, be but very few. After the physician had left the house, +and I had sought help and strength from God, I lost no time, but took my +place at the dear patient's side, to make the announcement. + +God help those on whom he lays such duty. The hour had virtually come in +which father and child must part, and the father was to break that +message to his child. But how could mortal strength endure the effort? + +Before I left my room for hers, there came to my mind these words--"But +now, thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed +thee, O Israel, Fear not, for I have redeemed thee; I have called thee +by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will +be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when +thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall +the flame kindle upon thee." Trusting in that promise, I sat down, as it +were, over against the sepulchre, to prepare my child for her entrance +into it,--nay, for her departure into heaven. + +The gradual arrival of the truth to her apprehension, through questions +which she began to ask, and my answers to them, finally led her to +inquire if I supposed she could not live long. I told her that the +physician thought that she was extremely weak, and that we must not be +surprised at any sudden event in her case. She said, without any change +of countenance, "Why, father, you surprise me; I thought that I might +get well; is it possible that I cannot live long? I have thought of +recovering much more than of dying... It seems a long space to pass over +between this and heaven, in so short a time. I wonder how I can so +suddenly obtain all the feelings which I need for such a change." These +expressions I wrote down immediately after the interview. I told her, in +reply, that she had been living at peace with God through his Son; that +it had hitherto been her duty to live, and to strive for it; but now God +had indicated his will concerning her, and she might be sure that God +will always give us feelings suited to every condition in which he sees +fit to place us. + +On seeing her again towards evening, I found that the expression of her +sick face--the weary, exhausted look of one grappling with a stronger +power--had passed away, and, in exchange, there was peace, and even +happiness. She began herself to say, "When you told me this forenoon +that I could not live, it surprised me; but I have come to it now, and +it is all right. Every thing is settled. I have nothing to do--no fear, +no anxiety about any thing. More passages of Scripture and verses of +hymns have come to my mind to-day, than in all my sickness hitherto." +Wishes respecting some family arrangements were then expressed, +particularly with reference to the younger children, and these wishes +were uttered in about the same tone and manner as though we were parting +for a temporary absence from each other. The mother of my youngest child +had, at her death, given her in special charge to this daughter, and she +wished to live that she might educate her. She made the transfer of her +little trust with calmness, and then her "Good night" was uttered with a +gentle playfulness, like that of her early days. + +Nor was her frame of mind an excitement, or a fictitious experience, to +end with sleep. The next forenoon she renewed the conversation. She +said, "In the night I awoke many times, and always with this thought--I +am not going to live. Instead of fear and dread, peace came with it. +Names of Christ flowed in upon my mind; and once I awoke with these +words in my thoughts--'And there shall be no night there.' Now I know +that I am to die, I feel less nervous. I have a calm, unruffled +feeling." She expressed some natural apprehensions, only, about the +possibility of dissolution not having occurred when we should suppose +that she was no more. I told her how kindly God had ordered it that we +do not all die together, but one by one, the survivors doing all that +the departed would desire--which satisfied her, and removed her only +fear. + +She asked leave to make a request respecting her grave; that, if any +device were placed upon the stone, it might be of flowers, which had +been such a joy and consolation to her in her sickness. She named the +lily-of-the-valley and rose buds. "I love the white flowers," said she. +"If you think best, let them be represented in some simple way... One +great desire which I have had was to assort some leaves of flowers into +forms for you. As my bouquets fell to pieces; I gathered the best +petals, and leaves, and sprigs, and I have them in a book;" which, at +her request, I then reached for her. I turned the pages. The book was +full of beautiful relics from tokens of remembrance which kind friends +had sent to her, and among them were some curiously mottled, green and +rose-colored, petals, which she had designed for a wreath, on the first +page of the little herbarium, which it was her intention to prepare; and +then, with great hesitancy, and protesting their unworthiness, she +repeated these simple lines, which she had composed for an inscription +within the wreath. I wrote them down from her lips: + + +TO MY FATHER. + + These flowers, which gave me such comfort and hope, + I pressed, in my sickness, for you; + Accept them, though faded; they never will droop; + And believe that my heart is there too. + +They who showered these tokens of their regard upon her, will be +pleased to know that their gifts did not wholly perish, but that they +will constitute an abiding memorial of her friends, as well as of her. + +"I know," she continued, "that I am a great sinner; but I also believe +that my sins are washed away by the blood of Christ." The way of +justification by faith was clear to her mind. She knew whom she +believed, and was persuaded that he was able to keep that which she had +committed to him against that day. + +In her whispering voice, which disease had for some time so nearly +hushed, she said, "I shall sing in heaven." Her voice had been the charm +of many a pleasant circle. But she added, "I shall no more sing-- + + 'I'm a pilgrim, and I'm a stranger; + I can tarry, I can tarry but a night.'" + +And in a moment she added,-- + + "Of that country to which I am going, + My Redeemer, my Redeemer is the light." + +"Some people," she said, "wish to die in order to get rid of pain. What +a motive! I am afraid that sometimes they get rid of it only to renew +it. There was--" And here she checked herself, saying, "But I will not +mention any name," a feeling of charitableness and tenderness coming +over her, as though she might be thought to have judged a dying person +harshly. + +The day before she died, as I was spending the Sabbath forenoon by her, +she breathed out these words:-- + + "O, how soft that bed must be, + Made in sickness, Lord, by thee! + And that rest, how soft and sweet, + Where Jesus and the sufferer meet!" + +In almost the same breath, she said, "O, see that beautiful +yellow,"--directing my attention to a sprig of acacia in a bunch of +flowers; all showing that her religious feelings were not raptures, but +flowed along upon a level with her natural delight at beautiful objects. +To illustrate this, I have mentioned several of the incidents already +related. + +She spoke of a young friend, who has much that the world gives its +votaries to enhance her prospects in this life. I said, "Would you +exchange conditions with her?" "Not for ten thousand worlds," was her +energetic reply. "No!" she added; "I fear she has not chosen the good +part." + +Sabbath afternoon, the mortal conflict was upon her. The restlessness of +death, the craving for some change of posture, the cold sweats, the +labored respiration, all had the effect merely to make her ask, "How +long do you think I must suffer?" That labored breathing tired her; she +wished that I could regulate it for her. "How long," said she, "will it +probably continue?" + +I told her that heaven was a free gift at the last as well as at first; +that we could not pass within the gate at will, but must wait God's +time; that there were sufferings yet necessary to her complete +preparation for heaven, of which she would see the use hereafter, but +not now. This made her wholly quiet; and after that she rode at anchor +many hours, hard by the inner lighthouse, waiting for the Pilot. + +The last words which she uttered to me, an hour before she died, were, +"I am going to get my crown." I wondered at her in my thoughts, (O, help +my unbelief!) to hear a dying sinner so confident. I said to myself, "O +woman, great is thy faith." She knew that her crown was a free gift, +purchased at infinite expense; a crown, instead of deserved chains, +under darkness. All unmerited, and more than forfeited, yet she spoke of +her crown, because she believed with a simple faith, taking Christ at +his word, and being willing to receive rewards and honors from him +without projecting her own sense of unworthiness to stay the +overflowings of infinite love and grace towards her. So that, in her own +esteem as undeserving as the chief of sinners, thinking as little as +possible of her own righteousness, and being among the last to claim any +thing of God, she could say with one who would not admit that any +sinner was chief above him, "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown +of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at +that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his +appearing." + +Between two and three o'clock on Monday afternoon, January 19, she was +quietly receiving some food from the nurse, when suddenly she said, "The +room seems dark." She then made a surprising effort, such as she had +been incapable of for some time, and reached forward from her pillow, +saying, "Who is that at the door?" The nurse was with her alone, and at +her side, the family being at the table. Coming to her room, we found +that she was apparently sinking into a deep sleep, as though it were +only a sleep, profound and quiet. + +I asked her if she knew me. + +She made no answer. + +I said, "You know Jesus." A smile played about her mouth. We rejoiced, +and wept for joy. + +I then said, "If you know father, press my hand." She gave me no +sign--that smile being her last intelligent act.--And so she passed +within the veil. + +I was able to relate all this from my pulpit the Sabbath after her +decease, not merely because the period of the greatest suffering under +bereavement had not come, but chiefly because the consolations of the +trying scene, and hopes full of immortality, had not lost their new +power. I was therefore like those who, on the first Christian Sabbath +morning, "departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy, +and did run to bring his disciples word." + +It is intimated above that the greatest suffering at the death of a +friend does not occur immediately upon the event. It comes when the +world have forgotten that you have cause to weep; for when the eyes are +dry, the heart is often bleeding. There are hours,--no, they are more +concentrated than hours,--there are moments, when the thought of a lost +and loved one, who has perished out of your family circle, suspends all +interest in every thing else; when the memory of the departed floats +over you like a wandering perfume, and recollections come in throngs +with it, flooding the soul with grief. The name, of necessity or +accidentally spoken, sets all your soul ajar; and your sense of loss, +utter loss, for all time, brings more sorrow with it by far than the +parting scene. + + * * * * * + +She who was the sweet singer of my little Israel is no more. The child +whose sense of beauty made her the swiftest herald to me of every fair +discovery and new household joy, will never greet me again with her +surprises of gladness. She who, leaning upon my arm as we walked, +silently conveyed to me such a sense of evenness, firmness, dignity; she +whose child-like love was turning into the womanly affection for a +father; she who was complete in herself, as every good child is, not +suggesting to your thoughts what you would have a child be, but filling +out the orb of your ideal beauty, still partly in outline; her seat, +her place at the table, at prayers, at the piano, at church; the sight +of her going out and coming in; her tones of speech, her helpful spirit +and hands, and all the unfinished creations of her skill, every thing +that made her that which the growing associations with her name had +built up in our hearts,--all is gone, for this life; it is removed like +a tree; it is departed like a shepherd's tent. + +And all this, too, is saved. It survives, or I would not, I could not, +write thus. There comes to my sorrowing heart some such message as the +sons of Jacob brought to their father, when they said, "Joseph is yet +alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt." + +Jesus of Nazareth has been in my dwelling, and has done a great work of +healing. He has saved my child; saved her to be a happy spirit; forever +saved her for himself, to employ her powers of mind and heart in his +blissful service; saved her for the joyful welcome and embraces of her +mother, and of a second mother, who laid deep and strong foundations in +her character for goodness and knowledge. He has saved her for me, +through all eternity. She will be my sweet singer again; she will have +in store for me all the wonderful discoveries which her intense love of +beauty will have made her treasure up, to impart, when the child +becomes, as it were, parent, for a little while, to the soul of the +parent in heaven, new-born. I said to her, a day or two before she died, +"Those mothers will show you things in heaven; for we read, '_And he +shewed me_ a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding +out of the throne of God and the Lamb.'" + +But John mistook this heavenly saint for an angel, so glorious was his +appearance, and he fell down to worship him, but was told, "See thou do +it not; for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, +and of them which keep the sayings of this book." Then what will she +herself be, when these eyes behold her again? And what will she have +treasured up to tell me? she, who always brought rare things for me from +the woods and the shore, surpassing those of her companions. If He who +redeemed her, and has presented her faultless before the presence of his +glory with exceeding joy, will bestow that nurture and culture upon her +which are implied in leading her to living fountains of waters, what +will she be? and how good it will seem that she left earth so early, +since it was the will of God, to enter upon such a career of bliss! + +A few years ago, I appropriated a wedding gift from a friend to the +purchase of a guitar for her, as a birthday gift in her early sickness. +To assist her in learning to play upon it, I first gained some knowledge +of the instrument. We kept it in its case in my study; and sometimes, on +coming home, and feeling in the mood of it, I wished to handle it, and +instead of unlocking the case to see if the instrument were there, I +would knock upon it; and straightway what turbulence of harmonies rang +from all the strings. Now, it is so with every thing connected with her +memory; every thing associated with her, even though outwardly sombre +and dreary, like those black cases for musical instruments, being +appealed to, or accidentally encountered, sings of her still, with a +troubled and a pathetic, pleasing music. + +In her very early childhood, she and two of the children were sick with +a children's epidemic. The crisis had passed; an anxious day with regard +to one of the children had been followed by entire relief from our +fears. As we sat at table that evening, we heard music from the chambers +of the sick children; we opened the door and listened. This daughter was +singing, and the chorus of her little school song was, "All are here, +all are here." She did not think of the signification which those words +had to our hearts. It was one of those household pleasures which have so +much of heaven in them. I can sometimes hear her singing to me now, +from those upper skies, in the name of the four who have gone there from +my dwelling, "All are here, all are here." She bequeathed her guitar, +but her voice and hand now join with "the voice of harpers harping with +their harps." + +We sometimes think that they miss great good who depart from us in early +years; that one who has arrived at the entrance to the world's great +feast must be sadly disappointed to be led away, never to go in. Now, it +is true that we must not shrink from the battle of life; we must take +upon ourselves, if God ordains it, the great jeopardy of disappointment +and sorrow, and the chance of life's joys; we must each stand in his +lot; we must send children forth into the harvest of the earth for +sheaves, and whether they faint and die under their load, or deck +themselves with garlands,--still, let them be laborers together with +God, and let us not seek exemption for them. But if God ordains their +early translation to heaven, what can earth afford them in the way of +pleasure, granting the cup to be full and unalloyed, to be compared with +fulness of joy? Fair maidens in heaven,--and O, how many of them has +consumption gathered in!--fair maidens there are like the white flowers, +which are sacred to peculiar times and scenes. How goodly must be their +array! What a perpetual spring tide of vivacious joy and delight do they +create in heaven. It is pleasant to have a child among them. + +It has been my privilege to see, in this child, an example of true +preparation for death, which begins before the expectation of dying +brings the least discredit, or breath of suspicion, upon our motives in +attending to the subject of religion. Preparation for death consists in +justification by faith, extending its influence into the whole +character, to bring us under the rule of Christ. The fruit of this is +friendship with God, the confidence of love, knowing whom we have +believed, with the persuasion of our having committed to him an infinite +trust, and that he will keep it with covenant faithfulness. So when +death comes and knocks at the door, it is true the heart beats quicker, +as it is apt to do whoever knocks there; for, to give up one's hold on +life, to turn and look eternal things full in the face, to think of +meeting God, and of having your endless condition fixed, summons the +whole of natural and acquired fortitude; and only they who have an +unseen arm to lean upon at such a time, endure in that trial. Then past +experience comes in with her powerful aid: "I have fought a good fight;" +"the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps;" "remember, O +Lord, how I have walked before thee." Thus there is something to make +you feel that your justification, by free grace, has the evidence +afforded by its fruits; and the preparation to die may be likened to +that of which the Saviour speaks when he says, "He that is washed +needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit." I have seen +it, have watched it, have studied it, in the dying scenes of this child. +Hers was not the experience of the sinner, pulled suddenly from the +waves by a hand which he had for a long time, nay, always, spurned; but +her dying was an arrival at the end of a voyage, the coming home of a +good child to long-expecting hearts and arms. We said one to another +around her dying bed,--yes, we had composure to say, as we watched that +parting scene, that fading cloud, that sinking gale, that dying wave, +that shutting eye of day,--"Think of such a poor, helpless, dying +creature, if, in the sense intended by those words, she should 'fall +into the hands of the living God.'" And we glorified God in her. Never +did I see and feel more deeply, by contrast, the folly of trusting to a +death-bed repentance, to repair the errors of a wasted life. It is a +deliberate attempt at fraud upon the Most High; it is folly; for the +risk is fearful, and could we obtain salvation, how mercenarily!--and +what a memorial would it be in heaven of loss, instead of being "a crown +of righteousness!" They who are all their lifetime ignorant, being +unfortunately deprived of opportunity for religious instruction, may +with wonder and joy accept the surprising news of pardon, through +Christ, on a dying bed, and soar to the same heights with apostles in +their praises of redeeming love. But if we hear of salvation by Christ +all our life long, and know our duty, but prefer the pleasures of sin +for a season, and think that in the swellings of Jordan we shall find +peace and safety, our conduct deserves all the opprobrious names which +are heaped upon it by inspired tongues and pens. We who are parents must +teach our children that religion does not consist merely in being +pardoned, and, if pardoned, no matter whether early or late; but that it +is the first, the constant, the all-pervading rule of life, God and his +service the chief end of man, and that the pleasures of religion are the +sweetest pleasures, hallowing all others which are innocent, and leading +us to reject those, and only those, which would be unsuitable or +injurious, even if religious custom did not forbid them. We must know +this, and practise upon it, ourselves; else, how can we expect the +children to believe it? + +The exceeding relief which a timely preparation for death by an early +consecration of herself to God, imparted to this child and to us, was +felt in this, that she and we had no distressing thoughts at her total +inability, for a long time, to join in prayer with others, or to be +conversed with in any way that excited much feeling. The diseased +throat, where, as we all know, our emotions, even in health and +strength, make such interference with our comfort, prevented her from +joining in any religious exercises, because she would then be liable to +the excitement of feelings which, in the way just intimated, would have +injured her. With such affections of the bronchial passages, efforts of +mind which are not spontaneous are sometimes agony. Connected endeavors +to follow conversation and prayer were impossible, and she told me, on +saying this, that she took great comfort from a remark, in a book, +addressed to a sick person--"Do not think, but pray." She prayed much +herself; her thoughts, too, were prayers, in certain cases. Now, in that +weakened condition, what could she have done, and what would have been +her father's feelings, had she not, in health and strength, arrived at +such a state of religious knowledge and experience as to remove anxiety +for her spiritual welfare, and to make us feel that she had Christ in +her, the hope of glory? When the cry was made, "Behold, the bridegroom +cometh," she arose and trimmed her lamp, and had oil in her vessel with +her lamp. Wealth could not purchase the relief and satisfaction which +this gave to her friends;--so truly is religion called the "pearl of +great price;" so literally true are the Saviour's words, "But one thing +is needful." It is the greatest blessing which a young person can bestow +on Christian parents, to be a Christian; and what its value is to +surviving parents, ask those who sorrow as they that have no hope. When +a young Christian comes to die, he testifies that he lost nothing, but +gained every thing, with eternal life, by being a Christian in his early +years. I can imagine what this child would say to one and another of her +young friends who may read these pages, and how she would seek to +persuade them, as the first great duty of their existence, and for their +best good here, and for their everlasting peace, to choose the good +part, which will never be taken away from them. + +Her funeral was a scene from which many went away rejoicing in God; and +not a few date new progress in the Christian life from it, by means of +the new and striking illustration which they there had of the Saviour's +power and love. The Choir struck the key note of heaven in their opening +strains, by chanting, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive +power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and +blessing." They gave us, too, her favorite song, by which she was +remembered in several circles, at home and abroad, before she was sick, +and the words of which, now, seem to have had a prophetic meaning from +her lips:-- + + "I'm a pilgrim, and I'm a stranger; + I can tarry, I can tarry but a night;"-- + +which was sung at the funeral with a sweetness which added much to the +associations with it in our minds; and in the closing hymn, how strange +it seemed, at a funeral, to hear the singers, though by our own request +and though in accordance with all which had passed, bid us + + "Proclaim abroad his name, + Tell of his matchless fame, + What wonders done! + Shout through hell's dark profound, + Let the whole earth resound, + Till the high heavens rebound, + The victory's won;"-- + +and to hear them, as they cried one to another, saying,-- + + "All hail the glorious day, + When, through the heavenly way, + Lo, He shall come; + While they who pierced him wail; + His promise shall not fail; + Saints, see your King prevail; + Come, dear Lord, come." + +For those ministrations of love and tenderness in the last, sad offices +to the dead, which no wealth could buy, repeated now by some of the same +hands several times in my dwelling, there are no words of gratitude +adequate to the great debt of love. The mothers of my church, who met +weekly with her mother for prayer, remembered her child, and provided +nurses for her, to her own unspeakable comfort and our great relief. +Friends and strangers, touched with her protracted sickness, poured +blessings around her couch; fruits, in their season, and when out of +their season, of what almost unearthly beauty! and flowers which, with +the fruits, made that sick room seem like the garden which the Lord +planted in Eden. Such have been the alleviations of pain and suffering, +the comforts, and even the pleasures, and above all the rich spiritual +consolations and joys, and the more than conquering faith of the dying +hour,--such a union in all this of Jesus and his friends,--that I have +made the case of the ruler of the synagogue mine, of whom, as he went to +his afflicted house, it is said, "And Jesus arose and followed him, and +so did his disciples." They will go wherever Jesus leads the way; and he +will lead the way wherever there is a lamb to be folded in his bosom. + +There were not wanting those who lent me their sepulchre, in the city, +for a season--a kindness always peculiar and affecting, but also needful +in this instance, because of the great snows which made the roads to +Mount Auburn impassable for several days. Nor can I forget that, when +Saturday evening closed upon us, words and tokens of kindness came from +the younger members of my congregation, who had provided for the last +earthly things which the precious dust of their young friend required; +and so they seemed to bid me rest from all care and thoughtfulness, upon +the "Sabbath day, according to the commandment." All which should +increase my feelings of sympathy and kindness for the sick, and +especially for the sick poor, whose rooms, and whose dying hours, and +whose griefs, are oftentimes in such contrast to those into which divine +and human loving kindness seem striving to pour their abundant +consolations. As the family retired from the dying scene, and were +weeping together, a father came to my door, in that great snow-storm, to +say that his son, the young man, not a member of my congregation, whom I +had several times visited, was near his end, and would like to see me. +Stranger comparatively though he was, and impassable as the streets were +by any vehicle, and almost by foot passengers, my gratitude for the +sweet and peaceful end of my own dear child, and for her undoubted +admission to the realms of bliss, was such, that, within an hour or two, +I forced my way to a distant part of the city, to assist another +departing spirit for its flight. This heart has no more fortitude, nor +has it less of natural affection and sensibility, than ordinarily falls +to the lot of men; hence those consolations must have been great, that +support and strength equal to the day, that hope concerning my child an +anchor sure and steadfast, which enabled me thus to go from her clay, +just cold, to aid a passing spirit in obtaining like precious faith with +hers, and the same inheritance. My motive in thus lifting a little of +the veil, or in placing a light behind the transparency, of my private +feelings, I trust will be seen to be, that I may comfort others with the +comfort wherewith I was comforted of God. + +But there awaits me a blessing, with a joy, surpassing all that has gone +before. "My daughter is even now dead; but come and lay thy hand upon +her, and she shall live." From her grave, which was soon made by the +side of kindred dust, Jesus will raise her up at the last day; her voice +will come to that body; her youthful beauty will be reestablished by +her likeness to Christ's own glorious body; she will lean upon my arm +again; the separation and absence will enhance the joy of meeting; we +shall say, How like a hand-breadth was the separation! We shall see +reasons full of wisdom and love for the sickness and the early death. We +shall part no more. All this has more than once made me say, and sing,-- + + "O, for this love, let rocks and hills + Their lasting silence break, + And all harmonious human tongues + The Saviour's praises speak." + +Young friend, you will need him as the great Physician, the Friend in +sorrow, the Forerunner in the dark passages of life, the Conqueror of +death, the Lord our Righteousness, and, all endearing names in one, +Immanuel, God with us. + +Parents, you will need him for your children. Children, you will need +him when father and mother, one or both, have forsaken you, or, if +alive, can only make you feel how little their fond love can do for you. +When the name of _father_, cannot rouse you, nor your cold hand return +the pressure of your father's hand, you will need a nearer, dearer +friend, in the person of Him who loved you, and gave himself for you. + +It has been one of the richest joys of my pastoral life, that I have +sent to her mother in heaven her child, whom God had prepared for so +early a departure out of this world. This ministry of reconciliation has +been blessed to the salvation of my child. It should make me love the +children of my pastoral charge more than ever, seek to gather them into +the fold of Christ, that whole families, each like a constellation, may +rise together in the firmament of heaven; and, in the mean time, that +the members of every household, as they desert us one by one, may call +back to us, and say, for the departed, "All are here." + +God takes a family here and there, in a circle of acquaintances and +friends, and greatly afflicts them; and thus he teaches others. As we +look, therefore, upon the afflicted, we ought to say,-- + + "For us they languish, and for us they die; + And shall they languish, shall they die, in vain?" + +God is the same when he takes away the child, as when he laid that gift +in our hands. Perhaps, indeed, the removal is really a greater exercise +of love than the gift. It must seem good and acceptable in the sight of +God, if, when we are bereaved, we employ ourselves occasionally in +rehearsing before him the circumstances in his past goodness, which, at +the time, made it exceedingly sweet and precious. Our debt of obligation +for it is not yet fully paid; nor is it diminished at all by the removal +of the blessing. Instead of abandoning ourselves to grief, we do well if +we commune with God more frequently respecting his signal acts of favor +in connection with the lost blessing. + +But the memory of lost joys is always apt to depress the mind +inordinately. We question whether it is really better to have + + "loved and lost + Than never to have loved at all." + +Taking a future life into the account, surely no doubt can remain as to +that question; but one who has really loved, will not be long in coming +to the same conclusion, irrespective of the future. Must God abstain +from making us exceedingly happy, because, forsooth, we shall be so +unhappy when, in the exercise of the same goodness and wisdom which +dictated the gift, he sees it best to take it away? If we love him more +than we love his gifts, then the removal of them will make us love him +more than ever. + + "Though now He frowns, I'll praise the Almighty's name, + And bless the source whence past enjoyments came." + +We often hear it said, that every thing which happens to us is for our +good, even in this world.--Many things happen to men, even to +Christians, which are plainly not for their good in this life, though +all things will, eventually, work together for good to them that love +God. Some things, then, even here, are intended to be life-long sorrows +and trials. Their object is reproof and constant admonition. We need +another state of existence to explain the present. If that future state +does not prove that earthly discipline has had its designed effect, the +sorrows of this life show that God can bear to see us suffer, even when +he foresees that no good will result to the sufferer. For while men +suffer excruciatingly under bereavements, these sufferings often fail to +make them better. God foresees all this. Hence God is able to look upon +suffering which he sees will not be for the good of the afflicted. + +If, now, his design in our trials (which pierced his heart before they +reached ours) is utterly frustrated by our sins, the question will +arise, whether the God who can bear to see us suffer for our good, +which, nevertheless, he foresees will not be effected, will not be able +to see us suffer as the fruit of our sins, and of our resistance to his +designs. One who has endured much mental suffering cannot have failed to +see, that God's parental relation to us is not analogous to that of +parent and child among men. It terminates in the relations of governor +and of judge; being, indeed, from the first, included in those +relations. This is not so in our earthly relationship. God sees men +suffer as no earthly parent could; he inflicts pain as no earthly parent +should. All is for our profit; but if that object fails through our +perverseness, we are instructed, by our experience, that if God can look +on mental anguish and not relieve it, because he seeks an ulterior good, +the punishment of sin, the natural and just consequences of disobedience +to the great laws of the universe, may be, in their extended impression, +another ulterior good, which will warrant the same mental sufferings +after death, and forever. + +Could I be permitted, therefore, I would take by the hand every bereaved +father whom so great an affliction as the death of a child has not +succeeded in bringing into a state of preparation for heaven, and kindly +ask how he expects to bear a final and endless separation. "If thou hast +run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou +contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou +trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of +Jordan?" God describes to his ancient people one of the great sorrows +which will happen to them, if they forsake him, in their separations, by +captivity, from their children: "Thy sons and thy daughters shall be +given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with +longing, for them all the day long; and there shall be no might in thy +hand." Pains of absence, sudden convulsions of feeling at the remembered +looks, form, words, and motions of a loved one, sometimes are as when +men feel the earth quaking under them; and then, again, they entirely +prostrate us, for the moment, like a tornado. Homesickness in a foreign +land,--an ocean stretching between us and the objects of our love--is +an admonition to us with respect to future, endless separations. The +hopeless death of a child has sometimes had the effect to change the +long-established faith of a parent with regard to future retribution; +all the acknowledged principles of interpretation, all the results of +meditation and prayer, the theory of the divine government which has +been built up in the soul, till it became identified with personal +consciousness, the whole analogy of faith,--all, have been swept away by +the overmastering power of parental love for one who, when he died, left +his friends to sorrow as they that have no hope. Now, supposing a parent +to fail of heaven, and to retain his instinctive parental feelings, the +endless separation between him and his family will be a source of sorrow +which needs only to be kept up, by an ever-living memory, to constitute +all which is pictured in the boldest metaphors of inspired tongues and +pens. A father in disgrace, or under ignominy, suffers intensely when +he sees or thinks of his children, provided his natural sensibilities +are not destroyed. A father punished, hereafter, by his Redeemer and +Judge, a father banished from the company of heaven, knowing that his +family are there, and that if his influence had had its full effect, +they would all have perished with him,--or a father with a part of his +children with him in perdition, the wife and mother with one or more of +the children in heaven,--is a picture of woe which nothing but timely +repentance and faith in Christ may prevent from being a reality in the +experience of some who read these lines. Can it be true, as Bishop Hall +says, that "to be happy is not so sweet a state as it is miserable to +have been happy"? O man, if you have a child in heaven, think that, +among the sweet influences of divine love, there probably is no more +powerful motive to draw your affections towards God, than that glimpse +which you sometimes seem to have of this child's face, on which heaven +has traced its lineaments of peace and bliss; or that sudden whisper of +a gentle, child-like voice, now and then heard by the ear of fancy, +persuading you to be a Christian. Do not let the world, or shame, or +procrastination, lead you to resist such efforts of almighty love to +save you. He who has had a child saved by Christ, and will not be +himself a Christian,--what more can God do to save him? + +The breaking up of our homes is one of the mysteries of God's +providence. The last thing, perhaps, which we might suppose would be +allowed, is, the removal of a mother from a family of young children. +This being so frequent, we cease to wonder at any other dispensations; +we conclude that separations are to be made, regardless of any and every +seeming necessity and endearment. "Sirs, I perceive that this voyage +will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading and ship, but +also of our lives." The conviction is forced upon us that there is +another world, for which we must make all our calculations. "There is a +better world," said the distinguished William Wirt, after the death of +his daughter, in 1831,--"there is a better world, of which I have +thought too little. To that world she has gone, and thither my +affections have followed her. This was Heaven's design. I see and feel +it as distinctly as if an angel had revealed it. I often imagine that I +can see her beckoning me to the happy world to which she has gone. She +was my companion, my office companion, my librarian, my clerk. My papers +now bear her indorsement. She pursued her studies in my office, by my +side, sat with me, walked with me, was my inexpressibly sweet and +inseparable companion,--never left me but to go and sit with her mother. +We knew all her intelligence, all her pure and delicate sensibility, the +quickness and power of her perceptions, her seraphic love. She was all +love, and loved all God's creation, even the animals, trees, and plants. +She loved her God and Saviour with an angel's love, and died like a +saint."[A] + +[Footnote A: Kennedy's Life of William Wirt--letter to Judge Carr.] + +About the same time, he writes to his wife,-- + +"I want only my blessed Saviour's assurance of pardon and acceptance to +be at peace. I wish to find no rest short of rest in him,--Let us both +look up to that heaven--where our Saviour dwells, and from which he is +showing us the attractive face of our blessed and happy child, and +bidding us prepare to come to her, since she can no more visibly come to +us. I have no taste now for worldly business. I go to it reluctantly. I +would keep company only with my Saviour and his holy book. I dread the +world, the strife, and contention, and emulation of the bar; yet I will +do my duty--this is part of my religion." + +In December, 1833, another daughter died; but he writes,-- + +"I look upon life as a drama, bearing the same sort, though not the +same degree, of relation to eternity, as an hour spent at the theatre, +and the fictions there exhibited ... do to the whole of real life. Nor +is there any thing in this passing pageant worth the sorrow that we +lavish on it. Now, when my children or friends leave me, or when I shall +be called to leave them, I consider it as merely parting for the present +visit, to meet under happier circumstances, when we shall part no +more."[B] + +[Footnote B: Kennedy's Life of William Wirt--letter to Judge Cabell.] + + * * * * * + +"All my children," said the venerable John Eliot, of Roxbury, "are +either with Christ or in Christ." Happy, happy man! The little ones, +blighted soon by the touch of death, surely are with Christ; "for of +such is the kingdom of God." The cherub boy, and the blooming, broken +flower, the young daughter,--the young man in his strength, the young +maiden in her beauty,--are there. As we commune together, in the pages +which follow, on themes touching this subject, God grant that every one +who has not yet gladdened the heart of parent, and pastor, nay, of that +infinite Friend, our Saviour, by the surrender of the heart to God, and +every father and mother who is yet unprepared to join the growing circle +of the family in heaven,--('how grows in Paradise their store!')--may, +as we reach the last page, find that with cords of a man, with bands of +love, He who made Pleiades, and Arcturus and his sons, has united them +in eternal fellowship with their departed loved ones, through faith in +Christ. This, while it hallows the remainder of life with the rich, +mellowed beauty of the changing leaf, and ripening grain, and shortening +days, lays the foundation of that perfect happiness for which our homes +are intended to prepare us; their joys alluring, their separations +pointing, us to heaven. + + + + +II. + +THE FEAR OF DEATH ALLEVIATED. + + Yea, and moreover this full well know I: + He that's at any time afraid to die + Is in weak case, and (whatsoe'er he saith) + Hath but a wavering and a feeble faith. + +GEORGE WITHER. + + +Unless we know the customs of the wandering shepherds with their flocks, +one verse in the twenty-third Psalm, so often quoted in view of death, +appears abrupt, but otherwise appropriate and very beautiful. One of a +flock is expressing his confidence in God, his Shepherd: "When I have +satisfied my hunger from the green pastures, he makes me to lie down in +them; and the still, clear streams are my drink." Then a thought occurs +which appears as though a dying man were speaking, and not a sheep: but +it is still the language of a sheep. Keeping this in mind, let it be +remembered that the shepherds wandered from place to place to find +pasture. In doing so, they were sometimes obliged to pass through dark, +lonely valleys. Wild beasts, and creatures less formidable, but of +hateful sight, and with doleful voices, made it difficult for the flocks +to be led through such passages. There was frequently no other way from +one pasturage to another but through these places of death-shade, or +valleys of the shadow of death,--which was a term to express any dark +and dismal place. + +Now, let us imagine a flock reposing in a green pasture, and by the side +of still waters, conversing about their shepherd, their pastures, and +streams. One of them says, "In the midst of all this peace and +contentment, there is a thought which spoils my comfort. We cannot stay +here forever; we are to go, presently, beyond the mountains; they say +that there are valleys, in those regions, full of dangers. My +expectation is, that we shall be torn to pieces. My enjoyment of these +pastures and waters is nearly destroyed by my forebodings about those +valleys." + +Another of the flock replies, "Have we not an able, faithful, +experienced shepherd? Have we not seen his ability to defend us in past +dangers? Is he not as much concerned for our defence and safety as +ourselves? While he is my shepherd, I shall not want.--Yea, though I +walk through those valleys of death-shade, I will fear no evil; for he +is with me; his rod and his staff they comfort me." + +The shepherd carried with him two instruments--the staff, for his own +support, and to attack a beast or robber; and the crook, or rod. By this +crook, the shepherd guided a sheep in a dangerous pass, placing the +crook under the sheep's neck, to hold him up and assist his steps. When +a sheep was disposed to stray, the shepherd could hold him back with his +crook. When the sheep had fallen into the power of a beast, the crook +assisted in drawing him away. A good sheep loved the crook as much as +the staff,--to be guided, as well as to be defended. Both of the +shepherd's instruments were a great comfort to the sheep, while passing +through a frightful and dangerous valley. + +The interpretation usually given to the words, "thy rod and thy +staff"--as though they meant "thy gentle reproofs and thy severe +rebukes"--is erroneous. A sheep would hardly tell his shepherd that his +chastising rod, and the heavy blows of his staff, comforted him. The +meaning is, It is a comfort to me to feel the crook of thy rod helping +me in trouble, and to know that thy staff is my defence against wild +beasts. + + * * * * * + +Through fear of death, many who are truly the followers of Christ, are, +nevertheless, all their lifetime subject to bondage. On whatever +mountains, into whatever pastures, and by whatever streams, their +Shepherd leads them, they know that there is a valley into which they +must go down, and the imagined darkness and horrors of the place make +them continually afraid. + +A fear of death, without doubt, is frequently permitted, as a means of +religious restraint. Some, who have wondered at this trial all their +life long, find that its influence is great in keeping them near to the +Shepherd and Bishop of their souls. If a flock could reason, no doubt +the shepherd would make use of the fears of the sheep, in many +instances, to keep them from going astray. If one of them were inclined +to wander, it would be natural for the shepherd to caution that sheep +against the dark valley, warning him of its terrors, and making him feel +how necessary it would be to have a shepherd there, with his crook and +staff. It may be that apprehensions with regard to death are the most +powerful means, with some, of keeping them from going astray, and of +holding their minds to the contemplation of spiritual things. + +It has often been observed that those Christians whose fears of death +were very great for a large part of their life, frequently die with +triumph. The reality is not such as they feared; they found support and +consolation which they did not anticipate. + +One of the most trying anticipations with regard to death, in the minds +of many, long before the event arrives, is, separation from those whom +we love. And yet, there is probably nothing in human experience more +remarkable, than the singular resignation, and even cheerfulness, with +which some, who have had every thing to make life desirable, have left +all and followed Christ when he came to lead them through the valley. +The young wife and mother, in her dying hours, becomes the comforter of +her husband; she turns and looks at the infant who is held up to receive +her farewell, and the mother alone is calm, sheds no tear, gives the +farewell kiss with composure. "Thy rod" is supporting her; "thy staff" +is keeping at bay the passions and fears of the natural heart. So a +widowed mother leaves a large family of young children, with a peace +which passes all understanding. And the father of a dependent family, +which never could, in a greater measure, need a father's presence, looks +upon them from his dying bed, and says to them, with the serenity of the +patriarch, "Behold, I die; but God shall be with you." Nothing is more +true than this, that dying grace is for a dying hour; that is, we +cannot, in health and strength, have the feelings which belong to the +hour of parting; but as any and every scene and condition, into which +God brings his children, has its peculiar frames of mind fitted to the +necessity of each case, we need not make the useless effort to practise +all the resignation, and experience all the comforts, which come only +when they are actually needed. We do not often hear the first part of +the following passage quoted; but in such rocky and thorny paths as we +are often made to pass through, how good it is to read: "Thy shoes shall +be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be." If God is +our Shepherd, he will cause us to pass, one by one, through the valley +which is before us, leaving some most dear to us on the hither side. +Suppose that when a shepherd is employed in removing his flock from one +mountain to another, through a valley, one of the flock should mourn his +separation from companions, or from its young. The shepherd would say, +"You cannot all pass together; leave your companions and the young to +me; I will restore them to you on the other side." He might also +remonstrate and say, "Am I not, as their shepherd, interested in +protecting and removing them? You can add nothing to my strength and +wisdom; let me take you safety through the valley, and trust me to do +the same for them." + +The ancient shepherd was specially careful of the lambs; he carried them +in his arms, and sometimes folded them beneath his shepherd's coat. We +can imagine the feelings of some of a flock when, leaving them at a +short distance, but within sight, the shepherd would take a lamb, carry +it down into the valley, and disappear with it for a little while. With +all their confidence in their shepherd, some of the flock would manifest +uneasiness at the separation, especially if the valley looked dark and +dangerous. If it were the only lamb of its mother, it was natural for +that mother to be distressed, and to lament. Though the young creature +had gone safely to the other side, and was at play in the new pasture, +and the mother believed it, this could not always quiet her. The good +Shepherd has taken some of our lambs through the valley. They are safe +upon the other side. They have joined the flock of Christ. Let us give +our lambs to the Shepherd's care, to bear them through the valley, +whenever he sees fit that they should be removed. We must all pass +through that valley. If, from special love to our young, he will see +them safely on the other side before he calls for us, we will intrust +them to Him who claims our confidence by saying to us, I am the Good +Shepherd. One of the prophecies concerning Christ reveals that tender +love and care, on his part, for children, which characterized him while +on earth: "He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his +bosom." + +The fear of death is owing, in many cases, to the dread of dissolution. + +The previous sickness prepares the soul and the body for their +separation, so that, in very many cases, it is the greatest relief to +die. We are, perhaps, mistaken if we suppose that those Christians who +are in great bodily pain in their last hours, suffer in mind. The +effects of death on the frame do not necessarily disturb the +tranquillity of the soul. The body may be in spasms while the soul is at +peace; and the reverse is true;--as in nightmare, when the mind is +distressed while the body sleeps. A Christian has nothing to fear in +this respect. To die will not be--as in full health we suppose it is--a +violent rending asunder of the soul from the unyielding grasp of the +body; but the preparation of the mortal frame for dissolution, by the +sickness, however rapid, also fits the mind for the event. Even in +cases of death by accidents, this appears to be true. + + * * * * * + +But many feel that to die is to be transferred suddenly, and with +violence, into strange scenes, which must overwhelm and distract the +senses. It seems to them that it must be like being whirled instantly +into a distant, unknown city, and waking up amidst the confusion and +strangeness of that place. We cannot believe that such is the experience +of dying Christians. It would rather seem that there is, at first, a +perception of spiritual forms, of ministering spirits, whispering peace +to the soul, and assuring it of safety, and bidding it fear not. It is +said of angels, "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to +minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" When can we need +their ministry more, than in the passage from this world to the world of +spirits? Perhaps the disclosure is made of some departed friends; and +the fancy of those who thought that they saw beloved ones beckoning them +away, may have had its foundation in truth. There is much of +probability in that well-known piece, "The dying Christian's address to +his soul;"--and no part of it is more probable than this:-- + + "Hark! they whisper; angels say, + Sister spirit, come away." + +It is not improbable--it seems accordant with divine goodness--that such +methods should be employed to relieve the anxiety of the departing +spirit. Sometimes the dying Christian has declared that he heard +enrapturing music. It is possible that voices were employed to soothe +him to sleep, and to soften the transition, from the full consciousness +of life, to the revelations of the heavenly world. Perhaps the effect of +disease upon the organs of hearing was such as to produce something like +sounds, which, in a joyous state of mind, were pleasurable. During the +siege of Jerusalem in 1836, the wife of an American missionary sung +while dissolution was actually taking place. The tones of her voice, +they said, seemingly more than mortal, were far different from any +thing which they had ever heard, even from her. God is often pleased to +use these natural effects of dissolution on the body, to comfort the +passing spirit of his child. Whether visions or real voices are actually +seen or heard, is of no consequence, so long as the soul has a rational +and assured hope. Some means are unquestionably used in every case to +make the dying believer feel that he is safe. He is not compelled to +wait in uncertainty and fear for a moment. His fears are anticipated; he +is among other friends, the moment that he grows insensible to those who +watch his departing breath. Neither are we to suppose that heaven breaks +upon the senses of the spirit with such an overpowering brightness, as +to excite confusion and pain. No doubt the revelation is gradual and +most pleasant. Perhaps the celestial city appears at first in the +distance, having the glory of God most precious; the approach to it is +gradual; voices are heard afar off, and from the convoy of ministering +spirits, such information and instructions are received as prepare it +for the full vision of heaven. Every thing is calm and serene; the light +is attempered to its new and feeble vision. He who makes the sun to rise +by slow degrees, and does not pour straight, fierce rays upon the waking +eyes even of sinful men, certainly will not torment the soul of his +child with any such revelations of unseen things as will give pain. The +same care which has redeemed and saved him, will order all these things +in covenanted love. + +Some of the preceding thoughts are well expressed in the following +anonymous lines, written on seeing Mr. Greenough's group of the Angel +and Child ascending to Heaven:-- + + "CHILD. Whither now wilt thou proceed? + ANGEL. Come up hither; I will show thee. + Follow me with joyful speed; + Leave thy native earth below thee. + CHILD. Stop! mine eyes cannot contain + Such a wondrous flood of light. + ANGEL. Come up hither. Thou shall gain, + As thou risest, stronger sight. + CHILD. Lost in wonder without end, + Joyful, fearful, longing, shrinking, + Lead me, O thou heavenly friend; + Keep a trembling child from sinking. + O, I cannot bear this glory! + Angel brother! how canst thou? + ANGEL. I will tell thee all my story; + I was once as thou art now. + CHILD. When some sorrow did befall me, + Or I felt some strange alarms, + Then my mother's voice would call me, + To the shelter of her arms. + Now what bids my heart rejoice, + Clasped in arms I cannot see? + Hark, I hear a soothing voice + Sweetly whispering, Come to me. + ANGEL. Yes, it calls thee from on high; + Come to God's most holy mountain; + Thou hast drunk the stream of life;-- + I will lead thee to the fountain." + +Some dread the thought of being out of the body and finding themselves +spirits. This is wholly without reason. The soul will not suffer from +losing this body of sin and death; it will have as perfect a +consciousness, it will know where it is, and what is passing before it, +as seems to be the case in a vivid dream when the bodily senses are +locked in slumber. + +As to the natural repugnance which we have to the thoughts of burial and +the grave, it is probable that the soul of a redeemed spirit thinks and +cares as little concerning these things, so far as painful sensations +are concerned, as we do about our garments when we are falling asleep. +The vesture which we formerly wore gives us no solicitude. It is +wonderful to hear the sick, long before they die, give directions, or +express desires, respecting their burial. So far from thinking of the +grave as a melancholy place, no doubt the departed spirit will often +think of it in the separate state with pleasure, as the place where it +is hereafter to receive a form like Christ's; and the thought of +resurrection adds greatly to the joys of heaven. + + * * * * * + +There is something still which affects the minds of many Christians with +fear as they think of dying; and that is, their appearing before God. +They cannot imagine the possibility of seeing him without distraction; +his infinite majesty, and their own sense of unworthiness, make them +afraid. + +But who is God? Is he the Christian's enemy? Will he sit like a king on +his throne, and see his subject come trembling into his presence? Is +this the God who loved him? Is this the Saviour that died for him? Is +this the Holy Spirit who awakened, converted, sanctified, comforted him, +and promised to present him faultless before the presence of his glory +with exceeding joy? God will not have done so much to bring him to +heaven, and, when he comes there, make his appearance before his throne +a matter of fear and uncertainty. He who fell on the neck of the +returning prodigal and kissed him, will not keep him at a distance when, +with the best robe, and the ring, and the shoes, he comes into his +father's house. Our first apprehensions of God will be happy beyond our +present comprehension. What an image have we, in these words, of a man +helping a child, by the hand, through a dangerous or dark way: "For I +the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; +I will help thee." If "I will be with thee," is the reason, which he +himself assigns why we should not be afraid, why should we fear to come +into his presence? + +As to a consciousness of guilt, there is no doubt that he who falls +asleep in Jesus, with reliance on his blood and righteousness, will +immediately, at death, receive such a consciousness of being purified +from all taint of sin, as now is beyond our conception. In the language +of Scripture, we shall be presented faultless before the presence of his +glory with exceeding joy. For the sake of Christ, in whom we trust, we +shall be received and treated as though we had never sinned; we shall +say, in the full assurance of pardon, righteousness, and peace with God, +without waiting for the question to be asked in our behalf, "Who is he +that condemneth?" "It is Christ that died." + +And if this be so, as it surely is, why may not Christians in this world +before they die, nay, from the first hour of justification by faith in +Christ, triumph thus in him? Why should their remaining sinfulness, +their poor, frail, erring nature, which they must carry with them to the +grave, prevent them from having the same joy in God through our Lord +Jesus Christ, by whom also we have received the atonement? Every true +believer in Jesus Christ is warranted in having the same consciousness +of pardon and peace with God, now, as after death; the justifying +righteousness of Christ is as powerful now as it will be then. Some tell +us, "Live a sinless life, and you may have this perfect peace." That is +self-righteousness. It will not be a sinless life which, in the moment +after death, will make us to be openly acknowledged and acquitted; it +will be the righteousness of Jesus Christ which is by faith; and he who +has faith in that righteousness may, living as well as dying, here as +well as in heaven, say, 'There is, therefore, _now_ no condemnation to +them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after +the spirit.' + +There are several things which may reconcile us to the thought of dying: + + * * * * * + +All the people of God since the creation, with two exceptions, have +died. Of the two who were excepted, neither of them was his only +begotten Son. Those whom God has loved peculiarly have not been exempted +from the stroke of death. Shall we ask exemption from that which, all +the good and great have suffered? Let me die the death of the righteous. +If he must find the grave, there will I be buried. We would not go to +heaven but in the way which prophets, apostles, martyrs trod. The +footsteps of the flock lead through the valley; we will seek no other, +no easier, way. + + * * * * * + +Surely we should be willing to follow our great Forerunner. He tasted +death for every man; and he could enter into his triumph only by dying. +We should be more than resigned to follow our blessed Lord into the +tomb. Christ conquered death by dying; we shall be more than conquerors +in the same way. If we suffer great pain, we cannot suffer more than +Christ suffered on our account. Sufferings borne in the spirit of Christ +are counted as sufferings borne for Christ. "If we suffer, we shall also +reign with him." "If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also +glorified together." + + * * * * * + +Death is a part of the penalty of sin. We should, therefore, submit to +it, giving up our bodies to be destroyed, in fulfilment of that sentence +which we have so justly incurred--"and unto dust shalt thou return." He +who hates sin, and condemns himself for it, and is willing to have +fellowship with Christ in his sufferings for it, as it is most +graciously represented that we may, will bear the execution of God's +righteous sentence with a willing mind. + + * * * * * + +Death is the perfecting of our redemption. It is the last act of +redeeming grace. When the Saviour, who says, "I have the keys +of--death," (i.e., no one can die but at the time and manner prescribed +by me,) takes us out of the world, it is to finish the work of our +personal salvation. All the circumstances attending it will be as +deliberately appointed, and as carefully watched and directed, as the +first great act of grace towards us in our regeneration. He, too, who +has provided such pastures and streams for us here, in removing us to +living pastures and to living streams, will, of course, see that we go +safely through the valley which must be passed to reach them. It will +not be a new thing to Christ to see us die. He has watched the dying +beds of millions of his friends, he has had great experience as a +Shepherd in bringing them through the valley. + + * * * * * + +See that chamber in yonder mansion, where all the comforts, and some of +the luxuries, of life, have contributed to prepare for some mysterious +event. The garden of Eden failed to possess such joys as are there in +anticipation, and are soon to be made perfect. Every thing seems +waiting, with silent but thrilling interest, for the arrival of an +unknown occupant. And there is raiment of needle-work, and of fine +twined linen, and gifts of cunning device, from the looms of the old +world, and from graceful fingers and loving hearts here, every want +being anticipated, and some wants imagined, to gratify the love of +satisfying them. And now God breathes the breath of life, and a living +soul begins its deathless career, amidst joys and thanksgivings, which +swell through the wide circles of kindred and acquaintanceship. The Holy +Spirit, in the process of time, renews and sanctifies the soul through +the blood of the everlasting covenant; and having, through life, walked +with God, the day arrives when the spirit must return to God who gave +it. You saw how it was received here, at its entrance into the world. +You have seen what the atonement, and regeneration, and sanctification, +and providence, and grace, have done for it, and with what accumulated +love the Father of Spirits, and Redeemer, and Sanctifier, must regard +it. And now do we suppose that the shroud, and coffin, and the funeral, +and the narrow house, and the darkness, and the solitude and corruption, +and the whole dreary and terrible train of death and the grave, are +symbols of its reception into heaven, the proper pageantry of its +arrival and resting place within the veil? Believe it not! If God +prepared in our hearts such a welcome for the infant stranger, that even +its helpless feet were thought of and cared for, surely when those feet, +wearied in the pilgrimage of the strait and narrow way, arrive at +heaven's gate, it must be, it is, amidst rejoicings and ministrations of +love to which earth has no parallel. Let kings and queens prepare a +royal room for the new-born prince: "In my Father's house are many +mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a +place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come +again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be +also." + +Could we look into that place, as it stands waiting for its occupant +from earth, we should behold sights which would instantly clothe even +death with beauty, and make it seem now, as it will seem then, a blessed +thing to die. + + * * * * * + +To miss of dying would no doubt be a calamity. Dying will be an +experience to the believer which will be fraught with inestimably good +things; that is, the act of dying, and not merely the being dead. It is +no doubt as necessary to the nature of the soul, to its psychology, its +soul-life, as the changes of the worm, chrysalis, and butterfly, are to +the insect. And thus, as in all other things, where sin abounded, grace +much more abounds, and even death, like a cross, is turned into a +ministration of infinite blessing. + +It is not unsuitable for a dying Christian to consider, that he is +compassed about with a great cloud of witnesses, who themselves have +died, and who are watching his departure. We ought to die with such +faith in Jesus, such confidence in God, such confident expectation and +hope, that they will rejoice to see us conquer death. Our last conflict +should be fought in a manner worthy of the company and scenes into which +we are immediately to pass. + +We should not anxiously seek to remove entirely from any one, in the +course of his life, his fears with regard to death, except as we may +substitute faith for those fears. God probably intends them now for the +increase of faith. Moreover, when the event of death happens, it will be +mingled with so much mercy as to make the Christian smile at his fears. +The exhortation of the apostle in view of his great discourse of death +and resurrection is noticeable: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye +steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; +forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." + +There are cases in which the clouded faculties, or delirium, prevent +the full enjoyment of a peaceful, happy death. Such cases seem painful +to friends, but the Shepherd knows when it is best to hide the face of a +sheep which he carries through the valley, and that it is sometimes +better for the sheep to pass the valley in the black and dark night, +than when daylight, by revealing the horrors of the place, would excite +fear. All this may safely be left to those hands which spoiled death of +his sting, and to that love which is stronger than death. Wherever, and +whenever, and in whatever manner we may die, it will be under the care +and direction of Him who will no more see us in the power of the enemy, +than a strong and faithful shepherd would suffer a beloved member of his +flock to fall into the power of the lion. + +The last lines of a hymn by Doddridge-- + + "Then speechless clasp thee in my arms, + The antidote of death"-- + +are altered, by some compilers, who substitute the word _conqueror_ for +_antidote_. But the author saw the truthfulness of his own chosen +language, though the word in question be not convenient for musical +expression. When we are already stung by a poisonous creature, we take +something which proves an antidote to the effect of the sting. This +medicine is not so much a conqueror, as an antidote; for the poison is +not developed. But the sting is inflicted, and before the poisonous +injury is felt, the antidote prevents it. These words of Christ +correspond to this: "Verily, verily I say unto you, If a man keep my +saying, he shall never see death." How often we behold this verified! +The spectators "see death," in his approach, in his effects; they weep +and tremble, while the dear patient does not "see" it; for something +else absorbs his thoughts, fixes his attention; he is stung, indeed, by +the monster; but Christ is an antidote to death, causes it to pass by +without inflicting pain upon the mind, or in any way hurting its victim. +Dr. Watts illustrates and confirms all this:-- + + "Jesus, the vision of thy face + Hath overpowering charms; + Scarce shall I feel death's cold embrace, + If Christ be in my arms." + + * * * * * + +The piece of paper which would suffice to write the twenty-third Psalm +upon it, would not be large enough for a common title deed; and yet that +Psalm, if it expresses our experience, is worth infinitely more than is +conveyed, or secured, by all the registries of deeds under the sun. We +are each of us to see a time when we shall feel the truth of this. If +but these first few words of the Psalm are true in my case, if "the Lord +is my Shepherd," all the rest of the Psalm is a record, a promise, a +pledge, of past, present, and future good. + +There are six things declared by Christ to be characteristic of the +relation which he and his people sustain to each other, as Shepherd and +the sheep: + +1. "My sheep hear my voice; + +2. And I know them; + +3. And they follow me; + +4. And I give unto them eternal life; + +5. And they shall never perish; + +6. Neither shall any pluck them out of my hand." + +Here we find directions to duty, as well as promises of future good. + +Since it is more important how we live than how we die, and since death +is merely the arrival at the end of a journey, the beginning, progress, +and history of the journey determining what the arrival is to be, we +shall do well to dismiss our borrowed trouble with regard to the manner +of our departure out of the world, and be solicitous only with regard to +the right discharge of present duty. We read, "Precious in the sight of +the Lord is the death of his saints." The death of every child of his +is, with God, an object of unspeakable interest; his own honor is +concerned in it; its influence on survivors is of great importance; it +will be among the means by which God accomplishes several, it may be +many, purposes of providence, but especially of his grace. "No man +dieth to himself." Great interests are involved in his death, beyond +his own personal welfare. Now, if we have lived for God, he will make +our death the object of his especial care, and will honor it by its +being the means of promoting his glory. Instead, therefore, of gloomy +apprehensions as to dying, we should cherish the noble wish and aim that +Christ may be magnified in our body, whether it be by life or by death. +If our life has been a walking with God, "THOU ART WITH ME" will be a +perfect warrant, now, and in death, to "FEAR NO EVIL." + + + + +III. + +THE SEARCH FOR THE DEPARTED. + + No bliss mid worldly crowds is bred, + Like musing on the sainted dead. + +BISHOP MANT. + + +We seek in vain, on earth, for one who has gone to heaven. Though better +informed as to the objects of our love than they who lingered about the +deserted tomb of the Saviour, and were asked, "Why seek ye the living +among the dead," we nevertheless find ourselves, in our thoughts, +searching for them; so difficult is it at once to feel that they are +wholly and forever departed. There is an affecting and beautifully +simple illustration of our thoughts and feelings, in this respect, in +the search which was made for Elijah after his translation. Fifty men of +the sons of the prophets went and stood to view afar off, when Elijah +and Elisha stood by the Jordan. Elisha returned alone, and these men +could not feel reconciled to the loss of their great master. They were +not persuaded that he had gone to heaven, no more to return; they sought +leave to seek him, and to recover him: "Peradventure," they said, "the +Spirit of the Lord hath taken him up and cast him upon some mountain, or +into some valley." Elisha peremptorily refused to grant them leave. They +were importunate; and when, at last, it would, perhaps, seem like +obstinacy in him, or like jealousy of their superior love for Elijah, to +forbid the search, which at the worst would only be fruitless, he +yielded. Three days they explored the valleys, ransacked the thickets, +groped in the caves, traversed hills, followed imaginary trails and +footprints, but found him not. When they came again to Elisha, "he said +unto them, Did I not say unto you, Go not?" + +We cannot become accustomed at once, nor for a long time, to the absence +of our friend. If his death was sudden, or if it took place away from +home, or during our absence, we expect to see him again; if a vehicle +stops at the door, the heart beats with an instantaneous hope which dies +with its first breath, bringing over us a deeper and stronger refluence +of sorrow. We catch a sight of articles familiarly used by a departed +friend; they are identified with little passages in his history, or with +his daily life: is it possible that he is altogether and forever +disconnected from them? They are the same; those perishable things, +those comparatively worthless things, having no value at all except as +his use of them made them precious, retain their shapes and places; but +where is he? and must not he return and abide, like them? + +No, he is gone to heaven. The places which knew him shall know him no +more forever. Those things, which have an imperishable value in being +associated with his memory, are, to him, like the leaves of a past +autumn to a tree now filled with blossoms. The mention of every valued +possession once indescribably dear to him, would awaken but slight +emotions; even the recent history of the dwelling which he built and +furnished, would be no more to him than the rehearsal to a grown person +of that which had happened to a block house, or card figure, which +amused his childhood. We walk and sit in the places identified with our +last remembrances of the departed; but he is not there; we hallow the +anniversaries of his birth and death; but he gives us no recognition; we +read his letters; they make him seem alive; his voice, his smile, his +love are there; and when we have finished, nature, exhausted with its +weeping, sighs, "And where is he?" + +He is gone to heaven. Even the earthly house of his tabernacle is +dissolved; that part of him which was all of which we were cognizant by +our senses, is no more. We could not recognize it; to the earth, out of +which it was taken, it has, by slow degrees, returned,--as though every +thing earthly, belonging to him, 'must needs die, and be as water spilt +on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again.' We travel to his +birthplace; there is the house where he was born; we meet those who grew +with him side by side; we are among the scenes which were most familiar +to him; he planted those trees; he collected those pictures; there is +his portrait, he rested here, he studied, he worked, he rejoiced, he +wept, in these consecrated places; but did we go thinking to find him +there? "Did I not say unto you, Go not?" + +We shall surely make him real to our thoughts, if not to our senses, +where he lies buried. But we may as well stand upon the sea shore, where +we had the last look of a sea-faring friend, and think that those +waters, and those sands, and that horizon, will restore him. They only +serve to open farther the path of his departure; they lead our thoughts +away to dwell upon him where we imagine him to be. Nowhere does heaven +seem more real than at the grave of a friend; for we know that he has +not perished, and as we stand on that verge of all our fruitless search +and expectation, we are compelled to fix him somewhere in our thoughts; +but as he is nowhere behind us, we look onward and upward. + +Our desire for departed friends, however natural and innocent, if it +resulted as we sometimes would have it, would prove to be unwise. + +Suppose that those "fifty strong men" had found Elijah, or in any way +could have prevented his translation to heaven. With exultation, they +would have led him back across the Jordan to the company of their +friends, amidst the thanksgivings of the people. But, alas! for the +prophet himself, this would have been his loss, even had it proved to be +their gain. The opening Jordan, cleft in twain by his rapt spirit, +pressing its way to the skies, had returned to its course; and now the +fords of the river, with its rocky bed, would have required his laboring +feet to grope their way back to his toil; or the arms of men, instead of +the chariots of fire and horses of fire, would have borne him again to +the dull realities of life; and there, rebuking Ahab, and fleeing from +Jezebel, punishing the prophets of Baal, and upbraiding the people of +God in their idolatries, fasting and faint under junipers, or covering +his face with his mantle at the still small voice of the Lord his God, +he would again have prayed, "O Lord God, take away my life, for I am no +better than my fathers." 'Let me not wait longer for my promised +translation; let me die as my fathers did; for wherein am I better than +they?' So weary had he grown of life. Blind and weak do these fifty +strong men seem to us, in searching for this ascended prophet, this +traveller over the King's road in royal state, one of the only two who +might not taste of death; the companion, in heaven, of Enoch, with a +body which fills all the ransomed spirits there with joyful expectation, +because it is a pledge and earnest of "the adoption, to wit, the +redemption of their bodies." If, amid the new wonders and raptures of +the heavenly world, he had had one moment to look down upon those +"fifty strong men," as they searched for him, he might well have used, +in cheerful irony, something like his old upbraidings of the priests +near Baal's altar: "Search deeper, ye 'strong men,' in the thickets and +caves; peradventure I sleep in the brakes, and must be awaked; call, +with your fifty voices together, that I may be startled from my trance; +will ye give over till ye bring me back to Jericho? Will ye search but +three days? Shall I lose the remnant of my life on earth?" + +And while they grew weary and discouraged, and concluded that, if he +should be found, it might be in the far distant hills of Moab, or the +wilds of Philistia, or they knew not where, and went back with hearts +unsatisfied, and debating whether he were yet a wanderer upon earth, or +whether so impossible a thing as they deemed his translation to heaven, +without dying, had taken place, the glorified Elijah was with Abraham, +Isaac, and Jacob, with Moses, Joshua, Samuel, and David. But even +Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like him. There, with a body +like unto Christ's own future glorious body, he sat, with but one +compeer--Enoch, and he, transcending all the hosts of the redeemed in +the foretasted glories of the resurrection. Adam, by whom came death, +sees in him that which he himself is to share, when by one Man, also, +shall come the resurrection from the dead. Abel, whose feet first trod +the dark, cold stream, leaving his murdered body behind him, beholds +with love and wonder him who passed the river of death ("that ancient +river!") without dying. Even the Word beholds in him an earnest of his +own incarnation, resurrection, and ascension from Olivet. To-day, our +loved ones in heaven look upon him, and say, as Peter did at this +prophet's visit on Tabor, (when he spoke of tabernacles there--"one for +Elias,") "Master, it is good for us to be here." But we, like the "fifty +strong men," would find them and bring them back; and, like Peter, +would build tabernacles to retain them. The family circle is gathered +together at some birthday or festival, and, perhaps, we long for the +departed, and think that they long for us; and we would bring them back, +and place them in their deserted chairs. We are "strong men" in the +power of grief, and in our wishes; but the search for Elijah is the +counterpart of our vain desires and most unreasonable sorrow. + +When our friends have gone to heaven, it is not apt to be heaven, so +much as earthly sorrow, which fills our minds. Happily, we have been +taught to believe, and we do generally believe, that the souls of the +righteous enter immediately into glory; that their happiness is perfect, +though not completed; they are as happy as disembodied spirits can be; +unspeakably happier than they were here, but still not in full +possession of those sources of pleasure which they will receive when +their bodies are raised, and their whole natures are made complete. But +"to die is gain;" it is "to depart and to be with Christ, which is far +better;" it is entering "into the joy of their Lord." That dreary +thought of sleeping after death till the day of judgment; the idea that +Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, became insensible at death, and that the last +thing which Jacob, for example, knew, was Joseph's kiss, and the next +thing which he will know will be the archangel's trump, the interval of +many thousands of years being a perfect blank in his existence, is so +unlike the benevolent order of God's providence in nature and grace, +that it cannot gain much credence with believers in the simple +representations of the Bible. What a mockery Elijah's translation seems, +upon that theory! Whither was he translated? Did the chariots of fire, +and the horses of fire, convey him to a dreamless sleep of thousands of +years? Was that pomp, that emblazonry, all that fiery pageant, a +deception signifying nothing but that the greatest of prophets was to +begin a stupid slumber, which, this day, under a heaven with not one +redeemed soul in it, and in a world where there is every thing to be +done for God and men, holds him, and every other dead saint, in a +useless suspension of his consciousness, and, indeed, for so many ages, +annihilation? Poor economy in the dispensation of overflowing love to +intelligent beings,--we say it with submission,--does this seem to be; +nor can we think that, in the case of Elijah, it was this which was +heralded by horses and chariots of fire. Chariots and horses are emblems +of flight; but if sleep were descending upon the hero of the prophetic +age, twilight would more appropriately have drawn her soft veil over +nature, birds would have begun their vespers, clouds would have put on +their changing, pensive colors, while cadences of music, breathed by the +winds, would have shed lethargic influences into the scene. Inspiration +does not trifle with us by really meaning such a preparation for a sleep +of ages, and yet informing us, in so many words, that "the Lord would +take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind." No; going to heaven is not +going to sleep, and going to sleep is not going to heaven. Sleep and +death are used figuratively for each other, according to the laws of +language, which describes appearances without regard to scientific +truth, as in speaking of the sun's rising, for example, and the going +down of the sun; but to fall asleep in Jesus is to awake in heaven; to +be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. This we all +believe; and may we never be moved away from this cheering, animating +hope. Yet how little power has this belief and hope upon our feelings +and conduct! for our Christian graces partake of the same imperfection +which characterizes our whole nature; the soil is poor in which they +grow; the seasons are short, the climate cold; they do not reach +maturity. It is instructive to notice how men who have had the very best +advantages, and the greatest knowledge, are, nevertheless, prone to +unbelief. Christ appeared to his disciples, and upbraided them because +they believed not them which said he was risen. Their incredulity +strikes us as marvellous. They were not the first, nor the last, whose +want of faith is a marvel. These sons of the prophets in Elisha's day +were equally slow to believe. They themselves had said to him, "Knowest +thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head to-day?" +Elisha came back to them from the scene of the translation. Of course he +told them what had happened, describing minutely the whole of that +preternatural scene; he probably related the conversation which Elijah +had with him as they walked; and this inspired companion of the departed +prophet, having himself no doubt that Elijah had gone to heaven, so +instructed these sons of the prophets. But how hard it is for the things +which are unseen and eternal to seize and hold our minds! how readily we +yield to surmises, rather than admit the clear disclosures of spiritual +things! Straightway these sons of the prophets, who should have retired +each to his secret place, for contemplation and prayer, and, in the +solemn assembly, should have directed the thoughts of each other and of +the people to the instructive lessons suggested by the departure of +Elijah to heaven, were making up an exploring party, to prove that their +illustrious chief had met with some disaster in being left forlorn upon +some mountain, or in a valley; that the spirit of God had entranced him, +and that his weary feet, instead of treading the pavement of heaven, +were ensnared in some dark place; and so, in pity for him, and with +filial love, they would seek him, and bring him back to Jericho! + +If we had clear and strong faith, our joy at the thought of a glorified +spirit, however necessary its presence to us here, would transcend all +our sorrows; the streaming beams of sunshine would irradiate our +weeping; we should think more of his happiness than of our discomfort. +Instead of departed spirits falling asleep, it is we who have a spirit +of slumber. O that we might walk by faith with glorified spirits before +the throne, instead of remanding them,--as it seems we sometimes would +do, if we could,--to the ignorance and infirmity of our condition. + +Our feelings towards the departed are the same as towards other +prohibited things. Many are continually seeking for pleasures which God +has taken away, or is purposely withholding from them. Let any one look +at the history of his feelings, and see if his state of mind be not one +of perpetual expectation of some form of happiness yet to arrive; an +ideal of bliss, some prefigured condition, in which contentment and +peace are to abide; while the discovery that he is not to have it, would +make him inconsolably miserable. Our search for lost joys, or for those +which God is not prepared, or not disposed, to give us, and the +happiness which he desires rather to give us, and to have us seek, are +severally represented to us by this search for Elijah, and by Elijah +himself, who is, meanwhile, at God's right hand. At his right hand are +pleasures forever-more; but some, in the ardor and strength of their +affections, are seeking for that which they will never obtain, and that +is, happiness independent of God. Some tell us that they mean to make +the most of life, and to be happy while they live; therefore, begone, +reflection! religion is not for the spring-tide of youth; mirth and +merry days are for the young; soberness and the russet garb of autumn +belong to the decline of life, which certainly to them, they think, is +far off;--as though every material necessary for their last, long sleep, +may not at this moment be in the warerooms and shops; as though they +could boast themselves even of one to-morrow, and knew what the +to-morrows of many years would bring forth. The Bible is against their +way of thinking and manner of life; and to push aside the Bible in our +search after any thing, is a certain sign of being in the wrong. And all +this with the mistaken belief that to love God, and to be loved of him, +is not the greatest, the only satisfying good,--the God that framed the +voice for that music which charms a circle of friends, and made those +curious fingers, and gave them all that cunning skill which sheds +delight on others, and empowered that heart to swell with such +conceptions of earthly pleasure;--and that to love him, and be loved by +him, is the direst necessity of our being, to be postponed as long as +possible, and then to be accepted as a last resort and the less of two +evils. Where is the Lord God of Elijah, the God of all power and might, +the God of all grace and consolation, the God of our life, and the +length of our days? Banished from the world which these friends have +made for themselves; an intruder into the charmed circle in which the +wand of fancy has enclosed them; a dreaded power standing over them, to +snatch away the only bliss which they ever expect to enjoy. O gilded +butterflies, made for a few days of sunshine, and doomed to perish at +the first touch of frost! had they no souls; were there no hereafter, no +heaven, no hell; if it would not be as desirable to be happy millions of +years from to-day, as now; if they were not including all their hopes +and efforts to be happy within a handbreadth of time, and liable to lose +even that,--the wise man might stop with saying, "Rejoice, O young man, +in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and +walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes;" but +the infinite future compels him to add, "but know thou, that for all +these things God will bring thee into judgment." Such are the motives by +which, in their present condition, and with their present views, they +are most likely to be affected; yet some of them, we are glad to say, in +their best moods, are also affected and influenced aright when we tell +them that, even if our existence terminated at death, the joys which are +now to be found in loving and serving God, are better than the pleasures +of sin for a season. + +There is not one of us who has not lost a friend, a schoolmate, a +companion of early life, one who has disappeared from our side, a +frequent associate in the business of life, or one whom we have been +accustomed to see in the places of business; and perhaps a member of our +family circle. + +Now, it is profitable to consider that the same thoughts which we have +of them, others will ere long have concerning us. What would make us +satisfied and happy to know respecting them? What are we glad to say of +their preparation for an eternal state? What would we have had that +preparation be? In what respects better or different? Where do we love +to assign them their places? And what is it pleasant to believe are +their thoughts of us, of earth, of eternity, of the gospel, of this life +as a season of preparation for heaven? We shall soon be the subjects of +the same contemplations in the minds of others. The hosts of that long +procession, of which we are the part now passing over the stage, are +urging and pressing us from behind, and we must go down, as others have +before us,--our love, our envy, our hatred perish,--and we no more have +any portion in all that is done under the sun. + +We must give up happiness as the great aim and end of existence, and, +instead of it, take this for our supreme endeavor and chief end--the +conscientious performance of our duty to God, and to others. We are +never really happy till we cease to expect happiness from the things of +this world. As soon as we begin to be satisfied with God, and find that +to think of God, to love him, to trust in him, to serve him, is +happiness enough, we attain to solid peace; and then, turning and +following the sun, all desirable pleasure pursues us and solicits us, +like our shadows, the more eagerly and steadily the more that we flee +from them, and the less that we turn ourselves to them. We never can be +happy by searching for happiness; but when we give up this search, and +duty becomes the motto of life, we are inevitably happy. God must +satisfy us--his personal love to us, communion with him, the +contemplation of his character, ways, and works; in short, the +consciousness of having him for a personal friend, disclosing all our +thoughts to him, looking to him and waiting for him in all things, and, +as the Bible expresses it, "walking" with him. Then he makes our wants +his care; and while he leads us through strange paths which we should +not have chosen, it is to bring us, at the last, into a condition which +will make us happy chiefly from the reflection that God himself +appointed it. Disappointments, of which we were forewarned, and which we +had every reason to expect, embitter that life whose only sources of +happiness are confined to this world, and do not relate to God. Making +him the supreme source of our happiness, we give up undue sorrow for +departed friends, feeling that they are removed from all need of our +commiseration, and all power to afford us comfort and help, any further +than their example and remembered words instruct us. We shall then be +chiefly concerned to know and to do the will of God, to watch over the +interests of our souls, preparing for life, with its important duties, +and storing up those recollections which are to occupy our thoughts in +the review of life beyond the grave. We shall bear in mind that we, too, +are to have survivors, to whom it will be the greatest favor if we leave +a good assurance, based upon their remembrance of our piety, that we are +happy, thus constraining them to follow us to heaven. We shall do well +if we habitually say, as Elijah said to Elisha, "The Lord hath sent me +to Jordan;" and that we are one day to be taken up and conveyed to that +same heaven whither Elijah went, and from which he came to meet Christ, +and to speak with him of his decease, which he should accomplish at +Jerusalem. What if we knew that some day, not far distant, flaming +chariots and horses, over our dwelling, would wait to bring us home to +God? The ministering spirits are already designated who are to perform +this office for those who are heirs of salvation. What, then, are we +searching for among the dark, gloomy valleys of sorrow, or on the hills +of earthly vision? If our friends are with Christ, we must be prepared +to be with him, or lose their society; and that loss will be worse than +the first. + +Sometimes we feel as though we were sailing away from our departed +friends, leaving them behind us. Not so; we are sailing towards them; +they went forward, and we are nearer to them now than yesterday; and the +night is far spent; the day is at hand. If life, or any undue portion, +be spent in grief which unfits us for duty, we shall see, in heaven, how +much better it would have been had we had more faith, and had lived more +as then we should desire our surviving friends to live, quickened and +strengthened by the assured hope of our being in heaven, and by the +expectation of meeting us there. + +But there is one kind of sorrow and desire for departed friends which, +in its consequences, is greatly to be deplored. Some refuse to become +decided Christians, because their friends, they think, were not +believers in the faith which these surviving friends are now persuaded +is the truth. To embrace this truth, as essential to salvation, it is +felt, will be to condemn these departed friends; and some have, in so +many words, declared that they preferred to share the fate of their +companions, or children, who gave no evidence of having accepted the +gospel, as it is now viewed by these survivors. + +How sad would be such a catastrophe as this: The departed friend, in the +secret exercises of his mind, and by the good Spirit of God, may have +been, at the last hour, prevailed upon to accept the offers of salvation +by a crucified Redeemer. He gave no intimation of this, owing, perhaps, +to bodily weakness, or to fear and distrust; but, through infinite +mercy, he was saved by faith in the Lamb of God. The surviving friend, +persuaded of the truth, refuses to comply with it, and loves the +departed friend more than Christ, or truth and duty; and then, dying, +finds that the departed friend is saved, through that very faith, which +the other refused from idolatrous attachment to the departed; and now +they are separated; whereas, had the survivor forsaken all for Christ +and the truth, he would have had a hundred fold in this world, and, in +the world to come, would have found that friend whom he would, as it +were, have forsaken for Christ's sake and the gospel's. It is safe, it +is best, for each of us to do his duty, to walk by the light afforded +us, and not to make a creature our standard, nor our chief good. + +If we meet certain of our friends at the end of their search after +pleasure, having forgotten their God and Saviour, and see them +disappointed, and utterly destitute of any thing to make them happy +forever, and all because they would not forego their chase after +unsatisfying pleasure,--there is many a faithful Christian friend, whose +example and advice they disregarded, who could then reply, "Did I not +say unto you, Go not?" + +In the name of some unspeakably dear to you, we say, "We are journeying +unto the place of which the Lord said, I will give it you; come thou +with us, and we will do thee good; for the Lord hath spoken good +concerning Israel." + +Our friends, who have gone to heaven, ought not to be invested, in our +thoughts, with such melancholy associations as we are prone to connect +with them. To die is gain. Trouble, and sorrow, and the dark river, +interpose between us and heaven; but in the prospect which has opened +before the eye of the redeemed spirit, there is nothing but widening and +brightening glory. We must not seek for consolation at their departure +by bringing them back, in our thoughts, to our dwellings, but by going +forward, in faith, ourselves, to their dwelling. There is much to +encourage and help us in doing so, in the following lines, which may be +read with profit upon each anniversary of a friend's departure to +heaven, until surviving friends read them at the returning anniversaries +of our own entrance into the joy of our Lord:-- + + "A YEAR IN HEAVEN. + + + A YEAR UNCALENDARED; for what + Hast thou to do with mortal time? + Its dole of moments entereth not + That circle, mystic and sublime, + Whose unreached centre is the throne + Of Him, before whose awful brow, + Meeting eternities are known + As but an everlasting now. + The thought removes thee far away,-- + Too far,--beyond my love and tears; + Ah, let me hold thee, as I may; + And count thy time by earthly years. + + A YEAR OF BLESSEDNESS; wherein + Not one dim cloud hath crossed thy soul; + No sigh of grief, no touch of sin, + No frail mortality's control; + Nor once hath disappointment stung, + Nor care, world-weary, made thee pine; + But rapture, such as human tongue + Hath found no language for, is thine. + Made perfect at thy passing, who + Can sum thy added glory now? + As on, and onward, upward, through + The angel ranks that lowly bow, + Ascending still from height to height + Unfaltering, where rapt spirits trod, + Nor pausing 'mid their circles bright, + Thou tendest inward unto God. + + A YEAR OF PROGRESS, in the love + That's only learned in heaven; thy mind + Unclogged of clay, and free to soar, + Hath left the realms of doubt behind, + And wondrous things which finite thought + In vain essayed to solve, appear + To thy untasked inquiries, fraught + With explanation strangely clear. + Thy reason owns no forced control, + As held it here in needful thrall; + God's mysteries court thy questioning soul, + And thou may'st search and know them all. + + A YEAR OF LOVE; thy yearning heart + Was always tender, e'en to tears, + With sympathies, whose sacred art + Made holy all thy cherished years; + But love, whose speechless ecstasy + Had overborne the finite, now + Throbs through thy being, pure and free, + And burns upon thy radiant brow. + For thou those hands' dear clasp hast felt, + Where still the nail-prints are displayed; + And thou before that face hast knelt, + Which wears the scars the thorns have made. + + A YEAR WITHOUT THEE; I had thought + My orphaned heart would break and die, + Ere time had meek quiescence brought, + Or soothed the tears it could not dry; + And yet I live, to faint and quail + Before the human grief I bear; + To miss thee so, then drown the wail + That trembles on my lips in prayer. + Thou praising, while I vainly thrill; + Thou glorying, while I weakly pine; + And thus between thy heart and mine + The distance ever widening still. + + A YEAR OF TEARS TO ME; to thee + The end of thy probation's strife, + The archway to eternity, + The portal of immortal life; + To me the pall, the bier, the sod; + To thee the palm of victory given. + Enough, my heart; thank God! thank God! + That thou hast been a year in heaven. + + + + +IV. + +THE SILENCE OF THE DEAD. + + Dear, beauteous Death, the jewel of the just. + Shining nowhere but in the dark, + What mysteries do lie beyond thy dust, + Could men outlook that mark! + He that hath found some fledged bird's nest, may know, + At first sight, if the bird be flown; + But what fair field, or grove, he sings in now, + That is to him unknown. + +HENRY VAUGHAN. + + +The silence of the dead is one of the most impressive and affecting +things connected with the separate state of the soul. We hear the voice +of a dying friend, in some last wish, or charge, or prayer, or farewell, +or in some exclamation of joy or hope; and though years are multiplied +over the dead, that voice returns no more in any moment of day or night, +of joy or sorrow, of labor or rest, in life or in death. + +The voices of creation return to us at periodical seasons. The early +spring bird startles us with her unexpected note; the winter is over and +gone. But no periodical change brings back the voices of departed +friends. A member of the family embarks on a long voyage; but, be it +ever so long, if life is spared, the letter is received, in which the +written words, so characteristic of him, recall his looks and the tones +of his voice. Years pass away, and the sound of his footsteps is at the +door again, and his voice is heard in the dwelling. But of the dead +there comes no news; from the grave no voice, from the separate state no +message. With our desire to speak once more to the departed, and to hear +them speak, we feel that they must have an intense desire to speak to +us. We wonder why they do not break the silence. There is so much of +which they could inform us; it would be such a relief, we think, to have +one word from them, assuring us that they arrived safely, and are happy, +and, above all things, granting us their forgiveness for the sins which +now have awakened sorrow. But we wait, and look, and wonder, in vain. + +When we think of the number of the dead, this silence appears +impressive. Their number far exceeds that of the living. Could they be +assembled together, and could those now alive be set over against them, +upon an immense plain, to a spectator from above we should be a small +company in comparison with them. Should they lift up their voices +together, ours could not be heard. Yet from that vast multitude we never +hear a voice,--not even a whisper,--nor see a sign. Standing in a +cemetery a few miles distant from the great city, you hear the low, +muffled roar from the streets and bridges, reminding you of the living +tide which is coursing along those highways. But with eight thousand of +the dead around you in that cemetery, and a world of spirits, which no +man can number, just within the veil, you hear nothing from them. No one +comes back to tell us of his experience; no warning, nor comfort, nor +counsel, ever reaches our ears. Whatever our trouble, or our joy may be, +our need or prosperity; however long and painful the absence of the +departed may have been; however lonely we may feel, wishing for some +word of remembrance and love; and though we visit the grave day by day, +and call on the name of the departed, and use every art of endearment to +pierce the veil between us,--there is the same determined, cold, lasting +silence. "To go down into silence" is a scriptural phrase for the state +of the dead. + +Our feelings seek relief from those vague, uncertain thoughts respecting +the dead which we find occasioned by the gentle manner in which death +most frequently occurs. The breath is shorter and shorter, and finally +ceases, yet so imperceptibly, that, for a moment, it is uncertain +whether the last breath has expired. There is no visible trace of the +outgoing of the soul. Could we see the spirit leave the body, we should +feel that one of the mysteries of death is solved. Could we trace its +flight into the air, could we watch its form as it disappeared among +the clouds, or melted away in a distance greater than the eye can +comprehend, we should not, perhaps, ask for a word to assure us +respecting the state of the soul. But there is no more perfect +delineation of the appearances which death presents to us, than in the +following inspired description: "As the waters fail from the sea, and +the flood decayeth and drieth up, so man lieth down and riseth not; till +the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their +sleep." We see the lying down, the fixedness of the posture, the utter +disregard, in the cold remains, of every thing which passes before them; +and these remains are like the channels of a river, or the flats of the +sea, when the tide has utterly forsaken them. The soul is like those +vanished waters, as to any manifestation that it continues to exist. + +We miss the departed from his accustomed places; we expect to meet him +at certain hours of the day; those hours return, and he is not there; +we start as we look upon his vacant place at the table, or around the +evening lamp, or in the circle at prayers. No tongue can describe that +blank, that chasm, which is made by death in the family circle, or the +variations in the tones of sorrow and desire with which those words are +secretly repeated, day after day, and night after night: "And where is +he?" + + * * * * * + +Is there any assignable cause for the silence of the dead? + +We cannot, with certainty, assign the reason for it, and we do not know +why the dead are not suffered to reappear to us. We can, nevertheless, +see great wisdom and use in this silence, and in our perfect ignorance +respecting their state. + +_It is the arrangement of divine Providence that faith, and not sight, +shall influence our characters and conduct._--It would be inconsistent +with this great law if we should see or hear from the dead. + +The object of God, in his dealings with us, is to exalt the Bible as our +instructor. If men were left to visions and voices, in which there is so +much room for mistake and delusion, the confusion of human affairs would +be indescribably dreadful. Every man would have his vision, or his +message, the proof, or the correctness, of which would necessarily be +concealed from others, who might have contrary directions, or +impressions; and human affairs would then be like a sea, in which many +rivers ran across each other. + +It would not be safe for departed spirits to be intrusted with the power +of communicating with the living. Though they know far more than we, yet +their information is limited; and, especially, if they should undertake +to counsel us about the future, as they would do in their earnestness to +help us, we can easily see that, being finite as they are, and unable to +look into the future, they might involve us in serious mistakes, either +by their ignorance, or by the contrariety of their information. Far +better is it for man to look only to God, who sees the end from the +beginning, with whom is no variableness, and who is able, as our anxious +friends would not be, to conceal from us the future, or any information +respecting it, which it would be an injury for us to know. Should we be +informed of certain things which will happen to us years hence, either +the expectation of them would engross our attention, and hinder our +usefulness, or the fear of them would paralyze effort, and destroy +health, if not life. Borrowed trouble, even now, constitutes a large +part of our unhappiness; but the certain knowledge of a sorrow +approaching us with unrelenting steps, would spread a pall over every +thing; while prosperity, far in the prospect, would tempt us to forget +our dependence upon God, and would weaken the motives to patient +continuance in well doing for its own sake. + +Then, with regard to any assurance which the dead would give us about +truth and duty, we need not their help. For the dead can tell us +substantially no more than we find recorded in the Bible. They would +describe heaven to us, and speak of future punishment. But suppose that +they did. What language would they use more graphic, or more +intelligible to us, than the language of the Bible? Whatever they said, +we should feel obliged to compare it with the Scriptures; if it should +be according to them, we do not need it. Besides, the appearance to us +of departed friends, would, in many cases, only operate on our fears. +But the Bible pleads with us by many gentle motives, as well as by +warnings and terrific descriptions, and sets before us numberless +inducements to repent, which the whole world of the dead, uninspired, +could not so well furnish. The appearance and words of a spirit would +excite us, and make us afraid; we could not feel and act as well, under +such influences, as we can under the calm, dispassionate, convincing, +and persuasive influences of the Bible. One of the most intelligent and +cultivated of women, the wife of a missionary in Turkey, in her last +sickness, having heard her husband read to her several times, from the +Pilgrim's Progress, respecting the River of Death and the Celestial +City, at last said to him, as he was opening the book, "Read to me out +of the Bible; that soothes me; I can hear it for a long time; but even +Bunyan agitates me." + +As much as we suppose it would comfort us to have intercourse with the +dead, it is easy to see that the great law of the divine government, by +which faith, and not sight, is the appointed means of our spiritual +good, would be violated, could the dead speak with us. We are to trust +in the mercy and the justice of God. This we could not so well do, if we +knew things about which, now, we are obliged to exercise faith. The +inspired Word, the only and the all-sufficient rule of faith and duty, +is a better guide than the voices of the dead. + +An interesting illustration of this is given by one who witnessed the +appearance of departed spirits on a certain most interesting occasion. +Two illustrious men, of the Jewish line, appeared and spake with +Christ. The person of the Saviour experienced a remarkable +transfiguration, assuring his human soul of the joy set before him; the +presence of the celestial spirits, also, confirming his assurance +respecting the separate existence of souls, and the whole transaction +being designed to strengthen the faith of the disciples, and of the +world, in the Saviour. + +But what comparative value does one of the inspired witnesses of this +scene give to this heavenly communication, these voices of the dead, and +this visit from the heavenly world? Does he build his faith upon it, as +upon a corner stone? No; but after telling us, in glowing language, +respecting this most wonderful and impressive scene, he says, "We have +also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take +heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, +and the day star arise in your hearts." That sure word,--"more sure" +than the testimony of departed spirits, or than voices from the other +world,--is the Bible; for he immediately adds, "For the prophecy came +not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they +were moved by the Holy Ghost." The testimony of departed spirits, even +of Moses and Elijah, might be, after all, only "the will of man;" but in +the Bible men have spoken as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. + +As to its being a comfort, in any case, that departed friends should +speak to us, it is doubtful whether it would prove to be so. Suppose +them to utter words of endearment; this would open the fountains of +grief in our souls afresh. Suppose them to tell us that they are safe +and happy; it would be far better for us, in many cases, to hope +respecting this, than to know it; the knowledge of it might make us +careless and too confident about ourselves; we should be less inclined +to shun the errors of these friends, to guard against their +imperfections, and to fear lest a promise being left us of entering into +that rest, any of us should seem to come short of it. One of the most +inconvenient and uneasy states of mind, is that of insatiable +curiosity--longing to know that which is concealed, dispirited at the +delay of information, refusing effort except under the spur of absolute +assurance. Far better and more healthful is that state of mind which +performs present duty, and leaves the rest to the unfolding hand of +time; which disdains that prying, inquisitive disposition which is all +eye and ear, which lives on excitement, which has no self-respect, nor +regard for any thing but to know something yet unknown. If God suffered +the dead to speak to us, we should always be on the watch for some sign; +we should be unfitted for the common, practical duties of life; we +should be superstitious, visionary, fanatical, timorous. As it is, how +eager we are to pry into the future, or into things purposely hidden +from us! If it were certainly known that one had communication with the +dead, or if we had good reason to expect such communications, labor +would be neglected, faith, prayer, hope, confidence in God would +decrease, the Bible would be undervalued through a superior regard to a +different mode of revelation, and we should live, as it were, among the +tombs. A morbid state of feeling would pervade our minds, and the world +would be full of enchantments, necromancy, and cunning craftiness. +Blessed be God for the silence of the dead! We are glad that our weak +and foolish hearts, so prone to love the creature more than the Creator, +are broken off, by the impenetrable veil of death, from all connection +with the departed. The salutary influences of death on survivors would +be greatly lessened, if our connection and communication with them were +continued. God is our chief good, not our friends, nor our children; he +shuts them up in silence from us, to see if we can say, "Whom have I in +heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides +thee." The painful effect upon our feelings, and upon our nervous +system, of separations from departed friends, is involuntary and +natural; but to cherish our griefs, to spend much time in melancholy +moods, or in poring over the memorials of the departed, so as to excite +and indulge morbid feelings, is not Christian nor wise. + +While this is true, and there is much immoderate and irrational grief, +the disposition, with many, is to forget the dead as soon as possible, +and forever. Some need to think far more of the deceased. They should +remember that the dead are alive; that no doubt they think of them; and +that, instead of being separated farther and farther from the deceased, +by the lapse of time, they are every day coming nearer and nearer to +them, and they must meet again. + +It is well for us frequently to remember that the silence of the dead is +no true exponent of their real state. Incoherent and wild as the +thoughts and feelings sometimes are, under the distracting influence of +affliction and death, and all uncertain as we are about the departure of +the soul, we are not left without sure and most satisfying information +respecting the separate state. + +There is no annihilation. The life of the soul is not extinguished like +the flame of a lamp. Existence is not that lingering, twinkling spark +which it seems to be in the moments preceding death. To be absent from +the body, for a Christian, is to be present with the Lord; to die is +gain; to depart, and be with Christ, is far better. When the dust +returns to the earth as it was, the spirit ascends to God, who gave it. +The soul is more vigorous and active than when shut up in the body, +because a higher form of life is required in being with God and angels. +We are told that the pious dead are "the spirits of just men made +perfect." All imperfection arising from bodily organization, as well as +from our fallen state here, has ceased, and the soul has become a pure +spirit, in a spiritual world, engaged in spiritual pursuits. Memory is +awake; every perceptive faculty is in perfection; the soul that sees far +distant places, in a moment, in sleep,--that holds converse with other, +but absent, minds, while the body is sealed in slumber,--not only does +not need the present body to make it capable of perception, but when +escaped from this material condition, and from dependence upon these +bodily senses, which now are like colored glass to the eyes, it will be +far more capable than before; though the spiritual body, at the last, +will advance it to a still higher condition. Its judgment is sound, its +sensibilities are quick, its thoughts are full of unmixed joy. But we +probably could not understand the nature of its employments, nor its +discoveries, nor its sensations, any further than we now do from the +word of God. We have no record, nor tradition, of any disclosures made +by Lazarus, or the widow of Nain's son, or the dead who came out of +their graves at the crucifixion, and went into the Holy City, and +appeared unto many. The only way to account for this seems to be, to +suppose that they told nothing of what they had seen or heard. Had they +made any disclosures of the unseen world, those disclosures would never +have been forgotten. They would have been preserved in the memories of +men, to be handed down from age to age. Paul himself had no very +distinct recollection of what he had heard and seen in Paradise; for he +says that he could not tell whether he was in the body or out of the +body. We think in words, which at the time are intelligible, but we +often fail when we try to produce them; so that Paul's expression, very +singular in each part of it,--"heard unspeakable words,"--may refer to +the impressions made on his own mind in his revelations, as not possible +to be clothed in speech. It may have been with him, upon his return to +the body, and with the risen dead, as it was with Nebuchadnezzar, who +knew that he had dreamed, and the dream had made powerful impressions on +his mind, but the dream itself had departed from him. Now, if the bodily +senses, or the soul while in the body, cannot comprehend so as to +express what has been seen in heaven, it is doubtful if we could +understand it if it should be revealed by a spirit from heaven. The +Bible has probably given us as definite information about heaven as we +could possibly understand--certainly as much as God judges best for our +usefulness and happiness. But we must probably learn an unearthly +language, and, in order to this, unearthly ideas, before we can +understand the things which are within the veil. The modes of +communication in heaven between people of strange languages, whether by +a common speech, or by the power given to the disciples at the day of +Pentecost, or by intuition, are not made known to us; but this wonderful +faculty of language, holding an intermediate place between spirit and +matter, has, of course, a corresponding faculty in the world of spirits. +It is, no doubt, an inconceivably pleasurable source of enjoyment. This +increases the sublimity which there is in the silence of the dead, and +its impressiveness. For what fancy can conceive of the communications, +from heart to heart, in that multitude where every new acquaintance is +the occasion of some new joy, or wakes some thrilling recollection, or +leads to some interesting discovery, and gives some fresh objects of +love and praise! The land of silence surely extends no farther than to +the gates of that heavenly city. All is life and activity within; but +from that world, so populous with thoughts, and words, and songs, no +revelation penetrates through the dark, silent land which lies between +us and them. Our friends are there. Stars, so distant from us that their +light, which began its travel ages since, has not reached us, are none +the less worlds, performing their revolutions, and occupied by their +busy population of intelligent spirits, whose history is full of +wonders. Yet the first ray denoting the existence of those worlds, has +never met the eye of the astronomer in his incessant vigils. + +The silence of the departed will, for each of us, soon, very soon, be +interrupted. Entering, among breaking shadows and softly unfolding +light, the border land, we shall gradually awake to the opening vision +of things unseen and eternal, all so kindly revealing themselves to our +unaccustomed senses as to make us say, "How beautiful!" and instead of +exciting fear, leading us almost to hasten the hand which is removing +the veil. Some well-known voice, so long silent, may be the first to +utter our name; we are recognized, we are safe. A face, a dear, dear +face, breaks forth amidst the crayoned lines of the dissolving night; +a form--an embrace--assures us that faith has not deceived us, but +has delivered us up to the objects hoped for, the things not seen. +O beatific moment! awaiting every follower of them who, by faith and +patience, inherit the promises--dwellers there "whither the Forerunner +is for us entered." + + * * * * * + +As we are soon to be utterly silent towards surviving friends, and the +world in which we now live, we should use our speech as we shall wish we +had done when we are silent in death. Any counsels, instructions, +records, explanations, communications of any kind, which we would make, +we should be diligent to perform. All the loving words, and tokens of +affection, which we may suppose we shall hereafter desire to +communicate, we shall do well habitually to bear in mind, and let them +influence our feelings and conduct, day by day. In times of sickness, of +separation, of absence, at happy returns, our feelings towards familiar +friends and members of the family are such as might well be the +standard, and pattern, of our general intercourse, especially when we +think that the days will come when we shall highly prize and long for +that intercourse, which now we have such opportunity to enrich with +sweet and fragrant recollections, occasioning no pang of regret, nor +sting. It is well to remember that, one day, we must part, and to let +that anticipation intensify our love, and add charms to this daily +companionship, which may soon appear to be a privilege which we did not +sufficiently prize. + +The time will come, when, to many a beloved survivor, a word or sign, +breaking the silence of the departed spirit, and giving some assurance +that it is happy, would, perhaps, be the means of dispelling a life-long +sorrow--would lift a crushing burden from the heart. The time to prepare +that assurance, so that it shall come with most effectual power, is now, +in days of health, when the evidences of our piety shall not be +attainted by a suspicion of constraint and insincerity, arising from +late repentance and an apparently forced submission to God. Our +recollections of a departed Christian friend, of whose salvation his +pious life makes us perfectly assured, come over us like the soft +pulsations of a west wind in summer, laden with the sweets of a new-mown +field; or like the clear, streaming moonlight in the brief interval +between the broken clouds; or like remembered music, which some +accidental word of a song has startled from its place and diffused +through the soul. Thus departed Christian friends are the means of +unspeakable happiness to survivors; thus "their works do follow them;" +and we should make large account of this when we are weighing the +question whether we will now, or in the closing hours of life, so +fearfully uncertain, begin to love and serve God. + +The question which earth asks respecting one and another, "Where is he?" +is no doubt repeated in heaven: Have you met him in any of these +streets? Did you see him on yonder hills? Angels, returned from other +happy worlds, have you heard of him? Where is he? He is conscious, +intelligent, receiving sensations from objects around him as vividly as +ever. But, Where is he? + +Of others, the question could be answered by ten thousand happy voices, +"All is well." With regard to many, the silence of the dead, forbidding +our inquiries, is the only thing which, in any measure, composes the +grief of friends. But as to our Christian friends, we have no more +reason to inquire with solicitude respecting them, than concerning the +Saviour himself. "I go to prepare a place for you,"--"that where I am, +there ye may be also." The dying Christian may truly say to his friends, +as the Saviour did to his: "WHITHER I GO YE KNOW, AND THE WAY YE KNOW." + + + + +V. + +THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY. + + What though my body run to dust? + Faith cleaves unto it, counting every grain + With an exact and most particular trust, + Reserving all for flesh again. + +GEORGE HERBERT. + + +It is good to think of Michael, the archangel, disputing with the devil +about the body of Moses. The dispute was over a grave. The Most High had +himself performed the funeral rites of his servant; for, we read, "The +Lord buried him." We naturally think of the archangel as placed in +charge of the precious dust. + +Some great commission, connected with the resurrection of the dead, +appears to be held by the chief spirit of the angelic world. "For the +Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of +the archangel, and the trump of God." The burial of each and every body +which is destined to the resurrection of the just, is, therefore, not +improbably an object of interest with him who, under the God-man, will +have the supervision of the last day. With a view to that harvest of the +earth, he will now see the furrows made, the seed planted, the hill +prepared. He will have a care that every thing lies down, whether by +seeming accident, or by violence, or by design, in just the place from +which the arranging mind of Him who is Lord both of the dead and of the +living, has appointed it to come forth. Every circumstance attending +that event, the great object of hope in heaven and on earth,--our +resurrection,--is of sufficient importance to be the subject of thought +and preparation on the part of Christ, himself the first fruits of them +that slept. + +The care of the patriarchs concerning their burial places is like one of +those premonitions in an antecedent stratum of geology, or species of +animals, of a coming manifestation;--a prophesying germ, a yearning, +created by Him who, with all-seeing wisdom, establishes anticipations +in the moral, as well as in the natural, world, concerning things with +regard to which a thousand years are with him as one day. + +Not on earth alone, as it seems, is an interest felt in the death and +burial of the righteous. + +For when the leader of Israel in the wilderness went up to the hill top +to die, the two great angels, of heaven and hell, met and contended over +his grave. + +Denied the privilege of burial in the promised land, Moses may have +appeared to Satan so evidently under the frown of God, as to encourage +his meddlesome efforts to inflict some injury upon him, through dishonor +done to his remains. Perhaps he would convey them back to Egypt, a gift +to the brooding vengeance of the Pharaohs, who would gratify their anger +by preserving that body in the house of their gods;--thus showing their +spiteful satisfaction at the disappointment of the prophet whom Jehovah +would not permit to enter that promised land, in hope of which the +great spoiler had led away the bondmen of Egypt. + +Perhaps the devil would gratify the desire of some idolatrous nation, +craving new objects of worship, by leading them to canonize this Hebrew +chief; and thus make of the lawgiver and prophet of Israel a false god. + +Perhaps he could even prevail on some of the Israelites themselves, if +not the whole of them, to worship this revered form; or might he but +have the designation and the custody of his grave, he would, perhaps, +fix it where it would be most convenient for the nation to assemble, at +stated times, for some idolatrous rites. + +But the great vicegerent of the resurrection was there. To him the body +of a saint is suggestive of the last day; it is a special assignment by +Christ, an official trust, to the archangel. Bodies of saints are, +therefore, most precious to him. Particles of the precious metal are not +more precious to the miner, pearls to the diver, ivory to the +Coast-merchant, and the shell-fish to the maker of Tyrian purple. The +body of each saint is an unfinished history of redemption; a destiny of +indescribable interest and importance belongs to it. Any subaltern angel +may have charge of winds and seas, of day and night, of summer and +winter; but only the archangel is counted meet to have charge, and to +keep watch and ward, over the bodies of saints as they sleep in Jesus. + +"He disputed about the body of Moses." It was a dispute characterized on +the part of the archangel more by act than word. Words are hushed in +great encounters. Debate with a pirate, a body-snatcher, would be folly; +no arguments, therefore, were wasted, on the top of Nebo, by Michael, +over the grave of Moses. "The Lord rebuke thee," was his retort; his +heavenly form stopping the way, his baffling right arm hindering the +accursed design, were the invincible logic of that dispute. + +O prince of angels, watchman, herald, master of the guard, at the +resurrection of the just,--comptroller, now, of that treasury which +receives and keeps their precious forms,--from whose lips that signal +is to come which millions on millions are to hear, and live,--what +images of glory and terror fill thy mind in the anticipation of that +moment when thy dread commission is to be fulfilled! Is not that +"trumpet" sometimes taken into thy hand? Dost thou not place it to thy +lips, but quickly lay it aside, and patiently and joyfully watch the +swelling number of the graves of saints? Funerals of those who fall +asleep in Jesus, to thee are pleasant scenes; they are spring-work, +planting times, for thy harvest, O chief reaper! While, with bursting +hearts, we turn from the new-made mound, one more glorified body, in +anticipation, is added to thy charge. + +Smiling at our sorrow, in joyful thought of the change to be witnessed +in and around that sepulchre when the family circle shall there put on +incorruption, thou canst not pity us except as we pity the brief sorrows +of children. If the devil should approach that spot, to work some +unknown, and, to us, inconceivable, harm to that body,--be it the body +of the humblest saint, one of those little ones who believe in Jesus, or +of those infants whose angels do always behold the face of God,--thou, +mighty cherub, wouldst be there, and, if need be, with a band of angels, +"every one with his sword upon his thigh, because of fear in the night;" +and Nebo and its "dispute" would reappear. Poor, dying, mouldering body! +hast thou the archangel himself for thy keeper? Not only so: + + "God, my Redeemer, lives, + And often from the skies + Looks down and watches all my dust, + Till he shall bid it rise." + + +Nor is it strange, since we read, "The body is for the Lord, and the +Lord for the body." "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the +Holy Ghost which is in you?" + +To rise from the dead seems to have been something more to Paul than +going to heaven, or than being in heaven. He knew that he was to spend +the interval between death and the resurrection in heaven; but beyond +even this, he had a joy which he felt was essential to the completeness +of the heavenly state. + +See the proof of this in the following words: "If by any means I might +attain unto the resurrection of the dead." + +Since he was destined, like all of Adam's race, to come forth from his +grave, he needed to make no effort whatever merely to rise from the +dead; that was inevitable, and irrespective of character. Besides, he +represents this object for which he strove as something which required +effort, which cannot be said of merely rising from the grave. + +Paul had been permitted to know, by personal observation, what the +rising from the dead implies. Caught up into Paradise, we may suppose +that he had seen the patriarch Enoch, and the prophet Elijah, with their +glorified bodies; the presence of which in heaven, we may imagine, has +ever served to enhance the happiness of that world, by holding forth, +before the eyes of the redeemed, the sign and pledge of their future +experience when they shall receive their bodies. For it is not +presumptuous to suppose that the sight of Enoch and Elijah has been, and +will be, till the last trumpet sounds, a source of joyful expectation to +the inhabitants of heaven, leading them to anticipate the final day with +intense interest, as the time when they will be invested, like those +honored saints, with all the capacities of their completed nature, which +nature, while the body lies buried, is in a dissevered state. If Paul, +when in heaven, saw and felt the power of this expectation in the minds +of glorified saints, no wonder that the resurrection of the body seemed +to him, ever after, to be the crown of Christian expectation and hope. + +More than all, he had seen the man Christ Jesus, in his glorified body; +who on earth had said, "I am the resurrection and the life"--himself an +illustration of it, whom alone the grave has yielded up to die no more. +He is, therefore, to saints in heaven, a far more interesting object +than Enoch and Elijah, who never died. "For now is Christ risen from the +dead, and is become the first fruits of them that slept." This sight, of +Christ in heaven, must have had unutterable interest for Paul, from the +assurance that Christ will "change our vile body, that it may be +fashioned like unto his glorious body;" for "we know that when he shall +appear," Paul himself tells us, "we shall be like him; for we shall see +him as he is." This knowledge, obtained in the heavenly world, may have +led the apostle to think of the resurrection as the crown of all his +expectations and hopes. + +It is noticeable that the writers of the New Testament, and Jesus +himself, refer chiefly to the resurrection and the last day as sources +of comfort, and also of warning. Now this is made a principal ground of +belief, with many, that there is either no consciousness between death +and the resurrection; or, that none have gone to heaven, nor to hell, +but to intermediate places, seeing that final rewards and punishments +are, in so many instances, wholly predicated of the last day. + +But those who believe that the souls of the righteous are, at their +death, made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory, see +proof, in all this prominence which is given to the last day, and to the +resurrection, that the sacred writers regarded the resurrection and +final judgment as the great consummation, towards which souls, in heaven +and in hell, would be looking forward with intense expectation and +interest; that neither will the joys of heaven nor the pains of hell be +complete, till the account of our whole influence upon the world, +extending to the end of time, is made up, and the body is added to the +soul. When Paul comforts the mourners of Thessalonica, he bids them to +"sorrow not as they that have no hope; for," (and now he does not speak +of heaven, and of souls being already there, as the source of +consolation, but) "if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so +them, also, that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him;" and he +proceeds to speak of the resurrection,--not of the speedy reunion of +friends after death, but of the departed as coming with Christ at the +last day. This, instead of being an argument against the immediate +departure of souls to heaven, arises from the desire to employ the +strongest possible proof that the pious dead are not only safe, but are +greatly honored. "Resurrection" was an abounding subject of thought, +argument, and illustration in those days; the state of the dead between +death and the last day, is comparatively disregarded by the apostles, +while their minds were full of the great question of the age--the +Resurrection. This fullness of thought and constant occupation of mind +about the resurrection, as the cardinal doctrine of Christian hope, +explains the apparent belief of the apostles, in some passages, that the +final day was near. This the apostle Paul expressly denies, in the +second chapter of the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. But a greater +event, looked at in the same line of vision with an intermediate and +smaller object, will, of course, have the prominent place in our +thoughts. The less will be held subordinate to the greater; perhaps we +shall seem to underrate the less, in our exalted conceptions of that +which rises beyond and above. We shall see, as we proceed, why the +expectation of the last day seemed to occupy the thoughts of apostles as +the paramount object of expectation. + +It is perfectly obvious that, at the resurrection, the bodies of the +just will be endued with wonderful susceptibilities and powers. This is +rendered certain by the great mystery of godliness,--God manifest in the +flesh. The greatest honor which could be conferred upon our nature, and +the greatest testimony to its intrinsic dignity, and to its being, in +its unfallen state, in the image of God, is bestowed upon it by the +incarnation of the Word. True, there was a necessity that the Redeemer +should be made like unto us, however inferior human nature might be in +the scale of creation; still, unless there had been such intrinsic +dignity and excellence in our sinless nature, as to make it compatible +for the second Person in the Godhead to be united with it, we cannot +suppose that this union would have been permanent; it would have +fulfilled a temporary purpose, and then have ceased. + +Perhaps we slightly err if we think of Christ's assumption of human +nature as, in any respect, an incongruous act of humiliation. For man +was made in the image of God; so that when Christ was made flesh, +without sin, he took upon himself that which, in some sense, was +congruous with his divine nature. His humiliation consisted, in part, in +his doing this; but more especially in his doing this for such a +purpose--for sinners; "in his being born, and that in a low condition, +made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of +God, and the cursed death of the cross, in being buried and continuing +under the power of death for a time." Had there been no inherent +congruity between our nature and the divine, the human nature of +Christ, having accomplished its purpose of suffering and death, would +have been left in the grave. "But now is Christ risen from the dead;" +the body and the human soul, which were disunited when he hung upon the +cross, now constitute the same man, Christ Jesus. "The only Redeemer of +God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, +became man, and so was, and continues to be, God and man, in two +distinct natures and one person, forever." The latter part of this +answer of the Assembly's Shorter Catechism is thus substantiated by the +New Testament: "When he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall +see him as he is." In other words, he will be, when he appears, that +which he now is--will remain the same until his second coming. After +that, he will remain as he was before: "Jesus Christ, the same +yesterday, to-day, and forever." He is represented as holding an eternal +relation to the redeemed in his glorified nature: "The Lamb which is in +the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto +living fountains of waters." We might, indeed, suppose that the man +Christ Jesus would have an eternal recompense for his sufferings and +death in an everlasting union with the Godhead; nor can any one think, +with satisfaction, of a severance between his two natures, and of a +consequent humiliation, or deposition, of that human nature, which, at +the great day, will, for so long a time, have sustained such a +connection with the divine nature. For our present purpose, however, +which is to show the intrinsic dignity of the human nature, it would be +enough that it has been in such connection with the Godhead, and has +passed through such scenes, and sustained such vast responsibilities. +This is sufficient to prove that human nature is intrinsically capable +and great; and, indeed, it reveals to us as nothing else does, the real +dignity of our nature. Some, who have rejected the doctrine of Christ's +two natures, have written much and eloquently with regard to man's +greatness in creation. They, however, missed the very thing which +chiefly proves it; for all who believe in the Deity of Christ have a +proof and illustration of this great theme which trancend all others. + +This idea, of future capability and exaltation for human nature, as +proved by the Saviour's incarnation, is brought to view in the second +chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The second Psalm is there quoted +as speaking of man: "Thou hast put all things under his feet." "But +now," the apostle says, "we see not yet all things put under him;" man, +as a race, has not reached his full destiny of glory and honor; but, in +the person of Christ, human nature has taken possession of its future +inheritance. We see not yet all things put under man, as a race; but "we +see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering +of death, crowned with glory and honor;"--a sign and pledge of our +destiny. + +To the mind of Paul, the sight, in heaven, of what he was to become, set +forth by the glorified person of the Son of God, his Saviour and +infinite Friend, no doubt made the resumption of the body, at the last +day, the most desirable experience of which it was possible for him to +conceive. Paradise, with all its social pleasures, gates of pearl, +streets of gold, every thing, in short, external to him, must have +seemed, to the apostle, not worthy to be compared with the glory which +was to be revealed in him. An intelligent man is far more interested in +his own personal endowments, than in the accidental circumstances of his +situation. Every one, who is not degraded in his feelings, would prefer +to be enriched with natural, moral, and intellectual powers, rather than +be the richest of men, or an hereditary monarch, with inferior talents +and worth. To such a man as Paul, the possession of his complete, +glorified nature, at the resurrection, must, for this reason, have +seemed far better than all the pleasures or honors of the heavenly +world. That completed nature would constitute him a being wholly +perfected, invest him with a likeness to the Son of God, bring him into +still nearer union with that adorable Redeemer, who, Paul says, loved +him and gave himself for him, and for whom, he says, he had suffered the +loss of all things. The sight of the man Christ Jesus wearing Paul's +nature in a glorified state, no doubt lived and glowed in his memory +after his return to earth, and made him think of the resurrection as the +event, in his personal history, to which every thing else was +subordinate. He shows the interest which he felt in this event, when, +writing to the Romans, he says, "And not only they,"--that is, "the +creatures," or creation,--"but ourselves, also, which have the first +fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting +for the adoption, to wit, the redemption, of our body." In his address, +at Jerusalem, before his accusers and the people, he cried out, "Of the +hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question." It was +uniformly a prominent topic of his thoughts. + +It is by no means impossible, nor improbable, judging from analogy, that +there may be, in the human soul, faculties which are slumbering, until +a glorified body assists in their development. Persons born blind have +the dormant faculty of seeing; the gift of the eye would bring it into +exercise. So of the other senses, and their related mental faculties. +With a glorified body, then, truly it doth not yet appear what we shall +be; but the thought itself is rapture, that our souls at present may be +as disproportioned to their future expansion, as the acorn is to the oak +of a century's growth, which is infolded now, and dormant, in the seed. + +The addition of a body to the glorified spirit will, therefore, be a +help, and not an encumbrance. For we are not to suppose that the soul, +after having been for centuries in a state superior to its present +condition, would retrograde, in returning to the body. A common idea +respecting a body is, that it is necessarily a clog. True, by reason of +sin and its effects, it is now a "vile body;" and Paul speaks of it as +"the body of this death." But, even while we are in this world, a body +is an indispensable help to the soul. The disembodied spirit, probably, +is not capable of sustaining a full, active relation to a world of +matter; a material form is necessary to make its powers serviceable +here. This being so, there is certainly reason, from analogy, to suppose +that the addition of a spiritual body to the glorified soul will not +necessarily work any deterioration to the spirit. At all events, we +cannot suppose that the bliss of heaven will be suffered to diminish, by +remanding the emancipated spirit into connection with any thing which +will subtract from the state to which it will have arrived. There is a +law of progress in the divine government, by which the intelligent +universe will be forever advancing. We are to be changed "from glory to +glory;" not from a greater glory to a less, but into the same image with +Christ. + +It is the opinion of some that every created being has a corporeal part, +and that God alone is perfectly a spirit. However this may be, it is +evident that the souls of believers after death, though advanced far +beyond their present earthly condition, and though they are "with +Christ," and though to die is gain, and though they are in the heaven of +heavens with Christ, (which is where the penitent thief went, and where +Paul had his revelation, and where Christ went when he died;--for Paul +uses the words "third heavens," and "Paradise," interchangeably,) are, +nevertheless, incomplete as to their natures, "waiting for the adoption, +to wit, the redemption of our body." Where in the Bible are we led to +suppose that they are detained in an inferior region, or that there are, +at most, only two redeemed human beings now in "heaven," viz., Enoch and +Elijah, or probably not even they? But a corporeal part, we may suppose, +is necessary to the fullest participation in the employments and +enjoyments of the spiritual world. Light requires atmosphere to modify +it for the human eye, which otherwise could not endure its brightness. +So it may be that a corporeal part is necessary to modify many of the +things which are unseen and eternal, that they may be apprehended by the +soul. Let no one say that matter must obstruct or dim the senses of the +soul; that a body must act as a veil to the spirit, and shut out much +knowledge. It is not so here. Matter helps us in the acquisition of +knowledge, as, for example, glass in optical instruments. The telescope, +with its lenses, gives the eye vast compass; the microscope gives it a +power, equally wonderful, of minute vision. True, in these cases it is +matter helping matter--glass assisting the eye; the analogy is not +perfect between this and the aid which the spiritual body may afford the +soul. But, if we remember that there is to be progression in the powers +and faculties of our nature, and that if a body is added to the +glorified spirit, it must be to assist it, to put it forward in its +acquisitions and enjoyments, we cannot resist the belief that the +addition of the new body to the soul will be a vast accession of power +and capability. If the eye and the mind can receive such aid from the +telescope here, who knows that the eye of the glorified body may not be +itself a telescope, increasing in its capability with the progress of +its being. + +We may have some view of what the glorified body must necessarily be, in +thinking of it as a fit companion to the glorified spirit. The soul +having been in heaven for ages, and having grown in all spiritual +excellence, the body, to be a help to such a spirit, to be an occasion +of joy, and not of regret, must, of course, be in advance of our present +corporeal nature. What must the body of Isaiah, and of David, be, at the +resurrection, to correspond with the vast powers and attainments of +those glorified spirits? We could not believe, certainly we could not +see, how these bodies of ours could be made capable of such union, were +it not that, in the man Christ Jesus, we see our corporeal nature +capable of such transformation as to make it compatible for his human +mind, and indwelling Deity, to receive it into their ineffable union. + +All this being so, we may, in some measure, conceive of the feelings +with which the souls in heaven anticipate the resurrection; and we cease +to wonder why Paul speaks of his resurrection as the great object of his +desire--not merely to be in heaven, but, being in heaven, with Christ, +to be in possession of a completed nature, like Christ's. + +From the grave where it was sown in corruption, it will come forth in +incorruption; sown in dishonor, it will be raised in glory; sown in +weakness, it will be raised in power; sown a natural body, it will be +raised a spiritual body. It was "bare grain" when it fell into the +earth; but the corn, with its stalk, and leaves, and the curious ear, +with its silk, and its wrappings, the multiplication of the "bare grain" +into such a product, are an illustration of the apostle's words,--"Thou +sowest not that body that shall be;" hence, he argues, say not, +incredulously, "How are the dead raised, and with what body do they +come?" God giveth the grain a body as it hath pleased him; he can do +the same with regard to that part of man's nature which is committed for +a while to the earth. Let not the natural difficulties connected with +this subject make us sceptical. There are no more difficulties connected +with a grave than with a grape vine. Those distant twigs, on that dry +vine, begin to bud and blossom; grapes form upon them; it is filled with +clusters. Is there any thing in the resurrection more strange than this? +Twice, inspiration says to a man, "Thou fool!"--once, to a godless, rich +man, and, once, to him who is sceptical about the resurrection of the +body. + +When the glorified spirit and the glorified body meet, the moment when +the investiture of the soul with its spiritual form takes place, and the +forcible divorce of the soul and body is terminated by new, strange +nuptials, there must be an experience which now defies all power of +imagination. We may have known, in this world, all the thrilling +experiences of which our natures here are capable; we shall also have +seen and felt what it is to awake in heaven, satisfied with Christ's +likeness; and all the new-born joys of heavenly sensations will have +seemed to leave us nothing to be experienced which can bring a new +rapture to the heart; yet when the body is raised, and the triumphant +spirit comes to put it on afresh, it will be an addition to all the past +joys of the heavenly state. As we look on one another, and see, in each +other's beauty and glory, an image of our own; as we remember how we +visited the graves of loved ones, and what thoughts and feelings we had +there, and then see those graves yielding forms like Christ's; as we see +the Saviour's person mirrored in ours on every side, and behold the +living changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, there will be an +exceeding great joy, such, perhaps, as the universe had never before +known. But to each of us the most perfect joy will be his own +consciousness, existence being then a rapture such as we never +experienced. Then the bird is winged, the jewel is set in gold, the +flower blooms, the harp receives all her strings, the heir is crowned. +No wonder that Paul said, looking through and beyond heaven, "If by any +means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead." + +Perhaps we now think of the last day with dread, as a day of +consternation. It is not always that we can think of the heavens on +fire, the earth dissolved, the dead arising, and the judgment +proceeding, without some feeling of dismay. But in heaven, we shall long +have anticipated that day as the day of our complete triumph. The grave +will, till that time, have imprisoned one part of our nature. The curse +of the law will not have passed away entirely, and in every respect, +till all which belongs to us is redeemed from every natural, as well as +moral, consequence of sin. It will be an expectation of unmingled joy to +see this accomplished. The approach of the day will fill us with more +pleasure than the arrival of any other wished-for moment. We shall come +with Christ to judgment. "Them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with +him." We shall have a part in the glory of Christ, and be associated +with him; for, "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?" +"Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" What curious interest there +will be to receive back from the dust of the earth the dishonored, +corrupted, mouldered, wasted, perished body. In the Saviour, even, we +shall not have seen all the wonders of the resurrection from the dead; +for, "He whom God raised saw no corruption;" but we shall be raised from +corruption. To be clothed upon with that house which is from heaven, to +be a completed, perfected human being, will be, up to that time, the +greatest possible manifestation to us of divine wisdom and power. + +The new body will bring with it sources of enjoyment which will be a +vast addition to the previous happiness of heaven. There will be perfect +satisfaction in every one with his own body--no consciousness of +defects, of deformity, of weakness. Comparisons of ourselves with others +will not excite dissatisfaction and envy; every one will be perfect of +his kind, and will differ in some things from every other, and will be +an object of love and admiration with all. We are astonished here with +the intellectual, oratorical, vocal powers of others, with their +knowledge, their talent, their skill; but there we shall no doubt be +filled also with astonishment at our own powers and acquisitions, and +thus we shall be more capable of appreciating and enjoying the +endowments of others. God is pleased to raise up one and another, from +time to time, with great powers to charm their fellow-creatures; and +thus he would lure us on to heaven, teaching us how much we can enjoy, +and how much we shall lose if we are not saved. Those who are deprived +of very many intellectual and social pleasures here, which they could +appreciate as well as their more favored friends, will soon have it made +up to them. By the likeness of their glorified nature to the human +nature of Christ, they are to be intimately associated with him forever. +This, of itself, is an assurance and pledge, that their heavenly +happiness will not be measured by their relative inferiority to their +brethren in this world. To a benevolent mind it is a great joy to think +of good people, who are deprived, in this world, of education and +culture, entering upon a career of boundless knowledge, rising to the +highest pitch of mental development, and enjoying it all the more for +their former disadvantages in their probationary state. "And, behold, +there are last which shall be first." Distinctions made here by +knowledge will be transient, like gifts of prophecy, and tongues; for it +is in this sense that it is said, "whether there be knowledge, it shall +vanish away." And when we look upon those dear children of God who have +long suffered under bodily deformity, and "have borne, and have had +patience, and have not fainted," we love to think of their glorified +bodies, and of that rich zest in the possession of them which will be +both the natural consequence, and the gracious reward, of their +patience; nay, we love to think that some special, personal beauty, some +peculiar grace and glory, may be given them by Him who so delights in +compensatory acts in nature, in providence, and in grace. + +Was it not the object of the transfiguration, in part, to give the human +soul of Christ such an idea of his future glory in heaven, as to +strengthen him for his agony and death? Yes; for the heavenly visitants +"spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." That +anticipation of his glorified nature was a part of "the joy set before +him." Let Christ on Tabor, and faith, do for us, with regard to present +bodily sorrows and sufferings, that which the transfiguration did for +Jesus in the days of his humiliation. "Who shall change our vile body, +that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the +working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." + +Through the long interval of death and the separate state, the +anticipation of the last day and of the resurrection will, no doubt, +be to the wicked a predominant source of terror. While the joyful +anticipations of it, in heaven, will be like the advancing steps of +morning, when there begin to be signs, in the tabernacle for the sun, +of that bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and of that strong man +rejoicing to run a race, and every thing will be astir with the notes +of preparation for that day, for which all other days were made, the +approach of it will be, to the lost, a deepening gloom, its arrival the +settling down of interminable night. Instead of entering into their +bodies with transport, as the righteous do, they will each be like a +prisoner removed from one jail to another with new bars and bolts. If +it be not unreasonable to suppose that the appearance of the body will +conform to the character, and if the bodies of Isaiah, and Paul, and +John must be seraphic, to correspond with their experience and +attainments, what must the bodies of the wicked be! They will have spent +centuries in sinning, and suffering, debased in every part, the image of +God supplanted by the image of him whose service they preferred to that +of a holy God and Saviour. What a moment will that be, when the sinner's +grave is opened by the last trumpet, and a hideous form rises to receive +a frantic spirit! "The harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers +are the angels." "As, therefore, the tares are gathered and burned in +the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall +send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all +things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into +a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." "And +many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to +everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." There +will be separations at the graves of those who lay side by side in +death; many a tomb will yield up subjects both for heaven and for hell; +the differences in character, between the regenerate and unregenerate, +will there be made conspicuous in the correspondence of the risen body +to the soul, according as the soul shall have arrived at the grave from +a state of joy or of woe. Arrests will be made, there will be forcible +detentions, overpowering strength, disregard of entreaties, remorseless +rendings asunder of families, unclasping of embraces, and an +indiscriminate mixture of all classes among the wicked, indicated by the +command, "Bind ye the tares together, in bundles, to be burned." Nor +will this be worse for holy angels to witness, than it was to see those +sinners turn their backs on the Lord's supper, year after year. They +could treat their Saviour's dying agonies, and his blood, with perfect +neglect and contempt, through their love of the world and sin; now they +eat the fruit of their own way, and are filled with their own devices. +Our treatment of the Saviour will return upon our own heads. What a +change will be made in the ideas which many sentimentalists had of holy +angels, when they see them executing the terrible orders of their King! +and what an illustration it will give of the severity of justice,--the +rigors of its execution being compatible with the pure benevolence of +holy angels, because of God. We are constantly admonished that the +punishment of the wicked will be a great part of the proceedings on that +day. It is called "the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." +"Behold, the Lord cometh, with ten thousands of his saints, to execute +judgment." + + * * * * * + +All this serves to invest the death of a dear Christian friend, in our +thoughts, with inexpressible peace and comfort. He, with his Redeemer, +can say, "My flesh, also, shall rest in hope." If we are confident that +a friend is gone to be with Christ, death is, even now, swallowed up of +life; and now the thought of what the soul is to inherit, both before +and after the resurrection, and its contrast with the experience of the +lost, should make us joyful in tribulation. True, we cannot, by any +artifice or illusion, make death itself cease to be a curse. Full of +beauty and consolation as it may be,--nay, we will call it +triumphant,--yet nothing saddens the mind, for the time, more than the +sight of true beauty. In heaven things beautiful will not make us sad; +nor will the remembrance of a past joy, which so inevitably has that +effect upon us here. We are beholding a sunset. Day is flinging up all +its treasures, as though it were breaking to pieces its pavilion forever +and scattering the fragments; and now, when all seemed past, one more +flood of glory streams over the scene, but only for a moment; then comes +a last touch of pathos, here and there, like a more distant farewell, a +whispered good night. Have tears never come unbidden, do we never feel +sad, at such a time? Is not the whole of life, past, present, and to +come, then tinged with sombre hues? and all because the dying day +expires with such beauty and peace. Not so when a storm suddenly brings +in night upon us. Then we are nerved and braced; we hear no minor key in +the voice of the departing day. It is perfectly natural, therefore, to +weep over our dead, even when every thing in their departure is +consolatory and beautiful. It is interesting to observe that it was even +when he was on his way to raise the dead body of his friend, and thus to +comfort the weeping sisters, that "Jesus wept." + +Let us more and more love the Christian's grave. Angels love it. Two of +them sat in the tomb where the body of Jesus had lain--they loosed the +napkin that was about his head, and "wrapped" it "together in a place by +itself;" and when Jesus had left the place, instead of following him, +they lingered, to comfort the weeping friends on their arrival at the +sepulchre. Can it be Michael, guardian of the dead Moses and his grave, +on "the great stone" which has been rolled "from the door of the +sepulchre"? Is he thinking how he will one day hear the command, "Take +ye away the stone" which covers all who sleep in Jesus? As the cross is +hallowed by the death of the Son of God upon it, the grave is hallowed +for the believer through the Saviour's burial. There are three places +which must possess intense interest for a glorified friend. One is his +home; another is his seat in the house of God; and another is his grave. +Let us cherish it. We do well to visit such a spot. Sometimes +approaching it with sadness and fear, we go away with surprising peace; +looking back for a last view of the stone, and feeling towards the spot +as we do when we are leaving little children in the dark for the night, +unutterable love, we find, has cast out fear. Those graves are treasures +which heaven has made sure, "sealing the stone, and setting a watch." Of +those who still live, we are not certain that, in the providence of God, +they will henceforth be an unmingled source of comfort; but they who are +in those graves are garnered fruits, are finished works, are each like +the rod of Aaron laid up in the ark, which "bloomed blossoms and yielded +almonds." All else which is dear to us on earth may seem changeful, or +changed; the property may have disappeared, the home may have been +broken tip, the plighted faith and love may have been recalled; the +whole condition of life may have been altered: but we visit that burial +spot, and there is permanence; that fast-anchored isle has defied the +surges and roaring currents; the grave seems beautifully constant; it +has not betrayed our confidence; it is not weary of its precious charge; +it has kindly staid behind to permit and encourage our griefs when all +else may have fled. The winter's snows have fallen, the tempests have +beaten, there; and now, this April or May morning, it is as steadfast +and quiet as when the slumber there began. + +Great honor is paid to the dead in giving them precedence to the living +at the last day. "The dead in Christ shall rise first," that is, before +the living are changed;--they shall rise, and after that, in a moment, +in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, the living will be +transformed; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised +incorruptible, and we shall be changed. This is said in order to comfort +those who mourn the death of Christian friends,--intimating such care on +the part of their Redeemer, that the apostle is directed to tell us "by +the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain to the coming +of the Lord, shall not" have precedence of "them that are asleep." It is +declared that the change of the living will be effected "in a moment, in +the twinkling of an eye." This must be a matter of pure revelation; for +it could not have been foretold, from any apparent probabilities, +whether it would happen instantaneously or by degrees. It is suited to +impress the mind with the power and majesty of Christ, inasmuch as this +is to be one of the great acts connected with his second coming, and as +really an exercise of his omnipotence as the raising of the dead. For he +is "Lord both of the dead and of the living." + +"And the sea shall give up the dead that are in it." Many a form of a +believer is waiting there for the redemption of the body. Nor has it +escaped the eye of the great archangel. Wrapped in its rude shroud, or +decomposed and scattered, or in whatever way seemingly annihilated, +personal identity still attaches to it, and the all-seeing eye watches +every thing which is essential to that identity, as easily as though the +body were in the grave with kindred dust. That the power of God in the +resurrection may be fully illustrated, and that some may be preeminent +witnesses in their own persons of that mighty power, perhaps it will +appear that they were permitted, for that purpose, to be devoured, or to +dissolve and to waste away in the sea. If they who came out of great +tribulation are arrayed in white robes among the righteous, we may look +for some special sign of glory and joy in those who receive their +bodies, not from the sheltering grave, but from the sea, and from the +very frame of nature, into which their bodily organization will, in one +way and another, have been incorporated. O the unspeakable wonders and +raptures connected with the resurrection, both as it relates to our own +experience, and to the illustrations which the resurrection will afford, +of the divine wisdom and power. No wonder, we say, that Paul esteemed +it the height of Christian privilege, that he, as a redeemed human +being, "might attain unto the resurrection of the dead." + +It is an innocent fancy, if it be not worthy of a better name, that the +great attention which has been given of late years to new cemeteries, +now in such contrast to the old graveyards, whose reckless disorder so +perfectly expressed abandonment to sorrow and unresisting surrender to +the last enemy, is a symptomatic token of growing faith in the great, +general heart of the Christianized part of the race, with regard to that +consummation of all things, the resurrection of the dead. + +As at sea there is, within certain degrees of latitude and longitude, an +uphill and a downhill, made by the convexity of the globe, we, perhaps, +may have reached the meridian of the great voyage, and may have begun to +feel the inclination which will set us forward more swiftly to the end. +The power of the great consummation will be waxing stronger and +stronger. Men are looking to the cemeteries as places where great +treasures went down, or were abandoned, and they begin to think that +some great restoration awaits them. These costly and beautiful +cemeteries, which men are preparing, are like Hiram's contributions to +the building of the temple; they foretell some great thing; they have a +look not only of expectation, but of design, not merely of faith, but of +hope. With a truly liberal regard to the decoration of those burial +places with costly works of general interest, in the department of art, +we shall do well to make provision, by statute, for the perpetual repair +and preservation of every enclosure, and every grave, the whole body +corporate thus pledging itself, as far as possible, to each incumbent, +that his last resting place shall be the care of the perpetuated +fraternity to the end of time. + +And when the prophecies are accomplished, and the stone cut out of the +mountain without hands has filled the earth, and the apostasy which is +to follow the general prevalence of religion, has deluged the world +with blood, and Satan, loosed a little season, is triumphing in his +maddened career, and the graves are full, and the souls under the altar, +with their importunate cry, can no longer wait for the avenging +arm,--then shall be seen the sign of the Son of man coming in the clouds +of heaven, with power and great glory. + +As we commit a Christian friend to the earth, and as we visit his +resting place, let us think that now, the anticipation of the rising +from the dead is, to him, the great object of personal expectation and +hope. The time is not far distant, when, in heaven, we, in like manner, +shall be filled with that expectation, as we look down upon the places +where our bodies await the signal of the resurrection. + +Let not the image of our friends, as sick and in pain, occupy our +thoughts. "For the former things are passed away." Their language, as +they call back to us, is, "As dying, and behold, we live." + +We who have children and friends that sleep in Jesus, and who expect +ourselves to be, with them, and with one another, children of the +resurrection, will soon know each other in the presence of Christ. We +shall have become reunited in the presence of each other to our loved +and lost ones. The great question then will be, How did we fulfil God's +special and benevolent designs in our trials? If we revisit scenes of +deep affliction where death and the grave usurped their dread power over +us for a season, we shall remember our misery as waters that pass away. +In hope of this, we will patiently and joyfully labor and suffer. "The +night is far spent; the day is at hand." + + * * * * * + +On a pleasant morning in April, three months from the time of her +decease, the mortal part of the dear child whose name gives this book +its title, was removed from its temporary resting place in the city, to +her grave in the family cemetery. As the hands of her father, which +baptized her, laid her to rest in her sweet and peaceful bed, and the +simple stone, with her chosen "lilies of the valley and rose buds" +carved on it, was set up,--the gift of one whose consanguinity was made +by him the delicate ground of claim to do this touching and abiding act +of love,--it seemed as though, in some sense, there had already been +brought to pass the saying which is written, "Death is swallowed up in +victory." + +But in the night, a gentle April shower fell; and as the thoughts were +carried by it, spellbound, from the chamber where she was born, to her +newly-made grave,--that night being the first of her sleeping there,--it +seemed very plain that, though Death had been conquered, the Grave still +kept possession of the field.--Christ "will be thy destruction," O +Grave, as he has been "thy plagues," O Death! The early rain seemed to +have made good haste in visiting the fresh mound and the flower seeds +already placed there, conspiring with them to cover the grave speedily +with emblems of the resurrection, as though, with confident boast and +exultation, they would, beforehand, say, "Where is thy victory?" Simple +thoughts and fancies, which we hardly dare utter, have wonderful power, +in great sorrows, to change the whole current of the feelings; for while +that soft shower was heard, falling on the grave, it seemed as if a +heavenly watcher was in care of the place; and so, leaving them +together, it was easy and pleasant to fall asleep. + + * * * * * + +And now, seeing that there is not one experience in this volume which is +not, or may not be, enjoyed, and surpassed, by every dying saint, and by +surviving friends, and as the narrative is thus saved from all just +thought either of ostentation, or of setting forth a discouraging +standard of experience, may the book find protection from those who, +knowing the innocent weaknesses, and, at the same time, the blessedness, +of those who mourn, will kindly appreciate the motives with which it is +written. For more than a year the narrative has been laid by, from +indefinable reluctance at the thought of publication. But this +affliction, which was, at first, like the bulb of the hyacinth with its +white, pendulous roots in water,--those symbols of hope and pledges of +growth,--has now bloomed and become fragrant with such comforts and +consolations, that we venture to set the plant in our window, perchance +it may meet the eye of one and another as they walk and are sad. Perhaps +it may, here and there, win love and praise for Jesus. "He hath done all +things well." + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Catharine, by Nehemiah Adams + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CATHARINE *** + +***** This file should be named 15485.txt or 15485.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/4/8/15485/ + +Produced by Robert Shimmin, Karina Aleksandrova and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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