that weep; but yet, amid the sundry and manifold changes of the world," let our spirit and conduct declare aloud that "our hearts are surely there fixed where only true joys can be found." In that blessed state no such tragical event as that I have been noticing can ever occur. Sin and death are together there denied admittance; nor do the inhabitants of that world need, as we do, to be admonished in such words as my text: "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish."

209

SERMON XII.

THE BLESSEDNESS OF THOSE WHO DIE IN

THE LORD.

[Preached on Sunday Morning, December 11, 1830, on occasion of the Death of Miss Georgiana Odell.]

REV. xiv. 13.

And I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.

THESE words, as most of you are aware, form part of the beautiful and impressive burial service of our Church. It is possible, however, that some of you may not have noticed the peculiar place and manner in which they are introduced. They immediately follow that solemn and affecting passage, in which the body of the departed brother or sister is committed to the ground, Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust." And, verily, if there be expressions which cause a more than momentary pang, the words just repeated will furnish them. What! is our departed friend

66

P

or relative, our brother or sister, who so lately appeared among us in health and vigour, in all the energy of manhood, or in all the loveliness of womanhood; is such now only earth, ashes, dust? How painful the contemplation !-increased by the thought, which cannot but strike us, that a description even more humiliating might be given of the human body, between the time of the soul's departure and its own return to dust. Such a description we have in the book of Job: "I have said to corruption, Thou art my father; to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister."

This, indeed, is hinted at, in no very obscure way, in the service now alluded to, where the body is called "a vile body;" though it is added, "who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the mighty working whereby He (i.e. Christ) is able even to subdue all things to himself." This tells us what the departed friend shall be; but we wish to know what he is. Is he safe? is he happy? is he everlastingly blessed? Yes, if he lived and died as a Christian, he is; and he shall be so for ever. But how shall we know it? on whose authority can we depend? The testimony of a priest, or even a prelate, is not sufficient we want something of higher authority and greater certainty. Then hear it in the text.

It is not the testimony of man, but of God; a voice, not from earth, but from heaven; the declaration, not of the priesthood, but that of the Spirit of the living God. "I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write, From henceforth blessed are the dead which die in the Lord even so saith the Spirit; for they rest from their labours."

Such, then, is the place in which these words are introduced. But what is there peculiar in the manner of their introduction? Look to your Prayer-books, and you will see that the text is thus ushered in, "Then shall be said or sung." What! singing at a funeral? Is it not out of place and out of order? I answer, Yes; to the man of the world it may be so to the scoffer and the sceptic it must be so. Once gone, in their estimation, means gone for ever. The departed may be happy, or may be miserable, or may be annihilated. According to their creed, all is uncertainty-a dark, a wide, a dismal unknown. How different the feelings of the real Christian; to whose support, under a trial so acute and severe, come the words of my text, whether said or sung, to comfort his heart and animate his hopes. "I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write, From henceforth blessed are

the dead which die in the Lord: even so saith the Spirit; for they rest from their labours."

to

This passage, in its primary import, relates to the noble army of martyrs, who sealed with their blood the truth of their testimony concerning Jesus. We not unfrequently hear the name, but do we rightly understand the history of the martyrs? It may not be amiss to pause for a moment, to inquire the cause of the sufferings and death-sufferings the most severe, death the most cruel-which befel many of the early disciples of the Lord Jesus. Was it that they could be accused of violating the laws of their country, or of injuring their fellowcreatures? Verily such things were never laid to their charge, by any sober or reflecting person worthy of credit. Their crime was this,

66

They testified to the world that its works were evil." They declared that the end of sin was death; and that there was no salvation but in a crucified Redeemer. They were willing to renounce their dearest comforts, to forego all the pleasures of life, to suffer all the privations of poverty and imprisonment, yea, of exile, and of death itself; but they could not, would not, dared not renounce the name and the faith of their Divine Lord and Master. For this, which was called obstinacy; which