like a thief in the night. Even with these sure tokens of mortality, these clouds gathering thick around us, they who enjoy a little more strength, a sounder constitution than their companions, are apt to build a foolish confidence on this fleeting superiority. How thoughtless then of approaching death would they be, if their bodies continued in the prime of health and manhood till the appointed hour arrived, and they dropt at once into the grave! "Their inward thought would be, that their earthly houses should continue for ever, and their dwellingplaces to all generations 1."

But there yet remains one reason why a kind and merciful God afflicts with bodily anguish and sorrow of heart even his best beloved children, nay, a reason why he most afflicts those whom he most tenderly loves. It might therefore have stood instead of all the reasons which I have hitherto been labouring to set forth, were it not for your edification to exhibit the wisdom and goodness of God in every point of view in which I can discover it. The reason I mean is, that these evils are necessary in order to form the genuine Christian character in our souls. The essence of that character consists in right affections and feelings towards God and towards our fellow-creatures. Tenderness and compassion for the sorrows and sufferings of our brethren is the most obvious, as it is the most substantial, part of our

1 Ps. xlix. 11

kindly affections towards them. But to produce this in our own bosoms, it is first necessary that we obtain an experimental knowledge of pain and misery. The very word "sympathy" means "to suffer in common with another;" and the use of it implies that, according to the common sense and understanding of mankind, we must first suffer in order to pity. I do not say that God has need of our services in order to remedy the evils which multiply on every side of us; that were to limit his power, instead of exalting his goodness. But I say, that the numberless ills, which his admirable wisdom permits to spring up and force themselves on our notice, furnish us with abundant opportunities for cultivating a kind and charitable spirit; that spirit which it is the end and great object of all his commandments to work in us, and without which we may possess all knowledge both of things divine and human, and yet we shall be accounted dead in his sight, whose name and whose essence is Love. To this our full conviction that an experience of misery is necessary in order to make a man sympathise with others, the Scripture makes direct appeal, when it encourages us to look up to the never-failing, boundless mercy of the Saviour, on the ground of his submitting to take our nature upon him. "In that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted 1." "He is able," he

1 Heb. ii. 18.

fully comprehends the weakness, the pain, the consequent misery, the means of helping, and the greatness of the blessing conferred by it. Again, "We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities"-who cannot sympathise or share in them-" but was in all points tempted like as we are. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need 1." Neither could we be disciplined and perfected in that entire and compleat submission of our will to the will of God, in which consists the great change from worldliness to spirituality, without repeated experience of what is abhorrent to our own inclinations. Faith and resignation and patience are wrought into the soul only by means of use and practice. And according to your possession or want of these graces must your character and eternal state be determined by the all-scrutinising and all-judging God. Faith is an holding fast by God's promises; a trust in him for full protection and all things needful for salvation, when you are tempted to despair, and to think that he neglects and forsakes you. You must then be thrown into adversities in order that you may practise faith. It is the same with patience and resignation. They grow out of faith; they are the lovely branches of the tree of life. Faith is convinced that God continues true to us,

1 Heb. iv. 15, 16.

even while he hides his face and afflicts; it endures therefore without murmuring, chearfully, willingly, with thanksgiving. Even when every earthly comfort slides from the dying grasp; when pain becomes intense, and the trial appears harder than human nature can endure, the increasing violence of the tempest only roots faster this heavenly plant. The Christian minister has the high privilege of witnessing the strife between failing flesh and blood on the one side, and unconquerable faith and hope and patient endurance on the other. The dying saint exclaims with holy Job, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him '," and with David, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes 2" "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me 3

"

COLLECT.

We humbly beseech thee, O Father, mercifully to look upon our infirmities; and for the glory of thy Name, turn from us all those evils that we most righteously have deserved; and grant, that in all our troubles we may put our whole trust and confidence in thy mercy, and evermore serve thee in holiness and pureness of living, to thy honour and glory; through our only Mediator and Advocate, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

1 Ch. xiii. 15.

2 Ps. cxix. 71.

3 Ps. xxiii. 4.

D d

SERMON XXVII.

DEATH.

FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT.

66

JOHN viii. 51.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death."

We need go no farther than my text to prove that the word death has meanings, which differ from each other in important respects. All of us know that it is generally used to designate that awful event which terminates for ever our existence as members of this visible world, cuts us off from all those outward objects, with which we have been conversant from the day when life, and feeling, and thought were first bestowed on us, and hurries our souls into a new and mysterious state, which no living man has experienced, or can imagine. But every child of fallen Adam, the righteous equally with the wicked, is doomed to undergo the sentence, which was pronounced on him as the representative of all his de