THE AGED BELIEVER IN DEATH.

DAVID THOMAS, D.D.

By faith Jacob when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning on the top of his staff.-HEB. xi: 21.

A SPECIAL interest attaches to the last acts and

words of one who has long been prominent in a people's history, a professed believer in the Saviour, and whose example has been, and will be influential. Such a man was Jacob. With many imperfections he had noble virtues, power with God, and the eye of a seer, but his end has come.

Notice: I. His dying exercise. He blessed his grandchildren and worshipped. He was not regretting his departure from the world, speaking scornfully about the indifference of its inhabitants, lamenting the ingratitude and neglect of his children and friends, and filled with fearful forebodings of the future. He invokes God's blessing on the two sons of Joseph. His heart warm with love is yearning over them, and longing for their spiritual welfare, and those who may succeed them. He remembered his own God and the God of his fathers who had been so kind to him, and, filled with the inspiration of gratitude, reverence and devotion, he supplicates that this same God may "bless the lads."

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II. His dying attitude and action. He leans upon the top of his staff." This staff served to support his tottering body. Age had made itself felt upon his once hardy frame. His strength was departing. He was shivering upon the dark borders of the grave, and the staff was needed for his support. Thus does time bring upon all the infirmities delineated by Solomon in Eccles. But while leaning thus, his staff would recall many

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of the incidents in his varied and eventful history. It may have come to him as an heirloom from his grandfather Abraham. It may have been the same staff that he took with him from his father's house when he started a boy to Padan Aram. It may have been the same staff that he handled as a shepherd when tending the flock of Laban for over twenty years. It may have lain by his side when he slept at Bethel, and saw that wondrous vision of angels cn the ladder, and God above it—promising to be his God, and Jacob when awaked promising to be God's. It may have been with him when he wrestled with the angel at the brook, and also in his hand when he stood before the King in the palace. of Egypt. What wonderful memories would that old staff evoke. What associations often cluster around a tree, a stone, an old arm-chair, a picture, &c. Each is like an archangel's trump to awake the buried thoughts. How natural for the old man when dying to have this memento of his life with him, and to lean upon it as upon an old and trusty friend.

How delightful the exercise in which he engaged, and how unselfish the spirit he now manifested. He seems now to go out of himself to cthers, and to God. He seems wrapped up in the good of those dearest to him on earth, and anxious that they should enjoy God's favor, doing his will, and being prepared for an everlasting companionship in Heaven. The God upon whom he had depended all his life now seems dearer to him than ever. He worships him as the ever adorable, everlasting one into whose immediate presence he is about to pass.

The only way to die like Jacob-happy-blessing others, and worshipping God is to live in friendship with relatives now, trusting all to the Elder Brother, and having God as the chief joy.

DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION.

REV. CANON HUGH STOWELL.

For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.-1 COR. 15: 21.

THIS is the Christian's spiritual pillar of cloud and fire, on the one side so dark, on the other so bright,

and both caused by man.

I. The curse which came by man.

"Death."

How terrible is death-how fearful his ravages; how unsparing his scythe; how universal his dissolutions. The blight of earth-the terror of man-the tyrant when none can bribe, none elude, and none withstand. Whence came it? Did God originate it? Was it involved in his workmanship? No. It came by man, by his transgression-through this one root came the universal taint and this universal curse--death, spiritual, legal, physical and eternal.

1. Spiritual death came by man. Man when created was radiant with his Maker's image and instinct with His spirit. His soul was in constant fellowship with God. But sin separated him from God-the spirit of God abandoned his breast leaving him dead in trespasses and sins.

2. Legal death came by man. No sooner had man disobeyed, than the sentence of death was pronounced upon him. "By the offence of one, judgment came upon. all men to condemnation." The execution of the sentence is suspended, but in the eye of the Divine law man is dead, liable to eternal wrath, and there is but the breath in his nostrils between him and the death that never dies.

3. Physical death came by man.

"Dust thou art

and unto dust shalt thou return," is written on each brow. The seeds of decay are sown in each from the first vital moment. All classes and ages alike are swept into the dust, generation after generation like the leaves of the forest in the Autumn time.

An infinite God re

4. Eternal death came by man. quires a perpetual r. paration to his justice, and since in this world of woe, there is no remedial power or process, sinning on the lost must suffer on, everlasting rebellion. must entail everlasting retribution. The thought overwhelms us with horror and passes all comprehension. II. The blessing which came by man.

tion."

"Resurrec

If infinite justice dealt with us through one federal man in regard to our probation, it has no less dealt with us in one federal man in regard to our redemption, so that whosoever beliveth on that second man, the Lord from heaven, shall not perish, but have everlasting life. In Him Emmanuel "God with us" condescended to incorporate himself with poor, dying, ruined humanity, that he might lift us up out of the horrible pit into which we had plunged and exalt us to everlasting life. As man He suffered, and as God He saves. As man He died, as God He rose victorious from the grave, and became the Author of spiritual resurrection to every man who receives him as the second Adam, the Lord from heaven In virtue of union with Him, the believer "dies from sin and rises again unto righteousness." As truly as we derive from the first Adam, death, temporal, spiritual, eternal, so truly from Jesus, we derive our spiritual, our legal, our eternal life. "Because I live,

saith He, ye shall live also."

What is death then when divested of its sting by the blood of Jesus? What is the dissolution of the body, when it is in sure and certain hope it sleeps? It is but

a peaceful passage home. It is stript of its terrors. It has no power to hurt them that are in Christ Jesus. "Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

To crown all, by man came the resurrection to eternal life. This is the perfection of the saint's resurrectionraised not only from the grave, and from spiritual death, but raised to die no more, and to have perfect consummation, and bliss with Jesus for ever. Surely every redeemed one may well peal forth the rapturous anthem, "Worthy is the Lamb, &c."

The best evidence that we live by Him is, that we live to Him. Let us not sorrow for our sainted sleeping ones, as others that have no hope. Let our grief be irradiated with hope-and when "Christ who is our life. shall appear we shall also appear with him in glory."

THE WARFARE AND VICTORY.

REV. GEORGE CLAYTON.

Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished.-ISA. xl: 2.

THIS message is full of Christ. It was intended in

the first place as a prediction of the liberation of the Israelites from the yoke of Assyrian bondage, and to the deliverance of the Jewish church from the bondage of ceremonial rites and legal service by the advent of Christ, and by the establishment of his glorious kingdom. But the language of the text may be applied to the termination of any state of anxiety, hardship and grief, to the conclusion of the believer's life in this sorrowful world, which is a warfare, and death comes to him with