that the old, scarred, and weary body might be put to sleep, so that he might go home and be present with his Lord. Then mortality would be swallowed up of life. Go to sleep, poor, old, hard-worked body, the Apostle seems to say, and Jesus will wake thee up in good time, and thou shalt be "made like to the body of His glory, according to the working whereby He subdues all things unto Himself." Let us not be charged with pushing this Scripture simile too far, when we hint that it illustrates the different feelings with which different persons regard the act of dying. When we are sleepy, we covet the pillow and the couch. Even so do we see aged servants of God, who have finished up their life-work, and many a suffering invalid, racked with incurable pains, who honestly long to die. They are sleepy for the rest of the grave and the home beyond it. For Christ here, with Christ yonder, is the highest instinct of the Christian heart. The noble missionary, Judson, phrased it happily when he said: "I am not tired of my work, neither am I tired of the world; yet, when Christ calls me home, I shall go with the gladness of a boy bounding away from school." He wanted to toil for souls until he proved sleepy, and then he wanted to lay his body down to rest and to escape into glory. A dying-bed is only the spot where the material frame falls asleep. Then we take up the slumbering form, and gently bear it to its narrow bed in Mother Earth. Our very word "cemetery" describes this thought. It is derived from the Greek word koμnτýpov (koimeterion), which signifies a sleeping-place. It is a It is a mingled and promiscuous sleeping-place; but the Master "knoweth them that are His." They who sleep in Him shall awake to be for ever with the Lord. On this tremendous question of the resurrection of our loved ones, and our reunion with them, our yearning hearts are satisfied with nothing less than certainty We demand absolute certainty, and there are just two truths that can give it. The first one is the actual fact of Christ's own resurrection from the death-slumber; the second is His omnipotent assurance that all they who sleep in Him shall be raised up and be where is for evermore. Those carly Christians were wise in their generation when they carved on the tomb of the martyrs " In Jesu Christo obdormivit,”—In Jesus Christ he fell asleep. 66 The fragrance of this heavenly line perfumes the very air around the believer's resting-place. Giving to the Latin word its true pronunciation, there is sweet melody, as well as Heaven-sent truth, in this song of the sleepers: "Oh! precious tale of triumph this! And martyr-blood shed to achieve it, "Of cherished dead be mine the trust, "Now to my loved one's grave I bring 6 In Jesu Christo obdormivit.'" THE brightest bow we only trace Frances Ridley Havergal. THE GATES OF DEATH. DAVID THOMAS, D. D. Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?-JOB Xxxviii; 14. THESE HESE remarkable words are part of a wonderfully sublime address, which God delivered to Job amidst the rush and war of an eastern whirlwind. The long, earnest and unsatisfactory debate which had been carried on between the patriarch and his friends touching the government of God was thus terminated with an awfully grand abruptness. In these communications of the Almighty, He does not condescend to propound a solution of the difficulty which had perplexed their judgment and engrossed their discussion. He gives no explanation of his doings, but the grand aim of his appeal is to impress the importance and duty of confidence in His character. Man, intellectually, is too small to comprehend his doings. A firm unshaken trustfulness, therefore, is at once his duty and interest. Among the many things He appeals to in order to impress Job with his insignificance, as compared with his Maker, is the dark region of death expressed in our text-Have the gates of death, &c." The allusion here is to the state, which in the Hebrew is called Sheol, and in the Greek Hades; which means the dark abode of the dead-the deep, dark, vast realm to which all past generations are gone-to which all the present generation is going and whither all coming men up to the day of doom will proceed. The ancients supposed this region to be underground, entered by the grave, and enclosed by gates and bars. This Divine appeal suggests four things: I. The mental darkness which enshrouds us. All the phenomena of the heavens, the earth and the multiform operations of the Croator referred to in this Divine address, were designed and fitted to impress Job with the necessary limitation of his knowledge, and the ignorance which encircled him on all questions. The region of death is but one of the many points to which he is directed as an example of his ignorance. How ignorant we are of the great world of departed men! What a thick veil of mystery enfolds the whole! What questions often start within us to which we can give no satisfactory reply, either from philosophy or the Bible! We should be thankful that we are left in ignorance: 1. Of the exact condition of each individual in that great and ever-growing realm. In general, the Bible tells us that the good are happy and the wicked miserable. This is enough. We would have no more light. We would not know all about those we have known and loved; we would not know the exact pursuits they are following and the exact thoughts and emotions that circulate in an incessant flow through their souls. If we saw them as they arc, should we be fit to enjoy the few days of this brief life or to perform its duties? We should stand paralyzed at the vision. We are thankful that we are left in ignorance: 2. Of our exact proximity to the great realm of the departed. We would not have the day or the hour disclosed. The men to whom the day of death was made known were confounded. Saul heard from Samuel, &c., Peter told Sapphira, &c. Who if he knew it would undertake any enterprise? Would Moses have undertaken the guidance of the Israelites, if he had known that neither he nor they would cross the Jordan? Would Jonathan have ascended Gilboa ? David, &c. II. The solemn change that awaits us. have not been opened to us, but must. death according to the figure before us, we 1. The gates are in constant motion. they closed to one than another enters. that one enters every moment. "The gates" Speaking of observe : No sooner are It is computed 2. The gates open to all classes. There are gates which are to be entered only by persons of distinction ; but here are kings and beggars, &c. 3. The gates open only one way-into eternity. We have, it is true, an account of a few that have come back. But only one who had not to go that way again. No coming back. Job vi: 7-13. "They shall," says Job, "return no more." Hezekiah. to him, &c." We should rejoice in this. We would not have the good back again, nor the bad. The Cæsars, the Alexanders, the Napoleons, back again! No! Thank God for death. David said, "I shall go 4. The gates separate the probationary from the retributionary. When we pass those gates what do we leave behind? on what do we enter. 5. The gates are under supreme authority. There is one Being who can open them. Not accident, &c. The Divine appeal suggests: III. The wonderful mercy that preserves us. in houses of clay. We dwell 2. Thousands have gone through since we began the journey of life. Younger and better too. 3. We have often been made to feel ourselves near. (a) In personal affliction. We have felt the cold breeze coming up freezing the temple and chilling the blood. |