The Death of Eminent Ministers, a Public Loss
A funeral sermon for Dr. Bogue, preached in Carrs Lane Meeting-house,
November 6, 1825, by John Angell James.
"As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire
with horses of fire suddenly appeared and separated the two of them. Then
ELIJAH went up into heaven in the whirlwind. As Elisha watched, he kept
crying out, 'My father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of
Israel!' Then he never saw Elijah again. He took hold of his own clothes and
tore them into two pieces." (2 Kings 2:11-12)
There is an uncommon grandeur, an unearthly greatness, in
the more distinguished characters whose history is preserved in the Word of
God. Compared with the prophets of the Old Testament, and the apostles of
the New—the most celebrated heroes of secular antiquity, and the most
splendid personages of fable—are but as the fires which blaze on earth, to
the stars which shine in the skies of heaven. Among the worthies of the
Jewish dispensation, Elijah, stern, solemn and majestic—is second
only to Moses. His life was spent in presiding over the schools of the
prophets, in delivering the messages of God to his sinful nation, and in
struggling against its idolatrous court for the preservation of true
religion. His discharge of these arduous duties, was supported by a series
of stupendous miracles; and as his final honor, he was removed to his
heavenly rest and reward—without dying. This was one of the most remarkable
events which took place during the continuance of the Levitical economy.
"O! the singular glory of Elijah! What mortal creature
ever had this honor, to be visibly fetched by the angels of God to his
heaven? Every soul of the elect is attended and carried to blessedness by
these invisible messengers; but what flesh and blood was ever graced with
such a convoy? There are three bodily inhabitants of heaven, Enoch, Elijah,
and our Saviour Christ; the first before the law, the second under the law,
the third after the dispensation of the law had given way to the gospel; all
three in a different form of translation. Our blessed Saviour raised himself
to and above the heavens, by his own immediate power: he ascended as the
Son, they as servants; he as God, they as creatures. Elijah ascended by the
visible ministry of angels; Enoch, insensibly. Therefore, O God! have you
done this, but to give us a taste of what shall be; to let us see that
heaven was never shut to the faithful; to give us assurance of the future
glorification of this mortal and corruptible part. Even thus, O Savior! when
you shall descend from heaven, with the voice of an archangel, and with the
trumpet of God, we that are alive and remain, shall be caught up, together
with the raised bodies of your saints into the clouds, to meet you in the
air, to dwell with you in glory. Come death, come fire, come whirlwind—they
are worthy to be welcome, that shall carry us to immortality."
(Hall's Contemplations)
The design of God in this event was to put a mark of
honor upon piety, embodied and represented in the character of Elijah; to
awaken the attention of a slumbering age and a careless nation to the solemn
realities of eternity, by a new proof of the resurrection of the body; and
to encourage the seven thousand who had not yet bowed the knee to Baal, to
maintain their protest against idolatry, notwithstanding the persecution to
which it might expose them. On beholding the astonishing and brilliant
spectacle, Elisha gave utterance to his agitated feelings in the language of
the text; in which having first expressed his ardent affection and deep
sense of bereavement, he pronounces the finest eulogy on the character of
his master, by declaring that his life and labors were of more importance to
Israel than all its array of horses and chariots. Never was friendship more
beautifully blended with patriotism; nor the sorrows of private affection so
elevated by the sense of national loss.
I. The first remark I
make upon this passage is, that
eminent ministers are the defense of the country, and the glory of the
age in which they live. I shall not attempt
to prove this by ascertaining how far literature, science, eloquence, the
art of reasoning, and education, are indebted to their labors; and how far
these things contribute to the well-being of a country; but I shall take
higher ground, and show that such men are the strength and glory of a
country, as the chief instruments of supporting the interests of religion.
It is a most important sentiment, and ought to be kept constantly before the
public mind, that true piety is the most direct and powerful cause of
national comfort, prosperity, and security; and that in its absence all
their other causes must be very limited and transient in their effects. If
true religion were a mere abstraction of devotion, confined in its exercise
to the closet and the sanctuary, and restricted in its influence to the
imagination and the taste—but not having any necessary control over the
conscience, the heart, and the life, and not intended to regulate the
fellowship of society; if it consisted merely in attendance on the rites and
forms of the church, and began and ended upon the threshold of the house of
God, then it would be difficult to point out what connection such a religion
had with the welfare of a country. It would in that case resemble the ivy,
which though it add a picturesque effect to a venerable building, imparts
neither stability to its walls, nor convenience to its rooms.
But if true religion is indeed a principle of the heart,
an element of the character, the habit of thinking, feeling, and acting
aright in all our social relations; the basis of every virtue, and the main
prop of every excellence; if it be indeed the fear of the Lord, by which men
depart from evil; if it be faith working by love; if it be such a belief in
the gospel of Christ as leads to a conformity to his example—religion being
such as this, must secure the welfare of any country. There is not one
single influence, whether of law, of science, of art, of learning—tending to
the well-being of society, which true religion does not guard and
strengthen.
Take the summary of its duties as expressed in the two
great commandments, that a man shall love his God supremely, and his
neighbor as himself: or take the direction of Paul: "Whatever things are
true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things
are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report—if
there be any virtue, or if there be any praise, think of these things." Or
take Peter's comprehensive description of the circle of Christian duty,
"Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king." Here we see
that true religion, though founded on a belief of doctrines, and nourished
by the exercises of devotion, diffuses its influence over the entire
character of man, and through the whole range of society. It is the belief,
the love, the worship, the imitation of the Deity. It is sound morality,
animated and sanctified by the spirit of true devotion to Christ.
Such religion contains the seed of every social
excellence, the seminal principle of virtue in every relation in life. "It
maintains an incessant struggle with whatever is selfish, barbarous, and
inhuman; by unveiling futurity, it clothes morality with a divine sanction,
and harmonizes utility and virtue in every state of existence, and every
combination of events." To man, as regards his personal character, true
religion prescribes, not only homage to God—but self-government and
self-respect; and it follows him into the domestic circle, the fellowship of
the church, and every combination which he forms in the great community of
his country, or in the citizenship of the world; binding upon him the duties
which are appropriate to his station, whatever it may be, and calling on him
to acknowledge the claims which reach him from every quarter.
As with the flaming sword of the cherubim, true religion
guards all the social interests of man, protecting the throne from the
turbulence and anarchy of the people; and the rights of the people from the
encroachments of the throne; the rich from the invasion and spoliation of
the poor; the poor from the insults and oppression of the rich. True
religion teaches justice to the master and fidelity to the servant; ordains
equity and truth as the rules of commercial transactions; nerves the arm
with industry, and melts the bosom to compassion; carries the authority of
God into recesses too deep and distant to be reached by the institutes of
human laws, and makes a man a law to himself amidst the urgency of
temptation, and the privacy of solitude.
In short, there is not a single duty by which man can
promote the welfare of society, which is not enjoined by true religion; nor
is there one evil influence which it does not oppose by the weight of its
authority and the terror of its frown. True religion places society under
the shadow of the eternal throne, draws over it the shield of Omnipotence,
and employs for the defense of its earthly interests the thunder issuing
from the clouds and thick darkness in which Jehovah dwells. That man must be
a fool and not a philosopher, whatever be his pretensions to learning or to
science, who does not recognize in true Christianity, the guardian of his
country, and the ministering angel of the world.
Let it not be said that virtue would do all this without
religion, for where did national virtue ever exist in the absence of true
religion. A land of atheists, or even of deists, is a dark and frightful
spectacle, which the world has never yet been fated to witness, and in all
probability never will be. It is easy to conceive, however, that in the
absence of all the moral principles, the standards of duty, and the examples
of goodness contained in the Scripture, which we find so essential to the
right formation of character, such a land must be barren of virtue and
prolific in crime. The only attempt ever made to set up the reign of atheism
in a country, was productive of such enormous vice, and such prodigious
misery, that it excited the horror, and was abandoned amidst the execrations
of the community.
It is Christianity alone that can preserve virtue, in
which the well-being of a country consists; and it is self-evident that the
universal prevalence of piety, would be necessarily followed by the
universal reign of virtue; for virtue is not only a part of piety—but piety
itself. It has been finely demonstrated by Butler, in his immortal work,
that the virtue of a people necessarily increases their strength, and that a
nation's pre-eminence in virtue, other things being equal, must ever produce
superiority in strength.
And then there is another way besides its direct
influence, in which piety leads to the prosperity and security of a land; I
mean by the drawing down the blessing of God. If there is a moral
governor of the universe, sin must provoke him, and holiness please him! If
sin provokes God, he is able to punish it, for the destinies of nations are
at his disposal, the balance of power is in his hand! Men's bodies, as such,
are rewardable and punishable only in this world, as death dissolves all
bands, and reduces society to its elements, allowing the existence of
neither families, churches, nor nations in eternity. God's determination to
punish guilty nations, and to bless virtuous ones, is declared on the pages
of Scripture, and confirmed by the details of history. Hearken to the solemn
denunciations of Jehovah. "At one moment I might announce concerning a
nation or a kingdom that I will uproot, tear down, and destroy it. However,
if that nation I have made an announcement about, turns from its evil, I
will not bring the disaster on it I had planned. At another time I announce
that I will build and plant a nation or a kingdom. However, if it does what
is evil in My sight by not listening to My voice, I will not bring the good
I had said I would do to it." (Jeremiah 18:7-10) And he has most awfully
fulfilled these words. Where are Nineveh, Babylon, Tyre, Athens, Jerusalem,
and ancient Rome? Vanished from the earth, except a few melancholy ruins,
which lie like their moldering bones, around the grave's mouth, while the
destroying angel, the spirit of desolation, still lingers on each vast
sepulcher, to proclaim for the admonition of the earth, "See therefore, and
know that it is an evil and a bitter thing to sin against the Lord!"
And over other lands still numbered among living nations,
do we not see the awful "image of jealousy" arising, and do we not hear an
solemn voice declaring, "Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with
wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its
sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will
not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will
not shed its light. I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for
their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low
the pompous pride of the ruthless." (Isaiah 13:9-11). It is sin then that
ruins a kingdom; holiness that preserves it.
O my country, may you have wisdom to know and value this
true secret of national greatness—and to remember that there is no kingdom
so high but vice will bring it down and lay it low even in the dust! There
is no country so humble but virtue may raise it to the pinnacle of
prosperity. Religion is your strength, more than commerce, or the arts, or
martial prowess—and may you never, never, part with this, under the wiles of
any seducing spirit, whether false philosophy, infidelity, or immorality;
for then shall you be seen like Samson when shorn of his hair—a miserable
captive in the hands of the Philistines, and an object of sport to the
enemies, who had so often trembled and crouched under the power of his arm!
Every godly man then, whether his piety blazes like the
sun in a public station, or like the modest candle, sheds its solitary ray
in a private one; whether it fixes the attention of a nation from a throne,
or of a hamlet from a cottage, is a patriot of the purest kind, a
philanthropist of the loftiest order! His example arrests the progress of
sin, and limits the overflowing of ungodliness; his principles, like
precious seeds, contain a self propagating power, and diffuse themselves
over society—his prayers avert the wrath, and bring down the blessing of God
upon the land—his property and his influence, are given to support the
schemes which are intended to relieve misery, to instruct ignorance, to
reform vice. He is the salt of the earth; a moral anti-septic, counteracting
the causes of decay introduced into all social institutions by their
imperfections and human depravity. Of how great consequence is it that such
men should be multiplied in the land; and how truly may it be said of those
whose life is spent in increasing the number, that they are in an eminent
degree—the defense and the glory of their country. This honor belongs to the
ministers of religion—but only to those whose moral character is
unreproachable, and whose piety is sincere.
Ministers of an opposite description, whose lack of
personal religion is apparent, or whose moral character is not without a
stain, or whose spirit is secular, or who are devoted to the fashionable
follies and polluting amusements of the age—such men, instead of being the
horsemen of Israel, and the chariots thereof, are its enemies in disguise;
they are so much thrown into the scale of a country's ruin; they furnish the
infidel with his arguments, the scoffer with his jests, and the profane with
an apology for himself; they cause the ways of religion to be ill spoken of,
and produce an inveterate dislike of true piety in many minds.
But the men who live the truth they preach; whose actions
are to their sermons what the illustrative experiment is to the lecture; who
to all that is lofty and evangelical in doctrine, unite all that is pure,
upright, meek, and benevolent in practice; who can invite scrutiny into
their conduct, and can say to every doubtful and prejudiced enquirer, "come
and see!"—such men, if they be not eloquent as orators, yet as they are
consistent as Christians; if they dart no coruscations of genius from the
pulpit, yet as they diffuse the radiance of a holy and blameless example,
are the best friends, the surest defense, and the brightest ornaments of
their country.
No matter what the denomination to which they belong; no
matter what the name by which they are called; no matter what the altar
before which they minister; independently of these minor considerations,
they contribute to national prosperity, by preaching the truth as it is in
Jesus, and by adorning the doctrine of God their Savior in all things. Their
conduct is more conspicuous, and therefore more influential, than the virtue
of a private Christian. The weight of authority is employed to give force to
example; and attachment softens the heart to receive the impression of their
excellencies. They are sufficiently near their people to allow the
inspection, which is essential to imitation—and yet sufficiently removed to
possess the interest, which is imparted by distance.
The preached Word from the pulpit, however, is the great
means by which holy and consistent ministers extend through a nation the
benefits of religion, and the fruits of virtue. Preaching is ordained by God
to be the great instrument for the production and the maturity of spiritual
excellence. The conversion of the sinner, and the progressive sanctification
of the believer, are promoted more effectually by the sermons of an
energetic preacher than by all the other means of religious instruction and
impression combined. "Of all methods for diffusing religion," says one of
the greatest spiritual writers of the day, "preaching is the most
efficient—other methods are indirect and preparatory; but the simple
proclaiming of the gospel has, in all ages, been attended with the most
transforming efficacy; elevating the few who have cordially accepted it into
a higher and happier state of being, and even raising the many who have
rejected it to a better system of moral opinions. It is to preaching that
Christianity owes its origin, its continuance, and its progress; and it is
to itinerant preaching, however much the ignorant may undervalue it, that we
owe the conversion of the Roman world from paganism to primitive
Christianity; our own freedom from the thraldom of Popery in the success of
the Reformation; and the revival of Christianity at the present day, from
the depression which it had undergone, owing to the prevalence of infidelity
and indifference. Books, however excellent, require at least some previous
interest on the part of the person who is to open and peruse them; but the
preacher arrests that attention, which the written record only invites; and
the living voice, and the listening numbers, heighten the impression by the
sympathy and enthusiasm which they excite; the reality which the truths
spoken possess in the mind of the speaker, is communicated to the feelings
of the hearers, and they end in sharing the same views, at least for the
moment, and in augmenting each others convictions."
("The Advancement of Society in
Knowledge and Religion," by James Douglas)
This is the testimony of a layman, corroborated alike by
the deductions of reason and the details of experience. Let the Sabbath for
a few years be merged in the days devoted to secular pursuits—let the
ministry be lost, and the voice of the faithful preacher be hushed, and
whatever other methods of religious instruction remain, you will soon see
the consequence, in the universal increase of immorality; immorality will
call for infidelity to tolerate its excesses, and shield it from remorse;
while infidelity will encourage immorality as the most zealous supporter of
its usurpations. The pulpit is the strongest barrier against the
encroachments of vice, and the most impregnable bulwark of national virtue.
Senators are usefully employed in making laws to define crime, judges in
detecting and punishing it—but ministers prevent crime, by inspiring an
abhorrence of whatever is displeasing to God, injurious to society, and
disgraceful to humanity. Neither legislators nor magistrates ever pretend to
produce a love of virtue—all they hope to accomplish is to protect her from
crimes, and prevent her from being destroyed by the outrages of vice. But to
inspire mankind with the love of her charms, and induce them to submit to
her sway as the empress of the world, is the especial business of the
minister of truth—and thus does he benefit his country and mankind at large.
In this view of the subject a minister may be expected to
be useful in proportion to his talents, his virtues, and his energies. There
are some who are gifted above their fellows; there are stars of the first
magnitude and brilliancy in the firmament of the church; men who by their
books, as well as by their preaching, by the wisdom of their opinions, and
the ardor of their zeal, give the direction of public opinion, and the tone
of public feeling; master-spirits, who are formed, qualified, and
commissioned to lead the multitude, and to whose influence the multitude
most willingly bow down. Who can calculate the amount of benefit conferred
upon the country and the world by such men as Whitfield, Wesley, Edwards,
and Doddridge? or by the more modern advocates of the cause of evangelical
truth, Cecil, Scott; Fuller, and Hall; and by our illustrious friend, who
has lately departed. While such men lived and labored, they were confessed
to be the defense and ornaments of their country, and when they were
removed, innumerable voices exclaimed, "My father, my father! the chariots
and horsemen of Israel!"
II. Eminent ministers are not allowed to remain—but are
removed by death, notwithstanding their usefulness, from the scene of their
labors. Neither great talents, nor eminent
virtues, nor extensive usefulness, can secure for their possessor a longer
exemption from the stroke of death—than falls to the lot of humanity in
general. The most excellent of the human race are subject to the same law of
existence as the most worthless; the most useful to the same rule as the
most mischievous. Sin has diffused an incurable taint of mortality through
the whole body, which affects not only the extremities—but reaches the head.
"All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The
grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it;
surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the
word of our God will stand forever." (Isaiah 40:6-8). There is, indeed, no
border country, no neutral territory, no sacred enclosure, within which the
holy and benevolent may retire to carry on their labors, and protract their
usefulness, secure from the pursuit of disease and death.
What men have visited our earth! what lofty spirits have
been here! What Godlike minds have appeared on the theater of our world!
What burning and shining lights have thrown the splendors of hallowed genius
over this dark scene! But they are vanished and gone! By a single effort of
the imagination we can call up a crowd of illustrious personages, who have
enlightened the earth by their knowledge, sanctified it by their piety, and
blessed it by their benevolence. For awhile we seem to converse with these
mighty and holy ones; but the spell is soon broken, and we find that we have
nothing but their names. What lights of the sanctuary have been
extinguished; what heaven-inspired eloquence has been hushed; what powerful
energies have been paralyzed! Oh! sin, what has you done? Our globe is the
tomb of illustrious men, and the materials of ecclesiastical history consist
of monumental inscriptions. Ministers, having partaken of the common
depravity of our nature, must endure its consequences in the penalty of
death; and their pulpit, vacated for their grave, is a visible comment on
the evil nature of sin, more impressive than any which they delivered during
the whole course of their living labor.
In some cases it may be supposed that they are removed
in a way of corrective justice. Prone to extremes, men either undervalue
or overvalue their mercies; and so it is with churches in reference to their
pastors. Instances have not been lacking in which ministers possessed of
attractive or splendid talents, united with amiable and conciliatory
manners, have become the objects of popular homage; sabbath after sabbath,
the eager auditors thronged around the pulpit, in which their idol was
enshrined, to receive in the strains of his eloquence, the inspiration of
their great Apollo. The orator more than the preacher; eloquence more than
truth; the sweet melody of voice, or the fascinating beauties of
imagination, more than "glad tidings of salvation," were the objects of
their delight. Who can wonder, then, if when God is thus forgotten in his
creatures, he should become jealous for the honor of his great name, and
remove the man who was preferred before Him. On the other hand, some
undervalue their ministers; and, displeased at their ingratitude; God
extinguishes the light they were not disposed to benefit by, and thus
awakens them to bewail their past neglect; and the more to prize and improve
the means which, in unmerited favor, he still permits them to enjoy.
May we not suppose that God sometimes removes faithful
and able ministers, to prove to the world that though he uses instruments,
he needs them not. "It is a piece of divine royalty and magnificence,
that when he has prepared and polished such a utensil, so as to be capable
of great service, he can lay it by without loss." The mortality of ministers
shows, that in reference to the cause of religion, the kingdom, the power,
and the glory, belong to God. He seems to have made human life short and
brittle, that the splendor of his own attributes might more effulgently
shine forth in the preservation and extension of his church upon earth. This
mighty and holy building is built in an immense burial ground; it rises from
a valley of dry bones; all around its base are the tombs of the workmen;
prophets and apostles, reformers and martyrs, missionaries and ministers,
have successively withered away in the rebuke of the Almighty, and left the
work unfinished, for other men to enter upon their labors. But there stands
He who alone has immortality, forever uttering forth his undying word,
amidst the wrecks of ages, and the ruins and relics of all the generations;
contrasting his own immutability with the frailty of man, and the permanence
of the work with the short-lived existence of the laborer; proclaiming over
the building as it rises from the region of death, "I am Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the ending, the first and the last."
Oftentimes the ministers of the gospel are worn out in
the service, and retire according to the course of nature, from the
scene of their labors to the seat of their repose. They must not always bear
the burden of toil—but go home in due season to enjoy their rest, and
receive their reward. They must not always agonize in the closet, the study,
the pulpit—they must not always mourn over fruitless sabbaths and
unsuccessful sermons—they must not always bear the unkindness of friends and
the malice of enemies; the inconsistencies of the church and the wickedness
of the world—they must not always fight the good fight of faith. No, if to
abide in the flesh be more needful for their people, to depart and be with
Christ is that better state which God in his mercy has prepared for them.
III. The removal of ministers from the scene of their
labors is matter of divine appointment, and all its circumstances of time
and place, are according to the counsels of unerring wisdom.
Elijah's translation was pre-arranged by God in all its
particulars; and the removal of men of less distinction in the church
although not a matter of such extensive interest, is no less subject to the
divine appointment. If it were possible to conceive that any events
connected with the history of man were abandoned to the misrule of chance,
all believers in the immortality of the soul would feel disposed, even in
the absence of revelation, to ascribe his exit from the world to an
interposition of the Deity. The transit of an immortal spirit from the
scenes of a probationary state to the decision of her fate, the entrance of
a soul upon her unchanging destiny—is an event which though repeated many
thousand times each passing day, is manifestly an occurrence of greater
consequence than the revolution of an empire, so far as its temporal history
is concerned. Scripture, however, leaves not this matter to the deductions
of reason—but pronounces with authority on the subject. Even on the field of
battle, that harvest of death where mortals are hurried by thousands into
eternity, where death seems left to carry on his havoc without limit or
control, every bullet has its commission, and is guided in its flight; even
there does Providence accomplish its purposes with reference to individual
life, undisturbed and unconfounded amidst the shock of battle, the ruin of
defeat, and the madness of victory—no less than in the chamber where the
monarch or the minister breathes his last.
No, my brethren, 'Chance' has nothing to do with death!
Not the outcast infant of a day old, exposed by its unnatural mother to
perish by the tiger or the vulture; nor even the sparrow that dies of hunger
in its nest—passes out of life without the knowledge of God. "Don't be
afraid!" said Christ, "I am the first and the last, the living one. I was
dead, but now I am alive forever! I have the keys of the unseen world and of
death." What consolation is there in this sublime declaration! The key of
death is never for a moment entrusted out of His hands—and never can be
wrested from them. Every time a human being dies, it is by an act of His
power, in turning the key which unlocks the gates of death! Our life is
under the constant and strict observation of His omniscient eye! He
determines the moment when to take the key from His belt, and throw the
portals of immortality back on their mighty hinges!
O, what comfort does this impart to us, in reference to
our own lives, to know that exposed as we are to all the accidents and
diseases of this world of changes, and enveloped as we are in darkness as to
the consequences of the next step, and the events of the next hour—we cannot
die by a random stroke, or by a blind chance! The key of death must be
turned by Him who is infinitely wise, and powerful, and good! And what
consolation does it also impart at the grave of those of our friends who
have been carried away from scenes of usefulness and labors of importance,
to be assured that their removal was effected by Him who knew all that they
were doing, and who makes Himself responsible for all the consequences of
their death. "See, I am the only God. There are no others. I kill, and I
make alive! I wound, and I heal, and no one can rescue you from my power!"
Deuteronomy 32:39
IV. The removal of eminent ministers is attended with
circumstances which redound to their honor.
No chariot of fire, no horses of flame, carry them to the skies by another
road than that of the dark valley of the shadow of death; they must submit
to the penalty of sin, and take the grave in their way to the crown. But
there are other marks of distinction, other honors than a chariot of fire
for those who serve God and their race. What a deep and wide-spread interest
is fixed on the chamber in which they are expected soon to expire; what
sensibilities are set in motion; what sympathy is excited; what prayers are
uttered; the whole neighborhood feels an instinctive dread—like the approach
of some great catastrophe. And when the stroke has fallen, and the laboring
saint has been dismissed to his rest, what tears of regret are shed, what
bitter lamentations are heard. All around seem to be partakers of a common
calamity—the aged exclaim, "Alas, my brother!" the younger, "Alas, my
father!" Each has some tribute of respect to pay to his memory, some fondly
cherished recollection of untold favors, or some secret act of goodness to
disclose; some cheering anecdote to tell, or some peculiar cause of bitter
regret to acknowledge. Public tokens of commiseration are exhibited; a long
and melancholy train of mourning and devout men carry him to his burial; a
loud deep groan is heaved from the bosom of the church, and is returned in
faithful echo from the world; while the general lamentation prolongs the
tribute, in the eulogy of Elisha, "My father, my father, the chariots and
horsemen of Israel!" This is the honor he receives from earth; and it is
that which every good man may lawfully seek—it is an object of just and
honorable ambition not only to live respected—but to die lamented—an honored
sepulcher is not only the reward of departed saints—but the stimulus of
living ones.
But who can describe, or who conceive, the honor that
awaits the departed minister above! Isaiah, in one of the most sublime and
beautiful of his figures, has represented hell moved from beneath to meet
the king of Babylon at his entrance upon the unseen world; while the chief
ones of the earth, the kings of the nations, rising from their thrones,
taunt him with his degradation to their level. "All of them shall speak and
say to you, Are you also as weak as we? Are you like us? Your pride is
brought down to the grave, and the noise of your harps. The maggot is spread
under you, and the worms cover you. How you are fallen from the heavens, O
Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who
weakened the nations!" (Isaiah 14:10-12)
A scene, the bright reverse of this, awaits the entrance
of a faithful and holy minister of Christ into the celestial city. We can
imagine how heaven is moved to meet him at his coming; how "the great
multitude which no man can count, who have washed their robes, and made them
white and clean in the blood of the Lamb," and especially those of the
number who owe their felicity to his labors, and who have preceded him in
his decease, greet him to the skies; how prophets and apostles, reformers
and martyrs, ministers and missionaries—rising from their seats of rest and
glory, conduct him into the presence of his Lord, exclaiming, "Thus shall it
be done unto the man whom God delights to honor;" while he who sits upon the
throne will confirm and approve the welcome, and as he places the crown of
life upon his brows shall say, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter
into the joy of your Lord!" Applauding millions catch the note, and "Well
done, good and faithful servant, well done, well done!" is repeated by
voices resounding as the sound of mighty waters!
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