(A funeral sermon, 1861)

Cornelius Tyree

"Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and will you take Benjamin away? All these things are against me!" Genesis 42:36

A series of trying events had befallen the patriarch Jacob. It had not been long since the blood-stained coat of Joseph had been brought to him, when, supposing his son had been torn in pieces by wild beasts, he had exclaimed, "I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning."

Years later, his sons' return from Egypt, with the dreadful tidings that the lord of the country, under the accusation that they were spies, had cast Simeon into prison, and had sworn by the life of Pharaoh, that they could not see his face any more, unless they brought Benjamin down. This brought from the afflicted patriarch the deep complaint of the text above.

The complaint, however, was groundless. The very things that he, in his ignorance, deplores as against him—soon turned out to be greatly for him. Could he have looked beyond the cloud, he would have seen Joseph yet alive and lord of Egypt, Simeon under a brother's care, Benjamin going to a brother's arms, and all waiting to receive and bless him in his old age!

From this incident, I wish to show that the very things in life that we most desire, are generally most detrimental to us; and that the dispensations that we most deprecate, are promotive of our real interests. In our ignorance and unbelief, we are greatly deceived as to what is best for us. We congratulate ourselves and friends when we are prospered in life, but could we see the end of these successes, we would bewail them as curses.

On the other hand, we mourn when we and our friends meet with losses and trials, when, if we could look forward and see how they will turn out to our good, we would rejoice and be thankful, rather than repine.

The lapse of a few years may show us—and if not, the explanations of the final judgment will—that the very things we eagerly craved and fondly doted on, were but gilded snares, and that the things that caused our hearts to bleed, were blessings in disguise.

God often gives temporal good in wrath, and takes it away in mercy. Both Scripture and experience show that many are spiritually put forward and upward, by being temporarily put backward and downward.

All seek health, wealth and fame. We are pleased when our plans are successful. We are encouraged when our possessions are great, safe and increasing. We esteem ourselves to be people of fortune when . . .
our families are healthy,
our relations agreeable,
our friends numerous,
and our plans successful.

These are the things that we suppose are FOR us. It is better for us, according to our judgment, that we should live lives free from pain, losses and crosses. We think: Give me health, possessions and friends, without the bitters of life! Let me have both the religion of Christ and worldly prosperity. Let me have all sunshine and no storms. Let me be always triumphant without defeats. Thus would all people choose for themselves.

But God, who knows infinitely better than we do what is best for us, has determined otherwise. Prosperity is not necessarily detrimental to piety. If the good things of life were sought from the Lord, held at his disposal, and used for his glory—they would be incentives to repentance and gratitude, and the means of greater usefulness; but being sought without any reference to God, they become not only hindrances to our higher interests, but positively promotive of irreligion.

We speak of the common effect of prosperity and adversity. There are exceptions. In some rare cases, affluence is greatly for men, and afflictions greatly against them. It was said of Vespasian, he was a better man for being an emperor. In all ages there have been a few, whose prosperity, instead of destroying them, has increased their moral and religious excellency. Such become rich in faith and in good works, because they are rich in temporal things.

There is another class, whose wickedness is increased by afflictions. Of Ahaz the Scripture says: "In his afflictions, he sinned against God yet more and more." With such, fortune and faith decrease together. While afflictions make thousands of good men better—they make some bad men worse. These, however, are the exceptions, as evidential, on the one hand, of the invincible grace of God, as they are, on the other, of the deep depravity of the human heart.

With the mass of men, the great reason why they fear not God, is "because they have no changes." The experience of thousands is, that it is good for them that they have been afflicted. For every one that is wrecked amid the storms of adversity—thousands are wrecked, for both worlds, in the calm of prosperity.

The main elements of prosperity are honors, riches and pleasures. These are the things men covet, supposing that they are for them; but, according to the teaching of Jesus Christ, they are great hindrances to the salvation of the soul. These are against most men, because they induce unmindfulness of God and rebellion against him. They foster pride, self-delusion, earthly-mindedness, and make men unwilling to embrace the Gospel of Christ.

But the afflictions that beset us, such as the disappointment of fond hopes, the loss of property, health and friends, that we so much deprecate and so hastily pronounce to be against us—are the rough, yet beneficial safeguards against final ruin. True, they are thorns, but they are the only effectual hedges that a benevolent God can interpose in our way to eternal death. True, these trials take from you some dear worldly objects; but then, under God, they induce you to seek your spiritual and eternal interests, in comparison with which all earthly objects are trifles.

But, says one, "My afflictions are so peculiar, dark, trying and subversive of all my hopes—how can they be for my good?" But, under the government of God, it is but reasonable to suppose that many things must occur, for which we cannot account, and which we cannot reconcile with divine goodness and our benefit. Just here is the province of that faith that saves the soul. Though clouds and darkness are round about him, faith realizes that justice and judgment are the habitation of his throne. In the darkest trials the believer hears the voice of God saying, "Be still, what you know not now, you shall know hereafter."

But let us indicate some particulars, in which the inscrutable, trying providences of God, which we are accustomed to pronounce against us, are but links in the chain leading to our greatest benefit and highest happiness.
 

1. Afflictions are not against, but for us, because they often lead us to seek God, when nothing else will. So engrossed is man in the things of time, that, in many cases, nothing but the gathering tempest will induce him to flee to God, his great refuge.

"Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?" was the impious language of Pharaoh while in affluence. But "entreat the Lord for me," was the suppliant language of the same haughty monarch, when the judgments of Heaven were thundering around him.

While Manasseh was wealthy, and healthy, and moved in kingly splendor, he grew to be a chieftain in wickedness. But when he was dis-crowned, reduced and imprisoned, he humbled himself, sought the Lord, and the Lord heard him. He now blesses God for the dungeon—and not for the throne. In mercy he was ruined temporarily.

So long as the Prodigal was in a land of plenty, he was contented to remain from his home, but when he began to be in want, he arose and returned to his father. Famine drove him home.

The Disciples allowed the Savior to sleep, while they were sailing upon a smooth sea, but when the storm threatened them they went to him in earnest, and prayed, "Master, don't you care that we are perishing?"

So with most men now: so long as the sea of life is stormless, they are contented in unbelief; but when storms darken their skies and wreck their hopes, they make for the haven of pardon and peace! There are millions on the Lord's side who, but for afflictions, would be following lying vanities and forsaking the God that made them. There are untold numbers in the churches of Christ, adorning their profession, who would be the devotees of mammon, but for having their hearts smitten with sorrow. Twice ten million are singing around the throne in Heaven, who would be wailing in penal fires, but for having met with losses and crosses on earth.

The experience of David is the experience of such: "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn your statutes." They will tell you with Dr. Young:

"Amid my list of blessings infinite,
 Stands this foremost, that my heart has bled;
 For all I bless You, most for the severe."
 And if so, are not the tribulations of life for you?
 

2. Afflictions are not against, but for us, because they give us a realizing belief in the existence, government and presence of God. In times of prosperity we become practical atheists. We believe that Jehovah is the God of the Bible, of the Church, and of Christianity; but have no practical persuasion of his agency in the common events and affairs of life. How shamefully do we ignore God, as a nation, as individuals, and as families! In common life, we put Him far off, in the empyreal heavens, and act as if we were self-created and self-sustained. In this respect, we are "without God in the world."

Now, the most effectual cure for this crying sin is adversity. When God speaks to us in some trying providence; when he visits in national calamities; when he takes from us health, possessions and friends; then we realize that he is above and around us.

Said Dr. Payson, when on a bed of languishing, "I know that God is in this room; I see him, I feel him, I enjoy him."

O, how near and realizingly does God come to us in the death of loved ones! In trying and adverse events, whatever may be the rod used, we feel that he is the chastiser.

If, then, adverse providences induce in us the conviction that by God we are made, sustained, and are soon to be judged, then, surely, they are among the "all things that work together" for our good.
 

3. Afflictions are the best means of acquiring an experimental knowledge of sacred things. The great defect in our religion is, that it is too speculative. It slumbers inertly in the mind, exerting but little influence over our minds and hearts. We preach, hear, pray, and believe, speculatively.

The great need of the world is an earnest, heart-felt, experimental religion. How can it be acquired?

God has many schools in which to train his children. He teaches them by his Word, his ministry and ordinances—but these do not impress and move the heart like trials.

"Tribulation works patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope makes not ashamed." It may be well questioned, whether one can be an experienced, enlarged Christian, without being schooled in fiery trials. The profoundest sense of God's goodness, which it has been my privilege to witness, I have seen in the countenance and heard from the lips of the suffering. We find that none lean on God with such a filial trust, as those whom he has afflicted. We doubt, indeed, whether true gratitude and faith ever spring up in the soul until it has been smitten with anguish. The religion of those who have been always prosperous, must be superficial and incomplete. But deep, strong, Christ-like piety, strikes root in the soil which has been broken and softened by calamity. And if so, are not troubles promotive of our highest good? Are we not in great moral danger without them?
 

4. Afflictions give us a new insight into, and endear unto us, the Scriptures of God. There are many portions of God's Word, the meaning of which we can never understand, the beauty of which we can never appreciate, and the preciousness of which we can never realize—until we have known adversity. You cannot enter into the feelings of one in distress, until you have been similarly tried yourself.

Now, the Bible was mostly written by the afflicted, for the afflicted. Indeed,

"Had he ne'er with grief been smitten,
 Then David's Psalms had ne'er been written."

We do not overstate the truth, when we affirm that the Bible is more the afflicted man's book than the prosperous man's. A vast deal of the Scriptures is written for the comfort of such. Many of the Divine promises demand afflictions as the condition of their fulfillment, and the element wherein alone their full luster can radiate.

Take this one: "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the floods, they shall not overflow you; when you pass through the fire, you shall not be burned, neither shall the flames kindle upon you." This is a cheering Scripture to all, at all times—but oh! how it comes home to the heart of those who are sinking in the deep waters of trouble.

Says Christ, "Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." To all classes, such a promise is beautiful and encouraging; but to the tried, the bereaved and grief-smitten, it is more melodious than the tones of an angel's harp, and more soothing than the fanning of a seraph's wings. This one verse has been bathed with the tears of millions who will weep no more.

Take the great doctrines of the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the dead, and the meeting and recognition of the redeemed in Heaven. To mankind, in all conditions, such doctrines are grand, ennobling, and the mightiest restraints to vice, and incentives to virtue. But how solacing are such Gospel truths, when death sweeps from us dear friends! How the one saying, "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord," supports the bleeding heart, when the cruel grave is about to receive our parents, children, husbands and wives!

Said Luther, "I never knew the meaning of the Bible until I was afflicted."

If, then, trials and losses lead us to understand, apply, obey and prize the Word of God—are they not sent both in love and wisdom? In the highest sense, they subserve our eternal good.
 

5. Afflictions tend to purify us. Before some of the vessels of the temple could be used for sacred purposes, they had to be put into the fire. Just so, before we are prepared for the Master's use, it is needful that we pass through the furnace of affliction. The human heart, like the soil of the earth, has to be torn up by the plowshare of tribulation, before it will produce much fruit of holiness.

Besetting sins cling to the best of us. They greatly mar our Christian characters and lessen our moral power. Now, the most effectual means of purging off from believers the remains of pride, covetousness, sloth, malice and selfishness—is the fiery furnace of affliction!

Were you to witness a refiner refining gold, you would suppose that the gold itself would be destroyed in the intense heat. Just so, when you see a child of grace under an accumulation of trials, you would suppose he would be crushed. But how improved in piety are they when they come out of the furnace! How humbled, softened, chastened, enlarged and crucified to the world! Who has not been benefitted by afflictions? Said David, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I have kept your word."

Said that man of God, Abner Clopton, when referring, on his dying bed, to a sore domestic affliction, "It was as essential to my salvation as the blood of Christ! I would not be without some such trial, for a thousand worlds." When the trial came, he supposed all his hopes were crushed—and yet it was the means of his becoming a Christian, a minister, and an heir of eternal glory! And where and what would some of you be, but for some sore trouble?

6. Once more, trials qualify for greater usefulness. As the heavens are only gemmed with stars in the night—so the light of Christian example shines most brilliantly in the darkness of sorrow. Nothing so well prepares a minister to preach, as a bed of languishing.

Even Christ could not be a perfect Savior, could not enter into all the feelings and exigencies of his people, without suffering. Hence, we read of the Captain of our Salvation being made perfect through sufferings—of his being tempted, (or afflicted) that he might support those who are tempted, (or afflicted). Afflictions give us a heart to weep with those who weep.

When we are in distress, in vain may we repair for comfort, to those who never knew what anguish meant. They will not listen to our tale of woe; but those who have borne the smart themselves will sympathize with and speak a word in season to those who cry, "Pity me, pity me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!"

I doubt whether any Christian can be extensively useful, without having been trained in the school of adversity. There are departments in the vineyard that the untried, prosperous professor, cannot enter. God designs all his people to be useful, and hence, in some way he chastises and afflicts them all. If the chastisements that our Father inflicts on us are designed to make us more efficient in the great work of converting souls, let us pray, with Luther, "Strike on, strike on! O my God."
 

7. Afflictions are promotive of our well-being, because they wean us from this world. When the dove first flew out from the ark, and found nothing but winds, rains and rolling waves—she soon returned to the ark for shelter and rest. But when, on her second flight, she found smiling plains, bathed in sunshine—she was delighted, and remained.

Behold, O man, an image of yourself. When the world becomes to you a scene of wealth, health and pleasure—you are captivated with the enchantress and exclaim: It is good for me to be here, and to remain here forever. But when the world becomes to you a place of gloom, poverty, anxiety and misery—then you are induced to seek a better portion and home. As life is, notwithstanding all the troubles and distresses that checker our path, how difficult to detach our affections from the things of time and sense. Even the old and the sick cling to earth with an idolatrous grasp.

How completely rooted to this life would we be, if it were full of charms! If our condition here was one of unbroken prosperity, it would become our ardent wish to live here forever!

God loves us too much to allow us to remain contented with a portion and home as worthless as this world is. He has made us for a higher destiny, and prepared for us a better home. Hence, he aims to cool our ardor for earth, and induce us to turn our aspirations to Heaven, by sending on us thick and trying afflictions.

While his peculiar people were in Egypt, they were becoming satisfied in their degraded condition, and had no desire to set out for Canaan. But God, by the oppressions of Pharaoh, so stirred up their nest, that they sighed to leave for the promised land.

Just so, my brethren! All your troubles, your afflictions of all kinds, spring not from the dust, but are sent upon you by a God of love, to render you dissatisfied with this world as your final abode, and to induce you to seek that bright, saintly home, which lies far beyond the changes and panics, convulsions and woes of this present life.

"Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trials which try you." God would not use such rough means, in disciplining us for the joys of his presence, if our hearts were not so stubborn and prone to attach themselves supremely to this poor world! He would not speak to some of us with a voice so startling, if we were not so ready to slumber on the enchanted ground.

Does he darken our heavens with clouds and tempests? It is to induce us to seek a place in Heaven, where storms are not known.

Has he taken from you possessions?
It is that you may lay up treasures in Heaven.

Does he take from you dear friends?
It is that earth may have fewer, and Heaven additional charms.

He intends every pain, disease, loss, cross, and bereavement, to loosen the bonds that bind you to earth—that you may rise and seek the things that are above. And if so, are these things against us? Which is better for you: to have temporal prosperity and no hope; or afflictions, which are but for a moment, followed by a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory? Judge, and make your choice. If we were really wise, this would be our prayer:

"Come, disappointment, come!
 Though from hope's summit you hurl me,
 Still I welcome thee.
 As the rigid nurse of Heaven,
 Sent to wean me from the world;
 To turn mine eye from vanity
 And point to scenes that never, never die."
 

8. The trials of time, will render Heaven more delightful. We appreciate things by contrast. We could not so enjoy our food, were we not strangers to hunger. We could not know the pleasures of rest, were we without previous toil.

Why was the land of Canaan so pleasant to the Israelites? Because its possession was preceded by forty years wandering and suffering in the wilderness.

Just so, Heaven would not be to us what it will be, were we not prepared for it by the checkered and afflictive scenes of this life. It cannot be as blissful to holy angels, who have never known sorrow, as it is to redeemed sinners, who reach it "through great tribulation."

Said Dr. Judson, after his deliverance from the long and gloomy imprisonment, "I have no doubt that my 21 months in that dismal jail will render Heaven sweeter to me."

Oh, what an exchange does the child of God make, in leaving earth for Heaven! When admitted into the New Jerusalem, what a radiant, ever-blooming, all-satiating contrast, does he find to the sorrows, trials, and dying scenes of earth, which he has just left!

How happy was Jacob when he lay enfolded in the arms of his dear Joseph, and saw the glorious results that God's once mysterious providence had wrought out for him!

Just so, when, from the height of the heavenly Zion, the redeemed shall look and see all the way the God of grace led them:
when all the mysterious providences of Jehovah shall be unfolded to them;
when parents will see why they so early buried their children;
when the wife shall see why the dear partner of her bosom was taken from her;
when the poor shall see why they were kept in the valley of poverty;
when others shall see why health, and possessions and friends were taken.

In fine, when we shall see that the very afflictions that were most crushing, were most essential to our salvation—then ten thousand voices, which on earth pronounced all these things against them, will shout and sing Hosanna to Him who once made their hearts bleed!

Oh, how they will, through the endless ages of eternity, utter thanksgiving to God for having washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, and brought them out of great tribulations, to dwell in his presence forever.

With one reflection, I will dismiss the discussion of this Scripture. Afflictions are only beneficial to those who submit to God, and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for pardon and eternal life. All these things are against those who, in heart and life, are against God and his gospel.

Afflictions are generally God's last resort to bring men to repentance. If they fail, then they may turn to judgments, and augment our guilt and hardness in time, and our misery in eternity.

Hearer, see to it that you despise not the chastenings of the Lord. Better never to have been born, than thus to rebel against his dealings with you.

Thus, I have attempted to show the benefits of afflictions, with a hope that we might improve the sad dispensation that has brought us together today.

   ~  ~  ~  ~

I venture to follow our dear departed friend into the inner sanctuary of his family, and view him in the responsible relation of husband and parent. What punctuality in domestic devotion! what dignity and uniformity! what forbearance! what pure principles did he inculcate by precept and example! what affectionateness! Who can doubt that the life of such a father will exert a molding influence on his children?

But he is gone. Noble man! Though your sun went down at high noon, behind tempests and clouds, we trust it is already risen again, in the undying splendor of a blessed immortality.

He was just the man whose death makes a great vacuum in every sphere in which he was accustomed to move. He will be greatly missed.

We may be tempted to think: Surely, this untimely death is against us. No! to think so were to impeach the wisdom and goodness of God, repine under his rod, and frustrate the benevolent designs he has in sending the affliction.

As certain as God reigns, great spiritual good is to come out of this sore trial. In eternity we shall see why this calamity came upon us.

Alas! how impotent are human sympathies and words to solace the bereaved, while writhing under such a blow as this. It were unnatural to relinquish back to God such a gift without grief. The heart smitten by such a stroke will bleed. May God grant that the mourning of this family may be tempered with submission. Let us all pray that they may not yield to brooding sadness, but transfer their tears from the face of the beloved dead—to the feet of Christ, the Great Consoler, and there compose their souls to serenity and peace.

Of all afflictions, the greatest is an unsanctified affliction. May this affliction not be lost on this dear household. May it lead each one of the survivors, savingly, to trust and serve Him who has thus chastened them. And wherever their divergent pathways may lead, as they are all beautifully bound together in sweet natural ties, so may they be bound to Christ by a living faith, be one in his service on earth, and all form an unbroken family in the Paradise of God.

And now we are about to bid adieu to our dear friend. Peace to his memory. The mound of earth that will cover his remains will soon moulder into one undistinguished common, by time's oblivious march. The monument that will tell his name to coming ages, will fall by the crash of thunder and the warring winds; but his virtues, his principles, his example, his noble deeds, his influence, will live on in the good of his children, his State and the country.

And now, beloved hearers, we who are here to mingle our sympathies with the afflicted, may learn from this sad event our deep central need of the religion of Christ. Already, many and crushing have been the trials of some of you. And perhaps sorer reverses are awaiting you.

No plans, however wise;
no talents, however brilliant;
no wealth, however unbounded;
no strength, however great;
no schemes of pleasure, however skillfully planned—
can avert from you sorrows, woes and dying scenes.

Now, can you venture to meet the inevitable trials of time without the supports of the Gospel? To say nothing of the dreadful sorrows of eternity—do you not, amid life's ills, feel your need of this great Comforter? O, go to the cross and seek the forgiveness of your sins and a hope of Heaven.

Then, in all the afflictions of time, and in the agonies of death—you will be safe and happy. Then, when the world shall be melting down by the fires of the last day, you will be calm and triumphant.