His watch-word at the gates of death,
He enters heaven with prayer!”
But, observe for what Stephen prayed. “Lord Jesus receive my spirit!” This is the prayer of faith, commending the immortal spirit to the covenant care of Jesus. The spirit does not die with the body. None but God, who gave, can take away the soul’s existence, and he has declared that he never will. Would that bad men would think on that! You cannot get rid of your soul’s existence: you cannot cease to be: you may wish it; though the wish is monstrous and unnatural. But there is no annihilation for any soul of man. Oh, come to our Saviour! give him your guilty soul, to be justified through his atonement, washed in his blood, regenerated by his Spirit. Make to him now that surrender of your soul, for which he calls. Renew this happy self-dedication every day, very especially every Sabbath, and most solemnly, from time to time at the Lord’s Supper. And then, when you come to die, it will only be, to do once more, what you have so often done in former days,—again to commend your soul very humbly, believingly, and affectionately, under the faithful care of Jesus Christ.
THE HOUSE OF GOD.
The church was pleasantly situated on a rising bank, at the foot of a considerable hill. It was surrounded by trees, and had a rural retired appearance. In every direction the roads that led to this house of God, possessed distinct but interesting features. One of them ascended between several rural cottages from the sea-shore, which adjoined the lower part of the village-street. Another winded round the curved sides of the adjacent hill, and was adorned, both above and below, with numerous sheep feeding on the herbage of the down. A third road led to the church by a gently rising approach, between high banks, covered with young trees, bushes, ivy, hedge-plants, and wild flowers.—From a point of land, which commanded a view of all these several avenues, I used sometimes, for a while, to watch my congregation gradually assembling together at the hour of Sabbath worship. They were in some directions visible for a considerable distance. Gratifying associations of thought would form in my mind, as I contemplated their approach and successive arrival within the precincts of the house of prayer.—One day as I was thus occupied, during a short interval previous to the hour of divine service, I reflected on the joy, which David experienced at the time he exclaimed, “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together; whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord.” I was led to reflect upon the various blessings, connected with the establishment of public worship. “How many immortal souls are now gathering together to perform the all-important work of prayer and praise—to hear the word of God—to feed upon the bread of life! They are leaving their respective dwellings, and will soon be united together in the house of prayer.” How beautifully does this represent the effect produced by the voice of the “Good Shepherd,” calling his sheep from every part of the wilderness into his fold! As those fields, hills, and lanes, are now covered with men, women, and children, in various directions, drawing nearer to each other, and to the object of their journey’s end; even so, “many shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.” Who can rightly appreciate the value of such hours as these?—hours spent in learning the way of holy pleasantness, and the paths of heavenly peace—hours devoted to the service of God, and of souls; in warning the sinner to flee from wrath to come; in teaching the ignorant how to live and die; in preaching the gospel to the poor; in healing the broken-hearted; in declaring “deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind.” “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. In thy name shall they rejoice all the day, and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.” This train of reflection, at intervals, occurred powerfully to my feelings, as I viewed that very congregation assembled together in the house of God, whose steps, in their approach to it, I had watched with prayerful emotions.—“Here the rich and poor met together,” in mutual acknowledgement that “the Lord is the maker of them all,” and that all are alike dependent creatures, looking up to one common Father to supply their wants, both temporal and spiritual.—Again, likewise, shall they meet together in the grave, that undistinguishing receptacle of the opulent and the needy.—And once more, at the judgment-seat of Christ, shall the rich and poor meet together, that “every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” How closely connected in the history of man, art these three periods of a general meeting together. The house of prayer—the house appointed for all living—and the house not made with hands eternal in the heavens.—May we never separate these ideas from each other, but retain them in a sacred and profitable union! So shall our worshipping assemblies on earth be representative of the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven.
FINIS.