Can give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away the stain.
But Christ, the heavenly Lamb,
Takes all our guilt away.
It is the free gift of grace that, through saving faith, that will hold us until this short life is past, and then when we come to the river of death, like our dear Elder, we will reach our home safely. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord."
Are we all who are here to-day to this funeral in the Lord—"I in them and thou in me?" Perhaps, some have been living at a distance from Him. Others may have been grieving the Holy Spirit. The Master has come (by this death) and calls for thee. He is standing to-day at the door of thy heart knocking and saying, "If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." No friend so forgiving, so gentle as he. Oh, wilt thou let Him depart? Patiently waiting, earnestly pleading, Jesus thy Saviour knocks at thine heart. Is there some idol that you are cherishing? Is there some secret, darling sin to which you are clinging? Oh, what wilt thou do in the swellings of Jordan without an interest in the atoning work of Jesus? Are you still slighting the Saviour? He waits for thee. How tender the look. He says unto you as he said to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, "How often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not."
Christ alone is our true Shechem, our City of Refuge. He is the living well of Jacob and the rifled tomb of Joseph. Isaiah says, "A man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." What boundless resources are found in Christ. We are guilty, but He atoned for our guilt; He paid the ransom price; He engaged in the great work of paying the penalty due to our sin, for He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. "We could never have been saved without Divine interference, save from going down to the pit, for I have found a ransom," was the declaration of the stupendous wealth of God's free love. For it is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, even the very chief. The mysteries of redeeming love are solved at Golgotha.
Listen to the sweet singer of Israel as he surveys the administration of mercy seen anticipatively at the Cross:
I love the Lord, because my voice
And prayer He did hear;