“He fell on sleep”—not, he died. “He that believeth on me, says Christ, shall never die.” He becomes absent from the body, and is present with the Lord; but this is not dying. It is not death, to close our eyes on earth, and open them in heaven; to lose the embrace of earthly friendship, and fall into the arms of Christ. This is not death; nor is it even sleep, so far as the spirit of the Christian servant is concerned. The spirit becomes absent from the body, and present with the Lord. It goes out of its tabernacle of clay, into the house which is not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; and there it joins the spirits of just men made perfect, in the general assembly and church of the first-born. But the body sleeps, and sleeps in Jesus, who redeemed it with his precious blood; who made it a temple for the Holy Ghost to dwell in; who will watch over its precious dust while it remains in the grave, “waiting there for the adoption, to wit the redemption of the body;” and who, when that morning of adoption dawns, will “come to wake it out of sleep, and to fashion it like unto his own glorious body;” “for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
“And was laid unto his fathers.” The phrase in the Old Testament is, “He was gathered to his people.” So far as it may refer to the body, it alludes to the gathering in the grave; but even in the earliest times, when the phrase was used, it looked beyond the grave, to the people whom God had begun to gather round his throne. And from the days of the patriarchs to our own, the God of all grace has been still increasing the number, and gathering his saints together, “who have made a covenant with him by sacrifice.” And when the spirit of our departed friend entered the mansions of his Father’s house, to what a numerous and a glorious company was he gathered, of those who had gone before, in ancient and in modern times. And while it is to Christ, that the gathering of the people shall be, and while he will be to them, throughout eternity, their joy, and glory, and heaven, yet blessed and celestial will be the recognitions and the remembrances, when the newly arrived guest is introduced to his former companions and coadjutors. What heart can conceive of the heavenly joy with which our departed brother, on his arrival there, met with those eminent and holy men, with whom, when on earth, he had taken sweet counsel, in works of faith and labours of love. What tongue can tell the greetings with which he was welcomed to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, when he sat down with Patriarchs, and Prophets, and Apostles, and Martyrs—with Wilberforce, and Simeon, and Buxton, and the glorious company of the Redeemed, in the presence of Christ the Master of the feast! Oh! to be thus gathered to the general assembly and church of the first-born, in that land of light and immortality, where there is no shade to dim its brightness; no sin to defile its purity; no tribulation to interrupt its joys; no languor, no pain, no disease, to burden the willing spirit; and no death to break up the blessed family. Lord “gather not my soul with sinners.” Let me, O Lord, be gathered to my fathers in Christ. “Let me die the death of the righteous, let my last end be like his!”
Well might “devout men carry him to the grave, and make great lamentation for him.” Well might the whole city assume the appearance of a consecrated sabbath, and send forth its thousands and tens of thousands to mourn at his funeral. Well might the voice of triumph mingle with the voice of tears, and exclaim at his sepulchre, “Thanks be to God who hath given him the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ;” for “a prince and a great man has fallen in Israel.” And by his death, which has brought such gain to himself, the poor have lost a sympathizing benefactor; society has lost a bright example; the church of Christ has lost a beloved brother, a laborious servant, and a faithful minister of the gospel; and his own mourning family have lost “the desire of their eyes with a stroke.” Let us then endeavour to supply all this loss, as far as we are able. Let each of us determine, by the grace of God, to serve our own generation with increasing energy and devotedness. And let the review of his life, and the rapidity of his death, urge us all to be “steadfast and unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as we know that our labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
THE PREACHER FROM THE PRESS. Sermons to explain and to recommend the Gospel of Jesus Christ.—2 vols., cloth boards, Price 6s.
THE DEATH OF A MINISTER AN EVENT OF PECULIAR IMPORTANCE. A Funeral Sermon for the Rev. John Sykes, of Guestwick.
THE MOURNING CONGREGATION REMINDED OF THE WORK OF THEIR DECEASED MINISTER. A Funeral Sermon for the Rev. Joseph Kinghorn, of Norwich.
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. An appeal to Christians on the Duty and Importance of Communion with the Church.
THE OBJECTS AND MOTIVES OF MODERN NONCONFORMISTS. A Sermon preached at the Opening of Hingham Chapel.
THE BAPTISM OF THE PRINCE. A Sermon preached in anticipation of the Baptism of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.