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on which she rested humbly and tremblingly, was sufficient for her to the end. She was ready, and God has taken her.

Yes; God has taken her, we cannot doubt, to the great reunion of his people in the presence of their Savior and in the participation of his glory. And with this thought, we return to complete our illustration of the subject of this discourse. It is one of the felicities of the Christian in old age that, though death has parted him from so many of those nearest and dearest friends who were God's friends as well as his, death shall soon bring him again to their blessed society. The aged disciple of whom I have been speaking, has borne, meekly and patiently, the sorrow of many a sad parting. But God has been her refuge in grief, and He who is the dwellingplace of his people in all generations, is now her dwelling-place for ever. When her husband died, and the grief was not hers and her children's only, but the general grief of the college, the city, the State, and the Church, she said to one who was writing to communicate the tidings to an absent son: "Say to him, shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Those who part in such a temper, leaning in their grief upon God, may have it among their consolations that, though death divides them for a season, death shall come again, in God's good time, to reunite them where partings are. unknown, and where sorrow and sighing flee away."

PSALM 121.

DIVINE PROTECTION.

Up to the hills I lift mine eyes,
Th' eternal hills beyond the skies;
Thence all her help my soul derives;
There my almighty refuge lives.
He lives; the everlasting God,

That built the world, that spread the flood;
The heavens with all their hosts He made,
And the dark regions of the dead.

He guides our feet, He guards our way;
His morning smiles bless all the day:
He spreads the evening veil, and keeps
The silent hours, while Israel sleeps.

Israel, a name divinely blest,
May rise secure, securely rest;
The holy Guardian's wakeful eyes
Admit no slumber, nor surprise.

No sun shall smite thy head by day;
Nor the pale moon with sickly ray
Shall blast thy couch; no baleful star
Dart his malignant fire so far.

Should earth and hell with malice burn,
Still thou shalt go and still return,
Safe in the Lord; his heavenly care
Defends thy life from every snare.

On thee foul spirits have no power;
And, in thy last departing hour,
Angels, that trace the airy road,
Shall bear thee homeward to thy God.

SERMON CCCCXVI.

THE DEATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS A CAUSE FOR LAMENTATION.

A DISCOURSE delivered December 9, 1845, at the funeral of the Hon. John Cotton Smith, President of the American Bible Society.

BY REV. GROVE L. BROWNELL,

PASTOR OF THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH OF SHARON, CONN.

1 SAMUEL Xxv: 1.

“And Samuel died: and all the Israelites were gathered ogether, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah."

We may prize a blessing while we have it in our possession, but we may not estimate it according to its real value until we are deprived of it by a wise and holy Providence. This is too often true in relation to those distinguished members of the human family whom God has raised up to bless the Church and the world. We have an affecting illustration of this in the case of the subject of our text. He was eminently instrumental in advancing both the temporal and spiritual interests of the nation of Israel: but it is evident from sacred record, that they did not duly estimate his worth, until he was removed from them by the hand of death. Then they more fully realized the excellence of his character and the extent of his usefulness among them. Then they sincerely and deeply lamented him, and deplored the loss they were called to sustain in his removal. All Israel were gathered together to weep over him, and to bury him in his house or prepared tomb, at Ramah:. and their conduct on this occasion, as all will admit, was proper. His personal merits and his former public services, rendered this general expression of respect to his name and memory a just debt, and it had been ungrateful to have withheld it.

It is right to mourn over our departed friends, when our grief is properly restricted. The simple act of lamenting them is not forbidden in the sacred writings. It is, indeed, sanctioned by the example of good men in former ages, and even by that of the Saviour of mankind. When the patriarch Jacob died, his son Joseph went up with chariots and horsemen in great numbers to bury him in the land of Canaan; and there he made a mourning for his father seven days. In view of the expressions of their sorrow, the Canaanites said: "This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians!" When Aaron died, all the congregation of Israel mourned for him thirty days; and, during a like period, they wept for Moses in the plains of Moab. Devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him, and at the grave of his friend Lazarus, Jesus wept; thence, to mourn, simply considered, is not inconsistent with any principle or duty of the Christian system. Christianity, instead of rendering us insensible to the worth of our

virtuous friends, teaches us to value them more highly. Instead of suppressing the rising sigh and the gathering tear over their pillow of death, and over their grave, she bids them come forth to recall the deep and hidden emotions of the soul to the honor of her blessed name. Instead of weakening, it adds new strength to natural affection, when the heart is imbued with the spirit of truth and grace. It is the merciful design of our Heavenly Father that we should feel afflicted by the removal of our friends into eternity. Their death is his voice of admonition-his rod of correction, by means of which we are made partakers of his holiness.

In the providence of God, a great and a good man has fallen in the midst of us; one, who, like Samuel, has been a ruler and judge in the land, and an able and faithful advocate of the truth and cause of God; and, like Israel of old, we are now assembled to lament and bury him.

I am prompted by the words of the text and by the occasion which has convened us, to state and explain some of the principal reasons why we should lament the removal of the pious and useful members of the community.

1. When one who has been distinguished for his piety and usefulness is removed by death, it is a just cause for lamentation that so much moral excellence is taken from a sinful needy world.

I stand on this watch-tower in Zion and look around me, and my heart sickens and almost dies within me when I see that there are so few among the many that bear any resemblance to the moral character of their Maker; hence, these few who exhibit some evidence of loyalty to Zion's King in their conformity to his will, are precious in my view; for their moral excellence constitutes the only true adornment of our fallen race-they are the light and glory of this lower creation. Extinguish these lights which the grace of God has created, and in what gross darkness the communities where they have shined would be inveloped.

How glorious the moral excellence of Noah, when viewed in contrast with the moral deformity of the thousands by whom he was surrounded. His soul was the only one on which the pure eye of Jehovah, running to and fro throughout that generation, could rest with any complacence. He was the only light to expose the darkness of idolatry, and to reprove the wickedness which prevailed around him. And so of Lot in Sodom. He only, among the thousands with whom he dwelt, reflected the bright beams of the sun of righteousness upon the surrounding darkness.

Were not these holy men a great blessing to the people of their generation? Would not their early removal have been a signal frown upon their contemporaries? Did not their existence among them serve to check the progress of vice and crime, and to delay the judgments of God's holy throne? The flood came not, the fiery shower was suspended until they were removed to a place of safety. And what was then the fate of the old world and of Sodom?

You may say, perhaps, that the case of these holy men was a peculiar one and that their removal would have been a greater

calamity than the removal of many of the righteous at the present day. Be it so: but, then, let me ask, when was there a time, from the fall of man to the present moment, that any of the excellent of the earth, in the judgment of the friends of God, could well be spared? In this age, and in this land even, so distinguished as it has been by revivals of religion, and by a consequent increase of the number of the Redeemer's friends, what place has more pious and faithful men than the necessities of Zion seem to demand? Where is the place in which the removal of one such person, though late in life, would not be a lamentable event in Providence? Where would they not have reason to cry: "Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men!" Heaven is, indeed, rendered more glorious by such accessions to its numbers; but earth looses its glory in the same proportion: and we have reason to be afflicted and to mourn when we see the amount of moral excellence thus diminished here below. Then why are we so insensible to our loss; why so unmoved when one is taken after another, in quick succession, from the struggling Church on earth?

2. When the righteous are removed by death, it is a just cause for lamentation that the exercise of so much benevolent feeling is lost to the surviving community.

Selfishness almost universally prevails as the ruling principle of 'action among the members of the human family. Indeed little, very little, of true benevolence is to be found on earth; and that little is of heavenly origin. They only who are born of God sincerely regard and strive to promote the best interests of their fellow-creatures. He who has imbibed the spirit of Christ is a friend to all, and desires their prosperity and happiness in regard to both their temporal and spiritual interests. He is prepared to rejoice with those that rejoice, and to weep with those that weep.

The removal of such a person by death, is, to the children of God, a just cause for lamentation. They will no more experience his sympathy in the trials and afflictions of their earthly pilgrimage. As they journey on to the gates of death through life's rugged path, his presence will cheer and encourage their hearts no more. He will assist them no more in their spiritual work by his faithful admonitions, by his heavenly counsels, and by his fervent prayers. No more will his friendly hand be extended to aid them in bearing their burdens. As children of God's grace, as members of the same spiritual family, as fellow-heirs of the kingdom of glory, he sincerely and ardently loved them, and he delighted in their society. He loved to meet them in the house of God, at the table of their common Lord, and at the appointed season for social prayer. But the exercise of such benevolent affection, which rendered him so dear to the saints below, qualified him for union and fellowship with the Church above: and to that higher sphere of usefulness and happiness God has called him, and they are now left to lament their loss in his removal.

But, if they who are heirs of eternal life-if they who are soon

to join the company of the redeemed in Heaven, have reason to lament when one of their number is removed by death, how much more reason have they to lament who are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, without God and without hope in the world? Who on this side of eternity realizes the worth of the immortal soul like him who is prepared to go up to glory? Who else has an affecting view of that eternal state of happiness beyond the grave? And who, but such a child of God, sincerely and ardently desires the salvation of the lost and perishing children of men?

Let my impenitent hearers make the case their own. You have no hope toward God, and you have no heart to seek the salvation of your soul: but there is one who compassionates your case as sinners who desires, above all things, your immortal welfare! and that friend is a child of God, and has liberty of access to his throne of grace. He kindly admonishes you of your danger, and entreats you to turn and live; and you are convinced that his closet bears witness daily to his prayers and tears on your account. But he dies; and leaves you unreconciled to God. His admonitions and entreaties have now ceased for ever-he will weep and pray for you no more. In a case like this, would you not have cause to lament the removal of the man who made your immortal interests the object of his benevolent regard until his eyes were closed in death? Under the subduing and melting influence of such recollections as these, many among the impenitent have stood and wept over the graves of departed saints.

3. When the righteous are removed by death, it is a just cause for lamentation that the world is deprived of the salutary influence of their example.

Until the judgment shall reveal it, the extent of such influence cannot be fully known. It will then be clearly seen how many have been reproved and restrained in their course of iniquity by witnessing the godly example of the saints. Yes; it will then appear that many, very many, have been brought to repentance by this means. Great, indeed, must be the moral influence of the man who walks circumspectly before the world; who is an upright and consistent Christian every day; who is always seen in his place in the sanctuary; who is known to sanctify the sabbath, and to worship God in his family and in the closet; who has set his house in order; who exhibits convincing proof that his affections are set on things above, and who is evidently waiting for his summons to depart and be with Christ. When such persons are removed from the Church below, we have much reason to lament their absence. They have stood as pillars to support this heavenly building; they have contended earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints; they have assisted in maintaining the discipline of God's house; and they have fervently offered up their prayers to God for the prosperity of Zion. But their active usefulness in the Church below has now ceased, and they have gone up to a brighter and nobler sphere of action in glory and immortality.

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