IV.

REMEDIES AGAINST THE FEARS OF DEATH.

THE natural fear of death is a source of terror to the human mind. Christianity suggests several ways to conquer this:

1. A strict sobriety in the pursuits of life.

Let your moderation be known to all men. The more we live above sense, the more we are prepared for that world where nothing that is not spiritual can enter.

2. Another guard against the fear of death is to accustom ourselves to draw our enjoyments from those scenes which it cannot disturb.

The twofold nature of man connects him with two kinds of objects; those that are present and visible, and those that are invisible and immortal: the more he draws his happiness from the last source, the more it will prepare him for the last conflict. He who seeks his pleasures in those things which relate to his intellect, not for distinction's sake, but for the increase of his virtue and the improvement of his mind, has entered on a career which will be extended through eternity. If you seek your happiness in the calm of your passions and the approbation of your heart, you will rise superior to the fear of death. 3. An eminent degree of the love of God is another specific for the fear of death,

Perfect love casteth out fear, but especially the fear of death. Is it not a state of universal change? a state and condition where we have no previous acquaintance, where all things will be new? But God, in the amplitude of his love, will shed a domestic acquaintance over those regions. Jesus Christ said, In my Father's house are many dwelling-places; if it were not so, I would have told you: I go to prepare a place for you. We shall then feel warm with the love of God, who is the God of that world. Besides, love naturally wishes to dwell with its object; and the principal difference that death makes is a union with God. He will show the good man the path of life; then all that conceals God will be removed, and all that shuts out the more immediate beams of the Divine presence and vision; for then shall I see as I am seen, and know even also as I am known.

Death places a good man with Him who will be all in all. Eternity will be to you, my brethren, but as your Father's house. Jesus Christ said, I go to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.

4. By rendering our imagination familiar with it; this is an exercise which good men have accustomed themselves to.

It is thus men train themselves for real battle. Look forward to all the circumstances of our arrival at the last hour, the sickness and the sorrow that surrounds our bed: the more we think of death, by certain desires and tendencies as to futurity, the less terrible it will appear. A sober joy will spring up, that will detect pleasure even in the grim

645

aspect of death, so as to enable us to say, with the apostle, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? It will be the im age of immortality, and only as a dark avenue into which we must enter into the eternal world. This will mix with the shades of the sepulchre a light that will light it up. Do not take a cowardly refuge in vanity and dissipation.

proposed, by which death may be

5. Some remedies that may be considered as a relief to man. How many pains and miseries, greater than death, have befallen some of you. Death is but an instant of being. Consider how many have supported the fear of death without Christianity. There is not a passion but what has overcome it. The passion of love, of fame, and ambition. Despair has dug for it as for hidden treasures; but religious joy has not only surmounted, but triumphed over it. Let us remember how many persons would rather have died than have met certain calamities. Cressius was not the only man that lamented that he had lived too long. How happy for Eli, for example, would it have been, if he had died before the judgments of God fell upon his children. How happy would death have been to Solomon, before he fell into idolatry. Who knoweth what is good for man all the days of his life? for the good are taken away from the evil that is to come. God considers death as a deliverance; he takes his children aside, and leads them into the sanctuary of the grave. Let us then, my brethren, seek an interest in the Divine favour, and in the promises of the gospel. We should consider the death of a Christian rather an enviable object than a pitiable one. When the apostles heard of the death of Lazarus, they said, Lord, let us go and do likewise.

V.

THE APOSTOLIC WRITERS.

THE doctrines of religion might have been taught in a different form, if the Scriptures had been calculated to give us mere speculative knowledge; but they exhibit the temper of the heart. We see the writers of them in bonds and afflictions, in triumphs and miscarriages. These epistles represent them under every variety of form and circumstance, in order that we may learn and know what is that one spirit which all the disciples breathed. It is of very little purpose to have an acquaintance with the doctrines, unless we have the spirit which the apostles breathe in all these epistles, and which has formed and sanctified the hearts of his chosen in every age.

Do not, my brethren, read them only to know what it is they teach, but consider them with a view to the improvement and renovation of the heart, producing that sincerity, that devotedness to Christ, that heavenly-mindedness, which they everywhere inculcate; and let these penetrate your hearts, and make you ashamed of yourselves, that you should fall so far short of the spirit of disciples; for, unless we possess

this spirit in some degree, we cannot be his disciples. If you compare these writings with the celebrated heathen authors in sublimity of style, in purity, in elegance, and in delicacy of expression; look at them with seriousness, and how low and little do their characters appear, although these heathen writers came into alliance with every thing that is great and splendid in this world; but the apostles came into contact with God; they touched the Eternal; they breathed into his temper, and out of that fulness received grace for grace. Let us, my brethren, seek this renovation of mind; let us not be slothful, but followers of them who, through faith and patience, are now inheriting the promises. Let us breathe after their spirit and their enjoyments, and very shortly the days of our mourning will be ended, and we shall be with them and with the Lord.

VI.

CHRISTIAN DIGNITY.

"Whatsoever things are honest."

HERE the word undoubtedly signifies venerable. It is a part of dignified manner of behaviour, as the word honestum signifies, from which it is taken. It stands opposed to a fantastic, to a light and frothy behaviour, to foolish jesting and buffoonery, to the character of a scoffer, and to the character of a wit. Indeed, it is impossible that wit, or the faculty of making people laugh, should be suitable to the dignity of a Christian, an heir of eternal life; it is impossible that this can associate or comport with a grave, a serious, and manly deportment, which is perfectly inconsistent with trifling and jesting. There is nothing will produce this dignified character so much as the consideration of the design of human life, the dignity of the Christian calling, and the end of our being. Mirth, though useful at times to the spirits, yet if it be made the business of life, we are dead while we live."

66

VII.

PARENTAL DISCIPLINE.

MR. HALL frequently regretted the change that had taken place. within the last forty years in the restraints and bonds of parental authority; that young persons were not under the same sort of discipline and control as formerly; that if our forefathers, the Puritans, were too rigid, their descendants are too lax. He had high ideas of the authority of parents, which he considered amounted to patriarchal. The following is a specimen: He observed, "God sent a message by the child Samuel to Eli. The purport of it was the destruction of his sons, and the taking away of the ark; with these all the dignity of the house

of Eli was extinguished. The affliction was very complicated. Poverty was inflicted upon his children, and the two which were chief in transgression fell in one day. Such was the punishment, that every one that was left in his house crouched for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread. And what was Eli's offence? That he did not exercise that power and authority for restraining the vices of his children which, as a parent, he possessed. His sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. This was his crime. Children and servants are not to be persuaded merely, but commanded; as God said of Abraham, I know him, that he will command his children, and his household after him, to keep the way of the Lord. Parents are required to exercise that authority which, by God, by nature, and by religion, is put into their power, for the advancement of their children and servants in piety, and in every heavenly work. If setting an example, then, merely, will not exempt them from punishment, how dreadful will it be for those parents who set the example of their own vices! Young persons should take warning from this. The sons of Eli were even the children of Abraham, and the children of the priesthood; and what was their crime? They made themselves vile, they despised the piety of their parent, they led the fashion, they indulged in sensuality. Impiety makes a man vile. The decree is gone forth, and all the maxims and customs of the world cannot alter it. Them that honour me I will

honour; and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.

VIII.

THE DANGER OF EVIL COMPANIONS.

SOCIETY is the atmosphere of souls, and we necessarily imbibe something which is either infectious or salubrious. The society of virtuous persons is enjoyed beyond their company, while vice carries a sting into solitude. The society, or the company you keep, is both the indication of your character and the former of it. In company, when the pores of the mind are opened, there requires more guard than usual, because the mind is then passive. Either vicious company will please you, or it will not; if it does not please you, the end of going will be defeated. You will feel your reverence for the dictates of conscience wear off, and that name, at which angels bow and devils tremble, you will hear contemned and abused. The Bible will supply materials for unmeaning jests or impious buffoonery: the consequence of this will be, a practical deviation into vice; the principles will become sapped, and the fences of conscience broken down; and, when debauchery has corrupted the character, a total inversion will take place, as the apostle speaks, they glory in their shame.

IX.

CHRISTIAN EXAMPLE.

THE Ephesian Christians were to walk as children of God. And if the sons of God were indeed to descend to this earth, what majesty, what dignity, what elevation, what purity, what sweetness should we behold! You, as Christians, are exhorted to that spirit; you are adopted into that family, you have that same spirit within you. Walk, therefore, as the sons of God, holding forth the word of life, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. This is in allusion to a lamp that is large and splendid; for so is the word of God exhibited in the conduct of true Christians, and diffused into our spirit and temper.

Christians do not shine by any light of their own, but it is a borrowed light; it is by that spirit and temper which is formed by the word of God. This makes them shine as sons of God.

In consequence of this, they show to men the way of salvation ; they point the way to happiness; they show the vanity of their pursuits; and, in the spirit of the patriarchs, they condemn the world, and thus become the heirs of righteousness through faith. You see, my brethren, how essential it is that Christianity should penetrate your hearts. It is not merely calling yourselves Christians, either as Churchmen or Dissenters, which makes you shine as lights in the world; for these, in comparison, are contemptible distinctions. But it teaches us such an estimate of all human good, such moderation and meekness, as shall fit us for the inheritance of the saints in light; this is effected by the word of God sanctifying us throughout. Our Saviour prays, Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy word is truth. I have consecrated them to be mine, even as Thou hast sanctified Me.

Our example, my brethren, cannot be indifferent; it will either be a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death; it will either bring great reproach or honour on the gospel. Let your light then so shine before men, that others, seeing your good works, may glorify our heavenly Father.

X.

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE THOUGHTS.

CHRISTIAN watchfulness includes in it a care of the thoughts; herein is the difference between a bad man and a good man, not as to the character of the thoughts themselves that occur to the mind, for the same may arise in the minds of both, but in the selection, the complacency, and the esteem given, to such as are