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 mmsifismi 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 JOHN" MELVILLE, 
 
 LOCOMOTIVE DEPARTMENT OK G. T. R.; FOR MANY YEARS 
 
 A MEMBER OF ST. MATTHEW'S CHURCH, POINT 
 
 ST, CHARLES, 
 
 PREACHED IN ST. MATTHEW'S CHURCH, 
 
 SUNDAY, 24th JUNE, 1874, 
 BY REV. CHAS. A. DOUDIET. 
 
 ■*^*- 
 
 MONTREAL : 
 
 **WITNESS" PRINTING HOUSE. 
 
 1874. 
 
 m 
 

SERMON. 
 
 Note. — The late John Melville was killed on the 14th of June 
 whilst returning to his work in the Grand Trunk Railway shops. He 
 was standing on one of the many tracks that cross the Lachine Road 
 at' Point St. Charles, when a locomotive coming up behind him threw 
 him down, and mangled his limbs so fearfully that he survived only 
 about an hour. He was calm in the midst of his sufferings; addressed 
 a few words of comfort to his wife and children, and, having joined in 
 prayer with the minister of his Church, peacefully expired. 
 
 " Our friend 
 
 sleepeth" — John xi., ii. 
 
 Dear Brethren, 
 
 The hand of the Lord is heavy upon 
 us. There is a vacant seat before me to-day which last 
 Sabbath was occupied. One who for a time was an 
 Elder of this church, and at all times its true friend, hath 
 fallen asleep in Jesus. A voice that often joined with 
 ours on earth to sing the praises of the Lord, will be 
 heard here no more. A fellow pilgrim through the 
 world's wilderness has passed from our sight. We have 
 laid his body in its last resting place, — dust to dust, ashes 
 to ashes, — and now, a last public duty is ours, a duty at 
 all times delicate and difficult ; one, indeed, to which 
 there is but One that ever proved ' himself equal the 
 duty of comforting the mourner and interpreting Provi- 
 dence. Who is sufficient for these things? Praying, 
 therefore, that the Spirit of Christ might guide us in the 
 performance of this, our arduous task, we have turned 
 to the sweet and simple story related in the eleventh 
 chapter of John, and in the three words of Jesus, that 
 form our text, we have thought that much could be 
 found to comfort and to cheer ; much to help us to say 
 with true resignation and faith : '' Father, Thy will be 
 done on earth as it is done in heaven." 
 
u 
 
 Our friend sleepeth," says Jesus to his disciples, 
 who with himself had often shared the welcome and hos- 
 pitality of the family of Bethany. There He spoke 
 from a divine point of view. To God there is no death. 
 His creatures do not pass from his sight when they dis- 
 appear from before our eyes. " Whither shall I go from 
 " Thy Spirit, and whither shall I flee from Thy presence ; 
 *' if I ascend up into heaven Thou art there ; if I make 
 " my bed in hell, behold. Thou art there ; if I take the 
 " wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts 
 " of the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me, and 
 " Thy right hand shall hold me." All live to God ; He 
 is not a God of the dead, but of the living. The disciples 
 understood not at first the deep meaning hidden in these 
 words of Jesus, " Our friend sleepeth." Let us not 
 blame them, for with all the knowledge of life and im- 
 mortality revealed in the Gospel, when God recalls our 
 friends, how hard it often is to dismiss the despairing 
 thought that they are lost to us for ever, and to remember 
 that they only sleep, and that " God will bring again 
 with him them that sleep in Jesus." Christ did not re- 
 prove his disciples then for their slowness of understand- 
 ing, but, remembering their infirmities, he accommodated 
 his language to their imperfect ideas, and told them 
 plainly, "Lazarus is dead." Yet not long after, when 
 speaking to Martha, he utters this sublime and profound 
 declaration : " He that believeth in Me, though he were 
 " dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and 
 " believeth in me shall never die." 
 
 This brings us back to our assertion that there is 
 really no deaths if death simply means cessation of exis- 
 tence. There is a very great change in the cond. .'ions of 
 life ; there is the casting-ofT of a " tabernacle of clay," 
 often accompanied with pain and agony ; but through 
 all, the living principle remains unimpaired. Whilst the 
 soul of the believer ascends up to God to enter into rest, 
 • the mortal frame, which here was its dwelling, is also at 
 
rest, peacefully sleeping until the great resurrection day. 
 Even this last lowly resting place is blessed and hallowed 
 for Christ's disciples, for he sanctified it when, for three 
 days, his body slept therein. 
 
 It is because soul and body rest, that Jesus calls death 
 a sleep. Sleep is rest : rest from labor, pain, toil and 
 grief; and the sleep of the tomb is, moreover, restfrom 
 passion, sin and temptation. The hard battle of flesh 
 and spirit is over ; Satan defeated has fled, and ere the 
 day of triumph is celebrated in the view of the whole 
 universe, the Christian warrior sleepeth. " The wicked 
 " have ceased from troubling, the weary are at rest." 
 
 Our friend is taking this rest. No weariness can 
 ever more be his. None of the aches and pains of this 
 life can ever awaken him out of his sleep. Doubts and 
 fears can never more disturb his peace. The chains of 
 sin are broken, the prison-house of matter has crumbled 
 to ruin, and another victory over the great enemy of 
 mankind has been gained through the blood of the Lamb ; 
 another " brand has been plucked from the burning ;" 
 another earthly traveller has passed through the gates 
 of pearl. 
 
 " Our friend sleepeth." This sleep is not forever. 
 We sleep, and wake again. Unconscious of the flight of 
 time the sleeper awakens as the dawn ushers in another 
 day, and it seems but a moment from the evening when 
 he laid himself down exhausted, to the morning when he 
 rises refreshed. A nobler mornivig will dawn for every 
 followerof Christ,— a morning without clouds, and then 
 even the inert and decayed body will rise from its narrow 
 bed. "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with 
 " a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the 
 " trump of God, and '^^e dead in Christ shall rise." 
 
 When the body is . ,ieep the mind does not necessar- 
 ily share in that state of unconsciousness. The existence 
 of dreams proves this, in a partial degree, at least. We^ 
 only remember, and even then indistinctly, the dreams* 
 
that immediately precede ouv awakening. It would, 
 therefore, be impossible to prove that, at any time, the 
 soul has been asleep. But even if this was asserted, the 
 Word of God, in speaking of death as of a sleep, only 
 speaks of the perishable body, lying motionless and un- 
 conscious in the bosom of the earth. This important 
 truth is proved by the inspired words of Paul in 2. Cor., 
 V. 6. : " Therefore, we are always confident, knowing 
 " that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent 
 " from the Lord (for we walk by faith, and not by sight) ; 
 " we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent 
 *' from the body, and to be present with the Lord." 
 
 After the resurrection, the soul will be no longer 
 " absent from the body ; " therefore, if, as the Apostle 
 says, Christians are " present with the Lord " before the 
 resurrection, whilst yet " absent from the body," we arc 
 taught to believe that immediately after death the souls 
 of followers of Christ are enjoying a conscious existence 
 in the presence of the Lord of life. Nor does this im- 
 portant doctrine rest upon one single text of Scripture. 
 We read elsewhere that Paul " was in a strait betwixt 
 " two, having a desire to be with Christ, which is far 
 " better." Can it be claimed that the Apostle meant that 
 to spend thousands of years in unconscious sleep was bet- 
 ter for him, and not rather that from the moment his 
 eyes closed to this worldly scene his soul would stand in 
 the presence of his loved Lord .? Dr. Watts, commenting 
 upon this passage, says : " It is evident that the Apostle 
 " hoped to be present with the Lord immediately, as soon 
 " as he was ' absent Irom the body ;' otherwise, death 
 " would have been to him of little gain, if he must have 
 '' been sleeping till the dead shall rise at the general 
 " resurrection." Stephen, falling under the murderous 
 missiles of his Jewish persecutors, " looked up and saw 
 " the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand 
 '' of God," and as he felt his soul departing he called up- 
 on his Saviour saying : " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 
 
 
Evidently his conviction .was that at this very time, and 
 not thousands of years hence, his soul would be with God. 
 Likewise, when Jesus was dying on the cross, he did not 
 say to the penitent thief who called upon him to " remcm- 
 " ber him," " Thou shalt be with Me in heaven after the 
 " resurrection," but '' to-day thou shalt be with Me in 
 " Paradise." 
 
 Therefore, we firmly hold that whilst the body is con- 
 signed to a long, dreamless sleep in the grave, the soul 
 immediately enters an active and vigorous life. And if 
 this is so, what human heart can conceive the bliss, the 
 delight, the rapture of the disciple of Christ as he ex- 
 changes, in a moment, the pains and sorrows of earthly 
 life for the peace and joy of the Father's House above, 
 and finds himself ushered by angels into the presence of 
 Him " whom not having seen he loved !" 
 
 " . . . . O beatific sight! 
 " O vision, with which nothing can compare! 
 
 " . . . O blessed look ! how brief 
 " I know not; but eternity itself 
 
 ** Will never from my soul erase the lines 
 " Of that serene, transfiguring aspect. 
 * * • * 
 
 " He raised me tenderly, saying 'My child,' 
 " And I, like Thomas on that sacred eve, 
 " Could only answer Him, 'My Lord, My God!' " 
 
 — Bickerstdh. 
 
 Some have thought that the souls of men, instead of be- 
 ing consigned at once to heaven or to hell, await the day 
 of judgment in a middle state, happy or wretched, ac- 
 cording as they are of the saved or the lost. We find, 
 however, no warrant m Scripture for such an opinion. 
 If the soul of the Christian at death is, as the Apostle 
 says, " with Christ," it is in heaven ; for where Christ isi 
 there also is heaven. Jesus ever standeth at God's right 
 hand making intercession for us. Therefore if the soul 
 is with Christ, it is also before the throne of the Father, 
 in the highest heaven. This is further confirmed by the 
 parable of the rich man and Lazarus. They die : one 
 
is found " in hell grievously tormented," and the other 
 " comforted, in Abraham's bosom." 
 
 Seeing, then, that death is not an unconscious sleep of 
 the soul, that it is neither the suspension nor the extinc- 
 tion of our being, we derive an immense consolation 
 from the fact that whilst " our friend sleepeth," his 
 glorified spirit is with Christ. This doctrine teaches us 
 not to let our thoughts linger too much about the grave, 
 where his mortal remains await the coming of the Lord. 
 True, as the very dust of Zion was dear to the captive 
 Israelite, thus even the dust of our dear departed is pre- 
 cious ; but a day cometh when by the mighty power that 
 raised Christ from the dead, God shall speak to those 
 frail and fast decaying fragments of humanity, and they 
 that hear shall live. Yet, if our loved and lost were al- 
 lowed to speak to us from heaven, this is what they 
 would say :•" Weep not for us, but for yourselves. Our 
 " troubles are over, our conflict is ended, our temptations 
 " are past, our burden is gone, our crown is won. Weep 
 " for yourselves, for yours is still the cross, yours ^He 
 " trials, yours the afflictions, yours the tears." 
 
 But the body of our friend sleepeth, and this palpable, 
 material, visible fact, being too apt to take the first place 
 in our thoughts, we come back to the strange, yet not the 
 less true assertion, that this sleep is not forever. For 
 
 Jesus himself has said: "The hour cometh when 
 
 " the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and 
 " they that hear shall live" — and also, " Marvel not at 
 " this, for the hour is coming, in the which all that are 
 *' in th^ graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth." 
 The victory of Christ over Satan would not be complete 
 if this was not so. The evil one could still boast that 
 he had marred the beauty of God's master-piece of crea- 
 tion ; that part of his destructive mischief was irremedi- 
 able ; and that, although defeated in his attempts against 
 the souls of God's elect, he had triumphed in the utter 
 ruin of their bodies. But the Word of God declares 
 
that the enemy of man will not even have this poor con- 
 solation. Not a hair of the head of God's people falls 
 without his express per^iission, and not a single trophy 
 of victory will be taken by Satan when he is consigned 
 to his everlasting doom. 
 
 To explain how this universal restoration of bodies, 
 whose organisms have been in some cases scattered to 
 the four winds of heaven, will take place, may exceed our 
 powers of understanding, but believing that " with God 
 •' all things are possible," and that nothmg can be too 
 hard for One who created worlds out of nothingness by 
 a mere effort of His will, we bow reverently before His 
 mighty word and say : " The Lord hath spoken, shall he 
 '^ not also do it ?" 
 
 And that hour cometh when it will be done. It is not 
 a mere man who thus prophesies, it is the Son of God, 
 it is God himself. He said of his friend Lazarus, " he 
 " sleepeth ;" but he also said, " the hour cometh when 
 " those that sleep shall awaken and rise." He proved 
 his right to prophesy thus, when, by a word, he brought 
 back life to the ruler's little daughter who had just died — 
 to the son of the widow of Nain, who was about to be 
 buried — and to Lazarus, who had been four days in the 
 tomb. He proved it still further when He rose Himself 
 from the grave, and so important did early Christians 
 deem this last proof of the Saviour's power that one of 
 them says : " If Christ is not risen, your faith is vain 
 " and you are yet in your sins." 
 
 Our friends that sleep hear not our voices, they give 
 no answer to our lamentations over them ; but at the 
 voice of the Son of God, at the sound of the trump of 
 Gou, earth shall give back its dead, and they shall live. 
 Not to begin a new existence, mixed up with pain and 
 sorrow, with trouble and sin, like this present life ; the 
 friends of Jesus will rise to reign with Him, His triumph, 
 their triumph, His life, their life. They shall be " caught 
 " up to meet the Lord in the air," and shall ever be with 
 
10 
 
 Him. Before the assembled multitudes who lived and 
 died since the creation of this world, before angels and 
 archangels, they will be declared " blessed of the Father," 
 and the heirs of the " kingdom prepared for them from 
 " the foundation of the world." 
 
 Oh ! who can describe the ecstacy of that glorious 
 resurrection, who can paint the joy of seeing once again, 
 resplendent in glorious life and beauty, the incorruptible 
 bodies of those we knew and loved ; of marking with 
 eager rapture the marvellous change in the features of 
 dear faces that we last watched when clouded by the 
 grey shadows of death, of meeting once more the glance 
 of bright loving eyes that we have seen growing dim in 
 the pangs of approaching dissolution. What eternity of 
 bliss in the renewed embrace of arms and the hearty 
 clasp of hands which we mournfully crossed, rigid and 
 cold over the icy bosom. For all this is necessarily in- 
 cluded in the words, " God shall bring again with Him 
 them that sleep in Jesus." Many a Naomi shall find again 
 her Elimelech. Many an Isaac, his Rebecca. Many a 
 David, the little child that loving arms tenderly raised 
 from its cradle to lay it in its bier. " Eyes have not seen, 
 nor ears heard, nor has it ever come up into the heart of 
 man the things that God hath prepared for them t!iat iove 
 Him." 
 
 With such hopes before us why should we mourn, al- 
 though " Our brother sleepeth." To quote the words of 
 a distinguished French author, " When the green grass 
 " of another June waves over us, when the soft summer 
 " wind of another June sighs through the green leaves, 
 " when the sunshine of some more genial day shall cheer- 
 " fully brighten the stone that may bear our name and 
 " yours, what better can we wish, that if we leave be- 
 " hind us those who may sometimes visit the quiet spot 
 '• where we are laid, they may be able to say humbly and 
 " hopefully," what we now say of our departed brother, 
 " Surely here at last, and surely there^ in a better place, 
 
" the weary heart and hand are still, yea surely, God 
 " hath given His beloved sleep." 
 
 When our friends fall asleep in Jesus, we do not usual- 
 ly, in the first bitterness of our grief, take in all the conso- 
 lations disclosed to us by faith. Even those who, in times 
 of prosperity, thought that nothing could ever shake 
 their trust in God, find themselves as broken reeds, pros- 
 trated by the furious blast of sorrow. A question, 
 fraught with rebellion against Almighty God, comes, 
 times and again, to disturb the already distracted mind : 
 Why hath the Lord done this.? — a question often unans- 
 werable. God's ways are not our ways, nor his thoughts 
 our thoughts. Darkness is round about him. Clouds 
 are the habitation of His throne. Mystery attends His 
 footsteps. But even where the cause of God's afflictive 
 providence towards us, is unknown, would it not be wiser 
 to ask, not : Why hath God done this ? but : Why hath He 
 done only this.? Instead, the soul questions the jus- 
 tice or the wisdom of the blow. Like Asaph in the 73rd 
 psalm, it says, " The ungodly prosper in the world, but 
 all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every 
 morning. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain." Is 
 it strange that for such souls, dark clouds entirely hide 
 the glorious light which ought constantly to shine upon 
 the Christian's path.? Ah! brethren, if there was no 
 resurrection, if, when our friends fall asleep, there was 
 never to be an awakening, then indeed we might weep 
 over the ill-fortune of those who only enjoyed the world 
 for a very brief season, and have now lost its enjoyments 
 forever ; we might weep to think that those who possess- 
 ed the treasures of our love, must now forever remain 
 unconscious of our accents of despair. Then, indeed, to 
 every plan for the future, to every thought of coming 
 hope, the memories of lost ones would be mixed, and to 
 every word of comfort and cheer, would be opposed the 
 conviction of despairing hearts, crying, " They will re- 
 turn no more." And in the hopeless grief of unbelievers 
 
12 
 
 we see the consequences of such blind and sinful repin- 
 ings, in the existence of hearts crushed down by their 
 weight of grief, in lives that have of life but the name, 
 for the mourner's heart is laid in the grave with the 
 ones that are lost. Such men bitterly question the wis- 
 dom and mercy of the Creator ; they complain that life is 
 aimless and empty. They say, " Why hath God endowed 
 " us with powers of affection, only to make them instru- 
 *' ments of torture to our poor hearts.' " And they weep 
 longf, long after vacant seats round the hearth have been 
 filled by others, and even when succeeding years have 
 furrowed the brow and whitened the hair, the sight of 
 some familiar object, the stray sound of a voice, an acci- 
 dental resemblance, awaken storms of emotion. 
 
 " And then the feelings liid for years 
 Break forth at length in burning tears." 
 
 But, oh, believers, Jesus who said to the lone widow 
 of Nain, " Weep not," repeats this to you. Not that he 
 condemns the natural expression of our erief, for He 
 Himself wept ; but the sinful excess of sorrow, .,nly 
 jnstiflable in them that have no hope. The riddles that 
 puzzle unbelief are not mysteries for our most holy 
 faith. An answer is given to every question of our doubt- 
 ing hearts. Some ask : " Why were our friends called 
 " before us ? " God's Word teaches in answer that it was 
 because their work on earth was done. When our ao- 
 pointed task is ended we also shall enter into rest. 
 Or, if we ask : " Why was the silver cord of our affec- 
 tion broken ? " the answer is ; " Is it, indeed, broken ? 
 " Faith will pass away ; hope be replaced by sight, but 
 " love never dies. Human ties between disciples of 
 " Christ shall be drawn closer ; the sleep of the grave 
 " cannot destroy them." If it be sweet to think that our 
 souls were bound on earth to those of our sainted dead, 
 how much sweeter still to know that in entering heaven 
 they have helped to lift up our affections there ; that part 
 
13 
 
 of our better self dwells already with them in the Heaven- 
 ly Mansions. 
 
 Even on the rugged thorns of life a God of love hath 
 scattered white blossoms, even along the desert path 
 He hath planted grateful shades ; even in the wilderness 
 He hath caused living springs to flow. Blessed are those 
 who through taith can avail themselves of these divine 
 comforts. " As their days their strength shall be." They 
 may, like the bush which Moses saw near Horeb, be 
 surrounded with the fiery flames of alfliction, and yet be 
 not consumed. 
 
 " Our brother sleepeth," and thanks be to God that 
 we can add " He sleepeth in Jesus." There are many 
 who, in the hour of death, call on God for mercy, who, 
 during life and health, lived only for the world ; when 
 they are gone we can say but little to comfort the friends 
 they have left behind. But this is not the case here. For 
 many years a member of the Church, our friend, in a quiet 
 and unassuming way, strove to fulfil his duties to God 
 and man. It is not long since he stood with us before 
 the Lord's Table, and for the last time on earth recalled 
 in the sacred symbols his Saviour's dying love. He did 
 not wait for the hour of death to seek reconciliation to 
 God. He sought the Lord in days of health and pros- 
 perity, and, therefore, when all unexpectedly he was 
 summoned to appear before His awful throne, he was 
 found " clothed, and not naked." He fell where we all 
 should fall when our appointed time comes, in the way 
 of duty, and through all his dying agonies the hand of 
 God upheld him, keeping his mind unclouded to the last. 
 A loving husband, a kind father, a faithful friend, he 
 leaves behind him the unsullied reputation that should 
 bear witness to the reality of the faith of every Christian, 
 and now, although dead, he yet speaketh. The sudden- 
 ness of his call repeats to every one of us the Saviour's 
 warning : " Watch, for ye know not the day nor the 
 
14' 
 
 " hour in which the Son of man cometh." \^''hilst life 
 is calm and prosperous, and all around us is peaceful, 
 profit of the time to rear upon Christ, the Rock, a spirit- 
 ual building that may withstand the storm and the flood. 
 It is not time to build when the tempest is raging. Sail- 
 ing upon the sea of life, it will not do to wait to secure 
 the masts until the hurricane bursts above our heads. It 
 is not time to dig wells when a conflagration consumes 
 our dwellings; neither is it time to think of salvation only 
 when the soul is fast departing. 
 
 Our brother's death repeats to us that it is a great 
 thing to be a Christian, that the peace of God is, indeed, 
 a pearl of great price that worlds could not purchase, 
 and yet given freely to him that believeth. With that 
 peerless jewel in our possession the soul remains tranquil, 
 even when storms heap up their threatening clouds over- 
 head, even when sorrow, sickness and death invade our 
 homes. With that precious peace, even though the 
 angel of death should stand at our own bedside, we can 
 keep our eyes fastened upon the Lord of glory and forget 
 all but His love. 
 
 " Our brother sleepeth." There is a gap in the 
 ranks of Christ's defenders in this congregation. Breth- 
 ren, who will fill this gap? Who of you all, dear hearers, 
 that until now has hesitated to profess openly his love for 
 Christ, will take warning and consecrate himself for time 
 and eternity to his Redeemer .^ And above all, we pray 
 that this bitter affliction may be sanctified to our brother's 
 nearest and dearest, so that in the day of Christ they all 
 may stand together at God's right hand, a united family 
 in heaven. Jesus once said of the blessed dead that they 
 shall be like the angels in heaven, and also that " there 
 *' is joy in heaven among the angels of God over one sin- 
 ner that repenteth." From this we would infer that our 
 friends in heaven may share in this " angels' joy," and 
 though on earth we cannot do anything else to give them 
 joy, or add to their pleasures, yet it may be that by a sin- 
 
 4 
 
If 
 
 cere repentance and turning to God we furnish them with 
 a new subject of praise, and, therefore, of enjoyment. 
 Let this additional inducement to love Jesus have due 
 weight with every one who has a friend in heaven, and 
 as of ourselves we are powerless for good, let us have 
 recource to the Source of all wisdom and power to be 
 helped in our need. 
 
 Sleeping brother, here we bid thee farewell. Rest 
 in thy Saviour's arms until the great resurrection day, 
 and when our appointed hour is come, may we meet 
 with thee again under the ever-green shades of the t-ee 
 of life ; together may we tread the golden streets and 
 drink of the waters of the pure crystal stream that flows 
 from the throne of God. Short is the time, and then 
 our eyes shall behold the King in His glory, earth's 
 woes and tears all forgotten. With His own '^ pierced 
 " hand of love" Christ shall wipe away every tear." 
 
 " And pains, and groans, and griefs, and fears, "" 
 
 " And death itself shall die." 
 
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