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It is the primeval curse upon an apostate race, and no power can reverse it ; " it is appointed unto all men once to die:^* but, our eternal dwelling place is not among the tombs ; a mer- ci%i tiaviour has mitigated the decree ; and in all its worst and feaiful features bus ' rsbolishiid death ;" He has changed its character to sleep, and although cnougn of the malediction remains to invest it with sorrow, it is not enough tt 'jake it hopeless sorrow ; for " He has tasted death for every man^ And we arc now privileged to turn our eyes from the deserted sepulchre of Christ, to that glorious residence to which He has ascended, and to that Kingdom which He has " opened to all believers." The dead praise not God, neither they that go down into silence ; they may speak to us of our mortality, and call forth our shudderings from their dreary abode ; but we are permitted to look beyond ; to look upon a brighter scene, and listen for the consoling words, " Talitha cumi,'^ t;nd there shall be the resuscitation of those we mourn, and friend shall be restored to his friend, and the parent and the child shall be reunited in life, and there shall be no more separation for ever. Treat it as you may, Death must be a subject of awe ; its consequences are so fearful, that few can look upon it with unaverted eye ; for '* after death there is thejudgment^^ — the judgment in which there cau be no evasion or es- cape, and in the sentence of which there can be neither change nor termina- tion. It is this, my brethren, which makes us shun the consideration of our mortality ; it is because death is the sentence of wrath and the penalty of sin, that we " make ado and tveep^* when the Last Enemy has prevailed over those we love ; and Christianity and Christianity only can assuage our grief and wipe away our tears : for Christianity is an affiance in Him who has destroyed death in all that is loathsome and terrible ; and while it turns our thoughts to the exercise of His authority, it assures us that Death, although mighty over ). mmm-^.0it0tAi T" _1 6 tlic body, ha« no sut-li power over tlio spirit ; so thnt, while with stroaaiing eyes and p:ii»cd hearts we survey tlie stretched-out body, pallid, inert, insen- sible, wc may still adopt the lanjj^nage of (ho text, " Why make ye this ado and weep, the damsel is not dead but sleepeth." You must all be familiar with this scone in the house of Jairus, and with the miracle wrought upon his daughter ; but you ni.iy not have drawn from it all Uic consolation it is calculated to yield, and all the hope to be derived from the assurance — " 7V/c damsel is not dead hut sleepefh.^' And did our Saviour mean to say that the report was groundlcas, and that all their fears were vain V Did He mean to teach them that it was only ima- ginary death from which she might revive without the exercise of faith, and without the power of a miracle 'i No, my brethren : to all common appre- licn'iion she was deceased ; the vital spirit had departed and no human remedy could avail ; all her friends were convinced of her death ; so that the very words which conveyed a different impression called forth incredulous con- tempt. St. Luke says, " tkey lauyhrd Him to scorn, knowing that she was dead.'''' But what wc arc to understand, we may learn from the Gospol of St. John, which records the raising of Lazarus, after four days of interment ; we find it written in the eleventh Chapter, " and after that He saith unto them, our friend Lazarus sleepeth, and I go that I may awake him out of sleep ;" like the tumultuous mourners in the ruler's house, they mistook His words and said, " Lord if he sleep he shall do well ;'^ but our Blessed Lord at once undeceived them, and lefl to His Church a consolatory truth when Ho "said plainly Lazarus is dcad.'^ These scenes have passed, but, their precious les- sons remain, and they will ever serve to teach Christians how to look upon that pavilion of i^eace, where Christ shall reign in glory and we shall bo like unto him: it is to exchange a nature, defiled by sin, disordered by sickness, distressed by temptation and despoiled by death, for the purity and perfec- tion of that benignant Saviour, who is light and love ; who, while upon earth prayed that we might be with Him, and who, at His return shall gather bis saints together, and clothe them with His right«ousnesB, and conform them to His image. — ''But as for me, I shall behold thy presence in righteousness, and when I wake zip in thy likeness I shall be saiisjied with it.'' This, my dear biethien is the hope of Christians ; once allied to Christian life, there is no power in death to break the bond ; — there is no real, positive, unconquerable death for those who " have received the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.'' To the universe they seem to die and their departure is taken for lestruction ; but, they live although they die ; although they consume away they are inde- structible ; — although slain in martyrdom, maimed and dismembered, burned in the fire or buried in the flood, still ' ' right dear in the sight of the Lordis the death of his saints ;' ' and noth'ng can make it other than a rest from their la- Ijours — a calm repose from which they shall awake with all their faculties invi- gorated and refreshed, when Jesus shall come again and bring all his accept ed servants with him. " lam the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord^ he who beUeveth in me, tho' he die yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believetii in me shall never die." But there oja other sources of felicity in the house of mourning, and there are other words of comfort with which worn prophecy over tlie congrega- tion or the dead. In this scene there were Feter and James and Johrf^^^nd i}\Q father and the mother of the maiden. It is not only that Jesus shall i-e- turn and we shall see him as he is ; — it is not only that we shall hear his voice and live : it is not only that we shall be with him and share bis glory ; it is not that he shall come in his glory, and cdl his f ily angels with him ; but, that added to this shining train, shall be all that " sleep in Jesus" — all who have loved him in sincerity, and have entered into his everlasting rest. This is our consolation and good hope through grace. We have times of joy, but they are brief, and dashed with earth and earthly things, and we are bidden to " rejoice with trembling" and to be prepared for the days of evil ; we have m Usi^ l M t^mrmp0im*mmm*mimm^ kind tViontlH, but they are not cnflurod to us lor an hour, unJ wc wali^h with painful apprehension every tottering footstep and every shade of change. '• Man dieth and wasteth moey, he yiieth tip the Ghost and where is he?' Wc can hold no communion with the dead ; but, i^ is not to the grarc that wc look for comfort ; -it is not to the grave that we follow the fpcnda that we have lov- ed. It id true that leiiiff dead theij yet speak to us, but, their voice comctU not from tlic sepulchre : " our conversation is in heaven, front whence also t.j look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ,'' and we look for Him, not done, but, accompanied by all who " sleep in Him /"—by all who have departed in the true faith of Hia holy name ; by all those dear ones with whom w« have " taken sweet counsel upon earth,'' and who have gone before ua to tbo place prepared for them ; but this is not all , wo shall not only meet them alive, we shall meet them immortal, with a gloJous body, and iv:capable of decay ; " 7ieiiher shall they die any inore, for they are equal with the angels, and are the children of God being the children of the resurrection:' Tha mind labors in following out this succession of glorious events, but, they serve us in every emergency ; and so in every hour of sickness and sorrow and bo- reavemcnt we comfort one another Avit'u thcM words. Wc cannot i>cnetrate tlie vcii of eternity ; wc cannot follow the released spirit to its secrC. abode, or tell the manner of .ts existence, or the measure of its bcatit-dc ; all wc know is, that it has returned to God who gave it ; that it has met with Jesus in Paradise, and is made an assessor of His throne and a partaker of His glory. And what manner of existence must this bo ; which consists in being "/or ever with the Lord"— to be like unto Him and to be brought with H'm to the great Easter of toe univorse, the joyous mooting of all the redeemed among men ; to behold Him in " the midst of the throne us it were a Lamb thai had been stain ;" to see that very human form wWch He a.,sumed for our sake, in which for us urd for our salvation Ho endured the agony of the Gardon, and th'^ excruciation on the Mo'iut ; and which form of man is not lost amidst the triimph and splendor of a throne— a throne of glory,— even xiiwn ei.rth there come irradiations from that throne —they brightened the face of .Stephen when he fell asleep in martyrdom, and they have been reflected by belicvcra on the bed of death, as " the light of ihe knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jems Christ." Who Uien can truly estimato the perfection of tliat knowledge and the fulness of that glory— when the 'scil of immortality shall be lifted up and we shall see the eternal God and Saviour as he is ! When with open face, but not reflected as from a glass, '' loc shall behold the glory of the Lord, ard he changed lido the same image from glory to glory .'^ Yet it is not only in the manner of existence that we rejoice, but in the measure of beatitude, of which also we can judge in part, in the absence of all piun and the freedom from all change ; for they not only fall asleep in 4 I \ <. i i C/in'gt, but, (tfejor ever with the Ixtru. Jit' ?»sed from doubt, rolciweJ from tcuiptntlon — released from pnln ; tlioro sball bo no more nigbt — no more sea — no more dentli ; it is no wonder that the Apostle in the contemplaUon of such a change should bid hia convertB not to sorrow without hop.^ ; and they whtf have watched through succef,«ive days and nights, the fdlingg of flesh and heart, the restloss enquiries for the shidowd of the night, and tossings to a lid fro VHlil the '^mcning of tnc dai' ; they who have witnessed the throea ol' the failing body, and have heard the thrones of the agitated mind, as tho last linKs are broken that bind us to the earth, must feel that tiiero is wisdom in the Scripture which suith — " weep not for the dead /" or according to the text, " Why malccye this adr and wep f " They are not dead hut sleep. Wo may sorrow, but, it cannot be for tiiem — it must bo sorrow altogether selfish ; sKrr^w tliat we have lost thciv advice, their cx.'aipie, their companionship ; but, even this J. tlgate*^ by the revelations of tho Gospel, by the assurance thiit these shall *h restcrod, and that tho lo-union shall be eternal ; the time of .•reparation is but tho passing watch of an undisturbed night, and there shall be a ^imultauDOU'^ wakenirg and a joyful recognition — we have this sort of con- solation opened U us in the Sciipture, we draw A" ^nrae inference from the text ; that there shall be a re-union in the heavenlv r, • Id with those TTchavj lovea upon earth, and with all those '/no have Ijvjd our Lord Jesus Christ insincerity." The Scriptures, although they do rot satisfy an unprofitable curiosity about tho " things iMwee??," afford suiFicient knovaodgo to enable us to walk by faith and to rejoice in hv pe ; ana although we can only measure tho joys of heaven by negation ; by the absence of those things which must hurt and distress us ; there is one positive happiness about which they have not left us to conjecture ; the meeting and recognition u jur friends in the future and eternal world. For tho confirmation of this truth, we owe something to this text , for the spbit of the maiden, although oparated from earth, was stiU alive, aotive and intelligent — still obedient to the voice of Jesus, and ready to rejoin the body it bad left untenanted — and in the presencv, .f his servau^ and her own Father and Mother, " ffe took the damsel hy the hand and saia unto her Talixha cumx, whicli is being interpreted, Damsel I ?"yunto thee arise, and :**-aight'way the damsel arose and loclhed.^^ And in this wo have a pattern of A^hat shaU happen hereafter, when ail that aw " in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they vjho hear shall live;'* and there will be a joyful meeting together in the very presence of their compas- hijonate Saviour in the light of whose countenance and in the possession of whose love they shall live in glory and shall live for ever. 0, who shall estimate aright the felicity <^^ this scene, when v-»ur ''nowlef"'50 shall be increased, and our capacity for happiness shall be complete ; when wo shall feel no want and dread no cliange. There mudt have been joy in the house of Jainis when in the presence of her father and mother, with the flush :^mK^ ^ • r\' .- !S?B i Xj. i ii i ;i 'I ■ ■MlaeBiiMiiMiiMi 10 uf health upon her cheelc, and the lustre of loving recognition in her eye, she rose and walked. Who can tell the rapture with which the bereaved parents hailed their recovered child, as the spirit came into her again, and they were astonished with great astonishment ; and yet it came back to a body of sin V d to a world of woe ; to be again susceptible of all the evils it had escaped, and all the wants which our frailty create ; of this they must liave felt the force, even before the first gush of their tenderness had stopped, and when " Jesus commanded that something should be given her to eat." But, we look for another and more blissful scene, when our God shall take by the hand all who sleep in Jesus ; and shall bring them with Him to the happiness of lif3 and the blessedness of heaven ; when every want shall be supplied and every hope fulfilled, " and they shall hungemo more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light upon them or any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of water, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.'' And shall we not pray earnestly for this consummation of bliss, and look forward for its enjoyment ? They who now mourn over the grave of yesterday can best tell upon what endearments that grave has closed, and to what manifestations of faith and patience that grave will open, when all the cemeteries of earth are broken up and their sleeping tenantry shall arise at " the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God.'' — " The Damsel is not dead hut sleepeth." Wc would not wake her out of sleep, even if our utterance of Talitha cumi were charged with the same mighty and mysterious i>ower. She has fallen asleep in Christ. We would not ?wake her up to earth, though earth should receive her to its brightest scenes. We would not, even if we could, disturb the tranquil- lity of the righteous dead, but like the stricken Psalmist we comfort ourselves with the assurance that •' we shall go to hor, but that she shall not return unto us." The disciples said, "thy daughter is dead, trouble not the Master.'' To all natural perception she Avas dead, and prayers and tears would be of no avail ; but, we say trouble not yourselves, for to all spiritual perception she is alive— alive unto God, and cannot die— " ITie damsel is not dead but sleep- eth." Yes, my beloved brethren, we believe this : " her spirit hath returned to God who gave it," and we would not call it back to an evil world which she had learned to fear, and to scenes of frailty in which she was sorely exercised, and suffered patiently ; these scenes are sacred to her friends and dear to God. But our business is with the living, as wc close the portals of earth upon the dead ; to warn those who rejoice and comfort those who mourn : to warn the one from this ear/y death, that u cloud may suddenly obscure the sunniest day of life, that neitiier youth or prosperity ai-c a sure defence, and that ijo !»unimer parlour is a s?.fc retreat from the embassy of the grave ; and li 11 s I 10 conitbrt tlie other in this happy Jeath, that they sorrow not hoiK'lessly, and to confivm the assurance that " the damsel is not dead but sleepeth:' We may sonow indeed, for Christianity is as tender in its sympathies an it is holy in its tendency and magnificent in its discoveries. The feeling ( ♦' Kidness can never be wrong in itself, for it has been authorised by inspiration, and has been sanctified by the heaviness nnd the tears of the Son of God, and fco long as we retain and cherish the brief but affecting sentence, " Jesvi^ wept,'' we need not fear that sorrow is sinful, when awakened by love and subdued by hope. We cannot stop the gush of sorrow which comes from la- cerated hearts ; we cannot part with our friends around whom all our affec- tions are entwined, without some sensutions of son*ow ; but when the soul is most disciuieted, as we see the last struggle and hear the last sigh, there oomea sweeping over the heaivstrings, (O, for the tongue of an angel to announce the beautiful text,) — " the damsel is not dead but sleepethy We look not for this miracle— we look rbr a greater, when all that sleep in Christ shall awake— when all who have died in the Lord shall live :— we look for this, because we believe in the truth and confide in the power of Him, who has said, " became Hive, ye shall live also.'' Tho t«nn of sleep is but the passing watch of night, and although protracted to a thousand years, it is but as yesterday- -the separation is short, but the reunion will be eternal. Judf^c not your friends to be lost, they have closed their eyes one watcli only before ourselves — they have entered into rest, " Their citadel of peace in Jesu's blood." But they have left \:s the watchword at the grave . ' * The righteous hath hope in his death !" Be therefore among the righteous, and God shall preserve the identity of your friends, and with their Saviour and your Saviour, you shall see them again. Be ye among the righteous, and then ye need not sorrow im- moderately and without hope. ' ' Mourn riot for the dead, ' ' for the righteous dead are blessed, and the care of them is with the Most High : mourn rather for yourselves that you have yet to struggle for life, and to "fear lest apromise being made of entering into rest, any of you shotdd seem to come short of it." Be ye among the righteous, and then bless God that eari is not your abiding place ; that your eternal inheritance is not among the tombs. Be ye among°the righteous, and then in every calamity, you will recognise the hand and acknowledge the mercy of God ; who, while he bereaves us of our friends upon earth, reserves for us our friends in heaven ; who, while he snaps asunder the dearest ties that bind us to this world, opens to us the everlasting (vates of the world to come, and fills it with the objects of our earthly love. With this blessed hope, we may thank God for the emancipation of o'lr friends, and wait in faith and patience for our own. \ I r V