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 LIFE BY DEATH 
 
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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 "LIFE BY DEATH," 
 
 AXD AN 
 
 "EXAMrLE FOE CHRISTIAN MOURNERS." 
 
 TWO SERMONS 
 
 PREACHED AT 
 
 SAINT MAEY'S CHUECH, BUEY SAIXT EDMUND'S, 
 
 ON 
 
 SUNDAYS, FEBRUARY 13 and 20, 1848, 
 ®n tfic Dratfj of (S>. dS. 
 
 C. J. PHIPPS EYRE, M. A. 
 
 Peifetnal Curate of Bury St. Mary's, and Chaplain to the Sight Hon. Lord Methuen. 
 
 BURY ST. EDMUND'S: 
 PUBLISHED DY JACKSON AND FROST, 1, CHEQUER SQUARE, AND 
 32, ABBEYGATB STREET; 
 
 LONDON :— HATCHARD AND SON, PICCADILLY ; AND SIMPKIN AND 
 MARSHALL, STATIONERS' HALL COURT.
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.
 
 SERMON 
 
 "AND RACHEL DIED." 
 
 Genesis xxxv. 19, 
 
 The time and manner of her death must have 
 increased the anguish of survivors. Under any circum- 
 stances, the loss to an affectionate heart of his Rachel, 
 of her who has been the delight of his eyes, more unto 
 him in her single self than the whole world besides, yea, 
 as his own soul, — such a loss, whatever be its attendant 
 circumstances, must be the bitterest sorrow a man can 
 pass through. It is not one of life's weaker and more 
 distant ties, but a very heart-string which is snapped 
 asunder. The arrow of affliction has fallen upon the 
 very centre of feehng, in the point of keenest and most 
 exquisite sensitiveness. A wound bleeds which time 
 iocs not staunch, but rather re-opens and re-freshes, 
 A chasm is effected, to be felt the more painfully when 
 months are passed away, nay, beyond supply ever again 
 
 A 3 
 
 i3:.j^;c^,^
 
 on this side lieavcn. No after affection can make 
 amends for \dolencc done unto the first love. The 
 bereaved must " go softly " and solitarily all the days of 
 his life. 
 
 But when that loss occurs at the moment, or as the 
 result of childbii'th, when the babe's life has been the 
 mother's death, and instead of her there is now only her 
 lost image, an image ever to re-call to the mind of the 
 lonely one the object and cause of his anguish, a pledge 
 of love the more caressed and prized because it is the 
 living memorial of regretted death, — then is the bitter- 
 ness of that most bitter of all afflictions deepened a 
 thousandfold. And such was Jacob's trial — such the 
 woe of that day when it was said unto him "a man child is 
 born;" — a Benjamin, butaBenoni, his remaining so- 
 lace, but his lasting sorrow. Bachel had his heart with- 
 out rival. Years of toil were but as short hours to win 
 her. The love of the sister, deceitfully yielded, could not 
 alienate or weaken the first affection. At last, Laban 
 "gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also." But Leah 
 was "the joyful mother of children," while Bachel was 
 childless. Polygamy brought with it the usual penal 
 consequences, family discord and division; facts and 
 sufferings being, as yet, in the place of precepts, to prove 
 its contrariety to the original and divine ordinance of
 
 married life. Passionately and unconditionally the en- 
 vious Rachel cried, "Give me children, or else I die." The 
 object of the prayer was natural, but its peevish spirit, and 
 irrespectiveness to the Divine Will, sinful. "Who know- 
 eth what is good for a man in this life?" Who shall 
 dare to covet for the reins of Divine rule in his own 
 hands? What short-sighted mortal should pray for 
 temporal mercies absolutely, and without submissive 
 regard to the choice of Him, who foresecth the end in 
 the first purpose or step to its accomplishment, and 
 knoweth indeed what is best for us? Lot gave way to 
 his selfish and worldly longings, in the choice of the well- 
 watered and rich plain of Sodom, smiUng in fruitfulness 
 like "the garden of the Lord", to call forth, and win, 
 such love and dangerous feeUngs; but he had no happy 
 day until God burnt him out of that wicked city. Dis- 
 contentedly in the wilderness, Israel cried for meat. 
 The prayer was met; quails were given; but "he sent 
 leanness withal into their souls." Again, they would 
 have a king, when the Lord was their king. Such a 
 step would establish their nationaUty and rank, in the 
 eyes of bordering states; their armies would move order- 
 ly, and so victoriously, under the plans and command 
 of one man, an unquestioned authority. Hence they 
 sought permission to make an election; the Dirinc
 
 6 
 
 anger was provoked; but its exercise was seen, in the 
 gratification of the ungrateful request, and not in its 
 denial. " He gave them a king in his anger, but took 
 him away in his wrath." And so fretfid Rachel prayed, 
 "Give me children, or else I die,^* and she died indeed; 
 not in the failure, but by the answer of the prayer ; in 
 the possession, and not in the absence of the coveted 
 blessings. "V^Tio will not now tremble, lest he should be 
 too earnest in the petition for earthly mercies? Who 
 will attempt to extort from God? Ask conditionally. 
 Ask submissively. 
 
 Not what we wish, but what we want, 
 
 Do thou, O Lord, supply ; 
 The good unasked in mercy grant. 
 
 The ill, though asked, deny. 
 
 Jacob had been at Bethel, where, as we read, a do- 
 mestic affliction had met him. An old and loved ser- 
 vant, who had nursed his mother, and watched, doubt- 
 less, over the birth and growth of the grand-children of 
 her departed mistress, died at this place. I can con- 
 ceive the loss to have been very great just at this junc- 
 ture. The experienced and interested nurse was gone, 
 and Rachel, in her extremity, must now, perhaps, be 
 under the care of a stranger, a midwife of that country; 
 a discomfort certainly, if not a danger. To the honour 
 of the servant and her master's family all were much 
 affected by the event, and not only wept over the grave,
 
 but called the tree, ^vliich threw its shade over the 
 mound of death, Allon-backuth, the oak of wccpiug. 
 "And they journeyed from Bethel," and were now almost 
 in the desired country, — almost in the place of mysterious, 
 blessed child-bearing, — that Ephrath, where, afterwards, 
 the anguish of one of Eve's daughters was the world's 
 life, and the wail of the new born was that of the Incar- 
 nate Son of God, — Jacob's heart flushed with hope, as 
 once more the promised Canaan opened before him, his 
 father-land, his divinely allotted portion — when he is 
 called to meet the bitterest of all sorrows, before he cross 
 its borders. The moment is come, or the fatigue tells. 
 "Rachel travailed and she had hard labour. And it 
 came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the mid- 
 wife said unto her. Fear not, thou shalt have this Son 
 also." The well-meant encouragement has no influence 
 upon the failing mother. There is no reply. The feel- 
 ing steals over her that all is over, so turning her eyes 
 towards the little and innocent cause of such a sorrow, 
 she exclaims — Benoni, — Benoni, — child, child of my 
 affliction — and expires. The infant is spared, the mo- 
 ther is removed. In the prime of life there is death, 
 and the bond of wedded love is snapped for ever. Vvlio, 
 who can express the woe of that day, the bitterness of 
 that loss ! O death, void of mercy and respect of persons !
 
 That slic should die, this was a grief to him; that she 
 should die in travail, this was deeper trouble, this was 
 unspeakable weight on a burden, apart from this addi- 
 tion, scarce tolerable. Benoni indeed, a sorrow to all — 
 to the dead one — to the bereaved one — to the mother- 
 less Joseph — to all who knew and loved. Who cannot 
 enter into and sympathise with such sorrow? Whose 
 heart will not the story of its repetition chill, in the fa- 
 mily of those dear or nigh to us? Who will not "weep 
 ■with them that weep?" Who will not cry over the be- 
 reaved one, "The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble, the 
 name of the God of Jacob defend thee. Send thee help 
 from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion.'^ 
 Who will not pray over them that shall never now look 
 upon a mother's smile, hang on a mother's Up, and know 
 that matchless, gentle, needed care, "as one whom his 
 mother comforteth may the Lord comfort you?" And 
 who amongst Eve's daughters, that hath been spared 
 this death, will not see the fitness, and the beauty of that 
 holy, happy, service in Christ's Church, wherein we give 
 thanks over a life spared, a family unbroken, "for that it 
 hath pleased Almighty God to give safe deliverance from 
 the pain and peril of childbirth." 
 
 The afflicted Parent called the babe Benjamin. The 
 other name was llachcl's last word; how could he use
 
 often, nad it might be on occasions of needed chiding, such 
 a sacred name? It would be a constant memorial of 
 the mother's death, and we are sure no such monitor 
 was required. The name given instead, or perhaps only 
 added, signified the son of my right hand, that is, the 
 boy of my tenderest love, the child to stand in, though 
 he can never fill, the vacant place in the wounded 
 heart, — set upon my right hand for a blessing — the 
 stay and joy of my remaining years of loneliness and age. 
 Near the place of death, Jacob interred the earthly 
 remains of his Kachel, marking the precise spot by a 
 column or monument, as it is written, "Jacob set a 
 pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's 
 grave unto this day." And as that pillar marked the 
 sacred spot, and told the sad story to every passer-by 
 in that day, the record of it now speaks to us — speaks, 
 not merely to touch our feelings, but to teach us lessons. 
 In its simple tale, "So Rachel died," a thoughtful mind 
 can read many a useful and pious lesson. Stand in 
 imagination, then, Christian Brethren, by that memorial 
 of Jacob's bitter mourning over his deceased Rachel, or 
 by any other headstone, which bears upon its lines the 
 same heart-rending affliction, the same story of life and 
 death, of the bereaved husband's sorrow, of the mother 
 removed and the infant preserved, — and what seems it 
 to say to you? "So Rachel died."
 
 10 
 
 I. Can you not read, in that word^ of man's ruin and 
 God's Justice? What is such a pillar but the memo- 
 rial of the creature's sin, and so of the creature's suffer- 
 ing. The woman "was first in the transgression," and 
 hence the multiphcation of her "sorrow and conception." 
 She gave guilty heed to the suggestion of the Evil One. 
 Against an express command, persuaded by the promise 
 of unknown good, and in the fever of flattered, pride, she 
 plucked and ate the forbidden fruit. Therefore the 
 sentence of sorrow was pronounced against her, and holds 
 against every daughter inheriting the fallen nature of 
 this Great Parent, "in sorrow shalt thou bring forth 
 children." The penalty is not removed, is not lightened. 
 "A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because 
 her hour is come ;" alas, not merely the hour of death 
 feared, but of death realized — an hour that limits, or 
 closes, a precious life. Such is sin's sad wage. She 
 who brought in the guilt has tasted, and must continue 
 to taste, the extreme of its attendant grief. The pang 
 and the peril are the constant memento of the deserved 
 punishment. The law of life was made, by the crea- 
 ture's sin,^ a law of anguish and frequent death. The 
 mother's joy must be at the cost of the multiplied 
 sorrow. " So Rachel died" — ?Iere then, brethren, is the 
 token of sin's bitterness and God's Avrath upon it; the
 
 11 
 
 record of tlic awful consequence of the wilful transgres- 
 sion, and the lasting evils of all departures from God. 
 It is to be observed, however, that the dispensation of 
 free grace makes special provision for the alleviation of 
 the merited suffering. In the Gospel there are pro- 
 mises of good corresponding to the several sentences of 
 sorrow, under which the grant of a prolonged season of 
 patience and mercy is vouchsafed to fallen man ; and 
 by these promises, in the case of the believer, the ine- 
 vitable ills of life are met and soothed. Thus, side by 
 side, wdth the sentence of justice, the law of pain and 
 sorrow of conception to which the woman is doomed, 
 must be written the inspired promise by St. Paul to 
 Timothy, "notwithstanding, she shall be saved in child- 
 bearing, if slie continue in faith, and charity, and holi- 
 ness with sobriety/^ The anguish of the Virgin Mother 
 hath brought in the salvation. Through her child- 
 bearing a special mercy and comfort are provided in 
 the peril, or in the death. The mother shall be borne 
 through the moment of trial, sometimes with safety, 
 always with freedom from sorrow as a punishment, or 
 a curse. Its character is softened, changed. And 
 resting on the issue of the Virgin's travail, in the exer- 
 cise of faith and confidence in the woman's promised 
 Seed, the incarnate, crucified Son of God, there is to
 
 12 
 
 Lcr a full and peculiar promise, that she " shall be saved 
 in the Lord with an everlasting salvation." Thus "the 
 curse is turned into a blessing." The record of the first 
 sin remains, and its just consequence is yet real, 
 though there is a promise of rich mercy to such as 
 must endure it. The token of the judgment is yet 
 felt, though lightened by the assurance of the Divine 
 mercy to the children of Grace, when under the effects 
 of it. And so the pillar over Rachel's grave is the 
 memorial of original sin, and God's justice. 
 
 II. Is it not also the memento of God's grace? So 
 Rachel died, but life was by that death. She expired, 
 but another breathed. And this is God's method of 
 goodness everywhere ; life comes out of death, beauty 
 out of decay, joy out of suffering. The plant casts its 
 leaves, and dies down to its mother earth, covering with 
 its remains the scattered riches of its own seed-bell; and 
 so the grave of its moist dust becomes the cradle of life 
 for another successor, to grow in its stead, and wear 
 again its lost beauty. And "one generation passeth 
 away and another cometh." This steps off the further 
 point of the path of its pilgrimage, and so the other oc- 
 cupies it, giving, in its turn and by its death, the stage of 
 life to a third, which follows close upon the beaten track 
 to the same destiny. Death is requisite for life; life is
 
 13 
 
 by death. And so it is in the kingdom of God's grace. 
 This is the law of life eternal, it comes by death. By 
 sin there was death for life; by grace there is life for 
 death. There was "a pillar," a tree set up on earth, to 
 effect, to record that change ; — set up by the instru- 
 mental hands of wicked men, but by the direct, though 
 secret, interference of God. That "pillar," that tree was 
 the Cross. It shewed, indeed, that death had been 
 instead of life, for it spoke silently, but expressively, of 
 sin, of Divine displeasure, of the creature's guilt, and loss, 
 and punishment. It told that a sentence of death, eter- 
 nal death, held against all, who had the nature which 
 the Crucified thereon assumed, and suffered in. That 
 merited death He met, passed through, and endured. 
 The curse of our sin "He bare, in His own body, on that 
 tree." He was the sponsor for the condemned sinner ; 
 the wage of his sin, which is death. He took; yea, "He 
 tasted death for every man." And so He became "the 
 Life." His blood was our ransom. His reproach our 
 glory. His rejection our adoption, His poverty our en- 
 richment. His humiliation our exaltation. His anguish 
 our peace, His tears our triumph, His death our ever- 
 lasting life. He received the Father's displeasure, that 
 we might receive again His grace and favour. He was 
 the just and wcthc unjust, and so He suffered, " the just 
 
 B 2
 
 14 
 
 for the unjust; that He might bring us to God." And 
 there is no other way to life, to tlie life of reconciliation 
 and acceptance, — the life of a restored, pardoned, 
 happy child, — but that which is opened for us in Him. 
 There is no other name, by which man may be saved, but 
 His — "other foundation can no man lay than that is 
 laid, wliich is Christ Jesus." We live only by Him and 
 in Him. 
 
 And the life of regeneration, like that of redemption, 
 
 comes out of death. Christ died for sin, and we have 
 
 the life of the Father's favour; we die to sin, and so 
 
 have the life of the Father's image. The new man of 
 
 grace appears when the old man of nature expires : we 
 
 must " reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin," 
 
 before we can be "alive unto God through Jesus Christ 
 
 our Lord." Heavenly childship involves a new life; it is 
 
 the reception and realization of a new principle, a new 
 
 law of moral being, the restoration of the intellectual 
 
 and religious tendencies of man to their suitable object;^ 
 
 and original source. New tastes guide the pursuits, 
 
 new motives regulate the judgment. There is life by 
 
 new rules, and for new ends; yea, " if any man be in 
 
 Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed away; 
 
 behold, all things are become new." Henceforth we 
 
 "live unto Him who died for us and rose again." But
 
 15 
 
 this life comc3 out of a death; yea, says St. Jolm, there 
 is a passage from death to life. Self is crucified and 
 then sanctified. There is a death to the world and then 
 a life to heaven. "We are buried with Him by baptism 
 into death : that lOce as Christ was raised up from the 
 dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should 
 walk in newness of life." When "all carnal aflPectiona 
 die in us, and all things belonging to the Spirit live and 
 grow in us," then out of death comes life. And so the 
 Spirit quickeneth. Indeed, this is the method of all his 
 secret doings; He not only brings heavenly childship 
 out of death, but perfects it after the same sort; always 
 producing Hght out of darkness, joy out of bitterness, 
 hope out of hopelessness, happiness out of trial, peace 
 out of pain. For, can there be the pe a ofi gB g God with- 
 out the pain of prcdous contrition? Can there be a 
 happy hope of pardon without an earher conviction of 
 guilt? Can you walk in the joys of faith without the 
 tears of repentance? Was not Christ " perfected through 
 suffering," and are not we? He officially, we really; He 
 in work, we in character. Through tribulation we must 
 pass to heaven. There can be no beauty, no perfection 
 without suffering: this is the law of Providence. And 
 so, also, there cannot be that purest, heavenly beauty — 
 the "beauty of hoUness" — without suffering; and, hence.
 
 16 
 
 " what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not?" This 
 is the method of the Father's grace; oiu' life is by death : 
 Christ died for sin, and we live to God: we die to sin, 
 and so live unto God; and thus have we at once the 
 child's dignity and character, the new relationship pro- 
 ducing, as its necessary consequent, the new spirit. 
 
 Lastly. On the pillar raised over Rachel's grave, I 
 can read a lesson on the promised manifestation of Di- 
 vine power. "And Rachel died;" out of death came life ; 
 instead of the old and anguished, there was the young 
 and joyous; Rachel is lost, but Benjamin lives. 
 
 "Except a com of wheat fall into the ground, and die, 
 it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much 
 fruit." "Some man will say how are the dead raised 
 up, and with what body do they come? Thou fool ! 
 That which thou sowest is not quickened except it 
 die, and, then, the Lord giveth it a body as it hath 
 pleased Him." It dies to live, it decays to bud. The 
 parent seed mingles with the earth, and so there is 
 being to the offshoot. The grave of this poor flesh will 
 be the cradle of its new hfe. Its decay is its glory, its 
 wasting the method for its new youth. For "it is sown 
 in corruption," to be "raised in incorruption; " it is 
 "sown in dishonour," to be "raised in glory;" it is 
 " sown a natural body," to be "raised a spiiitual body."
 
 17 
 
 " Flcsli and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." 
 And so "tliis corruptible must put on incorruption, and 
 this mortal must put on immortality. And when this 
 corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mor- 
 tal shall have put on immortality," then shall it be 
 said that He hath indeed " changed our vile body that 
 it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, accord- 
 ing to the mighty working whereby He is able even to 
 subdue all things to Himself." And thus in man^s re- 
 surrection, as in his ruin and redemption, death will be 
 by life, life out of death; and Rachel's pillar, telling the 
 sad story of her decease, warns us of the Divine sen- 
 tence of suffering upon sin ; reminds us of the grace of 
 God in Jesus Christ for the pardon of sin, and the 
 removal of the sorrow, its just consequence, as also of 
 the promised poAver and purity in the resurrection day. 
 O glorious day of this mighty power of God ! How 
 heart and flesh long for it. To have a new body 
 purged from all these vile humours, these fatal weak 
 nesses, these low appetites, these weary sicknesses, — light- 
 ened for ever from those bm'dens which now injure 
 it, weighing it down to sorrow and to suffering, — a pure 
 and suitable companion for the renewed spirit, no 
 longer unfitting it for fellowship with the spiritual 
 world, but itself so wondrously fashioned as to be still
 
 II 
 
 material, and yet " spiritual/^ fashioned after the great 
 model, the IMan Christ Jesus, — this will be indeed to 
 realize "the redemption of the purchased possession." 
 Then this fleshly frame will be no engine of pain, no 
 cause of falling, no inlet of temptation, no clog upon holy 
 joy, no weary laggart in heavenly service. "There is no 
 night there," for it sleeps not; "the inhabitant shall no 
 more say I am sick," for it wastes not. Nay "they rest not 
 day or night " in their rapturous rejoicings, and so it is 
 an endless Sabbath. And yet, though so marvellously 
 changed, the resurrection body will be the same, no new 
 material properties added, the same in face and figure; so 
 that, as the body of the risen Clmst had upon it the his- 
 tory of the past, engraven so distinct and deep that the 
 eye and finger of an incredulous Apostle was forced to 
 recognise and read it, and yet was spu'itual, and inde- 
 pendent of the commonest laws to which we know mat- 
 ter to be subjected, a marvel to the disciples, as they 
 were all con-vinced that it was the very same form they 
 had loved, and spoken with, and ministered to, — in oui' 
 resurrection state there will, I think, likewise be a re- 
 cognition of known and loved features, the same, yet 
 changed, — the form of the corruptible not put off, but 
 the incorruptible put on — the saint "not unclothed, 
 but clothed upon, that mortality may be swallowed up
 
 19 
 
 of life/' — the earthy purged and arrayed in glory — 
 body, soul, and spirit, "blameless before the presence 
 of Jesus Christ." Thus, methinks, shall they know, 
 and speak, and love, who have been one unto each 
 other in Christ in this dark and fading world; they 
 will walk together in "those sweet societies," blend 
 voices in those endless hallelujahs, and bow and praise 
 together before the throne ; Jacob is with Rachel, and 
 all tears are wiped away ; Rachel mourneth no more 
 for her children, for they are with her for ever. 
 
 Brethren, Is this hope of a joyful resurrection yours? 
 Have you in prospect this new body, this new life? O, 
 where is the proof or the pledge of it ? There must be 
 this even now, certainly, distinctly, or you cannot have 
 with warrant "this hope :" that is, there must be on 
 you the seal of the Holy Ghost, the mark of God. Where 
 then is your token of a Divine childship ? Where is 
 the hving faith in Christ that secures it, and the grow- 
 ing heavenhness of mind which attends it ? Where is 
 the spirit of prayer which strengthens it, and the life of 
 love and service which manifests it ? Where is the 
 "walk with God " wliich reahzes it — the abiding pre- 
 sence and power of the Comforter, its author, source 
 of progi'css, and perfection? Seai'ch and assure your 
 hearts on these points. Then you "will rejoice in hope 
 
 c
 
 20 
 
 of the glory of God," You shall say over your Rachels,—- 
 "lovers, and friends, and acquaintance put far from 
 you" — yours in the tie of earthly relationship, and as 
 knit together with you in the mystical body of Christ, — 
 "not lost, but only gone before." Thus shall each say 
 unto himself, " why art thou cast dovm, O my Soul, 
 and why art thou so disquieted within me ?" for, 
 " we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle 
 were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house 
 not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 
 
 FINIS. 
 
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