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bers of one family. Some seek new occupations in other places: some seek new masters and different situations; but, wherever we go, let us remember that we serve the same God through Jesus Christ ; and with the same service every Sabbath, and with the same love every day, and we shall meet again when faith shall be swallowed up in victory. "Behold He taketh away, who shall hinder Him ?"

I would contemplate the Lord this day as the God who calleth us all away in our appointed time, to leave this place on earth, this temporary abode, and to dwell with Him in another world. Assuredly He

will so take us all, one from another; and, if we belong to His Son, He will unite us in that love of God for ever and ever. I cannot behold the departure of those, whom I shall never see again on this earth, without endeavouring to improve by their examples against the time of my own departure; and I would to God that all you who are near me, however much we may respect each other in our positions here, would be of like mind, and so think seriously of Him who will take you away, that you may be prepared for your departure. I am led into these reflections by the recent sight of the departure of one for whose happy "issue out of affliction," when at the point of death, our prayers have been so often requested.*

She is departed after a long, weary, tedious, slow, consuming disease, and rests in peace. The last time I saw this suffering sister was the day previous to her dissolution. Long before that period, affliction had taught her that God would take her away, and that no one could hinder His so doing; but when I

E

The death of a Parishioner.

last discharged the duties of Christian "visitation of the sick," with great earnestness, without any tears, but with calm composure and humble assurance of mercy, she took leave of me in these solemn words::- -" I shall never see you again until we meet in heaven-I know I never shall. Wait a day or two before you write to my son, and tell him from me, as if he were your own son, that the last words of his mother were, My son, live as near to your God as you can: forsake Him not, and He will give you peace at the last.'" I ask any of you if it were not as powerful a sermon as any I could have preached when I reflect upon the words of the pious Job-" Behold He taketh away: who can hinder Him? Who will say unto Him, What doest thou?" Think not that I approach you with any fictitious representation of a thing that ought to be. I speak of a thing that really was; and, though nothing of itself remarkable beyond what we all experience in our ministry, yet do I think it may be of some service to those who will think of God as they ought and draw nigh unto Him when they have opportunity. No father or mother can give a son or daugh

ter better advice than this when either of them are to be gathered unto their fathers. "My son, live as near to your God as you can: forsake Him not, and He will give you peace at the last." "But He taketh away: who can hinder Him? Who will say unto Him, What doest thou."

that taketh away "He is wise in

Consider, with Job, who He is the soul of a man into eternity! heart and mighty in strength. Who hath hardened himself against Him and hath prospered ?-which removeth the mountains and they know not; which

overturneth them in His anger; which shaketh the earth out of her place and the pillars thereof tremble; which commandeth the sun and it riseth not, and sealeth up the stars; which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea; which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south; which doeth great things past finding out: yea, and wonders without number. So He goeth by me, and I see Him not: He passeth on also, but I perceive Him not." Such is the God who taketh us all away, and doeth as best seemeth Him good, and none can hinder Him.

Well, then, does it become us to contemplate Him with holy fear, since we must so soon stand before Him and each to give an account of ourselves to Him. How should we strive, now, to make up our accounts before Him? Each night should we bring the actions of the day before Him, and confess our sins and ask for His gracious pardon; for, how little do we any of us do as we ought-how many of us do nothing to His glory! Our days are still numbered, and we are as a thing of nought. Our days are swifter than a messenger: they flee away: they see no good: they are passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that hasteth to its prey. O, let us, then, learn so to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom!

We are none of us without warning, for God is merciful. He wouldeth not the death of a sinner, but that He should repent and bring forth fruits unto salvation. He waiteth to be gracious-He is ever longing to see the sinner turn away from his evil doings before He comes to take him away. True, when He does take him away, no man can

say,

"What doest thou." As we belong to Him, as we are His creatures, we cannot question His righteous dealings with us all! Oh, may God grant that when He shall take us away we may never desire to come back again; for, however much we may then lament the improper use we have made of our time, we can then never redeem it; since time will totally have ceased with us and we shall then be in eternity. Our time of probation is the present; and why are we not taken away? Is it not true that others of your own age have been taken, and yet you remain ? If you see others living of your own time of life, yet I beseech you call to mind the numbers you have known younger than yourselves taken away. They might think, as we are all apt to do, that today shall be as the day past, and to-morrow as the present day, and so on and on for years without end; but they are gone as the shadow that departeth, and so shall we also. Do not, then, deceive yourselves with flattering hope that you can any of you protract your lives at your own pleasure; for Job says, destroyeth the perfect and the wicked." The righteousness of no man's life will deliver him from death; but you are not, therefore, to be wicked; because the righteous hath hope in His death, while the expectation of the wicked shall perish. "Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace."

"He

Well assured that we have none of us any righteousness to boast of, let us remember, however, that we have Christ's righteousness imputed unto us, or we perish everlastingly.

How, then, are we to possess ourselves of such inestimable covering-such marriage garments as shall

make us fit to be seen at the marriage supper of the Lamb? He hateth even the garment spotted with the flesh. Oh, that we may be all clothed with the Spirit! The Bible, from beginning to the end, contains the righteousness of Christ. It will not do for us to take a single passage and make ourselves master of that one alone and misapply it to ourselves: let us look at the whole word of God, and seek to cover our sins not with the letter but with the Spirit thereof-with the spirit of wisdom and truth-with the spirit of meekness and love. Some told Jesus of those Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices, and he said, "Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all Galileans because they suffered such things? I tell ye nay; but, except ye repent, ye shall likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower of Siloam fell and slew them: think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you nay; but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Luke xiii. 2). God has been very merciful to us all: He has spared us when we deserved punishment, and has not cut us off in the midst of our iniquity; and when we are assembled again in the courts of His house to magnify Him for His mercy, and to declare the wonders that He doeth for the children of men, let us remember this-but how long shall we have this opportunity? O, let us repent-let us think of those that are gone, whom we shall never see again, until we see them ascending to the realms of glory or descending to the shades of sorrow!

O, my brethren, cultivate the gift of God within
Read your Bibles, meditate upon them; for

you.

no man can pray to God that He may

"hear them,

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