my opinion is true, there will be scarcely dent in God's word to allow of his taking room for doubt as to my sincerity in into account the possibility of of its fail. holding it. But suppose something ure. And therefore he did not hesitate more: suppose that, as I die, I give di- to convert his bones into a perpetual rections for the erecting of a monument, preacher, or moument, of that word. "I to be reared in the very scene of my shall not leave you," he seems to say to labors, and inscribed with the very date his weeping kinsmen. "I die; but this on which I had so resolutely fixed. I worn body has a high duty to accomplish, should thus be taking all possible pains ere it may enjoy the still slumber of the to keep my opinion before your eyes, grave. I leave it to preach to you that and those of your children; to keep it, God will yet bring you up from Egypt when things might have occurred to with a mighty hand, and a stretched out prove it false, when it might be nothing arm.' You, or your children, may be but a register of my ignorance and mis- disposed to insult my remains, when optake and would not this be the crown- pression shall grow, and deliverance be ing, the insurpassable evidence of the deferred. But I know how all this will strength of my faith? If I had the terminate. Mine eye, over which the film slightest suspicion, or fear, that the of death is fast gathering, is on a mighty event might prove me wrong, would I procession, the procession of thousands, ever take measures for identifying my and tens of thousands, marching to the name with error and delusion? inheritance which God promised unto Abraham; and in the midst of this procession shall these bones be triumphantly carried, their office done, to share with you the land of Canaan." Oh! who can fail to see that Joseph thus furnished a far stronger proof of trust in God's word than is found in his mere assertion of what that word declared? Who can deny that St. Paul added vastly to the illustration of the power of faith, when, after stating that "by faith" Joseph, when he died," made mention of the departing of the children of Israel," he subjoined, "and gave commandment concerning his bones?" And this just illustrates the case of Joseph's giving "commandment concerning his bones." There was no proof, in his giving this commandment, that the children of Israel would depart out of Egypt, even as there would be none in my directions for a monument, that the Redeemer would appear at the specified time. But there was a very strong proof, that Joseph believed that the Israelites would depart out of Egypt, just as there would be that I believed that Christ would come on the day which I had named. And it is simply in illustration of the power of Joseph's faith, that St. Paul quotes his giving" commandment concerning his bones." The illustration is therefore most appropriate. There were long years-as probably Joseph was aware-years of wo and oppression, to pass over Israel ere there would come that visitation of the Lord, which his dying words affirmed. And during this dreary period it would seem to the Israelites as though they were forgotten of their God, as though his promise had come utterly to an end, and they were doomed to remain in the house of bondage for ever. What, then, more likely than that whatever reminded them of the alleged purpose of God would be treated by them with loathing and scorn; and that, whether it were the dead or the living who predicted their departure, the mention would excite only hatred and derision? Yet Joseph was not to be moved by any of this likelihood. Why not? Because his faith was too strong: he was too confi But we ought not to fail to observe, before we quit the death-bed of Joseph, that, forasmuch as unquestionably the Spirit of God actuated the expiring patriarch, and perhaps dictated his words, the commandment as to his bones may have been designed to intimate, or illustrate, the truth of a resurrection. If you suppose, as you reasonably may, that they who surrounded the dying man considered his utterances as suggested by God, you will believe that they pondered them as fraught with information, conveying, probably, notices upon points which had been but dimly, if at all, revealed. We need hardly observe to you, that, so far as the evidence of faith is concerned, it would be most conspicuous and convincing, on the supposition that Joseph had respect to the resurrection of his body. It may have been so. Why was he unwilling that his bones should rest in Egypt? Unwilling he evidently was; for, allowing him to have desired their remaining unburied that they might remind the Israelites of their predicted departure, this is no reason why he should also have given directions for their being carried into Canaan. By remaining unburied he would have shown an anxiety to preach a great fact to his descendants; but, by further desiring that, when this office was done, he might be buried in the promised land, he evinced a care as to his place of sepulture, or showed that it was not indifferent to him what became of his body. Wherefore, then, we again ask, was he unwilling to be buried in Egypt? What had he to do with choosing where his bones should be laid, and that, too, on a far distant day? I cannot but infer, from this anxiety of Joseph in regard to his grave, that he did not consider the body as a thing to be thrown aside so soon as the vital principle were extinct. He felt that his dead body might live to admonish his countrymen; but he must also have felt that, even when that office were done, it was not to be treated as of no further worth. It matters not whether it arise from a kind of natural instinct, or from the immediate suggestion of the Spirit of God-in all cases, care as to what becomes of the body, is evidence of a consciousness that the body is not finally to perish at death. He who shows anxiety as to the treatment of his remains shows something of a belief, whether he confess it or not, that these remains are reserved for other purposes and scenes. I can hardly think that Joseph believed that his body would never live again: he would scarcely have provided it a sepulchre in Canaan, if persuaded that, in dying, it would be finally destroyed. His bones might as well have rested in Egypt, amongst those of the idolater and stranger, had they never been appointed, or had he not imagined them appointed, to the being brought up from the dust and again sinewed with life. But on the supposition of a belief, or even the faintest conjecture, of a resurrection, we seem to understand why the dying patriarch longed to sleep in the promised land. "I will not leave," he seems to say, "this body to be disregarded, and trampled on, as though it were merely that of an animal whose existence wholly terminates at death. That which God takes care of, reserving it for another life, it becomes not man to despise, as though undeserving a thought. And though the eye of the Almighty would be on my dust in Egpyt, as in Canaan, yet would I rather rest with the righteous than with the wicked in the grave, with my fathers and my kinsmen, than with the foreigner and the enemy. If I am to start from long and dark slumbers, let those who wake with me be those whom I have loved, and who are to share with me the unknown existence." Such, we say, is an interpretation which might fairly be put on Joseph's giving "commandment concerning his bones." There may have floated before him visions of the grave giving up its dead. The yearnings of his parting spirit after Canaan; the longing for interment by the side of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; all may have risen from an indistinct thought that he was destined to live again; all may mark that, though life and immortality were not then brought to light, dim and spectral images flitted to and fro, shadowy forms, as of the decayed and the dead, mysteriously reconstructed and reanimated. And if they who stood around Joseph recognized, as they must have done in the last words of Jacob, the dictates of the Almighty himself, then may we say that the "commandment concerning his bones" amounted to a Divine intimation of the truth of a resurrection. Whatever showed that God willed that the dead body should be cared for, that he would not have it thrown aside as utterly done with, went also to the showing that the body was still to be of use, and that, therefore, its resurrection was designed. Hence, it may be that from the deathbed of Joseph spraug, in a measure, that persuasion of a resurrection, which gradually wrought itself into the creed of the children of Israel. His " commandment concerning his bones," kept so long in mind, and associated with a great crisis in the national history, may have produced attention, not only to the departure from Egypt, but to a far mightier departure-the departure of myriads from the sepulchres of the earth, after long enthralment under a sterner than Pharaoh. I feel as if it were to attach surprising interest to Joseph s last words, to suppose that they showed his own thought, and gave notice to others, of the resurrection of the body. This makes his death-bed that almost of a Christian. It is not a Christian thing, to die manifesting indifference as to what is done with the body. That body is redeemed not a particle of its dust but was bought with drops of Christ's precious blood. That body is appointed to a glorious condition: not a particle of the corruptible but what shall put on incorruption; of the mortal that shall not assume immortality. The Christian knows this it is not the part of a Christian to seem unmindful of this. He may, therefore, as he departs, speak of the place where he would wish to be laid. "Let me sleep," he may say, "with my father and my mother, with my wife and my children: lay me not here, in this distant land, where my dust cannot mingle with its kindred. I would be chimed to my grave by my own village bell, and have my requiem sung where I was baptized into Christ." Marvel ye at such last words? Wonder ye that one, whose spirit is just entering the separate state, should have this care for the body which he is about to leave to the worms? Nay, he is a believer in Jesus as "the Resur rection and the Life:" this belief prompts his dying words; and it shall have to be said of him, as of Joseph, that "by faith," yea, ',by faith," he " "gave commandment concerning his bones" SERMON II. ANGELS AS REMEMBRANCERS. "He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you, when he was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered his words."-ST. LUKE, XXIV. 6, 7, 8. It was a saying of Luther, and one on any one doctrine, as furnishing prewhich is often quoted amongst our- eminently a test by which to try the selves, "that the doctrine of justification condition of a church, we should be disby faith is the doctrine of a standing or posed to take that of spiritual influences, a falling church." The meaning of the rather than that of justification by faith. saying is, that so vitally important, so We cannot but think that he who fails essential to the very existence of a chris- to recognize, in all its freeness, that we tian community, is the doctrine of justi- are "justified by faith," must first have fication by faith, that you may always failed to recognize, in all humility, that judge whether a church is in a healthful" we are not sufficient of ourselves to or a declining condition, by the tenacity think any thing, as of ourselves." It with which this doctrine is maintained, would seem to follow, in natural conand the clearness with which it is ex- sequence, from our fancying ourselves pounded. We have no wish to dispute independent on supernatural teaching, the truth of the saying; for beyond all that we should fancy ourselves capable, question, there can be real christianity in a measure, of contributing to our only where there is a distinct recognition of the fact, that "a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." But, nevertheless, if we were to fix justification; so that, at all events, he who practically forgets that the Holy Spirit can alone guide into truth, is likely to be soon landed in error on the fundamental points of a sinner's accept- creatures, or nothing which it is for our ance. And whether or not the doctrine instruction, or our comfort, to_kuow. of spiritual influences be the better test There is a petition in the Lord's Prayer to apply, in attempting to determine the which should teach us better than this condition of a church, there can, at least," Thy will be done in earth, as it is in be no doubt that where piety is flourish- heaven." It must be specially by aning, this doctrine will be deeply cherish-gels that God's will is done in heaven; ed; where declining, comparatively neglected. The individual christian will "grow in grace," in proportion as he depends on the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and habituates himself to the turning to this divine agent for guidance, comfort, and instruction in righteousness. And any branch of the Catholic Church will, in like manner, be vigorous and fruitful, in proportion as it honors the third Person in the ever-blessed Trinity, distinctly recognizing that his influences alone can make the work of the Second effectual to salvation. and if we are directed to take the manner, or degree, in which angels do God's will, as measuring that in which we should desire its being done by men, surely it can neither be beyond our power to know any thing of angels, nor unimportant that we study to be wise up to what is written regarding them in the Bible. And, indeed, so far is Scripture from leaving angelic ministrations amongst obscure, or inscrutable, things, that it interweaves it with the most encouraging of its promises, and thus strives, as it were, to force it upon us as a practical and personal truth. Where is the christian that has not been gladdened by words such as these, "Because thou hast made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation, there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling?" But of those to whom these words speak cheeringly, how few, perhaps, give attention to the following verse, though evidently explanatory of the agency through which the promise shall be accomplished! "for he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways." are But when we speak of spiritual influence, we are far from wishing to confine the expression to the influences of the Holy Ghost, as though no other spiritual agency were brought to bear upon man. We desire to extend it to created, though invisible, beings-to angels, whether evil or good-believing, on the authority of Scripture, that there are such beings, and that they continually act on us by a secret, but most efficient, power. And where there is a tolerably distinct recognition of the person and office of the Holy Ghost, there may be a comparative forgetfulness, if not an actual denial, of angelic ministra- And it ought not to be overlooked, tions; and our conviction is, that much that, in proportion as we lose sight of of comfort in religion is lost, and much the doctrine, that good angels of coldness produced, through the little "ministering spirits," influencing us for heed given to spiritual influences, thus righteousness, we are likely to forget more largely understood. It will hard- the power of our great adversary, the ly be denied that the mass of christians devil," who, with the hosts under his think little, if at all, of angels; that they guidance, continually labors at effecting regard them as beings so far removed our destruction. It can hardly be that from companionship with ourselves, that they, who are keenly alive to their exdiscourse on their nature and occupation posure to the assults of malignant, but must deserve the character of unprofit- invisible, enemies, should be indifferent able speculation. If, then, the preacher to the fact of their having on their side take as his theme the burning spirits the armies of Heaven: good and evil which surround God's throne, he will spirits must be considered as antagonists probably be considered as adventuring in a struggle for ascendency over man; upon mysteries too high for research, and there is, therefore, more than a likewhilst there is abundance of more prac-lihood, that they who think little of their tical topics on which he might enlarge. Yet it cannot have been intended that we should thus remain ignorant of angels it cannot be true that there is nothing to be ascertained in regard of these friends in so high a contest, will depreciate their foes, and thus more than ever expose themselves to their power. We cannot, then, put from us the opinion that the doctrine of angelic ministra the likeness of flesh, accosted the women as they sought in vain for the body of Christ. It is not here to be proved that there are such beings as angels; neither have we to show that they are endowed with great might; for not only is St. Matthew's description of the apparition of the men, that "the angel of the Lord descended from heaven;" but he adds, "that his countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men." But assuming, as we safely may, the facts of the ministration and power of angels, there is something very remarkable in the circumstance that the angels, in the case now before us, reminded the women of something which had been said to them by Christ, and that, too, in a remote place, tions hardly obtains its due share of attention, and that it ought to be pressed, with greater frequency and urgency, by the ministers of Christ, on those committed to their care. There is, indeed, a risk, that he who sets himself to discourse on those orders of intelligent being which stretch upwards between God and man, may indulge in fanciful speculation, and forget, amid the brilliancies opened up to his imagination, that he is bound exclusively to seek the profit of his hearers. But there is little fear of his passing the limits of what is sober and instructive, so long as he confines himself to what is written in Scripture, and fixes on certain prominent facts which lie beyond dispute, because explicitly revealed. It is this which we purpose doing in our present discourse. We wish, indeed, to impress upon you that" whilst he was yet with them in Galia spiritual agency is ever at work on your behalf, understanding by spiritual agency not merely that of the Holy Ghost, to which every other must be necessarily subordinate, but that of those orders of being which are designated in Scripture by the general term "angels," and which kept their "first estate" when numbers of like nature with themselves were cast out from heaven as rebels against God. But, at the same time, we are very anxious to advance nothing which shall not have scriptural warrant | for its truth, and which shall not, moreover, present something practical on which you may fasten. Let us see, then, whether the passage which we have taken as our text, will not enable us to illustrate, thus soberly and profitably, the truth, that angels are "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation." Now you will judge at once, from this introduction to our subject, that we do not purpose speaking on the fact of the resurrection of Christ, though this fact, as matter both of prophecy and history, seems exclusively treated of in the words of our text. What we want you to observe is, that these words were spoken by two angels, who appeared to the women that were early at the sepulchre; for though it is said in the chapter before us, "two men stood by them in shining garments," you readily find, from a com parison of the Gospels, that the human form was here assumed by heavenly beings; that they were spirits who, in VOL. II. lee." How came these angels to be so well acquainted with what had been said by Christ to the women? They speak of it with the greatest familiarity, as though they had themselves heard the prediction: they call it to the remembrance of the women, just as one of you might remind his neighbor, or friend, of parts of a sermon at whose delivery both had been present. We do not, indeed, profess to say that the angels might not have been distinctly informed as to what Christ had uttered in Galilee; that they might not have been instructed, by immediate revelation, as to things which had passed when themselves were not present to see or to hear. But neither, on the other hand, can any one say that the angels did not gain their knowledge. from having been actually amongst the audience of Christ; whilst the supposition of their having heard for themselves, agrees best with the tone of their address, and is certainly in keeping with other statements of Scripture. For if we gather, from the familiar manner in which the angels quote Christ's sayings to the women, that they, as well as the women, had been present when those sayings were uttered, we only infer-what may be proved the doctrine of the Bible-that angels are actually, though invisibly, in the midst of our worshipping assemblies, witnesses of our deportment, and hearers of that Gospel to which too often, we give so languid an attention. This would seem to be the doctrine of St. Paul, when he 3 |