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Through the dispensations of Providence, or the desertion of false friends, he may be alone in the last conflict. There may be no human eye to watch the struggles of departing life; no friendly hand to wipe the cold death-sweat from the brow of the aching head; no tongue to inspire the burdened soul with words of comfort and of hope; but what then? The Saviour is present, and is very precious. He sustains the spirit of his chosen in the prospect of eternity, and, even while suffering the agonies of dissolution, enables him to gasp, "Victory! victory! through the blood of the Lamb."

"Jesus can make a dying bed,

Feel soft as downy pillows are;

While on his breast I lean my head,

And sweetly breathe my soul out there."

"Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace."

Doubtless, the last moments of Moses would be greatly cheered by the prospect of Canaan with which he was favoured. "The Lord showed him all the land." How this was done we stay not now to inquire; suffice it for us to know, that, aided by that Being to whom all things are possible, his vision was able to comprehend the vast and varied prospect. How enchanting would be the view! The Mediterranean Sea, now so famous in the history of commerce; Jericho, with its stately palms; the Mount of Olives, afterwards consecrated by the Saviour's public ministry; Lebanon, with its mighty cedars; probably appeared before him, in beauty, grandeur, and fertility; realising his most sanguine expectations of "a land flowing with milk and honey." Here, again, we find a most delightful representation of Christian experience. Believers, while travelling through the wilderness of this world, have their elevated spots, from whence they obtain the most ravishing views of the heavenly Canaan. The ordinances of religion are to them so many Mount Nebos, in which they hold communion with God, and from which they look beyond the perishing things of time to the glorious realities of eternity. Faith, "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," brings them near. The verdant fields and never-withering flowers of the better country are made more than visible; for they are "sealed with that holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of their inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession." Frequently, however, the most glorious prospects and delightful foretastes of their coming bliss are reserved for their dying moments. Then those impediments which have hitherto obstructed their vision are removed; they gaze upon the goodly and fruitful land which awaits them beyond Jordan; and, animated by the most joyous feelings, break forth in the language of triumphant expectation.

"Rejoicing now in earnest hope,

They stand, and, from the mountain top,

View all the land below:

Rivers of milk and honey rise,
And all the fruits of Paradise,
In endless plenty grow."

Moses having seen the land, "The Lord said unto him, This is the

land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither." Having fulfilled his promise, God will also perform his threatening: Moses had seen the land, but he must not possess it. Such, however, is not the case with Christians in reference to the country to which they are travelling. Having completed the various stages in the pilgrimage of life, they come to the river Jordan; undismayed, by the sight of its dark and turbid waters, they enter; supported by the grace of God, they pass safely over; and then find themselves surrounded by scenes and blessed with enjoyments far surpassing their brightest hopes. "Thou," says the Psalmist," wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." Ps. xvi. 11.

"So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord." As we have seen, the place and circumstance of his death had been predicted, and all were fulfilled. He died at the time, on the spot, and in the manner which God had ordered. Having finished his work, he ascends the mount, sees the land, and then, without a struggle, gives up the ghost. In contemplating the death of this great and good man, many have been led to wish that their last end might be like his and certainly, to our apprehension, nothing can be more desirable than thus to

"Cease at once to work and live."

But we must be content to leave the time and the mode of our death with God. Our great concern must be to be ready for the summons whenever or however it may come. Then, whether it find us on the mountain, or in the plain; in the lonely desert, or in the crowded city ; at the place of business, or in our bed; whether it be preceded by lingering sickness, or we are taken away at a stroke; all will be well: we shall die according to the will of God, and, closing our eyes upon all earthly scenes, awake to the honours and blessedness of a glorious immortality. "Precious in the sight of the Lord, is the death of his saints."

Moses was buried by the Lord "in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor, but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day." This was a still further honour conferred upon Moses-"The Lord buried him." From the tradition mentioned by St. Jude, it appears that the agent employed by the Almighty, in the interment of Moses, was Michael the archangel, and that Satan then contended with him for the body of Moses; most likely, as some suppose, that the place of his burial should be known, that it might be a temptation to the Israelites to superstition and idolatry. Be this, however, as it may, no man knew of his sepulchre; but what of that? God knew it; yes, and he knows the sepulchres of all his people. They may be buried in the usual receptacle of the dead, whither survivors may often bend their steps, to drop over their dust the tear of affection; or find a resting place in some vast wilderness, where a heap of sand may form their only monument; they may be interred, like some of the covenanters of Scotland, under the sod just dyed with their life's blood, or slumber in the wide waste of waters, the grave of vast multitudes; but wherever their sepulchres are,

the eye of God rests upon them. He observes the wanderings of their scattered dust, and suffers not one particle to escape his notice.

"God, their Redeemer lives,

And ever from the skies,

Looks down and watches all their dust,

Till he shall bid it rise."

Their remains are precious in his sight, and when the morning of the resurrection dawns upon our world, they will be collected and formed into bodies radiant with the never-fading glories of heaven. "This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory."

The practical lessons taught by this subject are various and important; with one or two of these I conclude my remarks.

1. How great an evil is sin. That Moses was a man of distinguished piety we have abundant proof; yet, having sinned at the waters of Meribah, he was punished accordingly. So much does God hate sin, that he could not tolerate it even in his chosen and honoured servant. Truly, it is an evil thing and a bitter" to sin against God. "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." Oh, let us loathe sin under all its forms and disguises, and especially "take heed lest there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." "Abstain," says an Apostle, "from all appearance of evil;" and in compliance with this injunction consists our only means of safety. The commission of sin may bring upon us, as it brought upon Moses, punishment even in the present world; but whether it do this or not, if unrepented of, it must involve us in punishment in the world to come; for " the wicked shall be turned into hell, with all the nations that forget God."

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2. How great is the reward of eminent piety. Moses was vant of the Lord;" as such, notwithstanding the sin which he committed at the waters of strife," he was faithful in all his house," and thus secured for himself " a great recompense of reward." Though excluded from the land of promise, he saw it and was glad; expired under circumstances the most delightful; and was honoured by a burial without a parallel; while his emancipated spirit was welcomed to that "city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." It is true, that however much we may resemble Moses, we cannot expect to be recompensed in exactly the same way; but of this we are certain, "God is not unrighteous, to forget our work of faith and labour of love." Let us then "be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord," and we shall not lose our reward. God will smile upon us as we journey through the vale of mortality; when we come to the end of our earthly pilgrimage and have to die, he will be our strength and comforter; and then admit us into his presence for ever. "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." W. R.

DEATH AND THE GRAVE CONQUERED.

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" 1 Cor. xv. 55.

In this chapter the Apostle largely insists upon that article of the Christian faith, which is so far above the reach and comprehension of reason, that even those who were the professed masters of reason, the wise Athenians, among whom both learning and civility were in their highest elevation, yet could not refrain from railing abuses when Saint Paul preached of the resurrection unto them, saying, "What will this babbler say?" and " He seemeth to be a setter-forth of strange gods, because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection." So strange and uncouth a doctrine did this appear, that as they thought he recommended Jesus to them for a new God, so they thought that this resurrection was some new-invented goddess that Paul himself worshipped, and whose votaries he would persuade them to be. Which, howsoever, had certainly been of a better rank than many of that rabble of deities which they owned and worshipped; for both Cicero and Clemens Alexandrinus testify of these learned Athenians, who rejected the resurrection as a strange and novel god, that they yet erected temples to Contumely and Impudence, Diseases and Ill-fortune. There was scarcely any superstition so absurdly ridiculous, which these sages would not rather embrace, than the belief of a future resurrection, which they accounted a downright affront to the principles of reason and learning. They could not comprehend a possibility in the re-union of the separate soul and body, nor could they conceive, that dust scattered to the four winds of heaven, and subjected to so many changes, and made the ingredients of so many other bodies, could ever be re-collected again into the same body to which it did originally belong.

The Apostle draws a most firm and natural consequence from the belief of the resurrection, to fortify us against the dread of death. Doth the husbandman fear to commit his grain to the earth, because it must there die and rot, and lie buried under clods and dirt, whereas he knows, that all these changes tend only to make it afterwards sprout up more flourishing and verdant, with the greater beauty and increase? So it is, saith the Apostle, with our bodies, (ver. 42, 43,) “They are sown in corruption, but raised in incorruption; they are sown in dishonour, but raised in glory; they are sown in weakness, but raised in power." There they lie hid under the deep furrows of the grave, suffering all the debasements of stench, worms, and putrefaction; but God, the great husbandman of the world, doth but sow us in the ground. We shall certainly sprout up again, and appear more beautiful and glorious. These ruins of our bodies shall be made a foundation for a more stately edifice; "This corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality," (ver. 53.)

Now, the certain hope and expectation of this blessed change quite disarms death, and leaves it without any venom or malignity against a believer. To what purpose is all that ghastly train which attends this king of terrors,-diseases, pains, and languors? When they have done the utmost that they are able, they can but cast man to the earth, whence, Antæus like, he rises again with redoubled vigour. God deals

with us as the Chinese do with their precious earth. He lays us long under ground, that we may be refined, and made fit to be vessels of honour prepared for our Master's use. What a weak and impotent adversary is this, whose assaults are our advantage, and whose conquests prove his own overthrow!

And upon this very consideration, the Apostle doth, in my text, rejoice over this contemptible enemy, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"

Death is here represented to us as a venomous serpent; but such a one as hath lost his sting; so that, though it may hiss against us, yet、 it cannot wound us.

"Where is thy sting?" that is, Where is that which threatened to convey thy noxious and baneful poison into us? where is that which is thought so formidable, so destructive and pernicious, in death? And this very question intimates to us, that there is nothing left of this venomous quality; that now, to a faithful servant of Christ, there is nothing deadly, no, not in death itself. I remember I have somewhere read of a kind of serpent, whose poison is so very virulent, and of such quick despatch, that it doth immediately dissolve the body, and reduce it to dust.

This sting, and this venom in it, death doth indeed still retain, even against the best of men, and those whom it smites shall certainly crumble away into dust. This sting, therefore, still remains.

And for its victories, the grave too can boast as many as it hath trophies erected in the monuments, inscriptions, and scattered bones of those whom it hath slain. But when Omnipotence shall rally every dispersed atom into its former station; when we shall become heavenly from earth, and deathless from death, we may justly, without fear, despise the injuries of death, and tread with triumph upon the earth that must bury us.

Observe hence, that the hope of a blessed and glorious resurrection is the only sufficient security against the dread of death, and a Christian's most glorious triumph over the grave. In prosecuting this, I shall show, that all other considerations are too weak and feeble to assure the soul against the rough assaults and violent terrors of death; and that what there is in the hopes and expectation of a glorious resurrection, may embolden us to despise death as a conquered enemy, and to upbraid it with this holy scorn of the Apostle, "O death, where is thy sting?"

I. All other considerations but that of a glorious resurrection, are too weak to encourage us in prospect of Death.

Let us consider those fearful and horrid notions that nature hath imprinted upon us against its enemy: how wan and dismal his visage; s0 that, though there be nothing more certain, by the statute law of heaven, than that we must die, yet withal, there is nothing more difficult, than to persuade men to die willingly.

The old philosophers, and wise men of all ages, have ransacked the whole magazine of reason, and have put into our hands all the weapons they could there find, which they thought might embolden us to encounter this dreadful enemy. But yet, as the Lord Verulam well observes, all their great preparations, instead of diminishing its dread,

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