guidance, and relies on his protection. But, still, his tranquillity is partial and imperfect. It is disturbed by sin, and disturbed by sorrow. It is only in heaven that he will, properly speaking, repose from his labours.

Then he will rest from all persecutions for the name of Christ. This is particularly referred to in the text. The period to which it relates was to be so calamitous, that the Apostle says of it, in the preceding verse, Here is the patience of the saints. Let any one, indeed, review the sufferings of St. Paul, or those of the worthies whom he celebrates in the 11th chapter of the Hebrews, or the history of the primitive church, or even the affecting narratives of our own martyrology, and he will understand how delightful must be the Christian's deliverance from such labours. We have to bless God that we are exempted from these fiery trials, and have only to contend with those effects of the general aversion of the human mind to pure Christianity, which no human laws can control.

There are other labours, however, which are common to all the church of God. Such is the labour of our spiritual conflict: from this spiritual conflict the Christian will rest. The unremitted warfare of the Christian, with the world, the flesh, and the devil, makes him often sigh for repose. Sin is the grief, and bur

man the glorious prospect of felicity beyond

the grave.

Upon the affecting occasion on which we are now assembled, it appears to me that no words can be more suitable for our meditation than those of my text. The object of them is, to afford consolation to the church in a season of calamity: and the source whence this consolation is derived is, the blessedness of the righteous in their death.

Upon this subject there are three points to which I design to call your attention.

1. THE SOLEMNITY WITH WHICH THE BLESSING

IS PRONOUNCED.

2. THE PERSONS TO WHOM IT BELONGS.

3. THE PARTICULARS OF WHICH IT CONSISTS.

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I. The blessedness of those who die in the Lord is pronounced with unusual SOLEMNITY. IT IS ACCOMPANIED WITH AN AUDIBLE VOICE FROM HEAVEN: I heard a voice from heaven. This is a remarkable circumstance. The message can be of no ordinary importance. It is not sufficient that it should lie in common with the other truths revealed to the beloved disciple. So momentous a point must be promulgated with especial distinction. Attention must be excited. The immediate voice of God must call the notice of the church to the conso

latory truth. That same voice which delivered the law from Mount Sinai, which proclaimed on the banks of Jordan the inauguration of the Son of God into his mediatorial office, and which afterwards issued from the Excellent Glory on the Mount of Transfiguration; that voice now attests the blessedness of those who are delivered from the condemnation of the law through the mediation of the divine Redeemer ; and, amidst all the gloom and terrors of the grave, sounds the sacred and consoling accents of felicity and joy.

2. Nor is this all. The blessing is EXPRESSLY COMMANDED TO BE WRITTEN: I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write: as though it had been said, Let this be written for the generations to come, that the people that shall be born may praise the Lord'.

How much does this circumstance increase the solemnity of the scene! Its design is to heighten our impression of the importance of the truth thus commanded to be written. Write: not merely as all the other parts of Scripture are recorded; but write this expressly; let this stand conspicuously on the sacred page; let it be traced in such striking characters, that he that runs may read the consolation; that the afflicted and mournful pilgrim

Psalm cii. 18.

may cast his eye on the declaration, and dry up his tears; that the disconsolate church, when bereaved of her pastors, may be animated with the word and promise and seal of Jehovah, and may rejoice in the assurance that precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints 2.

3. The blessing is, lastly, CONFIRMED BY THE asseveration of the HOLY SPIRIT: Yea, saith the Spirit.

How striking is the manner in which these words are introduced! In the first part of the text the voice from heaven pronounces, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. Upon this there follows the response of the Holy Spirit in the breasts of the faithful: Yea, saith the Spirit: even so; the blessing is unalterably true. Though nature shrink back from dissolution, though the family and the flock weep over their departed shepherd, though to the eye of sense all is wrapped in darkness and despair, though the valley of the shadow of death stretch before us, and no mortal tongue can tell what this awful valley contains, nor what that eternity is to which it leads; yet the Christian can hear the voice of the Spirit, and can echo back, amid his tears, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.

When we are in danger, then, of being

2 Psalm cxvi. 15.

swallowed up with over much sorrow, let us listen to the still small voice which whispers consolation; let us pray that the Holy Spirit may enlighten our minds, and invigorate our faith; let us pray that the impressions of sense may be corrected, and the veil of nature and unbelief be torn aside; let us catch a glimpse of God, and Christ, and heaven, and eternity; and the whole scene will be changed. And, indeed, who, except the divine Spirit, can inform us aright of those blessings which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard? Who, but the Holy Ghost, prepares Christians for eternal glory? Who calls them to his ways? who leads them all through their pilgrimage? who sanctifies them in body, soul, and spirit? who seals them to the day of redemption? who gives them the earnests of heaven in their hearts? who guides them through the gloomy shades of death? Who performs all these things for them, but the blessed Spirit? To Him, therefore, let us incline our ears. To His voice let us listen. By His light let us penetrate the night of death, and pass through to the contemplation of eternal blessedness. By his teaching let us learn, not only to calm the lamentations of nature, but even to rejoice in the blessedness of those that die in the Lord.

I proceed to consider,

II. The PERSONS to whom the blessing be