state of direct protestation against the evils round us. If we labour prayerfully to walk according to the light that is in us, submitting all our habits of action and of thought to its control, it will surely guide us to everlasting blessedness. It is the will of God that it should do so. Our merciful Saviour watches our every step, as a benevolent but judicious parent. If we walk according to his will, he will crown us with his favour; but if we wander, "he will visit our offences with the rod, and our sin with scourges.” Secondly, Look at the miserable evil of inconsistency. To say nothing of the heartlessness of a vacillating service, which calls in question the reality of our love and devotion-of our sense of gratitude for redeeming mercy, what a tremendous evil it is in men so to act as to bring a cloud of doubt over their eternal prospects! The fate of the openly wicked is very sad. But is anything more distressing, than the conduct of those who profess to have religious principles, but who get so far beyond the limits of gracious obedienceso far within the region of darkness and rebellion, that the Church of God must stand in doubt of them, as having seemingly begun in the Spirit, and ended in the flesh? How sad it is also, for a professedly religious man, by wilful uncon of divine disapprobation; and this is so strong a fact, as to make it impossible to come to a decision respecting him. The utmost that can be said is in the text, which so closely unites those two contradictory features of character-" The man of God, who was disobedient to the word of the Lord"-the man of religious character, of religious professions, and of prominent religious occupation, who was himself disobedient to that paramount rule which he professed to reverence. It is a painful exemplification of that precise case mentioned by St Paul, (Hebrews iv.) that A promise being given of entering into rest, he seemed to come short of it." The last act of his life belied the sincerity of his religion, and the last act of divine providence brought his acceptance with God into doubt; a cloud came over him, and, under that cloud, he passed away from this visible world. Whatever had been his former habits, connexions, missions, prophesies, he seemed to come short. No man could say of him at the last, that he died in a happy state, with a peaceful conscience; for he died in the path of disobedience he died a wanderer-he died by the corrective visitation of God's displeasure. Earth affords no means of deciding this question. We must leave it undetermined, whether the man was only externally or really the man of God-scientious acting, to put himself out of the whether he was a heartless professor, or an inconsistent saint. And to come to this, after all our knowledge, is to bring a fearful stain on the cause of true religion. Our ignorance, however, or our knowledge, | will not in any way affect his eternal state; but the obscurity that hangs over it surely speaks volumes to us, who are living as professing members of the christian Church. Let us notice, then, in the third place, the reflections which this narrative suggests. line of God's providential protection! It was the case with this prophet; doubtless, had he gone straight forward to his home, he would have anticipated and prevented the hour of danger; the lion would not have been lurking in his path. But he returned upon his steps-he lost time. The shades of evening came upon him, and the lion was roaming abroad and in his way. My beloved brethren, let me entreat you to remember this. Every unconscientious act of your life goes to take you out of the And first, observe, The wisdom of rigid line of God's protecting providence. You adherence to light given. Had this man may disobey in a seeming trifle, you may only followed his instructions, he would slight the testimony of an awakened conhave been safe and happy-the faithful science, and that one act may change the servant of the Lord in a time of general whole character of your future course. defection. Our wisdom lies in distinctly Oh! be entreated to keep near to God, to ascertaining the light which we have, and watch with holy jealousy over every tenthen honestly coming to the light that our dency to unfaithfulness. And, if duty deeds may be reproved if they are evil. calls you to go to such places as Bethel, The Scriptures and the light of conscience where this world's idolatry is rife and the make out for us a very straight and direct friends of God are few, remember that road. It is a road which separates us there, of all others, is the place for caution, from a vain world, which puts us in a land that they are the most to be dreaded, mind of the old prophet in Bethel. He heard the prophecy against the altar in Bethel, he was the main cause of the inconsistency and unhappy fate of the messenger who pronounced it; but the speedy and disastrous issue of the affair came home to his heart and conscience. He saw that the hand of God was in it; and his own testimony, in the hour of his decline, went directly to confirm the denunciation which he had attempted to invalidate. When I am dead, then bury me in the sepulchre wherein the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones; for the saying which he cried by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the city of Samaria, shall surely come to pass." who speciously advance religious reasons the effect of this series of facts on the for their irreligious practices. "To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this rule, there is no light in them." Notice, also, the readiness with which religious inconsistency is seen and condemned by the advisers and abettors of the evil. Here we have seen a prophet dwelling in the city of idolatry; and when he found another man, who had protested solemnly against the evil, and refused even to eat bread within the precincts of the city, and had given the express will of God as his reason for it, instead of immediately departing from the city, he lays a plan to betray his fellow into a still more glaring inconsistency. This is continually There is a greedy, wicked joy in seeking to bring others down to our own miserable level; and then those who have done so are the first to point out the inconsistency. "This is the man of God, who was disobedient to the word of the Lord." So much for the friendship of the world so much for the good done, the advantages gained, by undue compliances. Let it never be forgotten, that the tempter of our race is the accuser of the brethren, who accuseth them night and day." the case. 66 Once more, it is important to notice, from this history, the sovereignty of God, who maintains his purpose, and brings it to pass, notwithstanding the errors and seeming failure of his messengers. The man of God was slain by the lion, and was buried within the precincts of Bethel, a melancholy monument of inconsistency and disobedience. But every word that he uttered in prophecy came to pass in after years. And so shall it be in many an awful case in the Church of God. The inconsistencies of Christians and of ministers dishonour the holy cause with which they are associated; but still the Word of God prospers and prevails. The pride, the vanity, the passions, the prejudices of men are quoted against them by the world. The world is open-mouthed to proclaim and to multiply their errors. "This is the man of God that was disobedient." Still it is the prerogative of God to bring good out of evil. He removes, in anger, an inconsistent servant, but he perfects his own work and will. Notice also the impression produced even upon some hostile minds, by a general consideration of the providential agency of God in the affairs of his Church. Mark Think But Finally, my beloved brethren, let us look, with real humiliation of heart, at our own inconsistencies, as followers of the blessed Saviour. Some are guilty of glaring disobedience - the wilful and manifest indulgence of evil Some are declining in heart. Evil has insinuated itself within. The heart is divided, and found faulty before the heart-searching God. Every one has cause for inward repentance. Oh! let us seek for grace to devote ourselves afresh to God. "what manner of persons we ought to be in all holy conversation and godliness." What a mercy it is that we have a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness and that all which burdens the conscience may be carried to the fountain of that blood which cleanseth from all sin! let us, at the same time, watch against every undue compliance. We are saved if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence, steadfast unto the end. The way that leadeth unto life is a strait and a narrow way, and few there be that find it. It will not tolerate disobedience. "Every man that hath this hope purifieth himself, even as God is pure." The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, 66 The Lord knoweth them that are his; and let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." May the Lord, this day, write a profitable lesson on the hearts of his faithful people, and increase in them a firm, effectual, consistent testimony against the idolatry of the world, and against the carnal mind, which is enmity against God. Amen. DEATH, A SLEEP; A SERMON PREACHED IN THE RELIEF CHURCH, CAMPBELL STREET, GLASGOW, ON THE EVENING OF 3D FEBRUARY, 1833, ON THE OCCASION OF THE DEATH OF THE REV. JOHN DICK, D.D., By the Rev. ROBERT BRODIE, A.M. "And when he had said this he fell asleep."-Acтs, vii. 60. 66 as THESE words are the closing part of the | Festus, on hearing the same tenet from account which the sacred historian gives the same person, that much learning of the martyrdom of Stephen. Sleep, the had made him mad," has been considered figure here employed, is not unfrequently as a proof that the Romans were used by ancient heathen writers for the incredulous on this point as the Greeks. same general purpose of denoting the In neither nation, however, did the comtermination of human life. The still, mon people go the full length of their quiescent state into which man passes sages, but seem to have adopted the when he sinks into repose, is no unapt notion, that the soul still retained a corimage of what takes place in appearance poreal envelope, though of a thinly attewhen man expires, more especially if nuated form. But it was reserved for under circumstances of gentle dissolution. Christianity to propound and to impart It was only in such circumstances that the the character of certainty to the resurrecmetaphor would have been deemed appro- tion of the body-to exhibit, not the priate by a heathen, and would not doctrine only, but the fact. He whom probably have been used in a case like Stephen saw standing on God's right the present, where death was not the effect hand had formerly suffered the pangs of of the gradual decay of the faculties, but dissolution. Cold, and pale, and lifeless, of the rude shock of persecuting violence. he had been carried to the tomb. To that To one, however, who, like the author of tomb the stone had been rolled, and the this history, regarded the present life as seal fixed, and the guard stationed. And, introductory to another, and, in the case had Jesus been the pretender which his of the Christian, to a better, and who held, enemies represented, the precautions would besides, the doctrine of the resurrection of have been sufficient for the purpose; and the body, death, under whatever circum- on the third day, or the fourth day, or on stances it took place, was regarded, and any succeeding day, they might have is here represented, as being merely a exhibited, for their own vindication, the sleep. This language suggests two ideas. same body which had been deposited there, after having been taken down from the cross. But vain are those impediments which man offers to obstruct the fulfilment of the promises of Scripture, and the purposes of Heaven. Though the weapons of the guard could have easily repelled any effort to remove the body on the part of the disciples, if such removal had been contemplated, they were altogether powerless when the angel descended, and when the earth shook, and when Jesus, in the greatness of his might, walked forth from the sepulchre. I. The state of the grave is not permanent: it is a sleep. man. Sleep is not the extinction, but a suspension, of the faculties, and extends only to the body. The mind continues its activity, and when we awake the two continue as before to act together. So far it is an appropriate emblem of death. That event is not the final end of The stroke which consigns the body to the grave does not destroy the active functions of the soul. It still subsists in a state of consciousness, and at the resurrection it will be again united to its corporeal companion. Among the ancient heathens this reunion was strongly opposed, even by those who admitted the soul's immortality. When Paul maintained this tenet at Athens in the court of the Areopagus, the solemnity of the place could not repress the derision of his Appall'd, the leaning soldier feels the spear On the subject of the resurrection many difficulties have been proposed, and questions started, and some have taxed their ingenuity in framing answers. But perhaps the best answer to a whole host of simple one-the resurrection is an act of Omnipotence. If this is admitted, to speculate on the supposed obstacles to its accomplishment is useless. What though the materials which compose the body moulder into dust, and are undistinguish able from that with which they mingle? What though they may lie in the dark unfathomed caves of the ocean, or be consumed by the flames, or be dispersed by any of the ten thousand agencies to which they are exposed, so as to appear irrecoverably lost? Is any thing impossible with God? Does not his presence pervade universal Nature? Is there an atom that moves in the sunbeam that is not as much the work of his creating hand as those mighty orbs which he has spread through the immensity of space? Is there a single particle of dust whose place is unknown, or which is beyond the influence of his power? That God can restore the dead to life, none who admit omnipotence to be an attribute of deity can deny; and there are, independently of divine revelation, presumptions that he will do so. Inanimate nature undergoes, as we all know, an annual death and resurrection. We expect, with the certainty of a common occurrence -though in itself certainly not the least wonderful of the natural appearances with which we are familiar-that trees, and plants, and herbs, which winter strips of their flowers and foliage, will in spring put forth their verdure, and that from the roots of the withered stalks there will spring up plants quite as beautiful as those that were blighted and have died. Striking, however, as these vegetable analogies are, they afford a far less satisfactory presumption in favour of the doctrine of a future life, in so far at least as the immortality of the soul is concerned, than that which is derived from contemplating the circumstances of privation and suffering in which good men are often placed, and to which even their virtues in some cases contribute. Is there, it is natural to ask, a God that governs the world, and can it be that death will at once terminate the hopes of the good and the forebodings of the wicked? Can it be that the man, who, like Stephen, has lived only for the sake of others, whose "friends are angels, and whose home is heaven," shall have no other recompense for his virtues but pain and torture; while ease, affluence, and secular honours, II. The state of the grave will, to the Christian, be in its consequences improveing. It is a sleep. All have experienced the feeling induced after a day of severe exertion. Both body and mind are jaded. You know likewise what in health are the feelings after a night of sound repose: you rise invigorated, and are in some respects new men. In this, as in the former case, the resemblance holds between sleep and death. In advanced age, the mind and the body equally exhibit symptoms of decay; and disease, at any period of life, will soon produce in both mind and body the effects which are produced by age. When they are reunited, after the body has been raised from the grave, we shall be free from former imperfections, and those numerous sufferings which are connected with the body will be no more known. It must be obvious, however, from this statement, in nature. That form in which he appeared that the analogy in this case is in some in this world, in which he traversed the respects far less perfect than in the former. plains of Judea, and held converse with In awaking after the slumbers of the his favoured followers, he still retains ; night, though invigorated in comparison but from all those mortal infirmities, to of what we were at the time when, through which while on earth he submitted to be the exhaustion of nature, sleep became subject, that body is now free. There is necessary, there is no alteration in our still on it the scars of his martyrdom-the general condition. It is otherwise after print of the nails and the gash of the spear; the repose of the grave. On the morning but it is no longer associated, in the minds of the resurrection we will not only be of the beholders, with ignominy endured, different from what we were at the time but with conflicts that have been encounwhen natural decay or disease brought on tered, and victories that have been won. dissolution, but different from what we "He is arrayed in a vesture dipt in blood." ever have been. "On his thigh and on his vesture he has a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords." To render a future life an object of desire, it is necessary that it should be an improvement on the present. Take away With such powerful supernatural confirfrom the enjoyments of this life the plea- mations of the future glory of the redeemed, sure connected with the hopes of another, as those with which Stephen and John were and a good man would have little induce- furnished, in the representations given ment to resume it. There is not probably them of our glorified forerunner, we are in the lives of the most prosperous any- not favoured; but in this, as in the former thing that has afforded them such solid, case, our faith may be assisted and strengthlasting satisfaction that it should be con- ened by the analogies of Nature, or by those sidered desirable to go the same round. instances which it supplies, not only of a If the feelings of the worldly man were renewed, but of an improved existence analyzed, it would perhaps be found that succeeding a suspension of its exercise. even in his case, at every period of life, it If the transformations to which various is the hope of something better that is his insects are subject, and the rest and insenchief support. The futurity on which he sibility by which these transformations are lives is indeed worldly, circumscribed by preceded, are not so familiar as some of time-still it is futurity; and his prin- the natural facts above-referred to, they ciple is hope. Much more is hope the are at least as certain. An instance of this principle of a Christian-a hope which is may be seen in the silk-worm, which, after not restricted to the expectation merely of it has reached its full size, languishes, and another life, but includes in that other the to appearance dies. Shrouded in its silken expectation of a better. In the Christian cone, it lies, without feet, or shape, or this hope will not be disappointed. We power to move: but from this enclosure shall not continue what we now are, but it afterwards bursts, appearing in a new we shall be changed." "Flesh and element-not on earth, but in air-and in blood"—man, constituted as he now is, a new and more beautiful form. Similar "cannot inherit the kingdom of God." Placed in new and higher circumstances, there must be an alteration to fit him for enjoying them. "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal, immortality." "It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual." "It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory." to this is the description of the dragon fly. The same in its general appearance in the first or vermicular stage of its existence, and the same as to its state of temporary torpor, it is the same in its subsequent condition. To a man previously ignorant of the fact, it would scarcely be credible that what is now a worm should afterwards, and by a process so remarkable, Of this highly consolatory doctrine, the assume a form of life so very different. martyr, to whose death the words of our If on the testimony of others he would text apply, had, as we are told, an ocular not disbelieve, he would not certainly have demonstration. In what Jesus now is, anticipated that from the little coffin in Stephen saw what His followers shall be, which it has continued for a time passive in as far at least as a resemblance can and insensible, it would come forth one of |