CONSOLATION OF ISRAEL. 103 which nothing can dissipate. Ah! they reject the only CONSOLATION OF ISRAEL, and there remaineth no other. So common a thing is this dread of death among them, that if they witness anything different they are surprised. A Jew had a pious man in his employ as a gardener. This man died. And his master in a letter to another Jew says, "I am no longer disposed to laugh at religion, or to plead that Christianity offers no comforts in death. I witnessed the last moments of my worthy gardener, and I wish I may die his death; if there is happiness in another life this disciple of Jesus is assuredly happy. When the physician told him he was in extreme danger, 'How can that be,' said he, when God is my Father, Jesus my Redeemer, and heaven my country?' His last words were, I am about to die! but why should that trouble me? My Jesus is the True God and Eternal Life!'” 6 I knew "an old disciple," who enjoyed great peace in his last sickness, and before he fell asleep in Jesus spoke of Christ as his only but all-sufficient CONSOLATION. Among other things he repeated this verse "My soul most surely prizes The sin-atoning Lamb; His chamber, as I sat by his bedside, seemed like the porch of heaven; and the peacefulness of his end was exceedingly refreshing to all who witnessed it. I knew another devoted servant of Christ who wrote to me a little before his death, "I am a boundless sinner but Christ is a BOUNDLESS SAVIOUR. There my soul finds her Rock, her Refuge; and thence I can look into Paradise." He also died soon afterwards, still sweetly reposing on Christ as the CONSOLATION OF ISRAEL. Mr. Janeway when he came to die, said, "I am through mercy quite above the fear of death, and am going to Him whom I love above life! Oh that I could let you know what I now feel! Oh that I could show you what I now see! Oh that I could express the thousandth part of the sweetness which I now find in Christ! You little think what a Christ is worth upon a death bed! Oh the glory, the unspeakable glory which I now behold! My heart is full! Christ smiles, would you keep me from my crown? The arms of my blessed Saviour are open to embrace me! the angels stand ready to carry my soul into His bosom. You would not have the heart to detain me if you could but see what I see!" Mr. Rutherford also died in holy triumph. These are some of his last words. "I shall shine! I shall see Him as He is and all the fair company with Him, and shall have my large share; I have gotten the victory! Christ is holding forth His arms to embrace me. Now I feel! I enjoy! I rejoice! I feed on manna. I have angels' food. My eyes will see my Redeemer!" He expired with the words, "Glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel's land." But many of God's people have been tortured to death. Was their end peace? and did the CONSOLATION OF ISRAEL lift them up above their sufferings? Yes, this is a sight which angels have often witnessed. A man suffering and yet joyful! A bush burning and yet not consumed! Christ's peace flowing in streams through the soul while the body has been writhing in anguish! In the year 1538 John Lambert was burnt to death in so cruel a manner, that one cannot bear to speak of it. And yet God was with him and filled him with triumph. Just before he died he lifted up such hands as he had, all flaming with fire, and cried out with his dying voice, "None but Christ! None but Christ!" And twenty years afterwards, in the last year of the reign of that detestable queen Mary, a poor woman, Cicely Ormes, the wife of a weaver at Norwich, was burned alive for no other crime than that of love to the gospel. When led to the stake she kissed it, and amidst the kindling flames cried, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour." Then "she yielded up her life as if she had been in a slumber, or felt no pain." But they were all grown-up persons; have children anything to do with these things in their dying hours? Oh, yes, the youngest child may have an interest in the CONSOLATION OF ISRAEL. There was one Sarah Howley who died at the early age of ten years. A little before her death she gave her Bible to one of her brothers, and said, “Oh, seek Christ for your soul while you are young! Put not off this great work till you come to a sick bed! Remember the words of your dying sister. Oh if you knew how good Christ is! If you had but one taste of His sweetness, you would rather go to Him a thousand times than stay in this wicked world! Oh! I would not for ten thousand worlds part with Christ! Will you not strive to get an interest in Christ?" The last words she was heard to speak were these, "Lord Jesus, help! dear Jesus! blessed Jesus!" And thus she died, like Simeon, embracing the CONSOLATION OF ISRAEL. All this is as it should be, not only in death but in life also. When however we see Christian people pursuing their pilgrimage, burdened with a load of suspense and doubt as to their future, we are ready to say, "Can this be the will of God? Has He made no provision for stronger CONSOLATION than that?" Let us see. When Abraham received those great promises which God gave him, his faith was hardly equal to the strain. He could scarcely "stand under" their exceeding weight. So God, to make an end of all controversy, added an oath; He sware by Himself, He backed His promises by His character. It was as if He had said, “ Abraham, I Who am Jehovah say unto thee, Upon My Word and Honour, I will fulfil all these things." And hath not God pledged those same "two immutable things" to every one who receives the gospel? Heb. vi. 16-18. Why did He think this necessary? Because He foresaw the endless controversies which would arise in our unbelieving hearts about such exceeding great promises. "Can they be true? Does God mean all that for CONSOLATION OF ISRAEL. 105 such an one as I who am less than nothing and vanity, worse than nothing and sin?" "Well," saith God, "I will do all that can be done to make an end of this controversy, so hurtful to you, so derogatory to Me. I have given you My word, and surely the bare word of the Living God ought to suffice. But now hear! I pledge My character to you, I swear by Myself." Christian, why not take the "strong consolation" which it is the will of God you should have, and go on your way rejoicing? One known as "Old Nanny" dwelt in a lonely cottage in the Highlands. She was poor and bed-ridden, but "rich in faith." A young minister was accustomed to visit the old saint, more for what he could learn from her than for anything he was able to communicate. One day wishing to try her faith he proposed this startling question; "Ah, Nanny, but suppose, after all your praying and all your trusting, God were to cast you off at last! What then?" The old woman raised herself on her elbow, and looked him steadfastly in the face and said, "Eh! mon. Is that a' the length ye got to yet? Why, mon! God wad be the greatest loser. Poor Nanny wad lose her soul, to be sure; and that wad be a sair loss indeed, but God wad lose His character! He knows I've just hung up my soul and all my hopes upon His ain precious promises; and if they should be broken, the whole universe wad gang to ruin;" and then sinking her voice, "For God wad be a liar!" And let this be engraven on the hearts of all who have not come to Christ, that if you have not Him for your COUNSELLOR and Guide, your COMFORTER and Supporter through life, both your way and your end will be bad! Think not to live a life of sinful pleasure and indifference to religion, and then at the last to die a comfortable and a Christian death. This experiment has been tried and has failed. Thousands, under some sudden religious impression, have prayed, "Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his!" But they regarded iniquity in their hearts all the while they prayed, and the Lord did not hear them. No! the traveller in an unknown path, if he decline to follow the directions of his guide, must not be surprised if he stumble and fall. "The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead." "Give glory to the Lord your God, before He cause darkness and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and while ye look for light He turn it into the shadow of death and make it gross darkness." Jer. xiii. 16. We must "give glory to God," by following Christ's COUNSELS. Then will He be our unfailing CONSOLATION in life and in death. "For what can mortal friends avail, When heart and life and flesh shall fail? And I can triumph while I die; My CONSOLATION is divine, And Jesus is for ever mine." Fourteenth Sunday. DEAR SON. DELIGHT. DEW. GOD promised Abraham a son in whom all the world was to be blessed, and in due time fulfilled His promise. And Abraham rejoiced greatly in this gift from the Lord. But one day God said to him, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac whom thou lovest, and offer him up for a burnt offering on yonder mountain!" Abraham, filled with surprise and grief, nevertheless prepared without delay to do as God commanded. It does not appear that he told Sarah his wife the dreadful secret, lest her maternal feelings should interfere with the performance of his duty to God. Rising up early in the morning, he saddled his ass, called his son, and went forth towards the place God had told him of. They travelled on for three days; and then lifting up their eyes, saw before them the mountain on which the altar was to be built. At once they began to climb the rugged steep; Abraham carrying the knife and the censer with fire, and Isaac carrying the wood. Abraham spoke not to his son; his heart was full. How could he explain this mysterious command of Together they walked on thoughtful and perplexed, till Israc, unable to contain any longer, broke the silence and said, "My father, behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" Then said Abraham, "My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering." So on they went. Presently they came to the top of the hill. And there the startling truth came out that Isaac was to be the sacrifice. What must have been the parent's feelings when he told him that! And what were Isaac's feelings when he found he was to leave the world in a way so dreadful, dying by a father's hand! And now the altar is reared, the wood laid in order, the victim bound and laid upon the wood! The dreadful moment is come! Abraham draws the glittering knife from its sheath, and with averted eye raises his arm to plunge it into the victim, when lo! in that critical instant the voice of the Angel arrests the stroke, and directs him to substitute another victim, even a ram just caught in a thicket close at hand. This the glad father takes and offers up. And Isaac, freed from his bonds, is received again as from the dead. And God could say to the obedient Patriarch, "Now I am satisfied that thou lovest Me. Now I know that thou fearest Me, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me.” This is an image, though a faint one, of the infinite love of God to sinners. He too had One Only Begotten Son whom He did not withhold from us,-God's DEAR SON He is called in Col. i. 13. "And in this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent His Only Begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him." 1 Jno. iv. 9. Let us dwell awhile on this Title. 66 66 DEAR SON. God has many sons. The first man Adam was called "the son of God." The angels who shouted for joy when the world was created were sons of God," and saints who are adopted into God's family are sons of God." But Jesus Christ is greater than all, higher than the highest, the EQUAL OF GOD. And God loves this DEAR SON better than all the world beside, and will have all men to honour the SON even as they honour Himself, forasmuch as Both are Equal in power and glory. This is plainly taught in the Scriptures. But about four hundred years after Christ's ascension, there were found profane men in the Church who refused thus to honour God's DEAR SON. These men took wonderful pains to spread their hurtful opinions, and turned away many from the faith, amongst whom was the Emperor Theodosius. There was then living at Rome a bishop named Amphilochus, who was so grieved at the dishonour done to Jesus Christ, that he resolved to take some opportunity to reprove the Emperor before the court. The Emperor had a favourite son Arcadius, whom he had proclaimed partner with himself on the throne. One day they both sat in royal state to receive the homage of their subjects. Among those who attended on this occasion was our grave bishop. He bent before the Emperor, but took no notice of the son. "Know you not," cried the Emperor, "that I have made my son the partner of my throne?" Upon which the bishop placed his hands on the head of the young man and said, "The Lord bless thee, my son," and turned himself to go away. At this the Emperor was angry, and said, "Is this all the respect you pay him who is my equal in the throne?" "Sire," interposed the bishop, "you are angry with me for not paying your son equal honour with yourself,what must God think of you for encouraging those who insult His Equal Sox in every part of your empire?' This truth which the zealous bishop took so singular a method to assert, is the very foundation of religion. We would sooner part with the sun from the firmament than give up the Deity of God's DEAR SON and His full Equality with the Father. But this DEAR SON God yielded up to the cruel death of the cross. Though He loved Him so greatly He sent Him into the world to be a Man of Sorrows. He allowed wicked men to spit on Him, to scourge Him, and to nail His sacred hands and feet to a tree, as if He had been the worst man that ever lived. And on that dreadful cross, scorned by His enemies and forsaken by His friends, He hung during six long |