I Know That My Redeemer Liveth

“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and. that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall-see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.” — Job xix. 25 — 27.

Tue hand of God has been upon us heavily this week. An aged deacon, -who has been for more than fifty years a member of this Church, has been removed from our midst; and a sister, the beloved wife of another of our Church-officers, a member for nearly the same term of years, has fallen asleep. It is not often that a Church is called to sorrow over the departure of two such venerable members — let not our ears be deaf to ‘such a double admonition to prepare to meet our God. That they were preserved so long, and upheld so mercifully for so many years, was not only a reason of gratitude to them, but to us also, I am, however, so averse to the preaching of what are called funeral sermons, that I forbear, lest I appear to eulogise the creature, when my only aim should be to magnify the grace of God. —

Our text deserves our profound attention; its preface would hardly have been written had not the matter been of the utmost importance in the judgment of the patriarch who uttered it. Listen to Job’s remarkable desire: “Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead - in the rock for ever!” Perhaps, hardly aware of the full meaning of - the words he was uttering, yet his holy soul was impressed with a sense of some weighty revelation concealed within his words; he therefore desired that it might be recorded in a book; he has had his desire

the Book of books embalms the words of Job. He wished to have them; -grayen on a rock; cut deep into it with an iron pen, and then the lines No. 504. - a q QYQ9

inlaid with lead; or he would have them engraven, according to the custom of the ancients, upon a sheet of metal, so that time might not

be able to eat out the inscription. He has not had his desire im that respect, save only-that-upon many and many.a-sepulchre those-words of Job stand recorded, “I know that my redeemer liveth.’ It:is the opinion of some commentators that Job, in speaking of the rock here, intended his own rock-hewn sepulchre, and desired that this might be his epitaph; that, it might be cut deep,.so that ages should. not wear it out; that when any asked, “Where does Job sleep?” as soon as they — saw the sepulchre of the patriarch of Uz, they might learn that he died in hope of resurrection, resting upon a living Redeemer. Whether such a sentence adorned the portals of Job’s last sleeping-place

we know not; but certainly no words could have been more fitly chosen.- Should not the man of patience, the mirror of endurance, the pattern of trust, bear as his memorial this golden line, which is as full

of all the patience of hope, and hope of. patience, as mortal language can be? Who among us could select a more glorious motto for his last escutcheon?’’ Iam sorry to say that a few of those who have written upon this passage cannot see Christ or the resurrection in it at all. Albert Barnes, among the rest, expresses his intense sorrow that he cannot find the resurrection here, and for my part I am sorry for him..If it had been Job’s desire to foretel the advent of Christ and‘his own’ sure resurrection, I cannot see what better words he could have used; and’if those truths are not here taught, then language must have lost its original object, and must have been employed to mystify and not to explain; to conceal and not to reveal. What I ask, does the patriarch. mean, if not that he — shall rise again when the Redeemer stands upon the earth? Brethren, no unsophisticated mind can fail to find here what almost all believers — have here discovered. I feel safe’ in keeping’to the old sense, and we shall this morning seek no new interpretation, but’ adhere to the common one, with or without the consent of ‘our critics! 9) ., In discoursing upon them I shall speak upon three things.: First; let us, with the patriarch, descend into the grave and behold. the ravages.of death. ‘Then, with him, let us look up on high for present consolation. — And, still in his admirable company, let us, in the third place, anticipate

future delights. EO TNs ’ ‘T.’ First of all then, with the patriarch ‘of Uz, LET US DESCEND INTO THE SEPULCHRE.. Lae ae - ‘The body has just been: divorced from ‘the soul. Friends who loved most tenderly have said — * Bury my dead-out of my sight.” The body — is borne upon the bier and consigned to the silent earth; itissurrounded by the earthworks of death. Death has a host of troops.. If the locusts and the caterpillars be God’s army, the worms are the army of death. — These hungry warriors begin to attack the city of man. ‘They commence — with the outworks; they storm the munition, and’ overturn the walls, — The skin, the city wall of manhood, is utterly broken down, and the — towers of its glory covered with confusion, How speedily the cruel — invaders deface all beauty. The face gathers blackness; the coun» tenance is defiled with corruption. Those:cheeks once fair with youth, and ruddy with health, have fallen in, even as a bowing wall and a — io Fs i H Yass:: 5 (TRE fe 3 ra, tottering fence; those eyes, the windows of the mind whence: joy and sorrow looked forth by turns, are now filled up with the dust of death; those lips, the doors of the soul, the gates of Mansoul, are carried away, and the bars thereof are broken. - Alas, ye windows 0 agates and gates of carbuncle, where are ye now? How shalt I mourn’ for thee, O thou captive city, for the mighty men have«utterly spoiled thee! Thy neck, once like a tower of ivory, has become:as’a fallen column; thy nose, so lately comparable to “the tower of Lebanon, which looketh toward Damascus,” is’as a ruined hovel; and thy head, which: towered like Carmel, lies ‘low as’ the clods of the valley. Where. is beauty now? The most lovely cannot be known from the most deformed. The vessel so daintily wrought upon the potter’s wheel, is*cast away upon

the dunghill with the vilest’ potsherds.: Cruel:-have ye been, yewarriors of death, for though ye wield no axes:and bear no ‘hammers, ‘yet have ye broken down ‘the: carved work; and though: ye speak not: with tongues; yet have ye said in your hearts, “We have» swallowed: her up,-certainly. this i is the day that we have looked for; we have found; we have-seen it.” The skin is gone. ‘The’ troops have entered:into»the — town of Mansoul. And: now they pursue their work of devastation; the’ pitiless marauders .all< upon: the sbody »itself.:.: There are’ those

noble aqueducts, the veins through ‘which the streams of llife were

“wont to: flow, these, instead:.of being rivers ‘of “life, ‘have: become blocked up with the soil and wastes: of death, and« now they “must be pulled to pieces; not a single: relic of: them: shall be ‘spared, Mark the muscles and sinews, like. great: highways ‘that: penetrating - the. metropolis, carry ‘the strength and “wealth: ‘of: manhood: along

their curious pavement must be pulled lup,:land they that~-do traffic thereon must be consumed’; each’ tunnelled bone, and ‘eurious arch, and knotted. bond must: be - snapped: and broken.

Pair fabries, glorious storehouses, costly-engines, wonderful machines all, alk must be pulled down, and: not one stone’ left upon another. Those nerves, which like telegraphic wires connected all parts of the-city

3 together; to’carry thought and feeling’ and: intelligence — these are cuts

No matter how artistic: the work might» be, — and certainly we are fears

- faily and ‘wonderfully made, and the anatomist stands still and marvels

eins the skill which the eternal God:has manifested in the formation of

the body — but these ruthless worms pull everything to pieces; till :like

city: sacked: and spoiled that has been given-up for days topillage and

flame, everything lies in a heap: of’ruin — ashes to ashes, dust to:dusts

But these invaders stop not here. Job says that next’ they consume

his reins. We are wont to speak of the heart as the great citadel of life,

the inner keep and donjohn,: where the’captain of the guard holdeth:out.

to the last. The Hebrews. do. not, regard the heart, but the lower

viscera, the reins, ‘as the seat of the passions and of mental power: The

Worms spare’ not; they enter the secret’ places: of the tabernacle of

, and the standard is plucked from the tower. Having died; the

an -eannot preserve itself, and falls like-the rest of the. frame+a prey

rms, It is gone, it is all:gone!:: The skin, the body, the vitals, is departed. There is nought left. In a few years ye: shall and say, “Here slept’ so-and-so, and where is he now?” and ye may search and hunt and dig, but ye shall find no relic, Mother Harth has devoured her own offspring. Dear friends, why should ‘we wish to have it otherwise? Why should we desire to preserve the body when.the soul has gone? What vain attempts men have made with coffins of lead, and wrappings of myrrh and frankincense. ‘The embalming of the Egyptians, those master robbers of the worm, what has it done? It has served to keep some poor shrivelled lumps of mortality above ground to be sold for curiosities, to be dragged away to foreign climes, and stared upon by thoughtless eyes. No, let the dust go, the sooner it dissolves the better. And what matters it how it goes! If it be devoured of beasts, if it be swallowed up in the sea and become food for fishes! What, if plants with their roots suck up the particles!. What, if the fabric passes?’ the animal, and from the animal into the earth, and from the earth into the plants, and from the plant into the animal again! What, if the winds blow it along the highway! What, if the rivers” carry it to the waves of ocean! It is ordained that somehow or other it must be all separated — “dust to dust, ashes to ashes.” It is part of the decree that it should all perish. The worms or some other agents of destruction must destroy this body. Do not seek to avoid what God has ‘purposed; do not look upon it as a gloomy thing. Regard it as a necessity; nay more, view it as the platform of a miracle, the lofty stage of resurrection, since Jesus shall surely raise again from the dead the particles of this body, however divided from one another. We have heard of miracles, but what a miracle is the resurrection! All the miracles of Scripture, yea even those wrought by Christ, are small compared with this. The philosopher says, “How is it possible that God shall hunt out every particle of the human frame?” He can do it: he has but to speak the word, and every single atom, though it may have travelled thousands of leagues, though it may have been blown as dust across the desert, and anon have fallen upon the bosom of the sea, and then have descended into the depths thereof to be cast up on desolate shore, sucked up by plants, fed on again by beasts, or passed into the fabric of another man, — I say that individual atom shall find its fellows, and the whole company of particles at the trump of the —

archangel shall travel to their appointed place, and the body, the very &

body which was laid in the ground, shall rise again. ks ‘Tam afraid I have been somewhat uninteresting while tarrying upon — the exposition of the words of Job, but I think very much of the pith of Job’s faith lay in this, that he had a clear view that the worms would after his skin destroy his body, and yet that in his flesh he should see. God. You know we might regard it as a small miracle if we could preserve the bodies of the departed. If, by some process, with spices and gums we could preserve the particles, for the Lord to make those dry bones live, and to quicken that skin and flesh, were a miracle certainly, but not palpably and plainly so great a marvel as when the worms have destroyed the body. When the fabric has been absolutely — broken up, the tenement all pulled down, ground to pieces, and flung in handfuls to the wind, so that no relic of it is left, and yet when Christ stands in the latter days upon the earth, all the structure shall be brought together, bone to his bone — then shall the might of Omnipotence be seen. ‘This is the doctrine of the resurrection, and happy is ha who finds no difficulty here, who looks at it as being an impossibility with man but a possibility with God, and lays hold upon the omnipotence of the Most High and says, “Thou sayest it, and it shall be done!” JI comprehend thee not great God; I marvel at thy purpose to raise my mouldering bones; but I know that thou doest great wonders, and Iam not surprised that thou shouldst conclude the great drama of thy creating works here on earth by re-creating the human frame by the same power by which thou didst bring from the dead the body of thy Son Jesus Christ, and by that same divine energy which has regenerated human souls in thine own image.

II. Now, having thus descended into the grave, and seen nothing there but what is loathsome, LET US LOOK UP WITH THE. “RIAROH - AND BEHOLD A SUN SHINING WITH PRESENT COMFORT.

“I know,” said he, “that my Redeemer liveth.” The word “Redeemer”

here used, is in the original “‘goel” — kinsman. The duty of the kinsman, or goel, was this: suppose an Israelite had alienated his estate, as in the case of Naomi and Ruth; suppose a patrimony which had belonged to a family, had passed away through poverty, it was the goel’s business, the redeemer’s business to pay the price as the next of kin, and to buy back the heritage. Boaz stood in that relation to Ruth. Now, the body may be looked upon as the heritage of the soul — the

soul’s small farm, that little plot of earth in which the soul has been

wont to walk and delight, as a man walketh in his garden or dwelleth in his house. Now, that becomes alienated. Death, like Ahab, takes away the vineyard from us who are as Naboth; we lose our patrimonial estate; Death sends his troops to take our vineyard and to spoil the - vines thereof and ruin it. But we turn round to Death and say, “I know that my Goel liveth, and he will redeem this heritage; I have lost it; thou takest it from me lawfully, O Death, because my sin hath forfeited my right; I have lost my heritage through my own offence, and through that of my first parent Adam;,but there lives one who will buy this back.”: Brethren, Job could say this of Christ long before he had descended upon earth, “I know that he liveth;” and now that he has ascended up on high, and led captivity captive, surely we may

with double emphasis say, “I know that my Goel, my Kinsman liveth, - and that he hath paid the price, that I should have back my patrimony, so that in my flesh I shall see God.” Yes, my hands, ye are redeemed with blood; bought not with corruptible things, as with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. Yes, heaving lungs and palpitating heart, ye have been redeemed! He that redeemed the soul to be his altar has also redeemed the body, that it may be a temple: for the Holy Ghost. Not even the bones of Joseph can remain in the house of bondage. No smell of the fire of death may pass upon the

‘garments which his holy children have worn in the furnace. - - Remember, too, that it was always considered to be the duty of the goel, not merely to redeem by price, but where that failed, to redeem by power. Hence, when Lot was carried away captive by the four kings, Abraham summoned his own hired servants, and the servants of all hia

- power of the Holy Spirit. In the language of the text, you trace it to

II. We now change the subject for something more pleasant, and observe A MIRACLE, or dead men made alive. ses ee ese ny The great object of the gospel of Christ is to create men anew in Christ Jesus. It aims at resurrection, and accomplishes it. The gospel did not come into this world merely to restrain the passions or educate the principles of men, but to infuse into them a new life which, as fallen — men, they did not possess. I saw yesterday what seemed to mea picture of those preachers whose sole end and aim is the moralising of their hearers, but who have not learned the need of supernatural life. Not very far from the shore were a dozen or more boats at sea dragging for two dead bodies. They were using their lines and grappling irons, and — what with hard rowing and industrious sailing, were doing their best most commendably to fish up the lost ones from the pitiless sea. I do not know if they were successful, but if so, what further could they do with them but decently to commit them to their mother earth? The process of education and everything else, apart from the Holy Spirit, is a dragging for dead men, to lay them out decently, side by side, in the order and decency of .death, but nothing more can man do for man. The gospel of Jesus Christ has a far other and higher task: it does nob — deny the value of the moralis«’s efforts, or decry the results of education, but it asks what more can you do, and the response is, “Nothing.” Then it bids the bearers of the bier stand away and make room for Jesus, at whose voice the dead arise. The preacher of the gospel cannot be satisfied with what is done in drawing men out of the sea of outward sin, he longs to see the lost life restored, he desires to have breathed

into them a new and superior life to what they have possessed before.

Go your way, education, do your best, you are useful in your sphere; go your way, teacher of morality, do your best, you too.are useful in your own manner; but if it comes to what man really needs for eternity, you, all put together, are little worth — the gospel, and the gospel alone, — answers to men’s requirements: man must be regenerated, quickened, made anew, have fresh breath from heaven breathed into him, or the work of saving him is not begun, The text tells us that God hasdone this for his people, for those who trust in him. Let us observe the dry bones as they stir and stand before the Lord, and observing, let us praise the Lord, that according to his great love wherewith he loved us, - he hath quickened us together with Christ.: gop Sree on In this idea of quickening, there is a mystery. What is that invirs C.

sible something which quickens a man? Who can unveil the secret? Who can track life to its hidden fountain? Brother, you area living child of God: what made you live? You know that it was by the

God, you believe your new life to be of divine implantation. You are a believer in the supernatural; you believe that God has visited you as he has not visited other men, and has breathed into you life. You believe rightly, but you cannot explain it. We know not of the wind, — z whence it cometh or whither it goeth: so is every one that is born ote the Spirit. He that should sit down deliberately and attempt to explain regeneration, and the-source of it, might sit there till he grewintoa marble statue before he would accomplish the task. The Holy Spirit enters into us, and we who were dead before to spiritual things, Te

RESURRECTION WITH CHRIST. 2 211:

to live by his power and indwelling. He is the great worker, but how the Holy Spirit works is a secret that. must be reserved for God himself. We need not wish to understand the mode; it is enough for us if we partake of the result. It is a great mystery then, but while it is a mystery it is a great reality. We know and do testify, and we have a right to be believed, for we trust we have not forfeited our characters, we know and do testify that we are now possessors of a life which we knew nothing of some years ago, that we have come, to exist in a new world, and that the appearance of all things outside of us is totally changed from what, it used to be. “Old things have passed away, behold all things are become new.” I bear witness that I am this day the subject of sorrows which were no sorrows to me before I knew the Lord, and that I am “uplifted with joys which I should have laughed at the very thought of if any one had whispered the name of them in-my ears before the life divine had quickened me. This is the witness of hundreds of us, and although others disbelieve us, they have no right to deny our consciomsness because they have not partaken of the like. If they have never tried it, what should they know about it? If there should be an assembly of blind men, and one of them should have his eyes opened, and begin to talk of what he saw, I can imagine the blind ones all saying, ‘What a fool that man is! There are no such things.” “Here I have lived in this world seventy years,” says one, “and I never saw that thing which he calls a colour, and I do not believe in his absurd nonsense about scarlet and violet, and black and white; it is all foolery together.” Another wiseacre declares, ‘‘I have been up and down the world, and all over it, for forty years, and I declare I never had the remotest conception of blue or green, nor had my father before me. He was a right good soul, and always stood up for the grand old darkness. “Give me,’ said he, ‘a good stick and a sensible dog, and all your nonsensical notions about stars, and suns, and moons, I leave to fools who like them.’” The blind man has not come into the world of light and colour, and the unregenerate man has not come into that world of spirit, and hence neither of them is capable of judging correctly. I sat one day, at a public dinner, opposite a gentleman of the gourmand we ies, who seemed a man of vast erudition as to wines and spirits, and

‘ all the yiands of the table; he judged and criticised at such a rate that I thought he ought to have been employed by our provision merchants ‘ as taster in general. He had finely developed lips, and he smacked them frequently. His palate was in a fine critical condition. He was also as proficient in the quantity as in the quality, and disposed of meats and drinks in a most wholesale manner. His retreating forehead, emuurpled nose, and protruding lips, made him, while eating at least, more ke an animal than a man. At last, hearing a little conversation around him upon religious matters, he opened his small eyes and his great mouth, and delivered himself of this sage utterance, “I have lived sixty years in this world, and I never, felt or believed in anything spiritual in all my life.’ The speech was a needless diversion of his energies from the roast duck. We did not want him to us that. I, for one, was quite clear about it before he spoke.

cat under the table had suddenly jumped on a chair and who hardly ever get much further. But to reach the marrow of consolation you must say, “I Know.” Ifs, buts, and perhapses, are sure murderers of peace and comfort. Doubts are dreary things in times of sorrow. Like wasps they sting the soul! If I have any suspicion that Christ is not mine, then there is vinegar mingled with the gall of death. But if I know that Jesus is mine, then darkness is not dark; even the night is light about me. Out of the lion cometh honey; out of the eater cometh forth sweetness. “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” This is a brightly-burning lamp cheering the damps of the sepulchral vault, but a feeble hope is like a flickering smoking flax, just making darkness visible, but nothing more. I would not like to die with a mere hope mingled with suspicion. I might be safe with this but - hardly happy; but oh, to go down into the river knowing that all is well, confident that as a guilty, weak, and helpless worm I have fallen into the arms of Jesus, and believing that he is able to keep that which’ I have committed to him. I would have you, dear Christian friends, never look upon the full assurance of faith as a thing impossible to you. Say not “It is too high; I cannot attain unto it.” I have known one or two saints of God who have rarely doubted their interest at all. There are many of us who do not often enjoy any ravishing ecstacies, but on the other hand we generally maintain the even tenour of our way,

simply hanging upon Carist, feeling that his promise is true, that his merits are sufficient, and that we are safe. Assurance’is a jewel for worth but not for rarity. It is the common privilege of all the saints

if they have but the grace to attain unto it, and this grace the Holy Spirit gives freely. Surely if Job in Arabia, in those dark misty ages when there was only the morning star and not the sun, when they

saw but little, when life and immortality had not been brought to

light, — if Job before the coming and advent still could say, “Z know,”

you and I should not speak less positively. God forbid that our

positiveness should be presumption. Let us try ourselves, and see that our marks and evidences are right, lest we form an ungrounded hope; for nothing can be more destructive than to say, “Peace, peace, where- there is no peace.” But oh, let us build for eternity, and build solidly. Let us not be satisfied with the mere foundation, for it is from the upper rooms that we get the widest prospect. Let us pray the Lord to help us to pile stone on stone, until we are able to say as we look at it, “Yes, I know, I kNow that my Redeemer liveth.” This, her, for. present comfort to-day in the prospect of departure.

III. And now, in the third and last place, as THE ANTICIPATION oF. FUTURE DELIGHT, let me call to your remembrance the other part of the text. Job not only knew that the Redeemer lived, but he anticipated the time when he should stand in the latter day upon oe earth,

seat oe ra No doubt Job referred here to our Saviour’s first advent, to the time

when Jesus Christ, “the goel,” the kinsman, should stand upon the

earth to pay in the blood of his veins the ransom price, which had, indeed, in bond and stipulation been paid before the foundation of the

world in promise. But I cannot think that Job’s vision stayed there;

ne was looking forward to the second advent of Christ as being the period of the resurrection. We cannot endorse the theory that Job arose from the dead when our Lord died, although certain Jewish believers held this idea very firmly at one time. We are persuaded that “the latter day” refers to the advent of glory rather than to that of shame. Our hope is that the Lord shall come to reign

in glory where he once died in agony. The bright and hallowed

doctrine of the second advent has been greatly revived in our churches in these latter days, and I look for the best results in consequence. There is always a danger lest it be perverted and turned by fanatical minds, by prophetic speculations, into an abuse; but the doctrine in

itself is one of the most consoling, and, at the same time, one of the

most practical, tending to keep the Christian awake, because the bridegroom cometh at such an hour as we think not. Beloved, we believe that the same Jesus who ascended from Olivet shall so come in like manner as he ascended up into heaven. We believe in his personal adyent and reign. We believe and expect that when both wise and

foolish virgins shall slumber; in the night when sleep is heavy upon the saints; when men shall be eating and drinking as in the days of Noah, that suddenly as the lightning flasheth from heaven, so Christ shall —

‘descend with a shout, and the dead in Christ shall rise and reign with

E him. We are looking forward to the literal, personal, and actual standing

of Christ upon earth as the time when creation’s groans shall be silenced for ever, and the earnest expectation of the creature shall be fulfilled.. Mark, that Job describes Christ as standing. Some interpreters have

read the passage, “he shall stand in the latter days against the earth;”

that as the earth has covered up the slain, as the earth has become the

- charnel-house of the dead, Jesus shall arise to the contest and say,

“Barth, I am against thee; give up thy dead! Ye clods of the valley

cease to be custodians of my people’s bodies! Silent deeps, and you, ye caverns of the earth, deliver, once for all, those whom ye have im-

prisoned!” Macphelah shall give up its precious treasure, cemeteries and graveyards shall release their captives, and all the deep places of

the earth shall resign the bodies of the faithful. Well, whether that

be so or no, the posture of Christ, in standing upon the earth, is significant. It shows his triumph. He has triumphed over sin, which

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which once like a serpent in its coils had bound the earth. He has

defeated Satan. On the very spot where Satan gained his power Chriat

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has gained the victory.. Earth, which was a scene of defeated Sodhei é; whence mercy once was all but driven, where virtue died, where everything heavenly and:pure, like flowers blasted by-pestilential winds, hung — = down their heads, withered and blighted — on this very earth everything that is glorious shall blow-and blossom in perfection; and Christ himself, once despised and rejected of men, fairest of all the sons of men, shall come in the midst of a crowd‘of courtiers, while kings and princes shall — do him homage, and all the nations shall call him blessed. “He — stand in the latter day upon the earth.”

Then; at that auspicious hour, says Job, “In my flesh I hh see God.” Oh, blessed anticipation — “I shall see God.” He does nob = say, “I shall see the * saints” — doubtless ‘we shall see thenr “all in heaven — but, “I shall see God.” Note he does not say, “I’shallsee the pearly gates, I shall see the walls of jasper, I’shall see the crowns of gold and the harps of harmony,” but “TI shall see God;” as if that were the sum and ‘substance of heaven.* “In my flesh shall I see God.” The pure in heart’ shall see’God. It was their delight to see him in’ the ordinances by faith. They delighted to behold him in communion and —: in prayer. There in heaven they shall have a vision of another sort. We shall see God in heaven, ‘and be made completely like him; the divine character shall be stamped upon us; and being ‘made é like to him we shall be perfectly satisfied and content. Likeness — = to God, what can we wish for more? And a sight of God, what can we desire better? We shall see God, and so there shall be perfect: soniament to the soul and a satisfaction of all the faculties. Some réad the passage, “Yet, T shall see God in my flesh,” and hence think en os is~here an allusion to Christ, our Lord Jesus Christ, as the ‘word rani flesh. ‘Well, be it so, or be it not so, it is certain that we shall 8 see Christ, and He, as the divine Redeemer, shall be the subject ‘of our; eternal vision. ~Nor-shall we ever want any joy beyond simply that seeing him. Think not, dear friend, that this will be a narrow sphere for your mind to dwell in. ‘It is but one source of delight, “IT shall 866 God,” but that source is infinite. His wisdom, his love, his ‘power, all his attributes shall be subjects for your eternal contemplation, and as ‘ he is infinite under each aspect, there is no fear of exhaustion. se Tis -works, his purposes, his gifts, his love to you, and his glory in all his purposes, and in all his deeds of love — why, these shall make a ‘theme that never can be exhausted. You may with divine delight: antici Pe the time when in your flesh you shall see God. ot

But I must have you observe how Job has. expressly made saci = that it is in the same body, “Yet, in my flesh shall I see God;” ar an then he says again, “whom I shall see for myself, and mine eye sha behold and not-another.” ‘Yes, it is true that I, the very man stand here,:though I must go down to die, yet I shall as the same. man most Certainly arise and shall behold my God. Not part of myself, though the soul alone shall have some view of God, but the whole of myself, my flesh, my soul, my body, my spirit: shall. gaze.on God.. We shall not enter heaven, dear: friends, as a dismasted vessel is tugged into harbour; we shall not get.to glory some on: noards, and some on broken pieces of the ship, but the whole ship shall be-floated safely into the “haven, body and soul:both being safe. Christ shall be able to say,, “All that the father«giveth to me shall come to me,” not only all the persons, but all of the persons — each man in his perfection.. There 8shall not be found in-heaven one imperfect saint. There shall not be a saint without an eye, much: less.a saint without a body... No member of: the body shall have perished; nor shall. the body have lost any of. ita natural beauty. All the saints shall be all there, and all-uf all; the same’ persons precisely, only that they shall have risen.from a. state of grace to a state of glory....They shall be ripened; they shall be no more the green: blades, but the full corn:in the ear;.no more buds but flowers; not babes but men. ©<Please’to notice, and then I shall.conclude, how the patriarch pute it as being’a’real personal. enjoyment... “Whom mine eye shall behold, and not another”: ‘They shall-not.’bring me a report as they did the Queen of Sheba, but I shall see Solomon the King for myself. I shall be able to - say;as- they did-whospake-to the woman of Samaria, “Now, I believe, not because of thy word who did bring. me a report, but I have seen him for myself.” There shall be personal intercourse with God; not through the Book, which is but as a glass; not through the ordinances; but directly, in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be able to commune with the Deity as a man talketh with his friend. “Not another.” If I could: be a changeling and could be altered, that would ‘mar my comfort. Or.if my heaven must be. enjoyed by proxy, if ‘draughts of bliss must be drunk for me, where were. the hope? Oh, no; for myself, and not through another, shall I see,God, Have we not told you a hundred times that nothing but personal religion will do, and is not this another argument for it, because resurrection and glory are personal things? “Not another.” If you could have sponsors to repent BS for you, then, depend upon it, you would have sponsors to be glorified = for you, But as there is not another to see God for you, so you must; yourself see and yourself find an interest in the Lord Jesus Christ.

‘In closing let me observe how foolish have you and I been when we have. looked forward to death with shudders, with doubts, with loathings.

eo all, what is:it? Worms! Do ye tremble at those base crawling et Scattered. particles!. hall we be alarmed at these #? To meet have the voice of God. I am sure the gioom of death is altogether gone now that the lamp of resurrection burns. Disrobing is nothing now that, better garments await us. We may long for evening to undress, that we may rise with God. I am sure my venerable friends now present, in coming so near as they do now to the time of the departure, must have some visions of the glory on the other side the stream. Bunyan was not wrong, my dear brethren, when he put the land Beulah at the close of the pilgrimage. Is not my text a telescope which will enable you to see across the Jordan; may it not be as hands of angels to bring you bundles of myrrh and frankincense? You can say, “I know that my Redeemer liveth.”. You cannot want more; you were not satisfied with less in your youth, you will not be content with less now. Those of us who are young, are comforted by the thought that we may soon depart. I say comforted, not alarmed by it; and we almost envy those

whose race is nearly run, because we fear — and yet we must not speak thus, for the Lord’s will be done — I was about to say, we fear that our battle may last long, and that mayhap our feet may slip; only he that

keepeth Israel does not slumber nor sleep. So since we know that our

Redeemer liveth, this shall be our comfort in life, that though we fall

we shall not be utterly cast down; and since our Redeemer liveth, this

shall be our comfort in death, that though worms destroy this body, yet in’our flesh we shall see God.

May the Lord add his blessing on the feeble words of this morning, and to him be glory for ever. Amen.: “Grave, the guardian of our dust!

Grave, the treasury of the skies!

Every atom of thy trust

Rests in hope again to rise.

Hark! the judgment trumpet calls; Sys

Soul, rebuild thy house of clay, Hi eee
Immortality thy walls,

And Eternity thy: day.”