and more pleasant than those waters of comfort by which He would lead you forth. But range where you will now, the dark valley will still remain to be trodden at the last; and the mere wish for the support and guidance of the good Shepherd, expressed either in some transient shortlived feeling of religion now, or wrung from you by the pressure of nature's agony then, will not bring you the blessing of that support or guidance, if you now refuse to know the Shepherd's voice, and go in and out and find pasture at His bidding. Balaam, lost as he was to God and goodness, could still say, Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his. But Balaam would not act as he felt. He would not live the life of the righteous; and his prayer was not heard, he was not allowed to die the death of the righteous. He lingered among the enemies of God's people; and the avenging sword of Israel, repentant and restored Israel, drank the blood of him who had done his utmost to sell them to destruction. The dark valley must be trodden sooner or later, by you and by me, trodden alone, so far as earthly friends are concerned. The tenderest love of father or mother, husband or wife, son or daughter, can only accompany us to the brink of that valley. They cannot enter it along with us. If the everlasting arms be not underneath us. then, we shall have no support to look to or to lean upon. Absolutely alone indeed we shall not pass that valley. God grant that we may all have the good Shepherd with us there. But if we have not the whispers of His love to cheer us through the gloom, we shall hear the roar of that lion whom, if we would but have known the day of our visitation, He would have quelled for us. We shall hear that roar gathering strength for our undoing. Instead of thoughts full of grace and mercy, instead of holding up our heads with joy, knowing that our redemption draweth nigh, we shall be haunted by the thought of privileges slighted, vows broken, Sacraments neglected; and shall hang our heads with shame and horrible confusion, knowing that our day of grace is over, and that instead of there being laid up for us a crown, which the righteous Judge should give us in that day, there remains only a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation that shall devour the adversaries of God and His Christ. O merciful God, who wouldest not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be con Ꮓ verted and live, have mercy upon us. Take from us all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of Thy Word, and so keep us, blessed Lord, in Thy flock, that we may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites, and be numbered evermore in the one fold under the one Shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. SERMON XIII. PREACHED AT THE IFFLEY CLUB FEAST, 1 TIMOTHY v. 8. Ir any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. WE are all of us liable to disease and exposed to accident. And it is a natural wish in the bosom of all that they may live to grow old. Such being the condition in which Providence has placed us, such the instinct which the Father of the spirits of all flesh has given to us, it of course becomes a matter of great consequence and importance to us all to make provision, as far as human foresight can, against the attacks of illness, the occurrence of accidents, and the helplessness of age. Some may be raised above the necessity of making such provision more than others: but there are not many who are altogether exempt from it in one shape or other. And the great bulk of our population must of course find that, as in other cases, so very remarkably in this, comfort and duty go hand in hand. Common sense and Holy Scripture unite to shew the necessity of doing it. "Save against a rainy day," is a maxim of which all see the wisdom and the weight. And Solomon, the wisest of men, bids us go to the ant and consider her ways and be wise, which provideth her meat in the summer and gathereth her food in the harvest.a The more highly civilized the age and country in which our lot is cast, the more mixed up one with another the different orders and degrees of society have become, the less easy, the less simple is it in many respects to make such provision. Yet we may be thankful that God's all wise and all gracious Providence, under the guidance of which, this very complexity, and, as it may at times seem to us, confusion of interests has grown up, has so ordered things for us, that what we might find it very hard to do each one of us for himself single handed, can be done easily and surely if we will join together and help one another. With the advance of society and the growth of civilization, there is discovered a Prov. vi. 6. |