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Release date: November 29, 2023
Original publication: St. John: Barnes and Company, 1858
THE LIFE OF THE DEPARTED:
PREACHED IN THE BAPTIST CHAPEL, GERMAIN STREET, CITY OF ST. JOHN,
Published by Request.
SAINT JOHN, N.B. PRINTED BY BARNED AND COMPANY, 66 PRINCE WILLIAM STREET
THE LIFE OF THE DEPARTED.
Your Fathers, where are they? Your Prophets, do they live forever? ZECHARIAH 1:5
The time was when Jehovah commanded his prophet Isaiah to make a public announcement. What was the import of the message with which the prophet was charged? Was it that a new world had been created? or that some new law was about to the introduced by the Supreme Divinity, which should give direction to the destiny of empire? Nay. He has a declaration to make, which was suited to the case and experience of every son and daughter of Adam; and the truth of which would be confirmed in the history of universal man. "The voice said, Cry; and he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field; the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass." What a solemn proclamation! What an impressive spectacle! Entire humanity withering, drooping, dying, under the righteous indignation of a sin-avenging God! "Dust to dust," is indelibly inscribed upon our physical nature, as God's unchanging law. To this law, the wisest, holiest, and best of men must bow in humble submission, as well as the most polluted and degraded of the race. From its sovereign authority there is no exemption. The bright and glorious stars that shone with so much lustre in the religious firmament of other days, have long since been extinguished in the darkness of the sepulchre. Righteous Noah lived to witness the burial and resurrection of a world; but at length was compelled to submit to the reign of death. The fathers and prophets of Old Testament renown, who in their day proclaimed God's law, unfolded the mysteries of his will, and stood boldly forth in vindication of his truth, all fell in this mighty conflict. So in all succeeding ages, those who have served their sovereign Lord in all fidelity, and devoted their best energies to the highest interests of mankind, have passed like others to the land of shadows. Such is the decree of heaven. The mysterious cords which connect matter and mind must be severed. "It is appointed unto man once to die." And die he must--the good as well as the bad must feel their "heartstrings break."
"The tall, the wise, the reverend head, Must lie as low as ours."
Your Fathers, where are they? your prophets, do they live for ever? Inspiration propounds these questions. What shall we say? Where are the fathers? Their bodies are in their graves. Do the prophets live? All that was mortal of them is dead. But they are nevertheless alive. Their souls are alive--their characters are alive; these can never die.
The thought which my text suggests, and to which I invite your prayerful consideration, is, THE LIFE OF THE DEPARTED, OR THE LIVING DEAD.
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