A SERMON, BY THE REV. B. S. HOLLIS, Of Islington Chapel. On occasion of the Death of Mrs. Sarah Moreland. PREACHED AT SPA FIELDS' CHAPEL, ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 23, 1842. "How wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?”—Jer. xii. 5. My Christian friends, it was not my in- | north;" meaning that "out of the north tention to have directed your meditations an evil should break forth." But his faith to these words, until they were mentioned was much tried; and unless he had beto me by the much esteemed husband of lieved, he would have fainted. He sees our departed friend. I had inquired "the way of the wicked prosper," and all whether he thought there was any par- those "happy who deal treacherously.” ticular subject, to which his beloved part- They are not only "planted," but "take ner would have had me call your atten-root" and are "fruitful;" while as for tion, with a view to the improvement of himself, he "stands in jeopardy every her decease. He knew of no such sub- hour." For the sake of his faithfulness ject; but on our way to the tomb on he is "killed all the day long, and acWednesday last, he reminded me that counted as a sheep for the slaughter." Mrs. Moreland had very frequently quoted His brethren, the villagers of Anathoth, our text, as one from which she had often gather a mob around him and deride his heard ministers preach, and one which dark sayings, and raise the infidel shout, had often deeply impressed her mind. In 'O Jeremiah, is all this true? And this way my attention was called to the so these are the plagues that shall be passage; and I now beg your solemn and visited upon us? Well, old prophet, you prayerful heed to the inquiry it institutes, shall not see our last end, for we mean to with a particular reference to your own be the death of you.' Now all this scurdecease,-"How wilt thou do in the rility and scepticism are discovered in swelling of Jordan?" Anathoth, the village of priests. The Jeremiah was a weeping prophet, a prophet is greatly disheartened and perman of a sorrowful spirit; disposed natu- plexed; he ventures to reason with his rally, and by the circumstances in which Maker, and asks, "Why are these things he was placed, to write "lamentations." so?" and God answers him according to For his faithful utterance of all that God his unbelief: "If thou hast run with the had spoken, he was often the object of footmen, and they have wearied thee, then. reproach and scorn and persecution. His how canst thou contend with horses?" ministry was "the burden of the Word of If, Jeremiah, thou art so depressed by the Lord;" he had to reprove sin and to civil outrage, how wilt thou endure foreign predict judgments. In one of his earliest invasion? If thou canst not march with visions, the object he beheld was, "a the foot regiments, how wilt thou keep seething pot with the face toward the up with the horse soldiers? If thou art VOL. XIV. F alarmed at the approach of the infantry of the Philistines and Edomites, how wilt thou bear the sight of the Chaldean cavalry? and then follows our text, "If in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?" Here God compares the effects of the judgments coming upon his country, to the surprise and terror spread throughout the region of the Jordan, upon the sudden and unexpected overflow of that river. In Joshua iii. 15, we read of the Jordan "overflowing all his banks;" and in the forty-ninth chapter of the same prophecy, the nineteenth verse, the prophet compares the attack made by Edom to the "coming up of a lion from the swelling of Jordan." On some portion of Jordan's banks there were very considerable thickets; in these beasts of prey would conceal themselves; an universal swell of the river would expel them from their coverts, and thus add to the terror and consternation of all "the people round about Jordan." Without dwelling longer upon Jehovah's interrogative, we say, in few words, divested of figure, He asks the prophet-'If lesser troubles so distract thee, how unprepared art thou for greater! "how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?" " We are about to accommodate the passage, or rather, to make it subserve a specific, instead of a general purpose. We are not friendly to motto texts, or to the plan of making passages serve the purpose of the preacher-of "wresting the Scriptures," although the truths advanced may be "good to the use of edification." Were such plans necessary, it would reflect upon the doctrine of the sufficiency of the holy writings. There is no useful truth in which it becomes the Christian minister to instruct his hearers, which may not be found already clearly and suitably expressed in the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth. We deprecate the habit, which some holy men have formed, of dwelling upon words where they ought to be unfolding doctrines, and of imposing allegories upon plain, one-meaning narratives. We may advance, or rather retreat in such habits, until we get back to Origen's doctrine of the mystical sense of Scripture; and like the Jewish doctors, and the Popish monks and the modern Antinomians, "make void God's word" by our fanciful interpretations. God's mysteries are not thus couched under single words; the profound doctrines of our common Christianity are not thus packed, as some deluded spirits have supposed, in the bend of a letter or the syllables of a phrase. Perhaps you say-" Physician, heal thyself;" but we do not condemn ourselves to-night, in the thing that we allow. In our text we have a figure, we do not make one. We conceive the meaning of the Spirit of Truth is just this,-If lesser troubles so distress us, how shall we endure greater ?-And we dwell upon this specific inquiry,-If the troubles incident to our passing through the world discompose and agitate and overwhelm us, how shall we bear the severance of every tie that binds us to earth? how shall we bear to die? Nor are we surprised that the river Jordan should so generally have reminded Christians of death. It is undeniable that Canaan was a type of heaven,-of the "rest that remaineth for the people of God;" and the chief of that country occupied by God's people lay along the Jørdan. As Moses approached it, the Jordan separated it from the Israelites; it was through the bed of the river, that Joshua and the priests and the people had to pass, when they formally and religiously took possession of the land. The country was bounded on one side by the Great Sea, and the other by this river. The upper portion was bounded by the mount and the forest of Lebanon, from which the Jordan seems to have ema A nated; and the swelling of the river was are the intrusions upon his silent grief. occasioned by the melting of the snows Abraham, though he loved his Sarah, collected on the mountains and in the must be up and doing. There is a grave forest. The river passed through the to prepare at Machpelah, and "his dead" Lake of Galilee, and tolerably direct must be buried out of his sight. Oh ! along the coast of Canaan, emptying itself there is, too, a melancholy satisfaction at the lower portion of the land into the whilst deceased friends remain under the lake Asphaltes. To cross the river accustomed roof. But at length, the when it was swollen by land-floods was cheerless, vacant moment, comes! very perilous, on account of the width to moment, when every pressing claim has which it then extended; and failing in the been met, and the survivor begins to attempt, the adventurer would be borne realise his loneliness and his loss. down by its current into the Dead Sea, the May I not suppose, my dear friends, accursed vale of Siddim, the sulphurous site that that moment has now arrived? You of those devoted cities, Sodom and Gomor- are released from the duties, which have rah, which were destroyed by the descent so engaged your attention, and are dis- 1 of "brimstone and fire from the Lord out posed, as well as prepared, to give me of heaven." I say, brethren, regarding your undivided attention. Oh! if my the situation of the Jordan, and the typical subject has a voice to this congregation character of Canaan as a land of rest and and to this Christian Society, of which a land of promise, we seem already guided our deceased friend was a member,—if by the very geography of that river to a spe- it speaks to every one who knew the decific application of our text,-" How wilt | parted, how loudly does it interrogate thou do in the swelling of Jordan?" When you, the surviving relatives! you, the called to ford the river of death, wilt thou husband and the children of that wife arrive safely in the promised land? or and that mother, who "now through will its deep, wide torrent bear thee down faith and patience inherits the promises !" to a land that is accursed, to an ocean of I say, my beloved friends, to you, speciwoe? "How wilt thou do in the swelling ally and separately, is addressed the of Jordan ?" solemn inquiry "How wilt thou do the swelling of Jordan?" Oh! may God give you tenderness of conscience with compunction of feeling, that the inquiry may be laid to heart. We claim your attention to a few remarks upon the solemnities of death, and the preparation which they demand. I. We consider THE SOLEMNITIES OF DEATH—“ the swelling of Jordan." But I turn from the bereaved family to what I may with propriety call the beBereaved friends, I know that to you who reaved congregation; and to you, who were connected in any way with our de-are but strangers within these gates. My ceased friend, there have been many dear friends, there are two things, which things to occupy and divert the mind I must urge upon your attention before I during the mournful arrangements proceed. I know they are commonof a funeral. And it is well. The place, but they are none the less importbustle and business incident upon death, ant, just as bread is of more value than give a healthful turn to the thoughts. dainties. I mean the certainty of your It is well. Duties there are, which own individual dissolution and the immorclaim immediate and diligent atten- tality of your soul. tion, and the mourner is roused from his melancholy musings. Not a few Our subject is-Death! Greyheaded wanderer! it concerns you! Youthful prodigal! it concerns you. Thou who Brethren, we uow advance to a consiart now in health, and therefore, regard-deration of the solemnities of death; we less of thy latter end! it concerns thee. do so with the persuasion, that you carry Oh! that I could rivet this truth upon with you the conviction of your own every conscience,-I must die. The king death, and your own immortality. And of terrors is a general, that accepts no now, suffer me to conduct you, not for substitute. There is "no discharge in this the present to the death chamber of our war." I must die! "Death hath passed departed friend, but to your own. "How upon all men.' Before fifty years have wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?" passed away, where shall this vast assembly We may remind you how often death is be found? My dear hearer, pardon me associated with unwonted agony. You if I am tedious; if I reiterate what I have known perhaps something of bodily know all must allow,-that death is cer- pain; you have suffered, it may be, from tain. I do so, because on this ground I broken bones, or difficult breathing, or rest my claims to your personal and parching fever, or utter prostration. earnest attention. Fellow-pilgrim, thou We know that death may not have these must cross the Jordan, or be carried aggravations; we know also, that not a down to ruin by its current. And how few die thus hardly. Think of the surwilt thou, then, "do in the swelling" render of the breath! the soul wrenched from its material framework, thereof? The other truth, of which we remind you, is the immortality of your soul. Yes, my brethren, it is this, which clothes the subject of death with such overwhelming solemnity. The casket may perish, but the jewel is indestructible. "The body returns to dust, but the spirit unto God, who gave it." We are not at liberty to enter upon the proof of this doctrine tonight. We must suppose it believed. Surely we have none here disposed to doubt the deathlessness of the human soul: none so sceptical as to cast aside a revelation so authenticated as this inspired Volume. Oh! dare you, with the light you possess, join issue with that revolutionary mob, which once shouted as the best license for their butchery and licentiousness," Death is an eternal sleep?" You cannot, I know you cannot. Your enlightened judgment, your alarmed conscience, protests against such rampant scepticism. Whatever your character, you do bow to that authority, which assures you of a future state and an eternal world; a world, which shall in part be peopled by human minds. "The pains, the groans, the dying strife !" But I will not enlarge upon this idea. There is another; the final separation from the dearest of earthly connections. There is something solemn in a last interview, although the separation may be relieved by frequent correspondence. But at death, the separation is complete. Looks of affection and words of condolence are exchanged for the last time. The husband asks for the last sign of peace, and receives the last weak, cold grasp; the child is invited behind the curtain to receive the last charge,—“ And thou, Solomon, my son, know thou the God of thy father." Oh! there are solemnities in such parting scenes !—when the husband or the wife is left to struggle on alone with the difficulties of earth: when the orphan beholds father and mother forsaking him, and knows that he remains to tenant an inhospitable world. And alas! not unfrequently such separations have their anguish heightened by the bitter remembrances of past neglect, and the dreadful thought that they are indeed final; unless the fellowship be renewed in that place where hope never cometh! My brethren, I could not fail may be called into the vineyard at "the to remind you of these things; but I shall eleventh hour." But do we read of one not dwell longer upon them. I know at the twelfth? Yet must we admit, that that all these things may be so outweighed our probation has not closed until then? by considerations of eternal moment,- Oh! it may be, it may be-it is not personal alarm-as to be less than the likely, it is most unlikely, yet it may be, "small dust of the balance:". that even in the agonies of death, the guilty sinner may repent and turn unto the Lord, and his sins, which are many, be all forgiven him. It happened once, that a dying thief was associated with a dying Saviour; but it will never happen again. "Dying is nothing; it is this we fear,To be we know not what, we know not where." We shall proceed to consider the solemnities of death, as connected with the fact, that death terminates the probation of man. What saith the Scripture ?"Christ dieth no more!" "There is no work nor device in the Well, my brethren, visit the chamber of the sick and dying; nay, imagine yourself reclining upon the bed of death, and the time of your departure at handyour race run, and the prize won or lost! Behind you may be seen "the deeds done in the body," all crowding up to accompany you to the bar of God, and some perhaps "gone before to judgment !" Oh! are they pardoned? Before you lies Eternity; but which of its compartments do you approach? "To-day shalt thou be" where? In perdition, or in paradise? with the Saviour, or with Satan? lost, or saved? grave, whither thou goest." My brethren, we have no warrant in the Word of God for any belief in the doctrine of Purgatory. No; it makes death the boundary of hope; the Jordan that separates Canaan from the lands of the uncircumcised. "It is appointed unto man once to die; and after this"-what? "the judgment." Did our merciful Saviour hold out any such hope, as those by which Popish priests fill their coffers, the purging of men's souls by the fires of an intermediate state?—and all this, forsooth, depending upon the supererogatory works of saints, the masses of priests, Oh! how terrible to be undecided then or rather, the silver and the gold of sur--ignorant then! How much viving relatives ? No, my brethren. terrible to be impenitent then-careless What prayers would Abraham hear for then-unpardoned,unsanctified, unsaved? the damned soul of the rich man? No: Perhaps the thought of a dread eternity Thou art "Between us and you," he cried, "there alarms thee for the first time. is a great gulf fixed." No: hearken to about to seek in earnest for me rcy-about His faithful warning-" If ye die in your to look unto the Saviour; but another sins, where I am, ye cannot come." billow of the Jordan rolls over thee, and the torrent carries thee down to the dark abyss. "How wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan ?" more Oh! it is this, invests the scenes of death with such solemnity. The die for eternity is to be thrown! The soul is about to pass-see! see! the soul is about to pass away! And whither? To glory, or to perdition-to heaven or to hell. Let me not be misunderstood. I do not mean, that this is necessarily an unsettled point till then. No; the great question is usually settled before these But the invitations, the counsels, the redreadful moments. A few-a very few-proofs, all are hushed! The last privilege Time forbids my stay. I could linger here, and tell you of warnings forgotten, until, like spectres, they surround the dying couch; of afflictions, with their broken vows; of sermons, with their convictions and purposes and prayers. |