“_And David’s heart smote him after that he had numbered the people_.
_And David said unto the Lord_, _I have sinned greatly in that I have
done_: _and now_, _I beseech thee_, _O Lord_, _take away the iniquity
of thy servant_; _for I have done very foolishly_.”
AT the time here spoken of, David had been, for nearly forty years, king
over “_the Lord’s people_.” The youngest of eight sons of one of the
shepherds of Israel, and raised from that lowly station to the throne by
the express appointment of Jehovah, it may well excite our surprise to
observe his conduct on the occasion to which the text refers. We might
have supposed that the incidents of his early life, no less than the
experience of his riper years, would have taught him a more simple spirit
of faith and trust than that which he now showed. “_A lion and a bear_”
came upon him while he was yet a boy, and took a lamb out of his father’s
flock which he was keeping; and he was not only delivered from them, but
enabled alone and unharmed to slay them. {3} At another time, when the
Philistine giant defied the armies of the living God, David went forth of
his own accord to meet him. Mindful of the same power which had saved
him from “_the lion and the bear_,” he asked no armour for his
protection. He sought no weapon for the fight. “_Strong in the Lord_,
_and in the power of his might_,” he prevailed, “_with a sling and with a
stone_.” {4a} And “_the weak thing_, _and the base thing_, _and the
thing that was despised_,” was chosen to confound and to “_bring to
nought the thing that was mighty_, _in order that no flesh should glory
in the presence of God_.” {4b} Then, again, how often had David been
rescued from the personal jealousy of Saul! What signal success had been
granted him against the enemies of Israel! And how strikingly had even
the rebellion of his own misguided son been overruled to the promotion of
his safety and glory!
But it appears that all this instruction had been given him in vain. He
was still disposed to depend, in the transaction before us, upon the
“_arm of flesh_.” Proud of the extent of his dominions and of the
multitude of his subjects, and secretly pleased with the proof it would
afford to other nations of his own wisdom and good government, he caused
the people to be numbered; although, as the opening of this very chapter
shows, it was against the advice, and even the entreaties, of his own
officers. For “_Joab_, _the captain of the host_, _had said unto the
king_, _Now the Lord thy God add unto the people_, _how many soever they
be_, _an hundredfold_, _and that the eyes of my lord the king may see
it_: _but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing_?
_Notwithstanding the king’s word prevailed against Joab_, _and against
the captains of the host_.” {4c} The heart of David, however, was soon
opened by Divine grace to confess and to deplore the offence which he had
committed. And the fearful judgment that followed served at once, in the
most instructive manner, to humble and to disappoint him, by showing him
how entirely he was dependent upon God for that _very source of strength
and greatness_ which his conceit led him to prize so highly, and how
suddenly he might be stripped of it. The account is given in the verses
which follow immediately upon the text. For being allowed to choose
between three visitations, famine, war, and pestilence, and preferring
that which he supposed would fall upon his country most lightly, “_the
Lord_,” we read, “_sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to
the time appointed_, _and there died of the people seventy thousand
men_.”
It may be right for us to bear in mind, that what made this act of
numbering the Israelites so very offensive to God, was that it tended to
draw off the hearts of the king and of his people from that single and
undivided regard which they owed to Him. All the trials of that nation
carried on for such a long course of years, and all the statutes and laws
given for their guidance, were meant to keep this conviction uppermost in
their minds. They had been singled out from the rest of mankind, not
only as the guardians of the true faith and worship, but as witnesses to
all the world of the power, and love, and faithfulness of the Lord.
Special mercies, continued miracles, wonderful deliverances were wrought
for them, in order that they might feel, at every stage of their eventful
history, that they were peculiarly _His people_. If _bread_ was wanting
to allay their hunger, or _water_ to assuage their thirst, or _raiment_
to cover their bodies, it was not provided by any of the slow
contrivances of human industry. But _the hard rock_ poured forth _their_
water, and _the heavens_ showered down _their_ food, and their “_raiment
waxed not old upon them_,” even during the long period of forty years.
If the inhabitants of every other land gave way before them as they
advanced, _they_ were taught, and they might have learnt, from the utter
disproportion of their own powers, that it was “_the Lord their God_” who
drove them out. And if, in the restlessness of their spirit, they
desired to have a king to reign over them, they were reminded that “_the
Lord their God_” was _their_ King. However _few_, in any case, were the
numbers of _their_ hosts, they always proved _sufficient_ for the work
which they were charged to achieve. And however _numerous_ they were at
other times, it might yet please Him, as it did on the occasion here
recorded, to turn their strength into weakness in an instant. This
numbering of the people, therefore, showed an utter distrust of that
goodness which had never failed them, and called down a judgment so
severe, that it must have warned them for ever against a repetition of
the offence.
The question will have occurred already, perhaps, to the minds of some
who hear me, Can any similar degree of guilt attach to that numbering of
our own people which is going on at this time throughout the land, from
one end of it even to the other? If, in the case of David, the measure
was condemned so fearfully, and involved so signal a punishment, what are
the circumstances in our own case that tend to remove from it any such
reproach, and may even lead us to hope that instead of thwarting the will
and pleasure of our God, we are really proceeding in conformity to it,
and even promoting his purposes of grace and goodness to our land?
My brethren, in order to answer such an inquiry aright, it seems only
necessary that we should remember the essential difference already
pointed out between the chosen nation and any which the world has since
seen. Never in any other case has the civil government of kingdoms been
carried on by the immediate agency of Almighty power. _Our_ national
welfare depends not upon miracles, but upon those provisions of human
forethought or experience, which, under the Divine blessing, appear best
adapted to meet each exigency that arises. And although there is often
cause to lament that this blessing is so seldom _implored_ by us
distinctly and publicly as a Christian people, and so little
_acknowledged_ by us in the many mercies, which, as a Christian people,
we are enjoying, yet still we may humbly believe that the inquiry now
conducted cannot be displeasing to God. Many facts will be learnt from
it conducive to the common good, and tending either to suggest or to
mature provisions for our social improvement. Many practical lessons
will be gained, teaching us how we may better “_bear each other’s
burdens_, _and so fulfil the law of Christ_.” {7a} Many truths will be
derived from the results of this Census, which may strengthen our hands
as “_members one of another_;” {7b} and some objects, it may be hoped,
will be answered by it, in the advancement of which we may cheerfully
join in giving effect to the counsels of our rulers.
At the same time there are thoughts mingling with this subject of a more
serious and personal kind, to which I could desire, in the guidance of
God’s Spirit, to direct your minds. And the occasion for suggesting them
appears so seasonable, and occurs so seldom, that it may reconcile us to
the omission of other topics of inquiry, and the endeavour to found upon
it some which may be made, under the teaching of that Spirit, conducive
to our edification and salvation.
This enrolling of our people _every tenth year_, each man’s family in his
own house, may it not read to us some lessons as Christians; while it
affords to those who are set over us in the Lord, the materials for their
guidance in the great work of government and legislation? Whether we
regard it as private individuals, or as fellow-subjects in that civil
community with which the Providence of God has connected us, or as
members of the Church of Christ and “_heirs together of the grace of
life_,” {7c} it may suggest to us many reflections of thankfulness,
self-inquiry and abasement.
_Ten years_ have passed away since this Census was last taken; and of
course by far the larger portion of those here present were at that time
included in it. These allotted periods fixed by the institutions of men
agree very remarkably with those which the Spirit of God in his word has
pointed out as warnings of the shortness and the uncertainty of life.
“_The days of our age are threescore years and ten_; _and if by reason of
strength they be fourscore years_, _yet is their strength labour and
sorrow_; _for it is soon cut off_, _and we fly away_.” {8a} If this,
then, be the limit to the life of man, what an important portion of it do
these latter years contain, quickly as they pass away, and short as they
now appear in looking back upon them! It is well known that nearly
one-half of the number of deaths that occur among mankind happen before
the tenth year of life is completed. Yet have _we all_ been spared,
through sickness, and casualties, and during one year of that term
through pestilence itself raging at our doors, to see the end of it; and
to improve it, as affording a rich fund of opportunities, and warnings,
and motives, and principles for the period yet to come. Nor is it only
life that has been thus continued to us; but life with all its attendant
health, and strength, and reason, and many temporal comforts. And there
have been dangers warded off, and blessings multiplied to us in a measure
which we should now find it difficult, even with the utmost stretch of
memory, to reckon; still less to trace out all those impressions of
gratitude and praise towards the Great Dispenser of them all, which each
of them, as it passed, ought to have fixed indelibly upon the heart. For
these are all the gifts, too often even the unasked gifts, but in every
case the undeserved and ill-requited gifts of Him “_in whom we live_,
_and move_, _and have our being_.” {8b} And in addition to these, how
mercifully have our spiritual privileges been continued to us, those
which unite us with “_Christ the hope of glory_,” {8c} and which open to
us the supplies of His grace, and which long since ought to have led our
affections from earthly to heavenly things. _For ten years more_ has the
revealed word of God been spread out before us, “_the engrafted word_,
_which is able to save our __souls_;” {9a} inviting us to “_flee from the
wrath to come_;” {9b} charging us to have our treasure in heaven; and
reminding us, wherever we open it, of the things which belong to our
eternal peace. _For ten years more_ has His Blessed Son been calling to
us to “_come to Him that we might have life_;” {9c} cheering us with the
promise that “_whosoever cometh to Him shall in no wise be cast out_;”
{9d} offering to meet and to bless us with His spiritual presence in the
ordinances of His own appointment upon earth, and interceding for us
continually before the throne of His Father in heaven. _For ten years
more_ has that Spirit who does “_not always strive with man_,” {9e} been
striving with _us_; often grieved by our coldness, our inconsistency, our
unwatchfulness; yet never quite leaving us to ourselves; and even now
waiting to be entreated by us, that He may purify and sanctify us wholly.
And let me say, that if it is an obvious, it is also a solemn thought,
that _these ten years_ have included above 500 Sabbaths; each of which
might have been, had we diligently improved them, a new step in our
advancement towards heaven. They might have made such an addition to our
stock of spiritual knowledge, and strength, and progress, as would ere
now have carried us far more onward than we have yet reached towards that
“_rest which remaineth for the people of God_.” {9f}
And then comes the concerning question, from which not one person who
hears me can escape; In what manner, to what degree have these advantages
been turned to account? _These ten years_ of continued forbearance, and
longer trial, and multiplied mercies on the part of our God, do they find
us at the close of them living more closely to Him; more desirous of His
favour; more afraid of His displeasure; and adorning more, in our life
and conversation, the gospel of His own dear Son? _So much __nearer_ as
we must know ourselves to be to our latter end, are we in any, and in
what measure, better prepared to meet it? Do our tempers and pursuits
prove us to be, what this new stage of our journey must convince us that
we are, mere “_strangers and sojourners upon earth_,” {10a} seeking “_a
better country_, _that is_, _an heavenly_?” {10b} Or rather, are there
not some sins still, as in time past, a shame and a burden to us; some
evil habits or negligences, some ignorances or omissions yet cleaving to
us, and even growing with our growth, and strengthening with our
strength? The world, the flesh, and the devil, those three enemies of
our souls whom we engaged in our baptism to renounce, have they less
power over us than they once had? And do we find in ourselves more
readiness to pray, more comfort in our private prayers, more delight in
our Sabbaths, more of actual profit from all the means of grace, than we
did before? With such an inquiry as this presented to him, and quickened
by the thought, that as more time is gone there is so much the less
remaining, may not the most advanced and established among us find room
for confession and self-abasement? And if this indeed be so, if even
“_the righteous scarcely be saved_, _where shall the ungodly and the
sinner appear_?” {10c} Where those who “_make a mock at sin_,” {10d}
“_glory in their shame_,” and only “_mind earthly things_?” {10e} What
must be their state in the sight of God, and what their aggravated
danger, who for _ten years more_ have been “_crucifying the Son of God
afresh_” {10f} by their open unresisted ways of sin, despising the grace
of God, and giving a more free indulgence to those very lusts against
which the true believers have been at least watching, and contending, and
praying?
My brethren, it may seem, no doubt, an alarming reflection, but it is
still a faithful saying, and confirmed by all our experience, that if
_ten years more_ have not carried us forward in our heavenly course, if
they do not find us growing in grace, in the knowledge of ourselves and
in the knowledge of Christ Jesus, they will too probably find us
confirmed in evil; more estranged from God; more ripe for judgment; the
chains of sin bound faster around us, and all our habits more difficult
of change; nay, even impossible to be changed, until that Spirit from on
high be given us, who can at any time turn a man from darkness to light,
but who, the longer He is wilfully slighted, is the less willing to be
sought.
These are some of the topics, and, as I well know, they are but a few of
them, which a retrospect of this interval might urge upon us as
individuals; and these arise only from a review of our own position as
the survivors of this new period of probation which the Lord in mercy has
permitted us to pass. But I might well ask you to cast your eyes once
more back, (it will be wise and profitable for us to do so,) in order
that we may call to mind how many persons, some of them dear to us as our
own souls, _began_ this same period with us, who have not lived like us
to witness its _close_. If the thought suggests to any of my hearers
some recollections of pain, and sorrow, and separation, may they have the
grace given them to consider that it is the brightest light which casts
the deepest shadows; and that there are trains of thought which can edify
while they sadden us; like the shade of Peter’s body, which, as it passed
across the multitudes, gave life and health to whatever it obscured.
{11a}
The number of interments which have occurred within the last ten years in
the three burial grounds of this parish have included more than a fifth
part of its population. Such is the sure and rapid way in which, day by
day, and year by year, the sentence passed upon our fallen race is
fulfilled. “_Dust thou art_, _and unto dust shalt thou return_.” {11b}
And some of these events, if I could now place them in order before you,
have been attended with circumstances so full of awakening instruction,
they have proclaimed so distinctly the instability of all earthly ties,
the vanity of all expectations that have not heaven for their object, and
the love of Christ for their security and their motive, that no louder
call could ever be addressed to those who have been most nearly affected
by them. And as surely and as quickly will the same mortality proceed
during the next decade of the world’s duration. Another like proportion,
another fifth, yes, my brethren, one person in five, of those who are
assembled here to-day, will be swept off from the engrossing cares and
the unsatisfying frivolities of life into the great charnel-house which
must ere long receive us all. How many more such ties will be loosened
before the same interval recurs again! Those whom we love the best may
be taken from us, or we from them, never more to meet until the
resurrection of the last day. With such perpetual notices before us of
the shortness of our time, and of the momentous nature of that work which
it is given us to do, let us resolve to work while it is day. Let us
neglect no call; let us abuse no warning; let us lose no opportunity
which may assist us in making our “_calling and election sure_.” {12a}
“_This I say_,” declares St. Paul, with a full conviction of the truth
upon his mind, “_This I say_, _that the time is short_: _it remaineth_,
_that both they that have wives be as though they had none_; _and they
that weep_, _as though they wept not_; _and they that rejoice_, _as
though they rejoiced not_; _and they that buy_, _as though they possessed
not_; _and they that use this world_, _as not abusing it_: _for the
fashion of this world passeth away_.” {12b}
Suffer me now to advert to some topics of inquiry which such an occasion
as this presents to us, as members of the same civil community,
fellow-citizens of the same favoured land, or even as inhabitants of the
same parish. There are other mercies for us to review, and there are
other grounds of humiliation in the abuse of them, which we have to
cherish beyond those which belong to us as private individuals. And to
these we cannot safely be indifferent.
Consider the many blessings we have to acknowledge as bestowed upon our
country. During the earliest of these intervals fixed for numbering the
people, of which we have now reached the sixth, we were engaged in
destructive wars, always a source of the most extensive misery and crime.
And ever, as the period came round for enrolling our living population,
there was an allowance to be made for the losses it had suffered of
multitudes who had passed into the grave before their full time, in
foreign lands, amidst the horrors of the battlefield or the naval fight,
their last hours wanting all the solace of domestic endearment or
spiritual comfort. But we have now been mercifully spared for nearly
forty years from any general or continued war. _Ten years more_ of
almost unbroken peace, or of peace broken only in the remoter
dependencies of the empire, have passed over us. And very few of our
countrymen, comparatively with other times, have had their lives cut
short by a scourge to which the pride and covetousness of mankind are
always urging them, but which it may be hoped the God of love and peace,
in answer to the prayers of His servants, will continue still to
restrain. It was a feeling of the terrors of that scourge which drew
from David the affecting entreaty recorded in the chapter before us:
“_Let us fall now into the hands of the Lord_; _for his mercies are
great_: _and let us not fall into the hands of man_.” {13}
And if it cannot equally be said that our land has been spared from the
visitation of pestilence, if it has pleased God, within the last ten
years, to send again among us that fearful judgment, what cause had we
for thankfulness that even in the midst of that judgment He remembered
mercy, and that in the most direct answer to prevailing prayer that we
have ever witnessed, He caused the disorder to cease even at the time
when it seemed to be defying all human means of restraining it.
There are two aspects in which this new enrolment will present itself to
the mind as connected with our national state. And there are different
conclusions to be drawn from it, according as they are viewed or not in
the light which the Scripture gives us, and tried by the rules which it
affords. It may be thought, when this new list is making out of our
people from one end of the country to the other, advancing as they
probably are in numbers, intelligence, and wealth, the result of it will
rather speak the language of exultation than of abasement. While we are
arranging in their different classes our men of opulence, and our men of
business, and our men of science, “_merchants_,” like those of the
“_crowning city_,” equal to “_princes_, _and traffickers ranked among the
honourable of the earth_;” {14a} our cunning artificers and our tillers
of the ground surpassing those of other lands in diligence, enterprise,
and talent; there is enough here, it may be thought, to assure us that
God is well pleased with us, and that all these proofs of worldly
prosperity are pledges of His favour. Surely, it will be said by some
who witness it, “_this great nation is a wise and understanding people_.”
{14b} And yet let us remember, that the distinctions of nations, like
those of individuals, are given to them as talents to be accounted for
and improved, not in order to flatter pride, or to promote the comparison
of themselves with others. The higher is the measure of our privileges,
the heavier is the weight of our responsibilities. These signs of
greatness may be found utterly worthless when they are weighed in the
balance of the sanctuary, and may be tending only to increase our
condemnation. If, indeed, our zeal for God’s glory had kept pace with
our experience of His mercies; if, placed as we are at the head of the
commerce of the world, our influence reaching to every sea and every
shore on which the sun shines, we had carried with us that best of our
national treasures, that which is interdicted to some nations, and, alas!
as yet unknown to many more, the pure, the full, the free gospel of the
grace of God; if, many years ago, we had taken up that position, to the
importance of which we seem only to have awakened of late, that of being,
as the heralds of the Church, the evangelizers of mankind; if the moral
and spiritual improvement of our people at home had advanced as rapidly
as their intellectual character, then, indeed, we might have given up the
account of our resources with joy and not with grief. But since it is
most true, as you yourselves also know, that while the largest funds are
never wanting for every scheme, the wildest, the most uncertain, of
worldly speculation or display, they are often left to fail, and to fall
away, and to be importuned for in the prosecution of the soberest, the
most scriptural plans for promoting the glory of God, or the welfare of
some distressed portion or other of our fellow-men; if all the boasted
improvements in our means of communication are only carrying into the
quietest and least corrupted districts of the land new incentives to
Sabbath desecration; if while we have been spared from the desolations of
foreign war, we are given up, at this very hour, to intestine divisions
pervading equally the Church and the State, and upon questions where a
Christian people ought to be found essentially agreed; here, again, we
have cause rather to humble than to exalt ourselves, and to fear lest our
God should enter into judgment with us for this poor requital of all the
distinctions with which we have been blessed.
The most remarkable event which, within _the last ten years_, has
affected the spiritual state of our own parish, has been the erection, in
a district scarcely built upon before, but in the midst of a poor and now
rapidly increasing population, of a spacious and splendid Roman Catholic
church, with extensive school-rooms and the residence of a priest
attached to it. My brethren, there are but few probably among us who
would lament this measure, if its only design and its only effect were to
provide for the instruction of that large number of Roman Catholic
labourers who inhabit that and the contiguous districts. Shut out as
they are, by the stern prohibitions of their own priesthood, from all
access to our means of grace; taught to believe that all doctrine is
heresy, and all instruction hurtful, which does not flow directly from
their own communion; living among us, as they did, for so many years,
like sheep having no shepherd, who would condemn the only provision being
at length made for them, of which their unhappy state admitted? Nay
more; may we not hope that having been left hitherto equally ignorant and
fettered, ignorant of the commonest means of knowledge, and fettered and
precluded from attaining it, the instruction now given to their children
will one day become the blessed means of enabling them to throw off their
fetters, and make an opening for the light of Gospel truth to shine upon
their souls? But, alas! all that we see and hear forbids us to believe
that the only design or effect of this measure is to enable the Romanists
to provide for their own people. There is already too much evidence to
show that it has all the character of an aggression upon the faith of the
members of our Church. It is in full accordance with those measures,
which within the last few months have happily awakened the Protestant
spirit of our whole people, and have shown in its true colours the
influence of that unscriptural and grasping Church from which they
sprang. By devices the most insidious, our people are invited to witness
the imposing ritual of this new building; while depositaries are opened,
even at our own doors, for the public sale of cheap tracts, that tend,
with bitter irony and gross misstatements, to discredit _our_
institutions and to recommend _theirs_. {17a} What will be the actual
result of all this conflict between truth and error before _ten more
years_ have passed, it may not be easy to say. If those among us who are
spared to outlive them are enabled to “_hold fast the profession of their
faith without wavering_,” {17b} they may not only save their own souls,
but lead others, who can only view Him now through the mists of their
corruptions, to honour the holy name of Him by whom we are called. But
surely, with these facts before us, there is the strongest inducement for
us all, not only to examine ourselves whether we are in the faith, but
why, and on what grounds we are in it; {17c} while there is a motive
created strong enough to induce all who have the means at their command
to promote any well-advised plans for arresting the evil, or turning it,
through God’s blessing, to good. {17d}
To conclude. The inquiry which will be going on to-morrow throughout the
country is addressed to us all, as the heads of our separate households;
each giving a return of the names, and ages, and birthplace, and
occupations of those, who will pass this very night under his own roof.
But surely the thought will occur to _some_ among us, I would to God that
it might be brought home by His Spirit to the hearts of _all_, that there
are several other points of inquiry besides these, upon which the great
Head of the Church may be expecting, and really does expect, an account
to be rendered by us. We may have no power to influence the character or
to regulate the habits of those large masses of the people whose
irreligion, in the crowded districts that surround us, we may deplore.
The influence which is to affect a whole nation falls within the power of
very few. But that which affects the character of any family or
household, (and nations are made up of families) depends mainly on the
principles, aye, and even on the tempers and way of life of those whom
God places over them; for this also is an allotment of His providence.
Let us then suppose for an instant, that it was desired to obtain, as on
this same day, a return of what might be called the spiritual statistics
of England. Suppose, that laying aside, or rather looking beyond the
mere considerations of civil or political economy, it were wished to
learn by such distinct and palpable records as might be furnished, the
actual state of religion through the whole extent of our population. I
well know, indeed, that there are signs and marks of which no earthly
inquiries could take cognizance; proofs of spiritual growth in some, and
of declension in others; secret concessions to the corrupt nature in one
class, or inward aspirations after holiness in the other; hypocrisies
which no eye can detect among “_the children of this world_,” and
spiritual conflicts in the “_children of light_,” which can only be known
to the Supreme Searcher of their hearts. But when all this is allowed,
we might lay down some distinctions in every case, the existence or the
absence of which would go far to show, whether the master of that house,
and those around him, were really serving God or not. If it were
inquired throughout the land, or if, limiting the supposition to our own
parish, it were asked in every house, Is family prayer maintained _under
this roof_? {18a} Is the Sabbath observed by the master, by the
servants, by the children, as “_a delight_, _the holy of the Lord_,
_honourable_?” {18b} all work suspended which may be left undone, and
every pursuit given up which is inconsistent with the real spirit of the
day, as one of holy rest? Would the general answers to these questions
be such as we could really ponder over with any comfort? Or again, if it
were asked, How many Bibles _in this house_ are diligently searched? How
many of its inmates are not only permitted, but encouraged and invited,
and if need be, urged to attend upon the public worship of God? Is there
a servants’ library _in this house_, to which every one of them may have
recourse for some edifying or self-improving reading during the leisure
intervals of their service? {19a} How many communicants are there _in
this family_ among those who have reached the proper age of full
communion with the Church, and with her living Head? How many of the
children are really reared in the spirit of their baptismal vows,
“_virtuously brought up to lead a godly and a Christian life_?” {19b}
Are not these subjects of inquiry on which there would be too great cause
for self-reproach to many among us; the reproach resting upon those who
had all the means afforded them for their spiritual sustenance and
growth, but have carelessly neglected to improve them?
My brethren, I commend these remarks in all faithfulness and affection to
your private meditations and your prayers. And may your own consciences,
enlightened by the Spirit of God, guide you to some profitable
application of them! May it be given to each of us to feel this day,
that we are supplying a return of so many beings, not merely connected
with us by the ties and duties of an earthly relation, or a short-lived
existence here; but of those who are travelling on quickly with ourselves
to an eternity of bliss or woe; precious, never-dying souls; the objects
equally with us of the Saviour’s love, the Spirit’s teaching, and the
Father’s care; called equally with us to be members of Christ, children
of God, and heirs of the kingdom of heaven. What “_I say unto you I
would say unto all_, _Watch_! _for ye know not when the Master of the
house will come_” to reckon with us, whether at the close, or the middle,
or the opening of this new decade on which we are now entering.
But this we know, that when the Lord does come the second time from
heaven, then will be the great numbering of the nations: not the mere
periodical census of a single kingdom, which, with all its boasted wealth
and enterprise, is but a mere speck upon the surface of our earth; but a
numbering of all the myriads that have ever peopled it, from the family
of the first man until there “_shall be time no longer_;” {20a} “_the sea
giving up the dead which are in it_; _and death and the grave delivering
up the dead_” {20b} which are in them; and all distinctions of age, or
rank, or learning, or riches, or power, lost and sunk, in the simple but
everlasting distinction between those who served God, and those who
served Him not; those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life,
and those not to be found there. And then will these inquiries and such
as these, which your ministers urge upon you now in “_the foolishness of
preaching_,” {20c} but which too often reach only unwilling ears and
careless hearts, then shall they be enforced by “_the voice of the
archangel and by the trump of God_.” {20d}
Let us then “_walk circumspectly_, _not as fools_, _but as wise_,
_redeeming the time_, _because the days are evil_.” {20e} And may we be
found so far faithful to Him who calls us, that out of these our earthly
households, some may be continually gathering to join that “_multitude
which no man can number_,” {20f} who, on the sea of glass and before the
sapphire throne, are worshipping Him that sits upon the throne, and
casting their crowns before Him, and saying, “_Thou art worthy to receive
glory_, _and honour_, _and power_; _for thou hast created all things_,
_and for Thy pleasure they are and were created_!” {20g}