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11-25 11.4 IIIIII.6

CiHM/ICMH

Microfiche

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CIHM/ICMH
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Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques

1980

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(—<»»-♦ t •

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^<\J^t^% ^ €>^ < ^ w L-:-vCa .. «. • r ,

mmsifismi

OF THE LATE

JOHN" MELVILLE,

LOCOMOTIVE DEPARTMENT OK G. T. R.; FOR MANY YEARS

A MEMBER OF ST. MATTHEW'S CHURCH, POINT

ST, CHARLES,

PREACHED IN ST. MATTHEW'S CHURCH,

SUNDAY, 24th JUNE, 1874,
BY REV. CHAS. A. DOUDIET.

■*^*-

MONTREAL :

**WITNESS" PRINTING HOUSE.

1874.

SERMON.

Note. — The late John Melville was killed on the 14th of June
whilst returning to his work in the Grand Trunk Railway shops. He
was standing on one of the many tracks that cross the Lachine Road
at' Point St. Charles, when a locomotive coming up behind him threw
him down, and mangled his limbs so fearfully that he survived only
about an hour. He was calm in the midst of his sufferings; addressed
a few words of comfort to his wife and children, and, having joined in
prayer with the minister of his Church, peacefully expired.

" Our friend

sleepeth" — John xi., ii.

Dear Brethren,

The hand of the Lord is heavy upon
us. There is a vacant seat before me to-day which last
Sabbath was occupied. One who for a time was an
Elder of this church, and at all times its true friend, hath
fallen asleep in Jesus. A voice that often joined with
ours on earth to sing the praises of the Lord, will be
heard here no more. A fellow pilgrim through the
world's wilderness has passed from our sight. We have
laid his body in its last resting place, — dust to dust, ashes
to ashes, — and now, a last public duty is ours, a duty at
all times delicate and difficult ; one, indeed, to which
there is but One that ever proved ' himself equal the
duty of comforting the mourner and interpreting Provi-
dence. Who is sufficient for these things? Praying,
therefore, that the Spirit of Christ might guide us in the
performance of this, our arduous task, we have turned
to the sweet and simple story related in the eleventh
chapter of John, and in the three words of Jesus, that
form our text, we have thought that much could be
found to comfort and to cheer ; much to help us to say
with true resignation and faith : '' Father, Thy will be
done on earth as it is done in heaven."

Our friend sleepeth," says Jesus to his disciples,
who with himself had often shared the welcome and hos-
pitality of the family of Bethany. There He spoke
from a divine point of view. To God there is no death.
His creatures do not pass from his sight when they dis-
appear from before our eyes. " Whither shall I go from
" Thy Spirit, and whither shall I flee from Thy presence ;
*' if I ascend up into heaven Thou art there ; if I make
" my bed in hell, behold. Thou art there ; if I take the
" wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts
" of the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me, and
" Thy right hand shall hold me." All live to God ; He
is not a God of the dead, but of the living. The disciples
understood not at first the deep meaning hidden in these
words of Jesus, " Our friend sleepeth." Let us not
blame them, for with all the knowledge of life and im-
mortality revealed in the Gospel, when God recalls our
friends, how hard it often is to dismiss the despairing
thought that they are lost to us for ever, and to remember
that they only sleep, and that " God will bring again
with him them that sleep in Jesus." Christ did not re-
prove his disciples then for their slowness of understand-
ing, but, remembering their infirmities, he accommodated
his language to their imperfect ideas, and told them
plainly, "Lazarus is dead." Yet not long after, when
speaking to Martha, he utters this sublime and profound
declaration : " He that believeth in Me, though he were
" dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and
" believeth in me shall never die."

This brings us back to our assertion that there is
really no deaths if death simply means cessation of exis-
tence. There is a very great change in the cond. .'ions of
life ; there is the casting-ofT of a " tabernacle of clay,"
often accompanied with pain and agony ; but through
all, the living principle remains unimpaired. Whilst the
soul of the believer ascends up to God to enter into rest,
• the mortal frame, which here was its dwelling, is also at

rest, peacefully sleeping until the great resurrection day.
Even this last lowly resting place is blessed and hallowed
for Christ's disciples, for he sanctified it when, for three
days, his body slept therein.

It is because soul and body rest, that Jesus calls death
a sleep. Sleep is rest : rest from labor, pain, toil and
grief; and the sleep of the tomb is, moreover, restfrom
passion, sin and temptation. The hard battle of flesh
and spirit is over ; Satan defeated has fled, and ere the
day of triumph is celebrated in the view of the whole
universe, the Christian warrior sleepeth. " The wicked
" have ceased from troubling, the weary are at rest."

Our friend is taking this rest. No weariness can
ever more be his. None of the aches and pains of this
life can ever awaken him out of his sleep. Doubts and
fears can never more disturb his peace. The chains of
sin are broken, the prison-house of matter has crumbled
to ruin, and another victory over the great enemy of
mankind has been gained through the blood of the Lamb ;
another " brand has been plucked from the burning ;"
another earthly traveller has passed through the gates
of pearl.

" Our friend sleepeth." This sleep is not forever.
We sleep, and wake again. Unconscious of the flight of
time the sleeper awakens as the dawn ushers in another
day, and it seems but a moment from the evening when
he laid himself down exhausted, to the morning when he
rises refreshed. A nobler mornivig will dawn for every
followerof Christ,— a morning without clouds, and then
even the inert and decayed body will rise from its narrow
bed. "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with
" a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the
" trump of God, and '^^e dead in Christ shall rise."

When the body is . ,ieep the mind does not necessar-
ily share in that state of unconsciousness. The existence
of dreams proves this, in a partial degree, at least. We^
only remember, and even then indistinctly, the dreams*

that immediately precede ouv awakening. It would,
therefore, be impossible to prove that, at any time, the
soul has been asleep. But even if this was asserted, the
Word of God, in speaking of death as of a sleep, only
speaks of the perishable body, lying motionless and un-
conscious in the bosom of the earth. This important
truth is proved by the inspired words of Paul in 2. Cor.,
V. 6. : " Therefore, we are always confident, knowing
" that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent
" from the Lord (for we walk by faith, and not by sight) ;
" we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent
*' from the body, and to be present with the Lord."

After the resurrection, the soul will be no longer
" absent from the body ; " therefore, if, as the Apostle
says, Christians are " present with the Lord " before the
resurrection, whilst yet " absent from the body," we arc
taught to believe that immediately after death the souls
of followers of Christ are enjoying a conscious existence
in the presence of the Lord of life. Nor does this im-
portant doctrine rest upon one single text of Scripture.
We read elsewhere that Paul " was in a strait betwixt
" two, having a desire to be with Christ, which is far
" better." Can it be claimed that the Apostle meant that
to spend thousands of years in unconscious sleep was bet-
ter for him, and not rather that from the moment his
eyes closed to this worldly scene his soul would stand in
the presence of his loved Lord .? Dr. Watts, commenting
upon this passage, says : " It is evident that the Apostle
" hoped to be present with the Lord immediately, as soon
" as he was ' absent Irom the body ;' otherwise, death
" would have been to him of little gain, if he must have
'' been sleeping till the dead shall rise at the general
" resurrection." Stephen, falling under the murderous
missiles of his Jewish persecutors, " looked up and saw
" the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand
'' of God," and as he felt his soul departing he called up-
on his Saviour saying : " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."

Evidently his conviction .was that at this very time, and
not thousands of years hence, his soul would be with God.
Likewise, when Jesus was dying on the cross, he did not
say to the penitent thief who called upon him to " remcm-
" ber him," " Thou shalt be with Me in heaven after the
" resurrection," but '' to-day thou shalt be with Me in
" Paradise."

Therefore, we firmly hold that whilst the body is con-
signed to a long, dreamless sleep in the grave, the soul
immediately enters an active and vigorous life. And if
this is so, what human heart can conceive the bliss, the
delight, the rapture of the disciple of Christ as he ex-
changes, in a moment, the pains and sorrows of earthly
life for the peace and joy of the Father's House above,
and finds himself ushered by angels into the presence of
Him " whom not having seen he loved !"

" . . . . O beatific sight!
" O vision, with which nothing can compare!

" . . . O blessed look ! how brief
" I know not; but eternity itself

** Will never from my soul erase the lines
" Of that serene, transfiguring aspect.
* * • *

" He raised me tenderly, saying 'My child,'
" And I, like Thomas on that sacred eve,
" Could only answer Him, 'My Lord, My God!' "

— Bickerstdh.

Some have thought that the souls of men, instead of be-
ing consigned at once to heaven or to hell, await the day
of judgment in a middle state, happy or wretched, ac-
cording as they are of the saved or the lost. We find,
however, no warrant m Scripture for such an opinion.
If the soul of the Christian at death is, as the Apostle
says, " with Christ," it is in heaven ; for where Christ isi
there also is heaven. Jesus ever standeth at God's right
hand making intercession for us. Therefore if the soul
is with Christ, it is also before the throne of the Father,
in the highest heaven. This is further confirmed by the
parable of the rich man and Lazarus. They die : one

is found " in hell grievously tormented," and the other
" comforted, in Abraham's bosom."

Seeing, then, that death is not an unconscious sleep of
the soul, that it is neither the suspension nor the extinc-
tion of our being, we derive an immense consolation
from the fact that whilst " our friend sleepeth," his
glorified spirit is with Christ. This doctrine teaches us
not to let our thoughts linger too much about the grave,
where his mortal remains await the coming of the Lord.
True, as the very dust of Zion was dear to the captive
Israelite, thus even the dust of our dear departed is pre-
cious ; but a day cometh when by the mighty power that
raised Christ from the dead, God shall speak to those
frail and fast decaying fragments of humanity, and they
that hear shall live. Yet, if our loved and lost were al-
lowed to speak to us from heaven, this is what they
would say :•" Weep not for us, but for yourselves. Our
" troubles are over, our conflict is ended, our temptations
" are past, our burden is gone, our crown is won. Weep
" for yourselves, for yours is still the cross, yours ^He
" trials, yours the afflictions, yours the tears."

But the body of our friend sleepeth, and this palpable,
material, visible fact, being too apt to take the first place
in our thoughts, we come back to the strange, yet not the
less true assertion, that this sleep is not forever. For

Jesus himself has said: "The hour cometh when

" the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and
" they that hear shall live" — and also, " Marvel not at
" this, for the hour is coming, in the which all that are
*' in th^ graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth."
The victory of Christ over Satan would not be complete
if this was not so. The evil one could still boast that
he had marred the beauty of God's master-piece of crea-
tion ; that part of his destructive mischief was irremedi-
able ; and that, although defeated in his attempts against
the souls of God's elect, he had triumphed in the utter
ruin of their bodies. But the Word of God declares

that the enemy of man will not even have this poor con-
solation. Not a hair of the head of God's people falls
without his express per^iission, and not a single trophy
of victory will be taken by Satan when he is consigned
to his everlasting doom.

To explain how this universal restoration of bodies,
whose organisms have been in some cases scattered to
the four winds of heaven, will take place, may exceed our
powers of understanding, but believing that " with God
•' all things are possible," and that nothmg can be too
hard for One who created worlds out of nothingness by
a mere effort of His will, we bow reverently before His
mighty word and say : " The Lord hath spoken, shall he
'^ not also do it ?"

And that hour cometh when it will be done. It is not
a mere man who thus prophesies, it is the Son of God,
it is God himself. He said of his friend Lazarus, " he
" sleepeth ;" but he also said, " the hour cometh when
" those that sleep shall awaken and rise." He proved
his right to prophesy thus, when, by a word, he brought
back life to the ruler's little daughter who had just died —
to the son of the widow of Nain, who was about to be
buried — and to Lazarus, who had been four days in the
tomb. He proved it still further when He rose Himself
from the grave, and so important did early Christians
deem this last proof of the Saviour's power that one of
them says : " If Christ is not risen, your faith is vain
" and you are yet in your sins."

Our friends that sleep hear not our voices, they give
no answer to our lamentations over them ; but at the
voice of the Son of God, at the sound of the trump of
Gou, earth shall give back its dead, and they shall live.
Not to begin a new existence, mixed up with pain and
sorrow, with trouble and sin, like this present life ; the
friends of Jesus will rise to reign with Him, His triumph,
their triumph, His life, their life. They shall be " caught
" up to meet the Lord in the air," and shall ever be with

Him. Before the assembled multitudes who lived and
died since the creation of this world, before angels and
archangels, they will be declared " blessed of the Father,"
and the heirs of the " kingdom prepared for them from
" the foundation of the world."

Oh ! who can describe the ecstacy of that glorious
resurrection, who can paint the joy of seeing once again,
resplendent in glorious life and beauty, the incorruptible
bodies of those we knew and loved ; of marking with
eager rapture the marvellous change in the features of
dear faces that we last watched when clouded by the
grey shadows of death, of meeting once more the glance
of bright loving eyes that we have seen growing dim in
the pangs of approaching dissolution. What eternity of
bliss in the renewed embrace of arms and the hearty
clasp of hands which we mournfully crossed, rigid and
cold over the icy bosom. For all this is necessarily in-
cluded in the words, " God shall bring again with Him
them that sleep in Jesus." Many a Naomi shall find again
her Elimelech. Many an Isaac, his Rebecca. Many a
David, the little child that loving arms tenderly raised
from its cradle to lay it in its bier. " Eyes have not seen,
nor ears heard, nor has it ever come up into the heart of
man the things that God hath prepared for them t!iat iove
Him."

With such hopes before us why should we mourn, al-
though " Our brother sleepeth." To quote the words of
a distinguished French author, " When the green grass
" of another June waves over us, when the soft summer
" wind of another June sighs through the green leaves,
" when the sunshine of some more genial day shall cheer-
" fully brighten the stone that may bear our name and
" yours, what better can we wish, that if we leave be-
" hind us those who may sometimes visit the quiet spot
'• where we are laid, they may be able to say humbly and
" hopefully," what we now say of our departed brother,
" Surely here at last, and surely there^ in a better place,

" the weary heart and hand are still, yea surely, God
" hath given His beloved sleep."

When our friends fall asleep in Jesus, we do not usual-
ly, in the first bitterness of our grief, take in all the conso-
lations disclosed to us by faith. Even those who, in times
of prosperity, thought that nothing could ever shake
their trust in God, find themselves as broken reeds, pros-
trated by the furious blast of sorrow. A question,
fraught with rebellion against Almighty God, comes,
times and again, to disturb the already distracted mind :
Why hath the Lord done this.? — a question often unans-
werable. God's ways are not our ways, nor his thoughts
our thoughts. Darkness is round about him. Clouds
are the habitation of His throne. Mystery attends His
footsteps. But even where the cause of God's afflictive
providence towards us, is unknown, would it not be wiser
to ask, not : Why hath God done this ? but : Why hath He
done only this.? Instead, the soul questions the jus-
tice or the wisdom of the blow. Like Asaph in the 73rd
psalm, it says, " The ungodly prosper in the world, but
all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every
morning. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain." Is
it strange that for such souls, dark clouds entirely hide
the glorious light which ought constantly to shine upon
the Christian's path.? Ah! brethren, if there was no
resurrection, if, when our friends fall asleep, there was
never to be an awakening, then indeed we might weep
over the ill-fortune of those who only enjoyed the world
for a very brief season, and have now lost its enjoyments
forever ; we might weep to think that those who possess-
ed the treasures of our love, must now forever remain
unconscious of our accents of despair. Then, indeed, to
every plan for the future, to every thought of coming
hope, the memories of lost ones would be mixed, and to
every word of comfort and cheer, would be opposed the
conviction of despairing hearts, crying, " They will re-
turn no more." And in the hopeless grief of unbelievers

we see the consequences of such blind and sinful repin-
ings, in the existence of hearts crushed down by their
weight of grief, in lives that have of life but the name,
for the mourner's heart is laid in the grave with the
ones that are lost. Such men bitterly question the wis-
dom and mercy of the Creator ; they complain that life is
aimless and empty. They say, " Why hath God endowed
" us with powers of affection, only to make them instru-
*' ments of torture to our poor hearts.' " And they weep
longf, long after vacant seats round the hearth have been
filled by others, and even when succeeding years have
furrowed the brow and whitened the hair, the sight of
some familiar object, the stray sound of a voice, an acci-
dental resemblance, awaken storms of emotion.

" And then the feelings liid for years
Break forth at length in burning tears."

But, oh, believers, Jesus who said to the lone widow
of Nain, " Weep not," repeats this to you. Not that he
condemns the natural expression of our erief, for He
Himself wept ; but the sinful excess of sorrow, .,nly
jnstiflable in them that have no hope. The riddles that
puzzle unbelief are not mysteries for our most holy
faith. An answer is given to every question of our doubt-
ing hearts. Some ask : " Why were our friends called
" before us ? " God's Word teaches in answer that it was
because their work on earth was done. When our ao-
pointed task is ended we also shall enter into rest.
Or, if we ask : " Why was the silver cord of our affec-
tion broken ? " the answer is ; " Is it, indeed, broken ?
" Faith will pass away ; hope be replaced by sight, but
" love never dies. Human ties between disciples of
" Christ shall be drawn closer ; the sleep of the grave
" cannot destroy them." If it be sweet to think that our
souls were bound on earth to those of our sainted dead,
how much sweeter still to know that in entering heaven
they have helped to lift up our affections there ; that part

of our better self dwells already with them in the Heaven-
ly Mansions.

Even on the rugged thorns of life a God of love hath
scattered white blossoms, even along the desert path
He hath planted grateful shades ; even in the wilderness
He hath caused living springs to flow. Blessed are those
who through taith can avail themselves of these divine
comforts. " As their days their strength shall be." They
may, like the bush which Moses saw near Horeb, be
surrounded with the fiery flames of alfliction, and yet be
not consumed.

" Our brother sleepeth," and thanks be to God that
we can add " He sleepeth in Jesus." There are many
who, in the hour of death, call on God for mercy, who,
during life and health, lived only for the world ; when
they are gone we can say but little to comfort the friends
they have left behind. But this is not the case here. For
many years a member of the Church, our friend, in a quiet
and unassuming way, strove to fulfil his duties to God
and man. It is not long since he stood with us before
the Lord's Table, and for the last time on earth recalled
in the sacred symbols his Saviour's dying love. He did
not wait for the hour of death to seek reconciliation to
God. He sought the Lord in days of health and pros-
perity, and, therefore, when all unexpectedly he was
summoned to appear before His awful throne, he was
found " clothed, and not naked." He fell where we all
should fall when our appointed time comes, in the way
of duty, and through all his dying agonies the hand of
God upheld him, keeping his mind unclouded to the last.
A loving husband, a kind father, a faithful friend, he
leaves behind him the unsullied reputation that should
bear witness to the reality of the faith of every Christian,
and now, although dead, he yet speaketh. The sudden-
ness of his call repeats to every one of us the Saviour's
warning : " Watch, for ye know not the day nor the

14'

" hour in which the Son of man cometh." \^''hilst life
is calm and prosperous, and all around us is peaceful,
profit of the time to rear upon Christ, the Rock, a spirit-
ual building that may withstand the storm and the flood.
It is not time to build when the tempest is raging. Sail-
ing upon the sea of life, it will not do to wait to secure
the masts until the hurricane bursts above our heads. It
is not time to dig wells when a conflagration consumes
our dwellings; neither is it time to think of salvation only
when the soul is fast departing.

Our brother's death repeats to us that it is a great
thing to be a Christian, that the peace of God is, indeed,
a pearl of great price that worlds could not purchase,
and yet given freely to him that believeth. With that
peerless jewel in our possession the soul remains tranquil,
even when storms heap up their threatening clouds over-
head, even when sorrow, sickness and death invade our
homes. With that precious peace, even though the
angel of death should stand at our own bedside, we can
keep our eyes fastened upon the Lord of glory and forget
all but His love.

" Our brother sleepeth." There is a gap in the
ranks of Christ's defenders in this congregation. Breth-
ren, who will fill this gap? Who of you all, dear hearers,
that until now has hesitated to profess openly his love for
Christ, will take warning and consecrate himself for time
and eternity to his Redeemer .^ And above all, we pray
that this bitter affliction may be sanctified to our brother's
nearest and dearest, so that in the day of Christ they all
may stand together at God's right hand, a united family
in heaven. Jesus once said of the blessed dead that they
shall be like the angels in heaven, and also that " there
*' is joy in heaven among the angels of God over one sin-
ner that repenteth." From this we would infer that our
friends in heaven may share in this " angels' joy," and
though on earth we cannot do anything else to give them
joy, or add to their pleasures, yet it may be that by a sin-

cere repentance and turning to God we furnish them with
a new subject of praise, and, therefore, of enjoyment.
Let this additional inducement to love Jesus have due
weight with every one who has a friend in heaven, and
as of ourselves we are powerless for good, let us have
recource to the Source of all wisdom and power to be
helped in our need.

Sleeping brother, here we bid thee farewell. Rest
in thy Saviour's arms until the great resurrection day,
and when our appointed hour is come, may we meet
with thee again under the ever-green shades of the t-ee
of life ; together may we tread the golden streets and
drink of the waters of the pure crystal stream that flows
from the throne of God. Short is the time, and then
our eyes shall behold the King in His glory, earth's
woes and tears all forgotten. With His own '^ pierced
" hand of love" Christ shall wipe away every tear."

" And pains, and groans, and griefs, and fears, ""

" And death itself shall die."