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 A SERMON 
 
 PBEPAEED FOR 
 
 SUNDAY, MARCH 4, 1876, 
 
 BIT THROUGH ILLNESS NOT PREACHED, 
 ON OCCASION OP 
 
 THE DEATH OF LADY AUGUSTA STANLEY, 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 EEV. W. CONWAY, M.A., 
 
 CANON OF WESTMINSTER AND HECTOR OF ST. MARGARET'S, 
 
 "WHO ENl'ERED INTO HIS OWN REST MAKCD 22, 1S76, 
 
 AGED SIXTY. 
 
 "?t!3t)fng a Dtslre to depart, anO te tD(ti) (ft)r(8t, tctirt) Is far bcitir." 
 
 SEELEY, JACKSON. AND HALLIDAY, r.4, FLEET-STREET, 
 LONDON. MDCCCLXXVI.
 
 This sermon is affectionately dedicated to those 
 
 kind parishioners and friends who, with such 
 
 loving sympathy, have shared with me and my 
 
 dear children, the deep sorrow through which we 
 
 are passing by the loss of their beloved pastor and 
 
 friend. It is also hoped, that some comfort may 
 
 be given, through it, to those who mourn the loss 
 
 of that highly-esteemed lady, in memory of whom 
 
 this sermon was written, and for whom he had so 
 
 great a regard, she having so fully entered into 
 
 the work in which he had been engaged, during 
 
 the last twelve years, in "Westminster. 
 
 May he, though dead, yet speak by these 
 
 words, so as to awaken some, and lead us all 
 
 to seek more earnestly the " Home " which is 
 
 above. 
 
 E.G. 
 
 St. Margaret's Rectory ^ 
 April 3rd, 1876. 
 
 B 2

 
 A SERMON. 
 
 " Whilst tve are at home m the hodf/, tee are ahsent 
 from the Lord.^^ — 2 Corintliians v, 6. 
 
 This cliapter speaks of tliree liomes as the 
 Christian's successive dwelling-places ; and these 
 homes are connected with the three worlds, or 
 states of being, in which we either do, or are to, 
 sojourn. The first home is the body, called in the 
 first verse " the earthly house of this tabernacle." 
 The second is described as being "with the Lord." 
 It is the home in which the followers of Christ 
 are to dwell in the unseen world, after their 
 departure from this earthly scene. The third is 
 described as '* our house which is from heaven,'* 
 that is, the glorified body which is to be the soul's 
 residence in the eternal world, from the moment
 
 6 
 
 that tho (lead in Christ are raised at His second 
 coining. 
 
 The text refers only to the former two of these 
 three homes — our home in the present life, and 
 our home in the life after death — and hoth these 
 are mentioned again in the eighth verse, where 
 the Apostle, reversing the words hefore us, speaks 
 of our heing " absent from the bod}' and present 
 with the Lord/^ The more exact and literal 
 translation of these passages, though less eloquent 
 than our version, is somewhat more forcible, 
 " Whilst we are at home in the bod}-, we are 
 away from home with the Lord." Allien we are 
 *' away from home in the bod}-, we are at home 
 Tsdth the Lord." St. Paul's statement in the 
 former half of the chapter declares his full 
 assurance that he would have a glorified body at 
 the Lord's advent, and his earnest *' desire" to 
 be clothed with it. lie did not desire death, but 
 the Kesurrection ; and longed for the arrival of 
 the Lord Jesus, before he was overtaken by death. 
 Yet considering the ills of this present state, he was 
 *•' willing '' to depart from the body, and enter on 
 that intermediate state, which is the believer's 
 portion as soon as this life ceases. We too desire 
 the Lord's appearing, as the consummation of our
 
 joys. But while the time of His coming remains 
 a secret, we too are more immediately concerned 
 with, the world of sense in which we now live, 
 and with the unseen world which our disembodied 
 spirits are so soon to enter. 
 
 This two-fold home is the subject to which I 
 would now direct your thoughts. The idea of 
 home is one so familiar and intelligible to persons 
 of every age and of every class, that we recognize 
 at once the Divine wisdom in suggesting such a 
 figure. The same graphic image was used by 
 Solomon in the Book of Ecclesiastes, where he 
 says, " Man goeth to his long home, and, the 
 mourners go about the streets." 
 
 Every death that happens tells us of such a 
 change of home. Every one who wears the garb 
 of mourning is a silent witness to such a removal. 
 You will not be surprised that the recent departure 
 of that distinguished and excellent lady, who has 
 been so well known and loved in Westminster, 
 should suggest this subject for our contemplation. 
 Long, indeed, have we been anticipating the sad 
 event, and great as is the loss we sustain by it, 
 we can only be thankful for the blessed hope that 
 her " absence," from what she called her 
 ** crushed" body, is now "present with the
 
 8 
 
 Lord/' Rarely has there been sucti a life of 
 untiring benevolence, ended by a eickness so 
 distressin<2; and protracted. Perhaps there was 
 not another person in this country so closely 
 associated with the highest and the lowest classes 
 in it ; at once the confidential friend of our 
 widowed Queen, and the tender and bountiful 
 helper of the poorest of the poor in Westminster. 
 Scarcely a case of sorrow in this locality, but 
 found its way to Lady Augusta Stanley ; and 
 while health permitted, there was scarcely one, 
 whether of rich or poor, she did not personally 
 ^'isit,o^ in some way comfort by practical s}Tnpathy. 
 Her charities were also as wise and discriminating 
 as they were loving and abundant. Her constant 
 interest in our hospital patients, her persevering 
 efforts to increase their comfort, and her success 
 in establishing the important I^ursing Institution 
 in connection with it, can never be too strongly 
 or gratefully acknowledged. What she was in 
 private and social life, what a gap her removal 
 made in the circle of those most near and dear to 
 her, I may not dwell upon. I would rather ask 
 you to give God thanks for the gifts and graces 
 He bestowed upon her, and to pray that He will 
 bless her husband with the grace of the Lord
 
 9 
 
 Jesus Christ, and the love of God shed abroad in 
 his heart by the Holy Spirit. Her two favourite 
 hjTnns,"* suspended in large type before her ej'es 
 through her lengthened illness, proclaim what 
 was her hope and stay amidst the anguish and 
 decay of dissolving nature. All that trial is now" 
 over ; she is " away from home in the body," and 
 (as we trust) " at home with the Lord." 
 
 Let us now for our personal benefit survey this 
 twofold home ; as illustrating in the first place 
 
 I. Our Condition in this Present "World. 
 
 (1.) Here we are at home in the hody. 
 
 It is our dwelling-place. Our dwelling in the 
 body reminds us that our first care should be 
 for that immortal soul of which the body is only 
 the tenement. Brethren, how shall I adequately 
 impress on you the value of your soul ? Your body 
 is fearfully and wonderfully made, and you do 
 right to cherish and sustain it ; jet it is soon to 
 return to the dust from which it was taken. Your 
 soul is the breath of God, animating for a little 
 while a clod of earth, but ever to live in a state of 
 conscious happiness or miser}^ according as it is 
 
 * "O God of Bethel by whose hand," and " How sweet 
 the name of Jesus sounds." 
 
 B e3
 
 10 
 
 in union with Christ or separated from Him. We 
 may learn something of the value of the soul 
 from the price which God has set upon it in the 
 work of redemption. It is sometimes said, but I 
 believe that it is an erroneous expression, that 
 when the eternal Son of God suffered for our sins 
 in the flesh. He purchased for us pardon and re- 
 conciliation with God. The teaching of Scrip- 
 ture rather is, not that He purchased salvation 
 for us, but that He purchased us for salvation. I 
 reminded you on Sunday last of the Apostle's 
 words : " The Church of God, which He hath 
 purchased with His own blood;" and I would 
 beg you to notice how emphatically this is always 
 the language of Holy Scripture. This soul of 
 ours has been lost through sin. It has been re- 
 deemed by that sacred blood whose value is infi- 
 nite. How terrible must be that lost estate, which 
 needed such a ransom ! How inconceivably ter- 
 rible must it be to be lost for ever in spite of that 
 ransom ! Brethren, if you have not secured the 
 salvation of your soul, your state is woeful and 
 perilous beyond all that tongue can utter or 
 thought conceive. 
 
 But the idea of home embraces more than 
 our own individual safety. The language of the 
 text stretches far beyond any such narrow limits.
 
 11 
 
 The ancients were not a domesticated people to 
 the extent we happily are. They had not the 
 comforts, the resources, the appliances of home 
 which we possess. A Greek's idea of home, as 
 the words here used by St. Paul imply, was iden- 
 tified with the commonwealth to which he be- 
 longed. It had reference to the people amongst 
 whom he dwelt, and with whom he had a fellow- 
 ship both of interests and responsibilities. 
 
 So whilst w^e dwell in the body we have to 
 fulfil the various duties to God and to man 
 which are connected with our worldly calling, 
 and with the various relationships of this life. 
 The greater part of your time must be occupied 
 in these earthly afi'airs. They are the test of the 
 genuineness of our Christian principles, and the 
 sphere within which we are to manifest them. 
 We are not to go out of the w^orld, but to be in 
 it without being of it. Brethren, ask yourselves, 
 is the world the better for your being in it? 
 When you stand before the judgment-seat of 
 Christ to " receive the things done in the body," 
 will you be placed on the right hand or the left ? 
 
 But there is another aspect of our condition in 
 this present world. 
 
 (2.) Here we are away from home with the Lord. 
 Ever since our Lord's ascension, He has
 
 12 
 
 been withdrawn from our bodily vision. Hence 
 St. Paul says immediately after the text, " we 
 walk by faith, not by sight." We are so much 
 the creatures of sense, that it is hard to realize 
 any object which is beyond the apprehension of 
 our senses. Our blessed Lord prepared His 
 disciples for this separation, when He said, " Me 
 ye have not always." Yet on the whole we are 
 certainly gainers rather than losers by His 
 removal. The glorious body of our risen Lord 
 could be only in one place at one time. He 
 therefore said it was *' expedient that He should 
 go awa}^" in order that the Holy Spirit might 
 be sent to abide with each and all of His disci- 
 ples. "WTiat then (you may ask) is the meaning 
 of His own address to His disciples, when on the 
 point of lea\'ing them, " Lo, I am with you 
 alwaj's, even to the end of the world " ? It is 
 that till His personal return. He is with us by 
 His Holy Spirit, and that the Spirit's office is to 
 take of the things of Christ, and show them 
 unto us, as if He Himself were here. And this 
 the Spirit does through the exercise of faith, 
 wrought in us by His indwelling presence. The 
 walk of faith is therefore a walk of prayer, of 
 watchfulness, of study of the word ; at best a 
 walk of obscurity compared with the glory which
 
 13 
 
 is to be revealed. Now, as the Apostle says, 
 *' we labour," that we may be accepted of Him 
 when He comes again. There was a vast differ- 
 ence between the taste of the grapes of Eshcol 
 granted to God's ancient people in the wilderness, 
 and in their after residence amidst its vineyards. 
 We are now "away from home with the Lord." 
 Be not surprised, then, Christian brethren, if 
 sometimes you find it difficult to realize an unseen 
 Saviour. The children of the bride- chamber 
 must mourn the bridegroom's absence. " Faith " 
 is now to be our actuating principle. "We are to 
 endure, as seeing Him who is invisible. Seek 
 then, brethren, for a more abundant outpouring 
 of the Hol}^ Spirit upon your soul, that your 
 faith may be strong and vigorous, and your 
 discernment of unseen things more clear, and 
 your improvement of them more uniform and 
 abiding. 
 
 Now let us pass to the other consideration 
 suggested by this twofold home. 
 
 II. Our Condition in the Unseen "World. 
 
 There we shall be 
 
 (1.) Away from home in the body. 
 Death is the spirit's departure from its earthly 
 house ; and the Christian's death is constantly set
 
 14 
 
 before us in this light. When St. Paul spoke of 
 his approaching martyrdom he did not dwell upon 
 the pangs of execution, but looked beyond them, 
 as he exclaimed, " The time of my departure is at 
 hand !" Men could persecute, imprison, injure 
 him up to the moment of that release, but then 
 the bod}^ and the world were left behind. This 
 is an instructive view of death, both to the saved 
 and to the unsaved. 
 
 Here, on the one hand, is a child of this 
 world, absorbed in its employments — it may be, 
 engrossed by its amusements — or in hot pursuit 
 of its honours and preferments. Suddenly the 
 scene drops. He must turn from everything 
 which has occupied his thoughts and his anxieties. 
 He must leave the state of probation in which he 
 has been placed. " All his thoughts perish " — his 
 schemes, his ambitions, his purposes are in an 
 instant arrested. His opportunities of securing 
 the salvation of his soul, and serving his genera- 
 tion according to the will of God, are abruptly 
 terminated. There is no repentance for him in 
 the unknown regions beyond. He will never 
 hear the Gospel sound again. He will never 
 be besought to be reconciled to God. He will 
 never be striven with by the Holy Spirit any 
 more. He will never again be addressed by the
 
 15 
 
 Saviour's merciful mvitation, "Come unto me 
 and I will give you rest " Whence this total 
 change in his condition ? lie is gone " away from 
 home in the body." You sometimes see a house 
 shut up and empty. It was once an active scene 
 of busy occupation. The inmates were engaged 
 in the matters which interested or concerned 
 them. But now you knock at the door, and there 
 is none to open ; you call, but there is no answer. 
 The home is abandoned ; all is silent and desolate 
 within. So, brethren, will it soon be with our- 
 selves. The heart will have ceased to beat, the 
 hands to work, the ear to listen, and the tongue 
 to speak. Friends will look on you and say, " He 
 is gone." You will be " away from home in the 
 body." Oh ! how poor does the world appear in 
 such a prospect ! How transcendcntly important 
 this uncertain time of your sojourn in the flesh, 
 when it is regarded as the only time in which 
 you can make provision for the eternity 
 beyond ! 
 
 Here, on the other hand, is a child of God ; one 
 born of the Spirit of God, who lived the life of God ; 
 one who was sensible of the value of the soul, of its 
 ruin by the fall, and its redemption by the blood ; 
 one who trusted in Christ, and lived a life of faith 
 and holiness, of conflict with sin and of service to
 
 16 
 
 God. It may have been a life of mucli outward 
 and inward trial ; of personal, of family, of social 
 affliction. The heart has known its own bitter- 
 ness. The world has been no genial friend. The 
 flesh has warred against the soul. But now has 
 come a marvellous transition. The bodily home 
 is broken up. All worldly connexions are severed. 
 ^* The wicked cease to trouble," either by " fears 
 within or fightings without." The spirit has 
 started on its journey. Thus far the light of 
 nature and of observation is our guide. But here 
 nature and observation end. Revelation alone 
 can throw a light upon what follows. The 
 believer's soul is not alone in that separation from 
 its earthly home. Angels never seen before, 
 ministering spirits who all along have ministered 
 to the heir of salvation, stand ready to carry 
 away the departed spirit. 
 
 And now comes into view the other reality of 
 the Christian's condition in the unseen world. 
 There 
 
 (2.) JFc shall be at home icith the Lord. 
 
 We are told nothing of the place of our sojourn. 
 This home has but one revealed feature : it is 
 " with Christ." We sliall be in near and 
 conscious companionship witli Ilim. The glad- 
 ness of the disciples after His resurrection was
 
 17 
 
 VJonsummated when " they saw the Lord ;" and 
 there can be no greater boon, no richer distinction, 
 no holier enjoyment, than to be " with Him." 
 During His earthly ministry, while j^et He was at 
 home in the natural body. He said, " If any man 
 serve Me, let him follow Me, and where I am 
 there shall also My servant be." And now the 
 follower of Christ passes by the same route, which 
 the Divine Forerunner has traversed, to the same 
 blessed home. This is a sufficient guarantee that 
 the intermediate state after death is not a state of 
 insensibility. To be " with Christ '^ is to have 
 communion with Him, to be still in His service, 
 and, by a necessary consequence, to have communion 
 with all those who are where He is. It matters 
 not where the place may be, or how disembodied 
 spirits can realize what are now unseen things. 
 The " home with the Lord " must be a home 
 replete with every blessing of which " the spirits of 
 the just made perfect '^ are capable of partaking, 
 in the interval which separates our home in this 
 mortal body from our home in the immortal body ; 
 and when the Saviour comes back to earth again, 
 all who have been " with Him " will accompany 
 Him on His return. " For if we believe that 
 Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which 
 sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him."
 
 18 
 
 "WTien the Apostle Paul had related in the 4th 
 chapter of the Ist Epistle to the Thessalonians this 
 final account of the Christian's entering on his 
 heavenly home, ho added, " Wherefore comfort 
 one another with these words.*' The word 
 translated " comfort " is sometimes rendered " ex- 
 hort." And the Apostle's intention takes in both 
 these ideas. 
 
 Let this prospect then afford us consolation. 
 "We know that if our earthly house of this 
 tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of 
 God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the 
 heavens.'* Whether 3'ou contemplate the de- 
 parture of friends, or the departure which awaits 
 yourself, you may thankfully welcome the better 
 home which awaits you. How will your praises 
 there abound to the God of all grace who has 
 brought you thither ? How will you delight in 
 reunion with many you have loved below ? How 
 will you rejoice when you are made like to your 
 Redeemer, by seeing Him as He is ? Christian 
 brethren, is not yours an en\iable portion ? Shall 
 not the ills of your pilgrimage, however great, 
 seem small, when compared with the glory which 
 is to follow ? 
 
 But we may find exhortation^ as well as conso- 
 lation, in these anticipations. Should they not
 
 19 
 
 brini? conviction to the consciences of those of 
 you who arc barteiing the precious inheritance 
 which may be yours throughout eternal ages, for 
 the money, or the honour, or the pleasure of a 
 passing world? AVill you not give diligence 
 now to make sure your calling and election to this 
 blessed state ? If you arc to be " with Christ " 
 in that future home, you must have Ilim " with 
 you " noAV, while yet at home in the bod}-. Oh 
 let every one of you be stirred to seek, and to 
 seek until you find, the personal knowledge of 
 Christ as vouv Saviour. And let none imaj^ine 
 this attainment to be beyond your reach, when 
 the Saviour Himself is crying : *• Beliold ! I 
 stand at the door, and knock ; if anv man hear 
 my voice, and open the door, I will come in to 
 him, and will sup with him, and he with me." 
 
 C. A. Macintosh, Printer, Great >'ew-street, London.
 
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