°5*

THE DUTY OF IMITATING DEPARTED WORTH:

-_.%/v-.-*.---v-_

SERMON
OCCASIONED BY THE LAMENTED DEATH
OF THE LATE
ROBERT BALFOUR, D. D.
PREACHED IN
ALBION STREET CHAPEL, GLASGOW,
OCTOBER 2Sth, 1818.

By RALPH WARDLAW.

Printed at the University Press,
FOR JOHN SMITH AND SON, GLASGOW.
WILLIAM WHTTE AND CO. J WAUGH AND INNES; AND ADAM BLACK,
EDINBURGH.
LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, £ND BROWN J OGLES AND CO.;
AND THOMAS HAMILTON, LONDON.
1818.

A. & J. DUNCAN,
Printers to the University.

TO
THE MOURNING FAMILY
OF THE VENERATED DEAD,
THIS TRIBUTE, TO THE MEMORY OF
HIS CHRISTIAN AND MINISTERIAL EXCELLENCIES,
IS INSCRIBED,
WITH HEART-FELT SYMPATHY,
BY
THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

The Author of the following Sermon felt some little em
barrassment in preparing that part of it for the pulpit, which
immediately relates to the excellent Minister by whose death it
was occasioned, in consequence of having anticipated himself.
Having written the sketch of Dr. Balfour's character,
which appeared in the Herald, and other newspapers of the
City, he was solicitous to avoid the repetition, in preaching, of
what was already before the public, through the medium of
the press. To supply, therefore, what may seem a deficiency
in that part of the Discourse, he considers it necessary to in
sert the sketch alluded to, in this place.
" This excellent man, and eminent minister of the Gospel,
died hereon Tuesday, the 13th instant, after an illness which
attacked him suddenly in the street, on the preceding day,
which did not admit of his reaching home, and which termi
nated fatally, in the friend's house to which he had been con
ducted, in about thirty-two hours.
" Dr. Balfour was born and educated in Edinburgh. Af
ter being licensed a preacher of the Gospel, he declined an
invitation to the pastoral charge from the Congregation of La
dy Glenorchy's Chapel, there ; and, having preferred a pre
sentation to the parish of Lecropt*, was ordained Minister of
that parish, wheie he officiated for about five years. In the
beginning of the year 1779, he was removed to the Outer
High Church of this City; and he continued in that charge
till the close of his valued life. He died in the 71st year of
his age, the 45th of his ministry, and the 40th of his pasto
ral incumbency in Glasgow.
* I have since heard it said, that this is a mistake, and that the
Doctor was settled at Lecropt previously to his receiving the invita
tion to Lady Glenorchy's Chapel. Fuller biographical details,
which will no doubt appear, will put the public in possession of cor
rect information.

VI

" It is not easy, in a short paragraph or two, to do justice to
a character, in which so many excellent qualities were asso
ciated : qualities of the mind, and of the heart ; developed in
public, as well as in private life ; and securing to their pos
sessor an equal measure of admiration, of esteem, and of love.
One of the principal charms of this character, which pervaded,
and animated, and endeared the whole, was warmth of heart
 a cordial kindness of disposition. His affections were
remarkably strong ; — his temper, naturally somewhat warm, was
subdued and chastened by the reigning power of religious
principle : — and, with the finest and tenderest sensibilities, he
united an uncommon firmness of mind, the product, at once,
of natural constitution, and of gracious influence ; which,
while it marked his general deportment, was especially con
spicuous under the afflictions of life; enabling him, in private,
to maintain a dignified Christian composure, and, in some of
his public appearances, even when his spirit was burdened with
the heaviest griefs, to rise above himself, and to elevate his
charmed, and arrested, and melted audience along with him,
to the purest and sublimest heights of devotional feeling.
" In the intercourse of private life, no man could more em
phatically be said to enjoy his friends, than Dr. Balfour.
In the social circle, he opened his heart to all the reciproca
tions of kindness ; — his countenance beamed with pleasure;
— and, even in age, he retained the glow and the vivacity of
youth. His familiar conversation was characterized by a cheer
ful and facetious pleasantry ; — but he ever turned with delight
to sacred subjects; no man could make the transition more
rapidly and entirely ; and on these he was always at home,
speaking " out of the abundance of his heart." — Having him
self experienced the bitterness of domestic affliction, and the
sweetness of the consolations of religion, he excelled as a
comforter of the mourners. He was a wise, affectionate,
and faithful counsellor ; and to the young especially, who,
on sacramental or other occasions, came to converse with hrm
on religious concerns, he displayed a paternal tenderness, and
a condescending and insinuating gentleness, which won his
way to their hearts, and drew them to the paths of piety with
the cords of love.
" The bitter tears of surviving relatives bear testimony to his

domestic virtues, and to the delight which his presence dif
fused through the family circle ; — the deep-felt sadness of the
intimates of his early days, to the sincerity, the cordiality, and
the steadiness of his friendships ; — and the acute and pensive
sorrow of a mourning people, to the long-tried and sterling
worth of his pastoral ministrations. — The distinguishing cha
racters of his preaching were, — a clear and comprehensive
view of his subject, — textual distinctness of arrangement, —
luminous exhibition of truth, — pointed discrimination of
character, — a thorough intimacy with the labyrinths of the
heart, and with the varieties, genuine and delusive, of Christian
experience — warmth of persuasive earnestness, — faithful close
ness of practical application, — and an exuberant command of
appropriate and powerful expression. He adhered, with ex
emplary constancy, to the Apostolic determination, " not to
know any thing amongst his hearers, save Jesus Christ and
him crucified." All his pulpit addresses, whether doctrinal
or hortatory, bore, through their entire texture, the impress
of the cross. — The doctrines of salvation by free grace were
held forth, in all their scriptural purity and simplicity ; and the
necessity of practical godliness, as the result of the faith of
these doctrines, was urged with unremitting fidelity. — His was
not the icy coldness of speculative orthodoxy. His preaching
was truly the utterance of the heart. Those who have
listened to him, in his happy moments of warm and impassion
ed elevation, have heard him pour forth the fulness of an af
fectionate spirit ; warning, alarming, inviting, persuading, be
seeching ; his whole soul thrown into his countenance ; and,
in his penetrating eye, the fire of ardent zeal gleaming through
the tears of benignity and love.
" During the long period of his ministry, he grew every day
in the affectionate admiration and esteem of the people of his
charge ; to whom no charms of novelty or variety could ever
fully compensate for the absence of their own beloved instruc
tor ; and amongst whom there were many, who, with the pe
culiar tenderness of filial attachment, looked up to him as their
spiritual father. — Twelve years ago, he had occasion to give
practical evidence of the strength of his reciprocal attachment
to his flock, by declining, in opposition to a variety of se-

cular inducements, a pressing call to a charge in the metro
polis. " Although himself attached to the Established Church of
Scotland, he exemplified a generous and cordial liberality to
ward those who dissented from her communion. Christians
of every persuasion united in esteeming and loving him ; 
and, by a uniform consistency of personal and ministerial de
portment ; by zealous " readiness to every good work," for
advancing the interests, whether temporal or spiritual, of indi
viduals, of his City, of his country, or of the great family of
mankind, he secured an approving testimony in the consciences
of all. Never was reputation, during so long a period of trial,
more unblemished. If the breath of slander ever touched him,
it was like breathing on a mirror of steel ; — the dimness pass
ed away in an instant, leaving the polished surface brighter
than before.
" The mortal remains of this estimable man and valued Mi
nister were, on Tuesday last, 20th October, 1818, attended to
the narrow house by a large assembly of sincere mourners, and
amidst an unprecedented concourse of spectators, along all the
streets through which the funeral procession passed ; affording
an impressive testimony of the universality of the public senti
ment of regard, and of that deserved popularity, as a Minister,
which from the first was uncommonly high, and which con
tinued without abatement from the commencement to the
close of his career.
' THE MEMORY OF THE JUST IS^BLESSED !' "
23d Octobeb, 1818.

A SERMON.

Hebrews xiii. 7.

*' Whose jaith Jbthui, considering the end of their conver
sation."
These words evidently refer to former teachers of
the Church in Jerusalem, or, more generally, of the
Churches in Judea. The language Used respecting
them implies, that they had closed their ministerial
labours, and their earthly pilgrimage*: but whether
they had been martyred by the hand of persecuting
violence, or had fallen asleep in Jesus in the ordinary
• The designation " them that have the rule over you," may seem to
the English reader an objection to this. It ought to be simply " your
guides, or leaders."—" That the apostle speaks here not of their living
" but dead guides, will appear, partly from his exhortation to remember
" them, the living guides being the objects, not of their memory, but
" sense ; partly from the phrase " -who have spoken," which intimates
" that they had now left off speaking ; and partly from the close or pe-
" riod of their conversation here on earth, which they are exhorted to
" look back unto : their living Bishops they are commanded to obey,
" v. 17- their dead Bishops to remember, verse 1," &c.— Whitby.
B

10
course of nature, cannot with certainty be ascertained.
The former may be considered as the more probable
supposition ; because it renders the example, which is
recommended to imitation, the more remarkable, and
the more animating. But that the writer had at all
in his eye Stephen, the first martyr, and James, who
was beheaded by Herod, will not appear likely, when
the interval of time is recollected, that had elapsed
between their respective martyrdoms, and the date of
this epistle; — the former having happened probably
thirty, and the latter twenty years before it was writ
ten *. The case is one of needless conjecture. The
Hebrews themselves, who are addressed, would be
at no loss to understand the reference, and to sup
ply the appropriate names; and, in as far as we
are concerned, knowledge is not, • in the remotest
degree, necessary to our edification. If, indeed, as
is surely most probable, the allusion is to pastors
and teachers, who, at the time when the letter was
written, had more recently " finished their course,"
as we are not in possession of any particulars of
their history, mere names would not have conveyed
to our minds the slightest information.
* Assigning the death of Stephen to the year 54, that of James to
the year 44, and the writing of this epistle to the year 64. Some place
it two or three years earlier.

11
From the manner in which the eighth verse is ren
dered in our translation, without the supplementary
verb " is," — " Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and
to-day, and for ever," — mere English readers are apt
to run the 7th and 8th verses together, as if it
were meant, that Jesus Christ had been the end of
their conversation. No one, however, who under
stands and has looked at the original, can fancy this
for a moment; nor will the English reader find the
view suggested by any commentator. The construc
tion in the Greek will not at all admit of it; nor does
the word translated " end" ever signify final cause,
or object, but simply close, termination, or issue. —
A man's conversation usually expresses, in the English
Bible, his general conduct, or course of life. In the
text it seems, along with this, its more ordinary sig
nification, to include the period of time during which
this course had been pursued; and also, perhaps, the
sufferings and the enjoyments of life, as well as its do
ings; all that had been experienced, during its con
tinuance, of evil or of good, as well as all that had
been performed of active service*. " The end of their
conversation," then, is the termination of their serviee
on earth, — the issue of their course of life. The
* I introduce this last idea in deference to the authority of Schleus-
ner; Lexicon, on the word avairrgoipyi, Sect. 4.

12
8th verse ought, by the supplement of the substan
tive verb, to be converted into a distinct proposition "•
" Jesus Christ (is) the same yesterday* to-day, and for
ever." This general proposition will then be suscep
tible of two relations: either to what precedes, or to
what follows. In the former view, as referring to the
loss they had been called to sustain, of pastoral in
struction and superintendence, it contains a most con
solatory and encouraging suggestion. He remains
immutably the same; in all his divine perfections, in
all his mediatorial relations and excellencies j in his
love, and truth, and power, and care of his Church;
Under-shepherds may fall, and we may deeply feel,
and bitterly bewail, the loss. But (t the Lord liveth :"
the " Chief Shepherd," and " Bishop of Souls" sur
vives. " Death hath no more dominion over Himj"
and he is still " Head over all things to the Church,
which is his body, the fulness of Him who filleth all
in all." — In the latter view, it contains an admonition
to consistency and stability in their profession of the
Christian faith. " Jesus Christ is the same yesterday
and to-day, and for ever." " The Son of God, Jesus
Christ," says Pan. to the Corinthians, « who was
preached among you by us, even by me, and Sylva-
nus, and Timotheus, was not yea and nay; but in him
was yea*." As he is himself unchangeably true, his
• 2 Cor. i. 19.

doctrine does not shift and fluctuate. It is not " yea
and nay;" affirmation to-day, and denial to-morrow:
" but in him is yea," a permanent and unvarying af
firmation of the same truths. He is immutably the
same in his testimony, and in all his personal and offi
cial characters, as the great subject of that testimony,
K Be not (therefore) carried about" (such is the
admonition which follows my text) " with diverse
and strange doctrines."
Some may prefer the one of these views of the con
nexion, and some the other. I see nothing to pro
hibit our including both. A sentiment may be na
turally introduced in connexion with what we have
already written, and then be made the basis of a sub
sequent inference. It may be suggested by what pre
cedes, and may itself suggest what follows.
Whilst the words of the text have an immediate
and special reference to departed teachers, they are,
in the spirit of them, applicable to all those of our
fellow-Christians, who have closed their pilgrimage,
and are gone to inherit the promises.
We shall endeavour to illustrate a little,
I. The Exhortation itself: — and
II. The motive by which compliance with it is
H.ECOMMENDED.

14
I. The Exhortation. itself is contained in the words,
" Whose faith follow."
To follow, or to imitate the faith of these deceased
pastors and teachers, may be considered as including
three things: —
In the first place •• Holding fast, as they had done,
to the end of life, the word of the Divine testimony;
" the faith once delivered unto the saints :" — holding
fast this faith, in all its original apostolic purity and
simplicity, free from those errors, so profusely, so as
siduously, and so seducingly vended by false teach
ers; by which its real nature, as a scheme of grace,
was subverted, and its efficacy for salvation destroyed.
It is an admonition, to retain in their minds, and in
their hearts, as the subject of a firm belief, and the
object of an affectionate adherence, " the faithful
word, as it had been taught them," and as it had been
attested to them by the God of truth, " in signs, and
wonders, and diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy
Ghost* :" not to be " moved away from him that had
called them into the grace of Christ, to another gos
pel f : not to suffer themselves, by mistaken Judaism,
and false philosophy, to be " corrupted from the
simplicity that is in Jesus p" — but, after the example
of those faithful men, who were now no more, to
* Heb. ii. 4. f G"1- •• 6- I 2 Cpr. xi. 3.

15
cleave to the unadulterated word of the testimony,
with a growing earnestness, and decidedness, and con
stancy of attachment.
Secondly; Cleaving, with the same steadfastness of
faith, to the Divine promises.
The promises are founded upon the testimony:
they rest on it, as their basis: — they are " yea and
amen, in Christ Jesus:" — and they are, indeed, "ex
ceeding great and precious." They regard " the life
that now is:" securing to us, not only all such tempo
ral blessings as are essentially for our good, but all
needful supplies of Divine grace, till the close of our
pilgrimage: — and they regard " the life that is to
come," in all its " fulness of joys, and pleasures for
evermore." I mention the faith of the Divine promises dis
tinctly from the faith of the Divine testimony, not as
being capable of a separate existence in the mind,
but because it is as immediately regarding the promis
es of God, that faith is " the confidence of things
hoped for ;" and, because this confidence must have
been the chief sustaining and animating principle of
these " holy men of God," under all the trials and
persecutions, probably even unto death, to which
their ministry had exposed them. — Following them
in their faith of these promises, may be considered

16
as including the imitation of those other graces and
virtues, which seem more directly to arise from the
exercise of such faith ; such as patience, resignation,
contentment, fortitude, and joy. In the preceding
context, the promises of God, especially as they re
gard the period of his people's abode on earth, are
summed up in one, which is indeed of inestimable
value, and comprehensive of all that a creature can
ever need, or ought ever to desire; and several of
the virtues enumerated are inculcated on the ground
of it: — " Let your conversation be without covetous-
ness ; and be content with such things as ye have ;
for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor for
sake thee : so that we may boldly say, the Lord is
my helper ; I will not fear what man shall do unto
me*." Thirdly. Following their faith implies, imitating
it in aU its practical effects. — This is abundantly
clear. Faith is not followed at all, unless it be prac
tically followed. The imitation of it cannot be ma
nifested in any other way, than the way in which it
manifests its own existence ; that is, by the fruits of
a holy life. To follow their faith, is to follow their
entire example of believing obedience; the effect of
their faith, as " purifying their hearts *," " working
* Heb. xiii. 5, 6. * Acts xv. 8.

17
by love*," and " overcoming the world f." It is
to follow them in " the work of faith," and " the
labour of love ;" in " all holy conversation and
godliness ;" in enduring, and in executing, the whole
will of God. Paul, without doubt, knew the cha
racters of those whom he here recommends to their
remembrance and their imitation. The very recom
mendation implies, that they had been, during their
Christian life and ministry, " examples to the believ
ers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit,
in faith, in purity X" What he elsewhere says, in
reference to himself, and to others his fellow labourers,
is only an amplification of the more concise admoni
tion in our text: — " Brethren, be followers together of
me, and mark them who walk so, as ye have us for
an ensample: (for many walk, of whom I have told
you often, and now tell you, even weeping, that they
are the enemies of the cross of Christ ; whose end
is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose
glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things:)
for our conversation is in heaven; from whence
also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ;
who shall change our vile body, that it may be
fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to
the working whereby he is able even to subdue
• Gal. v. 9. •)• 1 John v. 4. f 1 Tim. iv. 12.
C

18
all things unto himself*." " Finally, brethren, what
soever things are true, whatsoever things are honest,
whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are
pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things
are of good report ; if there be any virtue, and if
there be any praise, think on these things. Those
things which ye have both learned, and received,
and heard, and seen in me, do; and the God of
peace shall be with you f." When he says, in our
text, " whose faith follow," he, in effect, says,
" Those things which ye have both learned, and re
ceived, and heard, and seen" in those faithful pas
tors, " who have spoken to you the word of God,"
"do; and the God of peace shall be with you."
And, my brethren, what he said of old to the He
brew believers, he now says to us. His affectionate
admonition, in the spirit and in the letter of it,
not only may, but ought to be transferred by us,
to every eminent example of Christian and minis
terial excellence, that appears in the church in our
own days.
We come now very briefly to illustrate,
II. The motive by which compliance with the
exhortation is recommended: — « Considering the
• Phil. iii. 17, 21. f tW. iv- 8, 9.
2

19
end of their conversation " that is, as formerly no
ticed, the close or issue of their course of life.
This comprehends three particulars : — Their state
in dying; — their death itself, as terminating their earth
ly service ; — and their departure out of this life, as the
commencement of a better.
In the first place : To " consider the end of their
conversation," is to contemplate their state in dying.
It is more than probable, that the faithful servants of
Christ, and of the church for his sake, to whom
our text refers, whether they closed their lives on
their beds, or laid them down at the place of mar
tyrdom, had " finished their course" in the full tri
umph of faith and hope; that they had been enabled
to bear, in death, an honourable testimony to the
all-sufficiency of that blessed Saviour, whom it had
been the business of their life to publish and to re
commend. Such scenes are, in a high degree, edi
fying, confirming, animating. They afford a trial
of those principles which have been professed through
life, eminently fitted to establish the confidence, and
to invigorate and elevate the hopes, of all who wit
ness them. It is true, indeed, that apparent tran
quillity, and even cheerfulness in death, may arise
from a variety of causes, the operation of which,

20
however interesting and useful the discussion might
be, your time will not permit me at present to ex
plain : — from natural fortitude ; from insensibility of
conscience; from pride of spirit, determined to con
ceal the real state of the feelings; from erroneous
principles, supported by the plausibilities of sophis
try, and recommended by a deceitful heart; espe
cially, from habitually and systematically low concep
tions of the holiness and justice of the' Divine charac
ter, of the requirements and sanctions of the Divine
law, and of the evil and demerit of sin. But when,
in opposition to all these, we see a man, who is not
constitutionally bold in spirit, whose conscience is
tender, and whose heart is humble, and who has on
his mind just, and clear, and powerful impressions of
the unspotted purity and the unbending righteousness
of " the Judge o. all;" of the extent, the spiritual
ity, and the fearful sanctions of his law; of the deadly
guilt of transgression, and of the large measure of
his own individual sinfulness and evil deservings ; —
when we see such a man, amidst views and impres
sions which, in themselves, are sufficient to convulse
the soul with agony, and to overwhelm it in despair,
in the full enjoyment of humble confidence, of peace,
and hope, and gladness, and even, perhaps, of the
sacred and triumphant elevation of inward victory

21
over the fears of death and of judgment; — we then
have before our eyes a lively and impressive evidence
of the adaptation of the principles of the gospel to
the true state, and character, and relations, and pros
pects, of sinful man ; an evidence, that, as they have
been suited in life, so are they suited in death, to the
secret convictions and anticipations of the conscience,
and to the felt necessities of the human soul.
It is certainly in itself a desirable thing, that they
who have borne a living, should be enabled to bear
also a dying testimony, to the truth, and excellence,
and suitableness, of the glorious gospel. But, how
ever desirable, it is not at all necessary to our confi
dence respecting the happiness of our departed Chris
tian friends. It is the life, rather than the death,
that forms the clearest and most substantial ground of
assurance of a man's interest in Christ, and of his
blessedness beyond the grave. The cases are not
unfrequent (we have more than one this day before
us*,) in which, either the extreme suddenness, or the
particular nature, of the mortal distemper, deprives
surviving relations and friends of the gratification they
so naturally and so earnestly desire, to have some
» Two days previous to Dr. Balfour's death, one of the members
of the church in Albion Street had died still more suddenly, having
survived under the stroke, that earned her off, only from ten to fifteen

22
death-bed sayings, some parting words, some sacred
relicks of sentiment and feeling, which they may trea
sure up in their memories and hearts, and repeat with
tender and mournful delight, in recounting to each
other the memorabilia of that loved friend, whose
empty chair, in the family circle, reminds them of
dear enjoyments that are never to return.
But it is not a few words, however excellent and
however desirable, uttered from a dying pillow, that
can give " the full assurance of hope," respecting a
departed friend's felicity. We wish for such words,
indeed ; and, if the power of articulate speech be
gone, we desire even a silent sign, to intimate to us,
whether the Saviour be still dear to him; whether,
in the valley of the shadow of death, the Lord be
with him ; whether his faith and hope be still in God J
— and the lifting of the finger, or the inclination of
the head, in reply to such inquiries, comes like a
soothing charm upon the heart. But, in occasionally
denying us such gratifications, by snatching our
friends from us in a moment, or by locking up their
mental powers in insensibility, may it not be the very
purpose of the Divine providence, to impress on our
minds the important lesson, that, when the life has
been a life of faith upon the Son of God; and, in
the case of a minister of Christ, when " his doctrine

23
and his life, coincident, have given lucid proof, that
he was honest in the sacred cause," and himself a
genuine subject of that grace which he proclaimed to
others; — that it is from this we should form our esti
mate of the man ; tbat from this we should derive our
hopes, or more than hopes, that he has gone to hea
ven ; and that there is a danger of our resting more
than enough upon the closing scene ? He who has,
whilst in full possession of his mental and corporeal
energies, been " living to the Lord," although his life
should be closed in the melancholy privation of both,
we may be well assured " dies also to the Lord :" —
dying, as well as living, " he is the Lord's." The
soul of such a man is as safe, when, with its faculties
locked up, it struggles from an insensible frame, as
when, in the perfect and spirited exercise of all its
faculties and all its sensibilities, it throws out from
it, in its departure, the brilliant corruscations of
faith and hope.
Secondly : " Considering the end of their conver
sation," implies, contemplating their death, as the
fnal close of their earthly service.
It was the end of all their labours and of all their
usefulness. The Hebrews had seen and heard their
teachers; but they saw them and heard them no

24
longer. The place, in the meetings of the saints,
that had once known them, knew them now no more.
This should have been to the Hebrews, and it ought
to be to us, at once an affecting and a rousing
thought. " The prophets, do they live for ever ?"
It is, indeed, an occurrence of no ordinary interest and
solemnity, when a faithful and a useful labourer in
the church of God finishes his course : — when those
lips are closed in perpetual silence, that have long
been imparting to listening multitudes the knowledge
that maketh wise unto salvation: — when a living
agent is removed, whom God has been honouring to
turn many to righteousness, and who has been long
and effectually contributing to stem the torrent of
iniquity in an ungodly world.
Such occurrences ought to operate upon us, as
powerful incentives to renewed and unwearied dili
gence. We should " consider the end of their con
versation," that our minds may be more deeply
impressed with the remembrance, that " life is the
time to serve the Lord ;" that " our days are as the
days of a hireling ;" that, in whatever department of
service we are employed, our time, too, like theirs,
must quickly come to a close. The voice of Pro
vidence, in such events, is the same with the voice
of the Divine Word. The former seconds, with

25
impressive eloquence, the salutary admonitions of
the latter ; bringing them home to the mind with
all the superadded force of fact and experience : —
" Be not slothful," (such is the charge of both) ;
" but followers of those who through faith and pa
tience inherit the promises." — " Redeem the time,
because the days are evil :" — " Whatsoever thy
hand findeth to do, do it with thy might ; for there
is no wisdom, nor counsel, nor work, nor device
in the grave, whither thou goest*." The injunctions
and the warnings are addressed to us by that Lord and
Master, who has himself set before us the only per
fect example: — " My meat is to do the will of Him
that sent me, and to finish his work :" — " I must
work the works of him that sent me, while it is day ;
the night cometh when no man can work :" — " I have
glorified thee on the earth ; I have finished the work
which thou gavest me to dof ." He who thus fulfil
led his own charge, has given a charge to us, — " Oc
cupy till I come :" and it is only by our imitating
himself, in active and persevering fidelity of service,
that we shall be able, at the close, to say with Paul, —
'f The time of my departure is at hand : I have fought
a good fight, I have finished my course, I have
* Heb. vi. 12. Eph. v. 16. Eccl. ix. 10.
f John iv. 34. John ix. 4. John xvii. 4.
D

26

kept the faith : henceforth there is laid up for me
a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the
righteous Judge, shall give me at that day ; and
not to me only, but to all them also that love his

appearing*."

Thirdly: To " consider the end of their conversa
tion," is to contemplate the termination of their earth
ly life as the commencement qf a better.
Surely we do not rightly consider the issue of their
course, when we stop at the grave. The blessedness
is, beyond a doubt, included, to which the close of
their term of service had introduced them. It is the
happy result that is meant of all their toils and all
their trials, — when they " rested from their labours,
and their works followed them." The Apostle, in the
preceding chapter, exhorts believers to " run the race
set before them, looking unto Jesus, the author and
finisher of their faith; who," says he, " for the joy
that was set before him, endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is set down at the right hand qf the
throne of God."* Now, this was the end of his con
versation; the blessed and glorious issue of, the work
which was given him to do- His faithful servants
" hear his voice and follow him" in life, and at death
* 2 Tim. iv. 6—8. \ Heb. xii. 3

27
they go to be with him, to " behold his glory," — to
" enter into his joy." " For to me to live is Christ ;
and to die is gain. Yet what I shall choose I wot
not : for I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire
to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better *."
"Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same
thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest
of the Spirit. 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, not
by sight ;) we are confident, and willing rather to be
absent from the body, and to be present with the
Lord. Wherefore we labour, that whether present
or absent, we may be accepted of him f ."
The " end of their conversation," then, is their
having " an entrance ministered to them abundantly
into the everlasting kingdom of their Lord and Sa
viour, Jesus Christ t" When they finish their ser
vice, they receive their reward. The goal of their race
is the gate of heaven. When they have passed through
" the valley of the shadow of death," the light of the
celestial world bursts upon their view, and " they
enter in through the gates into the city." " These
are they who came out of great tribulation, and
have washed their robes, and made them white in the
PhiL i. 21, 25. f 2 Cor- »• 5,-9. t 2 Peter, i. 11.

28
blood of the Lamb ; Therefore are they before the
throne of God, and serve him day and night in his
temple; and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell
among them. They shall hunger no more, neither
thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them,
nor any heat: For the Lamb which is in the midst
of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them
unto living fountains of waters ; and God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes*."
This is " the end of their conversation :" and sure
ly the " consideration" of this was well fitted to ani
mate the Hebrews, and it is equally well fitted to ani
mate us, to " follow their faith," in defiance of all tri
als, temptations, and enemies. — " We have an altar,"
says the Apostle, in the verses following our text,
" whereof they have no right to eat who serve the
tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts, whose
blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high
priest for sin, are burnt without the camp. Where
fore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people
with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let
us go forth, therefore, unto him without the camp,
bearing his reproach. For here we have no con
tinuing city, but we seek one to come." — " Cast not
away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great
* Eev. vii. 14 — 17.

29
Tecompence of reward. For ye have need of pa
tience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye
might receive the promise *." " Be thou faithful
unto death ; and I will give thee a crown of life +."
When I speak of these faithful men obtaining their
reward immediately upon the close of their service, I
do not mean that their reward is then complete. It
shall not be complete till " death, the last enemy,
shall be destroyed :" — till " this corruptible shall put
on incorruption, and this mortal immortality, and the
saying shall be brought to pass that is written, Death
is swallowed up in victory :" — till " the Lord himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice
of the archangel, and the trump of God, and, the dead
in Christ having first risen, they who are alive and
remain shall be caught up together with them in the
clouds, to meet the Lord in the air ; and so shall they
all be for ever with the Lord J." It is then, when " the
Son of man shall come in his glory, and all his holy
angels with him," — when " the judgment shall be set,
and the books shall be opened;" it is then, that to those
who have served him here below, with love, and zeal,
and conscientious fidelity, and unshaken perseverance,
" the righteous Judge" shall say, before assembled
* Rev. *. 35, 36. f Rey- »• I0- t1 Thess. iv. 16, 17.

so
worlds," Weil done, good and faithful servants;
enter ye into the joy of your Lord."
Whilst I would apply the words of my text to de
parted members of this Church, and admonish sur
viving members, and especially surviving relatives, to
» follow their faith," with affectionate remembrance,
with diligence, and with constancy; — I offer no apolo
gy, as if here it were out of place, for making a spe
cial and pointed application of them to that eminent
servant of our common Lord and Redeemer, who has
so recently, and so suddenly, been removed from
amongst us.
His was a name, the notice and the commendations
of which are not to be confined within the walls of the
Churches and Chapels of the Establishment. Nay, I
feel as if there lay on us, my brethren, as dissenters, a
special obligation to show to the world, that we are
not so shackled by thefetters, and blinded by the pre
judices of party, as to be incapable of appreciating and
admiring, of esteeming, and loving, and celebrating,
eminent Christian excellence, wherever it presents it
self to our view. We regard the venerable man who
is now no more, not in the narrow and contracted
light of a Minister of the Church of Scotland mere
ly, — (although the Church of Scotland has to deplore,
in his death, the loss of one of her brightest orna-

31
ments!) — but in the higher and more general charac
ter of a Minister of Christ. And, in this capa
city he was indeed " a burning and a shining light."
The character which he has left behind him, both
in private and in public life, bears upon it the clear
and honourable stamp of a forty years' probation in
our own City : — and when he came to this place, he
brought along with him, from the scene of his former
residence and labours, the very same character that
has since been more fully developed, and more tho
roughly established, amongst ourselves-
I cannot enter into minute detail, without repeat
ing, (which I wish to avoid) what is already before
the public, in the Newspapers of the day. I could
say much, and say it all without the risk of contradic
tion, of his private Christian virtues ,-— of the fervour
and elevation of his piety ; — of the warmth and gene
rous kindness of his heart; — of his lively cheerfulness;
—of his energy and decision of mind; — of the ten
derness of his sensibilities, and especially of his pater-
ual love;— of his peculiar susceptibility of affliction,
and his exemplary resignation under it; — of the cor
diality, and the constancy of his friendships ; — of the
Christian liberality of his spirit; — of his readiness to
every good work ;— his lively interest in the designs,
the operations, and the success, of Bible and Mission-

32
ary Societies, and in every scheme that promised to
ameliorate the temporal or the spiritual condition of
mankind. — But 1 forbear. It was chiefly as a Minis
ter of the Gospel that he was known to the generality
of my hearers, and to Christians at large, in this and
other parts of the country: — and in this capacity, I
repeat it with emphasis, he was " a burning and a
shining light."
Uniting, in an eminent degree, personal religion
with official ministration, he might have said with
truth, of himself, — " God, whose I am, and whom I
serve" — and as to the manner of fulfilling his ministe
rial duties, he might, with equal truth, have added,
with the same Apostle, " God, whom I serve with my
spirit, in the gospel of his Son." He adopted, as the
expression of his personal sentiments and feelings,
the language of this inspired ambassador, " God for
bid that I should glory, save in the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ; by which the world is crucified unto
mr, and I unto the world !" — and, as the principle of
h's ministerial functions, the resolution of the same
devoted servant of his Lord, — " I determined, not to
know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and
him crucified !" — And by few, indeed, of that Apos
tle's professed followers, has the resolution been more
sacredly fulfilled. — Not that he was, with unvarying

33
sameness of repetition, dwelling incessantly on the
same truths: but, in all the variety of subjects which
his ministry embraced, the doctrine of the cross, the
doctrine of salvation by free grace, through the blood
of atonement, was closely and carefully interwoven
with the whole texture of his discourses. All other
doctrines were presented in their appropriate relations
to it: his admonitions, invitations, and encourage
ments, had it for their immediate basis: and from it
he derived his motives and incitements to practical
godliness. It was the living soul of his whole minis
try. He did, it is true, proclaim the terrors of the
law; and few men could do it with more awfully im
pressive effect : — but he delighted to follow the alarms
of judgement with the melting invitations of mercy.
In the pictures of divine truth which he exhibited,
Sinai never appeared unassociated with Calvary. —
Whilst the mount that " burned with fire," enve
loped in " blackness, and darkness, and tempest,"
was painted in its appropriate terrors ; there was un
veiled along with it, in all its peaceful serenity, that
" mount of the Lord," on which " the Lamb was
provided for the burnt-offering ;" and on which there
settles eternally, the sunshine of divine love.
It is on such preaching that the God of all grace
commands his blessing : — and few men have ever been
E

34
honoured with more abundant success. Many of his
spiritual children had gone before him ; by whom he
has now been welcomed into the " everlasting habi- >
tations :" and many more he has left behind him, to
deplore, in the bitterness of bereaved affection, the loss
they have sustained, and to " follow him through faith
and patience, to the inheritance of the promises."
And, while we unite in blessing God for the good
of which he made him the instrument during his life,
we trust, my brethren, we confidently trust, that his
usefulness is not yet at an end ; that more shall yet
arise, to own him as their spiritual father, who, " in
Christ Jesus, has begotten them by the gospel :" — some,
perhaps, whose minds had been awakened and im
pressed before his death, but whose impressions, felt
in secret, had been confined within their own bosoms,
and had not yet ripened into open avowal : — some,
whose hearts, through divine influence, may be touch
ed by his death, who were little, if at all, affected,
during his life : — and some, whose consciences may be
startled and alarmed by the recollection of precious
privileges, long neglected, and irrecoverably lost. Yes,
my friends ; — " he being dead, yet speaketh." He
speaks to the memories of all who knew and of all
who heard him. Remembered privilege may effect,
what enjoyed privilege failed to accomplish. Imagi-
4

35
nation will fill that pulpit as it was wont to be filled,
and will hear anew, from the lips of the venerable man
of God, his neglected warnings, and his kind, and so
lemn, and beseeching appeals ; and, through the
blessing of God, they may not be heard in vain.
" The Lord God of the holy prophets," distin
guished and honoured Elisha, when he shed upon
him a double portion of the spirit of his venerable
predecessor; when he made him, during his life, the
vehicle of divine communications, and the instrument
of divine protection, to Israel ; and when he enabled
him to confirm the truth of his messages, and of his
prophetic claims, by works which " no man could
do unless God were with him." — But signal and un
wonted honour was put upon that prophet, after his
course of living service had come to a close. The
wonder-working virtue, that had emanated from him
during his life, descended with him into the grave,
and slumbered in his mouldering bones: —
" Even in his ashes lived his wonted fires ;'"
and the very touch of that lifeless frame, in which " the
Spirit of the living God" had so long and so remark
ably dwelt, gave back the parted soul, and quickened
the dead. The man of God himself remained under
the power of death, unconscious of the virtue that

36
went out of him; but life issued from his grave. — And
so may it be now. Better life,— spiritual, immortal,
divine life, may spring from the very grave of the
faithful minister of Christ. It may have been the
very purpose of the sovereign mercy, and the myste
rious providence of God, to effect by his death what
his life left undone. The silent, but powerful elo
quence of the tomb, may be the intended means,
under the mighty agency of the Divine Spirit, of
reaching some hearts, which all the energy of living
utterance left hard as the nether mill-stone.
O my friends, what a change, what an affecting
change, a single day, a single hour, a single mo
ment, may produce in the state of an individual and
of a family circle ! How suddenly may " the light be
darkened in our tabernacle;" and " our organ be
turned to the voice of them that weep !" Friends,
who have assembled in the morning, all animation
and social vivacity, ere the day be far advanced,
may be gathered around the dying or the dead; " the
desire of their eyes taken away with a stroke ;" their
" faces foul with weeping, and on their eye-lids the
shadow of death."
I stood by the bed of the venerable man of God,
the moment after the last breath had been drawn.
The stillness of death was upon the conch, and the

37
stillness of grief was around it. It was a time of
silent, and deep, and pensive sorrow, sweetly mi no-led
with " the full assurance of hope." The close of such
a life, and, indeed, the close of the life of any dear and
Christian friend, is, of all the scenes of woe that meet
us in this valley of tears, the most full of solemn and
soul-subduing tenderness. When all are waiting
around, in breathless anxiety of expectation ; and the
physician, sympathising with the anguish of affec
tionate relatives, and reluctant to utter the fatal word,
gives the silent signal of death, by gently dropping
the arm, of which the pulse has ceased to beat; and
still, slow to believe the sign, all remain fixed in mute
observation, watching, with eye and ear, the return
of the suspended breath : —  but in vain; the last
has been drawn, and all is over : the living soul is
gone. And Oh ! my brethren, when, with the eye of faith
and hope, we follow their departed spirits to that
heaven, whither they have winged their flight ; when
the first pangs of agony leave us sufficient leisure, and
collectedness of mind to do so; can we, let me ask
you, ye weeping mourners, can we find in our hearts
to wish them back? — back from heaven to earth !
back from the presence of God and of the Lamb,
of angels, and spirits of just men made perfect, to our

38
society ! back from the sweets of eternity to the bit
ternesses of time ! back from the " pure river of
the water of life, clear as crystal," to the mingled and
turbid streams of enjoyment in the wilderness of this
world ! — No, my friends. With regard to them, let
us rather be " filled with joy in all our tribulation.'*
" Rejoice for a brother deceas'd
Our loss is his infinite gain."
And, as we cannot, and would not, bring back the
dead, let us be anxious, by compliance with the ad
monition of the text, suitably to improve their de
parture. Let us consider the blessed God as having
designed good both to the dead and to the living :
to the dead, for he has taken them to himself; and
to the living, for to them the stroke is from a father's
hand, — from his hand,
" Who sends no needless pain,
Who always smites in love;
Who looks in tend'rest pity down,
Even when he seems to wear a frown. "
" Hear ye, then, the rod, and who hath appointed
it." There are now amongst my hearers, those, who
can look back on more than their " threescore years
and ten," and who remember the Christian inter
course of « the days of other years," with a tender

39
and melancholy delight. The friends of their youth,
with whom they " took sweet counsel together," have
dropt, one after another, in slow but sure succession:
— one after another they have carried to the grave ;
and they have felt the growing desolation, and sigh
ed over the wrecks of their early joys. They tell of
the individuals who formed their little Christian
fellowships; the incidents of their lives; the features
of their characters; and the dates of their successive
departures, — till Death has gone round the circle,
and has left none but themselves remaining ; — and
they are now waiting for the stroke that shall join
them, — and join them for ever, to their friends above !
— " The Lord bless them, and keep them ! — the
Lord cause his face to shine upon them, and be gra
cious to them ! — the Lord lift up his countenance
upon them, and give them peace!" — spare them with
us yet a little longer, and then take them home, as
a shock of corn fully ripe is brought in in his season!
And oh ! let all my hearers, in every period of life,
consider well what is before them. " It is appointed
unto men once to die ; and after death the judge
ment." — " There is a time to be born, — and a time
to die." He who fixed the one, has fixed also the
other. Whether it be near or remote is known to
Him, — and to Him alone. He has appointed your

40
bounds, that you cannot pass. And if you are not
found ready for death, when your " time to die"
shall arrive, it had been good for you that your
" time to be born" had never arrived, or that you
had been " carried from the womb to the grave."
Sudden deaths are peculiarly instructive; and the
lessons which they teach, they, at the same time,
forcibly impress. — To those who are ready to die, —
who are in Christ, — to whom there is no condemna
tion, — whose life is a life of faith upon the Son of
God, — and whose supreme desire it is, " living and
dying to be the Lord's," — it is a matter of compara
tively trivial moment, when or how their death may
come. The wishes of Christians on this subject have
been various and opposite ; some professing their
preference of a sudden, and others of a more linger
ing dissolution ; the former captivated with the
thought of an instantaneous transition, the other
shrinking from so immediate a call, and desiring ra
ther a premonition of their departure, and leisure for
reflection and anticipation. — " Our times are in
God's hand." Instead of indulging such wishes at
all, it is best to be always ready; " like servants that
wait for their Lord, that when he cometh, and
knocketh, they may open to him immediately;" that,
whether our departure shall be sudden or slow, we

41
may thus leave upon the minds of our surviving re*
latives and friends, a pleasing and settled confidence,
that " to us to die has been gain."
But sudden deaths sound a solemn alarm to such
as are living " without God"; the wicked, the care-
lessi the worldly. Your death, too, may come sudden
ly, without allowing you time to think : or the disease
that carries you off more slowly, may be such as not
to leave you ability to think. And if you would not
think during your time of health and vigour; if you
then shut your ears", to all the affectionate and so
lemn warnings addressed to you in the name of the
" God with whom you have to do;" if you " would
none of his counsel, and despised all his reproof;"
would it be unrighteous in God, to deprive you,
when you come to die, of the long-abused faculty of
thinking, or to give that faculty exercise, only in the
bitterness and phrenzy of despair ? O, think, then,
let me beseech you, think now. The present is the
only moment you can calculate upon, or call your
own. Hear the voice of the dead ; hear the voice
of the living; hear the voice of God, reminding
you, that "now is the accepted time, that now is*the
day of salvation. To day, when ye hear his voice,
O harden not your hearts !" Your wish is that of
Balaam; whose wish is it not? " let me die the death
F.

of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!" It
is only by coming to Jesus, that this wish can be
realized. He alone can impart to you a righteous
ness, in the possession of which, by faith, a sinner
can die in peace and acceptance with God: and he
alone can renew and sanctify, by his Spirit, your pol
luted natures, and " make you meet," as pardoned
and purified creatures, " for the inheritance of the
saints in light." " O that you were wise, that you
understood this, that you would consider your latter
end!" How astonishing is the fact, that so much per
suasion should be necessary, and that so much should,
in thousands, and tens of thousands of instances, be
expended in vain, to induce immortal creatures to
think of their immortality; creatures, who acknow
ledge their accountableness, to think of the account
which they have to render; guilty and condemned
creatures, to bestow one moment's serious considera
tion on their danger, and on the means of escaping
it! " Finally, brethren, pray for us ,•" pray, that we
' may have grace to be faithful; pray, that the imita
tion of departed excellence which we recommend to
you, may be exemplified by ourselves ; that we may
be followers of departed Servants of Jesus, as they

43
were of their Master and ours; that, through his
blessing, our labours, like theirs, may be crowned
with desired success; and that to us, as to them, it
may at last be said, with the smile of gracious appro
val, " well done, good and faithful servants, enter ye
into the joy of your Lord."
" Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things
which we have wrought; but that we receive a full
reward." " Abide in him, thaty when he shall ap
pear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed
before him at his coming." " Work out your own sal
vation with fear and trembling; for it is God that
worketh in you, both to will and to do, of his good
pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and
disputings, that ye may be blameless and harmless,
the children of God without rebuke, in the midst of
a crooked and perverse nation ; among whom shine
ye as lights in the world, holding forth the word of
life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I
have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain." *
• 2 John 8. 1 John ii. 28. Phil. ii. 12—16.

ANDREW AND JAMES DUNCAN, PRINTERS.

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