CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY »■■■ A '"-■^'■'' * S E R \I O V , ..™......™™.o.„^, 1 BATH, N. Y., JAN". 12th, 1866, AT THE FUNERAL SERVICES OF 1 MRS. CATHARINE ANDRUS CHURCH. BY REV. GEORGE D. STEWART, The Pastor. ' ITHACA, N, Y.: ANDRUS, GAUNTLETT & COMPAISY, PRINTERS. | 1855. \^^ ^^ The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://archive.org/details/cu31924029342726 BV4275 .S85*" """'®''®'*^ '■'•''^^ ^®7ll?'Niiiiiifiteifl.to.,.ffi? '^'••st Presbyterl olln 3 1924 029 342 726 SERMON, DELIVERED IN THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, BATH, N. Y., JAN. 12th, 1855, AT THE FUNERAL SERVICES OF . MRS. CATHARINE ANDRUS CHURCH. BY REV. GEORGE D. STEWART, The Pastor. ^ PUBLISHED BY BEQUEST ITHACA, N, Y.: ANDRUS, GAUNTLETT & COMPANY, PRINTERS. 1855. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. The subject of the fol]o^ving seniion, Mrs. Catharine A . Church, was the daughter of William and Catharine An- drus, of Ithaca, N. Y. She was born in that place, April 10th, 1825 ; was married there to the Hon. Edwin F. Church, of Bath, December 26th, 1849, and died in Bath, January 10th, 1855. She became a member of the Dutch Reformed Church of Ithaca, N. Y., then under the pastorate of the Rev. J. V. Henry, now of Jersey city, June 7th, 1846. On coming to Bath, she connected herself by letter with the First Presby- terian Church, O. S. To this church she was a warm friend, and adorned it with "the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit." Her death came very suddenly and unexpectedly upon the community in which she lived, and seemed to sadden every heart. She had but a month occupied a beautiful residence, erected during the past summer, and in which she had expec- ted so much of happiness with her family and friends. She was the mother of two children, of years enough to feel, but not to understand their mother's loss ; and of a third, the babe of only a week. These circumstances, in connection "with her personal loveliness and worth, added greatly, in her case, to the terrors and the griefs with which death is ordinarily encircled. But God seems to have selected her for the stroke, only to show how a jSrm ti'ust in Him can irradiate and glorifj^ the darkness and agony of death. Her death bed, dark as were its outward circumstances, was a most striking and splendid exemplification of the power of christian faith and hope. When the cords of her life were slowly and painfully break- ing all the morning of her death, till God wrapt her in uncon- sciousness; wliile this world could give her no peace, no hope, God gave her peace, and her spirit was flowing in hap- piness Hke a river. '' God calls me," said she, " I must go,'' and so she departed into the spirit land. " "With U3 her name shall Hve Tlirough long succeeding years, Embalmed with all om- hearts can give, Our praises and our tears." SERMOISr. 4>» " Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." — Psalms, 116: 15. • We have come from the grave of a saint of God. We have seen the grave close upon all of her that belonged to earth. The spirit, in- deed, we did not and could not entomb. Two days ago it left us and its own earthly dwelling behind. That fleshy tabernacle, with its mar- vellously adjusted woof of nerve and muscle, and bone and brain, that, only, we have com- mitted to the earth. Weep not so bitterly, as you think > of that cofl&ned form beneath the ground ! It was no longer your beloved. The eye was no longer like hers ; there was no light or kindliness in its glance. The cheek was not like hers ; there was no warm blood kindling and glowing beneath. The active form had become rigid clay; no smile beamed from the countenance ; no voice of friendly converse, or strain of song, issued from her lips. No, that cold, unmoving form, is not your beloved ; she is not in that grave. She has gone away. In- stead of a cold, lifeless body, we should think of her now as a crowned, robed spirit, chanting the anthems of heaven among the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and all the glorious com- pany of the saints of God. You who knew her best, and loved her best, and weep most for her, will not think it more than justice thus to speak of her as a saint of God. You know on what a tried foundation rests her claim so to be regarded. But let no one of those who knew her only as a young and light-hearted member of general society, and therefore were ignorant of her inner and real life and character, think this mention the en- thusiasm of partiality, or the mere kindliness of charity over her grave. You, who have been wont to hear me, will bear me witness that I have not permitted myself on such occa- sions to be led into a flattery even of the dead, but have endeavored always to say only that which could be truthfully said, or in default of any cheering word to be said of the dead, have spoken only to the living. For I hold it to be a treason to the solemn trust which we hold from our Master, a treason to the hiirhest inter- ests of men, to hold out hopes over the dead which we dare not hold out to the same per- sons living, and thus practically to paralyze the force of the solemn warnings of the gospel of Christ which we preach. But when an aged christian dies, one who has long *' walked with God," and who has lived '* righteously, soberly and godly" before this evil world, such an one as we bore to his grave yesterday ; or when a young christian dies, to whom in life or in death, God imparts in a strik- ing manner the wonders of his love and faith- fulness, it would be an injustice to the religion of Christ, which they have illustrated and adorned, to keep silence over their graves. And when death strikes such ''a shining mark" as the present ; when he touches one, who, in the morning of life, was possessed of all that makes life desirable in men's eyes ; one that was the object of love and confidence among all the friends with whom she was allied, by blood or marriage ; one who united in herself so many virtues and amiabilities, and the very stroke seems thus designed to teach her family and this community a striking lesson, it were to slight God's marked providence to suffer the occasion to pass without more than a passing notice. We have called the deceased a ^' saint ol God." By this we do not mean that she was 8 a perfect person, exempt from the ordinary frailties, errors and faults of human character. None would have more promptly rejected any such claim for herself than she. But the term "saint," neither in the Old Testament nor in the New, requires that the person to whom it is applied should possess an absolutely perfect or sinless character. In the New Testament, the term '^ saint," or "holy one," refers to that consecration to God, that sacredness or holiness of believers to God, which arises from the an- ointing or indwelling of the Holy Ghost, God's spirit, in his people. The type and illustration of this kind of holiness or sacredness to God, is found in the anointing of the priests of the Mo- saic worship, and of the tabernacle as a means of consecrating them to God, so that He could be present with the worship in which they min- istered, and could dwell within the tabernacle or temple thus consecrated to Him. Hence the priests were "holy persons," and the taberna- cle and temple "holy places." So the people of God, the believers in his dear Son, in whom his Spirit dwells as "an anointing of the Holy Ghost;" as a consecrating Spirit, making sacred to God " the thoughts and intents of the heart," are, by virtue of this consecration, "saints," or "holy persons." Although in believers the tlioughts and intents of the soul are thus con- secrated to God, yet in the daily and hourly execution of these '^ thoughts and intents," by reason of the remains of original sin and of manifold infirmities, they are imperfect. Thus the patriarchs, prophets and apostles, men owned and publicly acknowledged by God as his saints, on several occasions gave painful ev- idence that they were yet men, compassed about with human passions, infirmities and weaknesses. But in spite of this imperfection, they were sincerely and honestly consecrated in heart and purpose to God, and deserved to be called his saints. And in like manner the deceased, notwithstanding those evident imper- fections which were found in her, as in us all, by her equally evident consecration to God, deserves to be named and remembered among her fellow christians on earth, as a saint of God. But the original word, which in the text is translated ''saints," differs in sense from the words usually translated "saints," or holy ones, both in the Old and New Testaments. Those words carry with them the signification of ho- liness, or consecration. This word bears the meaning of kindness, benevolence and amiabil- ity, rather. In this word the people of God are characterized by the fruits of the Holy Spirit, 10 as a spirit of love, rather than as a spirit of ho- liness. The fruits of the Spirit of love, in christian character, are described by St. Paul, Gal. 5: 22-23, ^^ The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." And St. Paul also describes christian character from the same point of view, in his beautiful description of charity, or christian love, 1 Cor. 13: 4-7. *' Charity suffereth long and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil ; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ; beareth all things, be- lieveth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." Such is the ideal of christian char- acter as regards the amiable and lovely quali- ties of human disposition. This ideal is never perfectly realized, but where the Holy Spirit dwells in any soul, as a consecrating spirit of love, the tendency of that soul is towards the realization of this character. By reason of na- tural disposition, aided by the grace of God, the deceased exhibited many traits of this de- scription of christian character. She was gen- tle, kind, not apt to think evil,^ indeed truly amiable in her character. And therefore, ac- 11 cording to the strict interpretation of our text, she deserves to be ranked among the '^saints,'' the kind-hearted, amiable ones of God. This high claim for her may sound strangely in some ears. You saw her in the street, or in the church, arrayed in rich and beautiful attire ; you saw her in the society of her friends, the most joyous of the joyous ; you saw her contri- buting her part in the innocent amusement of the evening, whatever it might be; you saw her in her beautiful new home, or heard her tell, in the openness of her heart, what comfort and happiness she expected to enjoy within it, and perhaps you thought that the vanities of this world were enshrined as an idol within her heart, and that her religion was only a deco- rous show. Ah ! must Christianity always come to you in sack-cloth and ashes ; must it shut it- self up in cells and monasteries, and go on pil- grimages ; or must it wear dun quaker robes, and banish smiles from its face, and banish laughter, and forsake feasts and assemblies of friends ; must it dwell in caves or in huts, and exorcise the spirit of beauty and elegance from its home, ere you can believe that it is genuine religion ? Let me not be misunderstood. It is not wise nor expedient that christians should strive to rival the mere people of the world in 12 all the extravagances of fashion in dress, in en- tertainments, and in the general mode of life. It is natural for us to love beautiful things. The more refined the taste and cultivated the mind, the more does the love of the beautiful grow and strengthen. But this love of the creature must not be allowed to overshadow the love of the Creator, nor to weaken that love which the christian must cherish for the souls of our fellow men, hard and repulsive, or loath- some and unattractive as the outward taberna- cle of those souls may be. It is right for us to be cheerful in the society of our friends, but we need ever to watch and check ourselves lest our cheerfulness become improper levity, or our mirth degenerate into that */ foolish jesting which is not convenient." It is lawful for christians to enjoy the portion which God has given us in this life, but we must never allow our ever growing and clamorous demands for ourselves, to stint God of that share which he claims for himself and for his cause in the earth. It is possible, nay, it may be probable, that in this direction lay the weakness and besetting sin of the departed. Yet we all have our weak- ness, our besetting sin also. Do not think, therefore, that there could not be in her soul, and was not, a purpose which towered above 13 all such tastes and habits and kept them in check ; the purpose and consecration of a chris- tian heart to its Redeemer and its God. Do not say to her as the Pharisees said to Christ, as he came mingling in the marriage festival at Cana, or sitting at a feast in the house of Simon at Bethany, his hair perfumed vrith Mary's pre- cious spikenard, " Behold a glutton and a wine- bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners," lest you be thus partakers of their sin, by lifting up a like voice of calumny and detraction against one, even though it should be one of the least, of his disciples. If you have thus superficially and harshly judged her, come with me and look nearer and deeper into her real life. See her, in her girl- hood, with no earthly temptation, no hypocrisy for religion, coming out from a circle of gay friends, the first, too, of all her family, and pro- fessing to be a disciple of the Redeemer. When about leaving her paternal home, with the hus- band she had chosen, she still finds time, amid the preparations for her bridal, to write a fare- well to the members of her sabbath-school class. And when she thus came, a bride among us, she did not, like many, in leaving her home, leave her religion behind. She became a mem- ber of this church. Here she was found sab- 14 bath after sabbath in her place ; here her tears were seen at times to flow, as her heart was touched at some message fi'om the word of God ; here she brought her children to be baptized ; here she came with Christ's people, around his table, to make that memorial he has command- ed us to make in remembrance of his broken body and shed blood ; and here, when death had stricken her and delirium was on her, she wished to be carried that her pastor and her acquaintances might see in what peace a chris- tian could die. And as the disciples of Jesus thought it proper to mention to him, in com- mendation of a heathen officer, *'he loveth our nation and hath built us a synagogue," so it, in like manner, may be permitted to us, in speak- ing of her interest in this church, to point to the blinds which contribute so much to the or- nament and comfort of this sanctuary of God. as the fruit of an exertion of which she was the principal leader and directress. We may but for a moment, reverently draw aside the veil which should cover all that be- longs to domestic life, far enough to show her as a christian wife and mother. In punctual performance of her own devotional duties; in the faithful instruction of her little children in prayer, and such knowledge as they could re- 15 ceive ; in anxious solicitude and outspoken de- sire for the religious welfare of all that were dearest to her, she approved herself a follower of Christ in her home, as abundant evidence remains to show. But it was in connection with her death that her trust in God most plainly appears. For a month past she had misgivings about death, but never did she speak of the prospect with any fear or murmuring. On the day before her death her exceeding danger first became known to herself. "I am not afraid to die,'' she said. And she was not afraid to die. But oh, my hearers, think of the circumstances that environed her on the morning of that day of death ! There lay the young wife and mother, still in the bloom of her youth, in her beautiful home, which she had built so much of hope upon, and for which she had taken so much of labor and care, and which she had occupied but little more than a month. Her babe of a week, from an adjoining room, sometimes ut- tered its feeble wail for a mother's care, while her elder boy and girl were prattling about the house, all unconscious of their coming loss. Her husband and his relatives, her own father and mother, were by her side, and all to be left so soon. Oh, hearer, would it not appal your 16 heart, to lie on your death-bed thus environed ? Yet that room was like the ante-chamber of heaven. Now she sang fragments of hymns appropriate to her condition ; now she began, in the utmost anxiety, to address her friends as to their religious welfare; now she spake of her own faith in God, and of her exceeding happiness in dying. She dwelt very much upon this latter circumstance, that she was so remarkably happy, not merely peaceful and resigned, but positively hajDpy in the midst of death. Not a thought of this world; of leaving her beautiful home, and her children, husband, and dear relatives, disturbed her dy- ing hours. ''My children," she said, ''God will take care of them ; my friends, I love them all, but what are they to Heaven." Not a word had she for any thing less dear than these. And so she died. May God, in his mercy, grant to us, my hearers, that when we come to die, all we love and all we enjoy in this life may fasten but as lightly on our souls as it did on hers, and may be as easily shaken off, when God calls us away ! It is of such that the word of God says, '' pre- cious, in the sight of the Lord, is the death of his saints." Precious ! precious, like rare gems in a mon- 17 arch's crown ; precious, like ornaments of fine gold, of rare workmanship ; precious, like sculp- tured marbles from some temple of a by-gone world, the work of some still unrivalled artist ; precious, like some memento of past joys, or tokens from the absent ; such is the kind of pre- ciousness of which the Psalmist speaks. In that death-scene of two days ago, the close of which was, when this young wife and mother lay unconscious and motionless, her tongue si- lent, her eyes closed, all still, except when at intervals she drew her breath with a moaning gasp, till even that gasp ceased, and she was still beneath the weeping eyes that gazed upon her, in that death-scene was there a precious- ness of its kind like that of diamonds, and ru- bies, and rare signet rings, and mementoes of happy days ? Not in our sight ; no, not to our eyes! To us who looked on, it was simply dreadful to see one so young, so loved, gasping her life away, and we lookers on, that could have rescued her from the waters or the flames, unable to move hand or foot to save her from the swift-coming death. It was like the night- mare of an awful dream, only the more terrible because of its reality. Yet there was an eye that gazed upon that scene, an eye of awful majesty and holiness, be- 18 fore which all evil and impure things flee away, but which all the day had been beaming on her, gentle and benignant as a father's eye ; an eye in whose sight that death-scene was most pre- cious. Gems and gold he has flung plentifully from his open hand, into the sand of earth's rivers, or has hidden them deep below its sur- face ; bright colors he paints upon his flowers, or on the clouds of sunrise and sunset ; delicate workmanship he weaves in the spider's web, or in the branching coral of the deep sea, but to our Heavenly Father's eye no sight is so pre- cisus in its beauty as the death of his saints ; no memento of the past so precious in its asso- ciations, as that which recalls the death-agony and death-victory of his own dear Son, and links his death with the present peace and triumph of Christ's dying servants. 1. Many causes combine to give the chris- tian's death that preciousness of which we have spoken, the first of which that we shall name, is, that it proves openly the obedience of chris- tians to G-od. Others, beloved with all the strength of a dlEiughter's, a wife's, a sister's, and stronger than all,' a mother's love, may clings with beseeching hands, to the dying saint, but when God calls, tbechri^tian must leave all and obey Him, to whom alone our supreme obedi* 19 eace is due. Even so in this case, while all cling to her, and could not give her up, she calmly said, *'God calls me, and I must go to Him." It was a touching instance of the power of the principle and habit of christian obedi- ence, when one like her could thus cheerfully and unappalled go down at God's command into *' the valley of the shadow of death," fearing no evil, because the rod and staff of God were' pledged to comfort her. 2. And this obedience in death, exhibits an- other mark of the ''preciousness in the Lord's^ sight," of a christian's death. It is a trial and* proof of the christian's faith. The Apostle Pe- ter, speaking of that heaviness and sorrow of soul which comes to christians through their manifold trials, says that these are sent, "that the trial of your faith, being much more pre- cious than gold which perisheth, though it be tried in the fire, might be found unto praise, j and honor, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ" And oh! what a trial of faith is such' a death bed! Humah reiisbn, in it& pride dP boasted strength and wisdom; cJotild'sde no com- fort; no adequate grourfd for any joy or confi- dence ih a< death likehers. Joy on that couoK' of deaths wreathed- with th^ withering < flowei^ of^earthly hope, asnd ^r^Wn with broken branch^ 20 es from the shattered tree of earthly life ! Hu- man reason says she should have wept bitter tears and shrieked in agony. She, the young wife and mother, so happy in her lot in life ; she, who so strongly wrapt the tendrils of her affection around her home, her children, with so many years of life before her, called suddenly to leave all for the grave. Oh ! if there was any reason in her, she should have bewailed, like Jeptha's daughter, her young life cut off; she should have wept like Rachel for her chil- dren, like all fond wives for the broken bonds of her wedded life. Thus would mere human reason prescribe the natural course for one like her in the hour of death. And the fact that she thought so little, and talked so little of the mere worldly aspect of her dying situation, while all her anxieties centered in the religious welfare of her nearest relatives, seem to coun- tenance the belief that she was wholly bereft of reason, and that all she said on the morning of her death is to be ascribed, not to the power of christian faith, but to the incoherency of de- lirium. But had there been no trace of inco- herency in her talk, the state of her mind, and the subjects of her conversation in that hour, alone would seem, to the mere people of this world, an evidence of delirium. She was so 21 unspeakably happy in the prospect of death; she saw nothing but such bright colors in that time of gloom ; she seemed to weigh so lightly the parting from her husband, children, parents, sisters and all ; she sang so many hymns about heaven ; she told those that stood by that she heard the angels singing in heaven, and that she should soon wear a white robe among the saints of God ; what could all this be, many will think^ but the ravings of delirium? Yet any christian will at once see that these feelings and utterances alone, are no proof of a lack of rea- son, but only of the strength of her faith. Hea- ven was a reality to her; hell was a terrible reality also. She was a dying believer, com- mitting all she loved to God's care, whom she believed to be able and faithful to fulfill this trust, and this belief took away the sting of death. She was a dying christian, realizing the descriptions of heaven given in God's word, and who, that believed as she did, , could refrain from a feeling of unutterable happiness, and from songs of joy as they believed themselves just entering that land of eternal bloom, and beauty, and blessedness, where God shall wipe all tears from all eyes? Who can tell what music of heaven that poor sufferer heard to cheer her in the last struggles of that battle 22 with the last enemy? We read that when La- zarus, the beggar, died, ^'he was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom." And '' are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minis- ter for them who shall be heirs of salvation ?" Did they not wait around her death bed, also, to bear her into the Paradise of God ? What wonder, then, if she indeed did hear songs of the angels, gathered around her couch. What do we know of the mysteries of the spirit and of the spirit world? Let us be humble and not dogmatize where the basis of our reasoning is only our ignorance. It is true, that on the day of her death she was delirious, partially so at times, wholly so at others. She would begin a sentence ration- ally and end it in mere incoherency. But then the fact that she was not wholly delirious, is at- tested by her own knowledge of this tendency to delirium, and her desire to avoid it. '^ I am bewildered," she would frequently say to her relatives, ''help me to think." When urged to be quiet she said, '' do let me talk, I shall not ibe able to talk much longer." If she was mad, there was a "method in her madness," most cheering indeed, for it was the very method in which a christian's thoughts should be employed at the coming of death. If delirium come upon 23 me ever, oh, let it come to me under sucli min- istries that my talk shall run upon heaven and its joys ; that my happiness shall be in singing songs of heaven; that my anxieties shall be manifested, not for this world, but for the sal- vation of those I love ; that the call of death shall only elicit an expression of obedience to God. For the delirium which opens the mouth and freely sets in motion the tongue, puts no new thoughts in the mind, nor changes the cur- rent of the affections. If a person has been worldly and profane, delirium will call forth only worldly and profane ravings. If a person has been a christian, delirium will reveal chris- tian thoughts and feelings. Delirium opens the windows of the soul, and shows to those who look on, its deepest and most secret recesses. Happy are those whose souls, thus bared for in- spection, show only the abiding faith, hope and love of the christian character! But her delirium was only partial till towards the end. She had reason enough left to con- trol in part the direction of her thoughts and words ; and reason enough to know when she had been wandering, and to recall her attention to the points which she wished to notice. The facts, then, of her dying condition, her exceed- ing happiness in view of death; her rapt state 24 of mind with regard to heaveu ; her submission to God; her willingness to part with her chil- dren, husband, parents and friends; her ex- treme anxiety for their salvation, that she should meet them in heaven ; these facts show a state of mind precisely proper to the dying christian. They were due not mainly or instrumentally to delirium. They were due to the strong faith of a christian, standing on the boundary of the two states of human existence, seeing at a glance the vanity and frailty of the world she was leaving, and comprehending, as none present but she could comprehend, the realities of the eternal world, and therefore feeling and speak- ing intensely on these subjects. Delirium did not produce this state of mind, rather her joys and her anxieties produced delirium, or helped to produce it, and it came only to mar and con- fuse the beauty and order of her testimony to the power of christian faith. 3. And the lesson of such a death is very precious. It teaches powerfully the truth and reality of the christian religion. You may at- tempt to ward off this lesson by saying that it was only the delirium or the enthusiasm of a woman. But is there not something wonder- ful in the religion which can nerve a weak wo- man thus to die ? Is there not somethinsr won- 25 derful in the faith in God which can make a woman willing to leave her children in his keeping ; willing to give up all and go from earth in the morning of her days ? That weak woman can teach you all how to die. I know that there are strong, stalwart men here, that will be as weak on their death beds as she was strong. Yes! there are men among you that in that hour will be weaker than women, and will cry like children, at the awful coming of death. Many men like you do die so. And the difference between your case and hers is, that she was a believer in God's promised mer- cy in Christ ; a believer in all the blessed prom- ises of His word, and you are not. You may, in your unbelief, soon forget this lesson, but in the sight of God the testimony of such a death to the truth of the christian religion, may be far more precious than books of learned reason- ing on the mysteries of God. 4. And this death, as in that of all his saints, has a preciousness, in that, by it, as one means, God will gather in his own people to his fold. For whom has God designed this lesson ? '^ He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.'' But if the ears of any are stopped to the voice of this visitation of God, let such an one fear lest this deafness be ''a manifest token of perdition." 26 And if the purpose which the deceased believed God intended to accomplish by thus calling her away, be accomplished, by the conversion to christian faith and hope of those whom she thought more of in the hour of death than she did of herself, then she will not have died in vain. 5. This death is a striking lesson to us all of the vanity of this world. '' Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. For the world passeth away." Oh! my hearers, since my brief ministry among you, there have been husbands enough and wives enough car- ried from pleasant homes to the grave ; there have been children enough orphaned, and fam- ilies enough bereaved and stricken ; enough of all bright hopes crushed to teach us not to build our hopes on the sands of this changeful, sad Avorld, where death and decav make their dailv banquet on all our beautiful and beloved things. ''To day," said she, when dying, 'God will show the vanity of this world." May God send home the lesson. 6. And lastly, the christian's death is precious in the Lord's sight, because death brings them home to Him and to their reward. For them there shall be no more pain or wasting sickness ; no more fatigue or anxious thought for others ; 27 no tears for ever more. They dwell with God. They wear the crown and the white robe of which she talked when dying. They reap the blessedness of those ''who die in the Lord." And thus trusting in Christ, my hearers, we could all go down cheerfully into ''the valley of the shadow of death." " Let not your hearts be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in Christ." Believe in the power of the Redeemer to save. Hear his voice to those who trust in him, " I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man shall do unto me," and may say, also, in the same language of triumph- ant faith, " Oh, death, where is thy sting. Oh, grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be unto God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." " The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his foes; That soul, though all hell should endeaver to sliake, rU never, no never, no never forsake."