The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1866-04-12
Breaches in the Family.

Ihey will come. They may be very
near. We ought not to shrink from
forecasting them. They ought not to
take us by surprise. AS we gaze on
the loved circle that fringes the winter
hearth, as we hold sweet fellowship
with them around the family altar, we
ought to keep in mind how soon their
places will know them no more.
The thought should sober; it should
not sadden. 1t should constrain us to
associate all our affections, our hopes
and our joys with heaven; to look up
on this as our lodging place; that as
our home. 1t ought to stir us up to
strive with all earnestness, that each
dear olive branch may be grated into
Christ; that the ties of the flesh may
be sanctified by the tics of the spirit.
Our communings ought to be often
about departing and being with Christ,
(which is far better" 1t behooves us
to familiarize our minds with the idea
of union in spirit, Notwithstanding
separation in body. That is the true
union which does not depend on sense
and sight, but lies in the fellowship of
the Holy Ghost. Even heathen sage
could say, Friendship is one soul in
two bodies. allow much more truly
may saints say, "Christian friendship
is one spirit in two souls"
That friendship never dies. How
can it? 1t belongs to an undying life.
1t is not of the flesh therefore the
death of the flesh cannot affect it.
"You talk to me of DEATH" said a de-
parting child of God; "where is it ?
| cannot seeit Isee life, but not death. -
How beautifully true! "Verily, verify,
say unto oyou," said Jesus, of man
keep my saying he shall never see
DEATH" Death to such one is the
gate Of life, and the grave the garden
of immortality.
Well might the saint about to enter
into fuller life, say to his mourning
friends hanging around him, as Jesus
said to his disciples, of we loved me,
we would rejoice, because I go to our
Father" AS the Lord so sublimcly
said, "All live to him."
Ought, then, the survivors of the
righteous to "seck the living among
the dead?" "They are not here !;
they are risen." We, in truth, are the
dying, they are the living. We are on
the way home they are at home
We are tenants at will, they are ever
lasting inhabitants. Then ought we
not to think of them, to speak of them,
to feel toward them, as the "living ?"
We surround one throne with them :
only they on the topmost step, we on
The lowest. We draw near to one
Father through one Mediator, by one
| Spirit only they in the inner court,
we in the outer; they in praise alone,
we in mingled prayer and praise.
Let us realize this to our consolation
and joy. Christians insensibly glide
too much into the language of the un-
believing world respecting death, and
respecting those who have departed in
the Lord. l have heard believers say
"They did not like to observe birth
days, because when their circle became
thinned by death, the missing links
were more sadly realized" But i
this right? Is this of faith 2, O no.
1t sounds more. like the language of
selfishness. Ought we to be saddened
by the thought of their blessedness :?
Ought not the sense. of our own be-
reavement to be swallowed up in the
assurance of their unuttcrable gain ?
Let our conversation be more of heay-
en-, and we shall think and speak and
feel more as becomes the citizens of the
"Jerusalem which is above."- Rev.
Hugh Stowell. ...iF gf,. r1.-