The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-04-30


watching our fall, If we must fall, with great
sorrow and care; knowing and counting every
hair of our heads. We can more easily be-
lieve all this however, than we can bring
ourselves to feel that the dying moment is
so especially noted of God. We take an in
terest in active workers. Society wants strong
men, thinking men, planning men, labor
ing men, men of power Our hearts
are drawn to them. We are co-workers with
God, aud when and while we can work here,
it would seem but proper that God should
care for us. His works strengthen us, work
ing in and through us; and when nature fails,
when diseases enfeebles. when death draws
near, when the power to labor is gone, often
times society takes but little interest in us.
But how sweet to turn from what may be
carelessness and human thoughtlessness, to
remember, Precious in the sight of the Lord
is the death of His saints
Some of you, my brethren, possibly have
or may feel this change in society. When
you were younger and stronger, when you
could stand in the churches and speak words
Of life andpower; when you were centresa around
which the moral power of the community
gathered, how many warm friends, and kind
and active friends gathered around you
When you have been unable to go in and
out before the Church; when God has seemed
to put you aside to perfect your grace by
suffering, the heart has sometimes been
panied when friends have seemed
few and far between, and the lonely hours
have scarcely been comforted by the vista
ton of friend or one expression of kindly
feeling. Not so with God-watching over
the most epfeebled; watching over the
moments of old age; watching over the
moments when life seems friendless almost;
bending over the very bed of death, and
uttering of the voice from Heaven-''Pre-
nin in, fhn irbf nft thn T.Dr1 Sc h.
death of His saints" He shows His un-
fathomable love for us.
An occasion which calls us together like
this, brings the thought of death very wildly
before us; and think, in the case of our
brethren, whose memories are with us to-day,
we can we'll employ the phrase here of
Saints" 1t is true in the highest use of the
phrase. 1t would seem to be one above the
infirmities of human nature, and we are too
liable to these, and man in his best estate is
altogether vanity! Living, there are few of
us who would like to assume the title of
saint, and yet there is a sense in which we
are such; that is taken from the original
phrase, we are set apart, sanctified and purified
by the Holy Spirit. We are in the process of
publication, getting ready and preparing for
the society of the blessed above, and for COM
munion with God. And those whom God calls
in to His Church should submit themselves to
His sway, should pray for the guidance and
purifying power of the Holy Spirit The
Scriptures apply the term ''saints" to the
''saints that are in Ephesus," and to the
''saints that are in Corinth, and the people
of that day had all the human nature we
have, and all the imperfections we have, and
the term in this modified sense is applicable
to all the servants of God.
But to those who have, in His language,
devoted their lives to His calling who have
given themselves, with all their power, to the
work of lifting this world nearer Heaven;
who have given their all to go forth to pro-
claim the Gospel to man in all its glorious
fullness, the term seems peculiarly applicable;
and think 1 may say of our dear departed
friends, that "Precious in the sight of the
Lord" were their deaths. What may be in
cluded in this phrase, how much may be i'm
piled, it is scarcely for us to say. A man,
though good man, who neglects the laws of
nature or fails to comply with them, notwith-
standing all his goodness, mnst bear the con-
sequences and the effect of those laws.
don't believe that it is only because a man
lives out the days of his life that God in
tended to have him live. There are laws of
nature that environ us on all sides.
And yet where there is no intentional
wrong, where there is no intentional viola
ton of the laws of nature, where men en-
deavor to perform the law of God, there are
errors overruled imperfections are atoned
for, and precious in tn sight of the Lord"
is every death. And He overrules all the
circumstances connected with a death, and
endeavors to bring the greatest possible good
to them and the com munity.
And yet would notinculcate carelessness
for the laws of nature; 1 would not give any
one to suppose that such is the watchful care
of God, that do as he may, he will live until a
certain period; that living as he choose, life
will be of the same length. 1t is not so. God
directs us; gives us judgment, wisdom, know
| ledge, and we are to care for the health he
gives us, for the life he bestows upon us, and
thus great duty falls upon man to live just
as long as he possibly can in doing his Mas
ter's work. He should care for his physical
energies, and preserve them, and it should be
one of the great objects of his life SO to act
that that death may be postponed as far as
possible, which is to sever him from the asso
Citations of life, and to render him incapable
on earth to work for his Masters cause.
But while 1 would guard that point,
| would say, on the other hand, that we are to
use the powers God gives us; and though
we may make mistakes God can overrule
these both for our good and for His glory
and when we die, "Precious in the sight Of
the Lord" is our death. He so orders all Cir
cumstances connected with it that, first, the
saint shall be released from earth and taken
home to glory, and, secondly, that in his death
he shall influence, in some mysterious way,
possibly, society all around him.
But the death of the saint is precious in
the sight of God in this sense-that He gives,
at that time, clearer sense of His presence,
and a greater consciousness of His power So
dear is He, that He comes to the dying room,
bends over the dying pillow, and brings a
realizing sense to the person dying that God
is there. And then that which seems dark
becomes light; that which seems difficult be-
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