Every one who is regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and justified by faith in Christ is, in one sense, ready for death. But where grace is in lively exercise, and has been matured by a long course of experience, there is a more visible and actual readiness, or meetness for glory. When harvest is at hand the corn is more solid and substantial. Its own weight bows it down toward the earth. It is ready to fall out of the husk, and shed itself, when quite ripe. So, it is a pleasant sight, to see that an aged believer has more solid and substantial religion, deeper humility, and sense of his own unworthiness; longing for the heavenly state; ready to welcome death, on account of the state of perfection that shall then ensue.

FIFTHLY: The death of an aged believer resembles a shock of corn coming in, in his season, as it is a useful and advantageous event.

Though a loss in one respect, it is often very instructive and edifying to those who are left behind. The peaceful fruits of righteousness then discovered are advantageous to honest spectators. "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace." It gives weight to their preceding testimony, when they die looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ.

SIXTHLY: Yet the death of an aged believer, like the gathering of corn, leaves a barren and melancholy appearance on the place it once filled, unless the ground be sown soon for another crop and the season of harvest is a prelude to wintry weather.

:

How

How should we then pray the heavenly husbandman to prepare another crop and bless him, when, instead of the fathers, he raises up the children to serve him. should ministers be willing to plow and sow in all weathers, and Christians unite in endeavouring to weed and water the Let us pray that we may be ready for all storms. When the righteous are taken away from the evil to come, some must stay behind. But God can repair all losses, and make all weathers subserve his husbandry.

new corn.

SEVENTHLY: When a shock of corn, is cut down, and gathered in fully ripe, it is not in order to destroy it, but to lay it up in security; and so it is in the death of a believer.

Christ will gather his wheat into his garner; and then, whatever weather may be in the fields, the wheat in the barn is not affected or injured by it. They who are fallen asleep in Jesus, are no more exposed to trials, temptations, or distresses of any kind. They are safe and happy. The fruit is gathered for life eternal. "They shall hunger no more, and thirst no more; sorrow no more, and sigh no more.

From the whole, we should learn, Not to sorrow for those who have died in the Lord, as those who are without We would not forget them, but love their memory,

hope. follow their faith, and copy their example. Bless God for them, and for all his goodness to them, both in life, and in their departing moments. Pray for a like degree of actual readiness for death. Seek growth in grace, faithfulness in old age; yea, let the young seek this, who may be soon cut down. And as God is removing the aged, let it be the concern of children to fill up their parents' place.

Let those who are not ripening for heaven, remember that they are ripening for hell. Joel iii. 13. God will soon say of sinners, "Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe ; come, get you down; for the press is full; the fats overflow, for their wickedness is great."

We are all ripening for heaven or for hell; if it be not for the former, it must be for the latter. But we cannot be ripening for heaven if we are not partakers of divine grace ; we are not concerned to grow in grace; nor is there any likelihood that they are preparing for heaven, who never think of heaven, nor have their conversation there.

or if

XVII.

TRUST IN GOD UNDER CHASTISEMENTS.

JOB Xiii. 15.

Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.

JOB, though an eminently godly man, and one who excelled especially in patience, yet was found, upon his being

VOL. I.

F

severely tried, defective as to the degree of his graces, and even in that for which he was most remarkable. Though God himself decided the controversy between him and his friends, and he was nearer the truth than they; yet he let several expressions drop from him, that did not become his lips. Therefore, when we select any passage from his speeches, or those of his friends, we must be peculiarly careful to compare them with other scriptures, that we may ascertain how far the sentiments contained or implied in them are just. With this proviso, we would proceed to consider the words of our text, and propose to examine,

FIRST, What grounds may we have to imitate the resolution expressed by Job, in the former part of this verse? "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him."

A sense of the mighty power and all-sufficiency of God may convince us that He is able to raise us from the lowest state of depression. Job, indeed, did not expect this change of his outward circumstances upon earth; yet it came to pass. He looked forward to a joyful resurrection, which every true believer in Christ is warranted to expect. xix. 26. And if we realize the power which can insure that event, we may well trust in God, though with humble submission, for any preceding change of circumstances which shall be for his glory. 2 Cor. i. 9.

A sense of the divine wisdom may persuade us that God has ends worthy of himself in all his dispensations, even in those which at present appear most mysterious and intricate. He can turn sorrow into joy, darkness into light, and bring good out of evil. What he does you know not at present, but shall know hereafter, and find he has done all wisely and well.

A deep conviction of the infinite rectitude and absolute perfection of the Most High, may justly assure us that he will in no case do wrong: as Elihu remarks, xxxiv. 23. xxxvii. 23. Could we fully realize this, we might be well satisfied to be in his hands, were it not for guilt lying on the conscience, and leading us to dread his displeasure.

A sense of the free and sovereign love of God to sinners may encourage us to hope in him, notwithstanding the

greatest unworthiness. This is much more clearly manifested since the days of Job; especially since our Lord appeared in the flesh; though Job was not without an acquaintance with the promised Saviour.

A clear knowledge of the gospel plan of redemption may justly encourage us, even under the most impressive conviction of our own guilt, and of the utter insufficiency of our own righteousness to justify us before God, to depend on the great propitiation.

A sense of God's omniscience may encourage the believer to trust in him, who is acquainted with his sincerity, and knoweth the way that he takes. He cannot deny himself, nor reject the soul that is one in desires with him. xvi. 23.

x. 11.

A conviction of the divine veracity and faithfulness may encourage us to rely on the divine word; to depend on the promises and invitations of the gospel. And if we doubt our interest in the former, yet the latter may authorize and encourage those who never applied to the Saviour before to come now, without money and without price, to receive a free salvation; which God has engaged never to withhold from those who are willing to accept it wholly and freely.

A foretaste of the bliss which God has prepared for them that love him, may well support the soul under the heaviest trials we can encounter, and almost annihilate the sufferings of the present state.

Job does not seem, in general, to have had much of this enjoyment; yet a glimpse of it, at times, calmed the perturbation of his mind; and if we are enabled to realize the complex descriptions now granted us, it may well raise us, both above the troubles of life, and all the terrors of death.

other

SECONDLY: How far may we conceive Job, or any person, justifiable in such a determination as that contained in the latter clause: "I will maintain mine own ways before him."?

Job had a right to insist upon it, that he never had committed in secret those gross sins with which his

friends accused him. They had insinuated suspicions before; but then Eliphaz proceeded to absolute charges, though all without proof, except that of his afflictions. might justly appeal to God for the contrary.

He

Job had

room to persist in a profession that he was not a hypocrite, as they so often suggested. He was not a dissembler in religion, nor one who served God for selfish ends. And others may

But Job, through the

have the like consciousness. pressure of affliction, the power of temptation, and the irritation of controversy, went sometimes too far in selfjustification, and perhaps these words had a tinge of the same spirit. When God afterwards appeared unto Job, though the controversy was decided in his favor, that he had been neither an oppressor nor a hypocrite; yet he did not attempt to answer Jehovah, except in language of the deepest self-abasement. He saw more imperfection and pollution in himself, than he ever before imagined could be found in him; and was ashamed that he had been more anxious to vindicate his own character than God's. "Behold I am vile! I repent, and abhor myself in dust and ashes."

We should therefore learn from the whole, to unite humble confidence with holy reverence.

The language and the history of Job are calculated to encourage us to trust in the Lord in the darkest times. We see what sore and accumulated afflictions may try those who are dear to God; while yet the Lord may at length bring them forth as gold, and show that his end is merciful. Or, if trials should last till death, then shall the days of the believer's mourning be ended. Let them, therefore, that know the name of the Lord, put their trust in him; yea, let them resolve, Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.”

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Neither the greatest pressure of natural evil, nor even the deepest sense of moral evil, should prevent our forming this resolution. "The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in them that hope in his mercy." It tends to honor God, when we trust in him in times of the greatest trouble. Hab. iii. 17, 18. When stript of all other comforts, surrounded with trials; in such circumstances that nothing could