a ver. 2. b See Numb. xx. 7 — 12.
However this be, a time of separation must come : the pastor who has fed you more than forty years must be taken from you : and how soon, who can tell ? It may be, yea, it is highly probable, that this year will be Iris last. Certain it is, that " his days approach," and very rapidly too, " when he must die ;" and when the connexion that has subsisted between you and him must for ever cease. To God he must give account of his ministry among you ; as must all of you, also, in due season, of the improvement made of it. And it is an awful thought, that your blood will be required at his hand, as will all his labours for your good be required at yours. The Lord grant, that when we shall meet around the judg- ment-seat of Christ, we may all " give up our account with joy, and not with grief! "]
But let us turn from the particular instance, and consider the intimation,
II. As applicable to every child of man —
It is true respecting every child of man : for we no sooner begin to breathe than we begin to die : and the life, even of the longest liver, is " but as a span long." " Our time passeth away like a shadow :" and death, to whomsoever it may come, involves in it,
1 . A dissolution of all earthly ties —
[The husband and wife, how long soever they may have been bound together in love, and how averse soever they may be to separate, must be rent asunder ; and, whilst one is taken to his long home, the other must be left to bewail his sad be- reavement with unavailing sorrow. Perhaps there was a growing family, that needed their united care, and that must be deprived of innumerable blessings, which, according to the course of nature, they were entitled to expect. But the hand of death cannot be arrested by the cries of parental anxiety or of filial love : it seizes with irresistible force its destined ob- jects ; and transmits them to Him whose commission it has executed, and whose will it has fulfilled. Methinks it were well for those who stand in any one of these relations, to bear in mind how soon they may be bereaved, and how speedily what has been only committed to them as a loan, may be demanded at their hands.]
2. A termination of all earthly labours —
[We may have many plans, either in hand or in prospect ;
but death, the instant it arrives, puts an end to all
We may have even formed purposes in relation to our souls : we may have determined that we will, ere long, abandon some