But what a pall would seem to be thrown over the home, it it were disclosed when we should be called away I The holier and more beautiful the life, the more painful would the thought of parting with it be. II. ERE HE DEPARTS, VISIONS OF GLORY ARE VOUCHSAFED. (Ver. 2.) "The Lord showed him all the land." The vision was in part physical, but that which faith beheld in the· glorious future which was assured to the people of God, was by far the most precious part of the sight-incomparably so. Thus the Lord was merciful to Moses, in that, though his joy in death was checked by the sense of his own defect and failures, he would, on the other hand, be borne up by the thought that God never had failed, and never would. The future, from which he was cut off, would assuredly develop gloriously under the care and grace of Israel's covenant God. Even so, when God's heroes sink in death, they know that, though they die, God's Church will live on, and that the promised inheritance will yet be theirs. And many, many a believer has had a vision, in death, akin to that of Stephen, and, though appalled at his own shortcomings, has been borne up by a sight of Jesus, as "mighty to save," and as the Captain of salvation, who will bring the Church onward to the fulness of redemption. III. WHEN THESE DEATH-SCENES ARE WITNESSED THE SOUL WILL BE ABSOLUTELY ALONE WITH Gon. Moses lay himself down to die, without any attendant by his side. However many there might have been around, between himself and God no one could possibly come. He must die alone ; so must we. Alone must we pass through "death's iron gate," save as we can use t.l:ie words in Ps. xxiii. 4. There is but One whose real presence can comfort us then. IV. 'l'HE BODillS OF Gon's SAINTS ARE NOT OVERLOOKED BY BIii[. (Ver. 6.) "The Lord buried him," says the editor, "and no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day." Some have assigned it as a reason for the concealment of the body of Moses, "that his tomb might not become the occasion of idolatry or superstition." Others, rejecting this as inconsistent with the known fact that in the eye of the Hebrews every dead horly was unclean, have sought for a reason by comparing Jude 9 with Matt. xvii. They deem it not improbable that there might be some change in the body of Moses in death, which would account for his appearing in the Transfiguration scene with another, who was taken up to heaven without dying, and also for the mysterious conflict over the body, of which Jude informs us. This may have been, but we can go no further than the text takes us by the hand. It suffices to know that God cared for Moses' body as well as for him. 'l'he body of believers is now the temple of the Holy Ghost. Christ is "the Saviour of the body." 'l'he Spirit who dwells in us will quicken the mortal body at the resurrection. V. THE WORK WHICH MOSES HAS DONE IS ONE WHICH WILL FIND NO PARALLEL TO IT. (Ver. 10.) (See next Homily.) Every worker for God has his own distinctive work, which only he can do. VI. Gon BAB ALREADY RAISED UP ONE TO CARRY ON THE WORK OF MOSES, so TH.!T IT WILL NOT FALL TO PIECES WHEN HE DIES, (Ver. 9.) Joshua is ready. So that there are no chasms in the service. VII, 'l'HE INOOMPLETENESS OF MOSES' WORK 1B NOT ONLY A BIST0RICAL BUT A IYllll0r,10 FA0T, It is not a lawgiver alone who can lead the Church on to Canaan, but 570 'l'Ht Boot{ OF bEliTEMNO'M:Y. (on. n11v, 1-12.
11 ,T0shu11---Je~us, 11 Savio~r. "'l'he Law was gi,·cn by Mo~e~, but [the] grnce nnd (the] trnth cam_e by Jesus Christ." Moses hnd propounded truth in his legislative precept :rnd teachmgn. He had t1111ght God's grace in l-hc instit.ulions of sacrifice, and in tho ordi11ances of worship, prayer, and prnisc. But the truth he disclosed the <rrnce ho declared, were brought in hy another, long ages after, for whoso work h~ was intcnJed to prepare the way. "The Law wns a child-guide until Christ." Happy aro they whose lifc-wnrk is in harmnny with the plan of him who secth tho end from the, bc~inuing ! Happy they, whether in more prominent or more obscure positions, who are in their Lord's own appointed way workers together with him I