PASSING EVENTS. LECTURES ON PROPHECY-We doubt not that all our readers will be glad to hear, that the Independant ministers in London, are about to deliver a course of lectures on the subject of PROPHECY-of which we never stood in greater need than at present. The first lecture, on the Principles of Interpretation, was to be delivered this morning, by the DR. J. PYE SMITH, whose profound biblical learning and sobriety of judgement eminently qualify him to discuss this topic. As we cannot but anticipate the most beneficial results to follow the judicious treatment of this branch of scriptural knowledge, we feel satisfied that we shall be aiding in the furtherance of the object of our ministers, and also conferring no slight benefit on our fellow christians, by furnishing full and accurate reports of these lectures. This we shall therefore do, at such intervals only, as are really necessary to them for the public eye. prepare DEATH OF THE REV. MATTHEW WILKS. -Since our first number went to press, the venerable Matthew Wilks, has gone to his reward. The funeral will take place to-morrow, at eleven o'clock precisely. The corpse will be deposited in the family grave in Bunhill Fields; but will be first taken into the Tabernacle, where the Mourners will assemble; and, after an Address has been delivered, will be borne, attended by a walking procession, to the place of interment, where a prayer will be offered before the body is committed to the dust. The Funeral Sermons will be preached on the next Lord's Day, in the Morning at the Fitzroy Rooms, and in the Evening at the Tabernacle. And it is most devoutly and affectionately intreated that all, to whom the memory of the Departed is dear, will pray that the proceedings may be sanctified; and that the dearest wish of his heart may be fulfilled, by the outpouring of a Divine blessing on the congregations, over whom, for more than half a century, he has anxiously watched, and whom he so truly loved. We shall furnish our readers with the Funeral sermons preached on this occasion, and also with a biographical sketch of the deceased minister in an early number. BOOK SOCIETY.-Among the ex stng philanthropic institutions of our country, we know of few having stronger claims to support than the Book Society, for promoting religious Knowledge among the poor. This society, though we believe but very partially known, was founded in 1750, when no other institution existed, having the same, or even similar objects in view. It has also to enumerate among its earliest patrons, Whitfield, Doddridge, Hervey, Madan, Stafford, Romaine, Venn, Newton, Hunter, and Winter. It is entirely devoid of sectarian views; and its distinguishing feature is, that it returns to Subscribers, Books at very reduced prices, to the full amount of their several Subscriptions. The great advantages of circulating Religious Knowledge among the Poor are obvious, and they have been most abundantly confirmed by satisfactory evidence from various societies. Whilst it is contended, that to a certain degree, the extension of general knowledge among the labouring classes of the community, will both advance individual happiness, and promote the well-being of society in general, it must yet be conceded, that knowledge, apart from religion, will be made the instrument of evil. It is therefore indispensable to give more than a tone of ordinary morality to such imparted knowledge; there must be the most direct and abundant infusion of religious truth. With these views, we commend the Boɔk Society to our readers' notice, its Publications being plain, clear, and energetic; free from technical, scientific, or lofty phrases; and characterized throughout, by the power of the gospel truth, and the simplicity that is in Christ. We are satisfied that the opposition which this society has recently met with from our metropolitan prelate, because dissenters are actively engaged in promoting its objects, will tend rather to its support than otherwise. We have no wish to undervalue the piety or the benevolence of members of the establishment; but we cannot doubt, that if he persevere in separating the funds raised by the two classes, the result will be anything but satisfactory to his lordship PUBLISHED BY COWIE & STRANGE, PATERNOSTER ROW; Where Communications may be addressed to the Editor, (post paid.) SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS THROUGHOUT THE KINGDOM. W BUCK, Printer, 12, Mansell Street, Goodman's Fields. THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER; A RELIGIOUS AND LITERARY JOURNAL. "AS EVERY MAN HATHI RECEIVED THE GIFT, SO MINISTER THE SAME ONE TO ANOTHER." No. 3.] THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1829. A FUNERAL SERMON, [PRICE 3d. PREACHED FOR THE LATE REV. MATTHEW WILKS, BY THE REV. A. REED, AT THE TABERNACLE, FEB. 8, 1829. 'He, being dead, yet speaketh."-Heb. xi. 5. THERE are, my dear hearers, some modes of expression in Scripture, which, if they are not to be quoted as a proof of a particular doctrine, may be considered to rest on the assumption of its truth. Supposing man, at death, to be annihilated, there might be no direct impropriety of speech to say, that he yet spoke; but a reflecting person could hardly adopt such a mode of utterance without suffering a revulsion of feeling. On the contrary, if it is admitted, that although the manner of our existence is changed, the principle remains unaltered; that those who have left the present state of being, have entered into a higher state of life, while they retain their interest in the life they have quitted, the expression then becomes at once beautiful and animating. The phrase, therefore, like several others, in the general connection, may be regarded as intimating THE GREAT DOCTRINE OF MAN'S IMMORTALITY. The words of the text were spoken in commendation of Abel and his righteous example, but they are capable of a much more general application. Examples in every case may be said to have a voicea powerful one, and we have seen it. Our own circle of observation has shewn that where a man has possessed faith in the word of God, and given obedience to his will; whose life has been ornamented by christian graces and sustained on christian principles, he may, without any violation of language, be said to be speaking to us-his actions have a voice that can neither be set aside VOL. I. nor misunderstood. It is easy to conceive of instances in which the words would not only be applicable, but become exceedingly emphatic. If an individual should have held a public station; if through his life he should have had one definite object in view; if his course should have been a long one; if, during that period, his attachment should have been tried by every form of temptation; if the ruling passion should have become stronger in life's decay, and stronger in death, with what moral certainty might we contemplate him on the present occasion, although he had gone to his reward, in the nature and tendency of the words he would address to us. Of such an individual it is beautifully said, "He, being dead, yet speaketh." My brethren, the cause which has been supposed, is, at this moment, a sad reality. Our friend, our father, is taken from us, and we are a bereaved flock and family. We are not to be described as on ordinary occasions, as hearers and speakers; we are all children, and all mourners. We mourn in one common exercise of sorrow, over one common and great calamity. Yet if our sorrow is sincere and deep, it must not be either without hope or without profit. Our friend, the guide of our youth, though removed from us, still lives. He has left us the benefit of his devoted example. That example has been illustrated and confirmed by the successive changes and trials of an unusually lengthened period, and it D has received a solemn and unalterable form from the hand of death. We can have no question as to the excellency of his character, perfected as it now is, nor of his unchanged and ardent desires for our welfare. WILKS, therefore, has a voice, in a higher degree, by which he still addresses us. We may have often listened to it before, but we never heard it so before. It is a voice of triumph, it is a voice of success. Oh, that we may have an ear to regard it, lest we be found to trifle with the solemnities of the grave, and the glories of eternity! The speaking dispensation which we are assembled to improve, is, OUR MORTALITY. There is no truth to which we give a more ready credence than that we are mortal, and there is no truth to whose practical influence we are less disposed to submit. The very readiness with which we frequently assent to a general proposition, arises from the eagerness we have to free ourselves from the subject, and to prevent it from establishing itself upon our minds. We first endeavour to divert the subject from our own thoughts, and then to think of it as belonging only to others. If we connect it with ourselves, we regard it as future; and then we turn ourselves to the pursuit of the objects of the present life, as if we were never to die. Thus multitudes are losing the fear of death, in proportion as they are making the last enemy terrible in imagination; putting him to a greater distance, while in reality, they are every moment bringing him nearer and nearer, and yet awfully nearer! The hand of Providence is perpetually in motion to destroy this delusion, and alarm us to the real state of our condition. Sometimes it fills us with surprise, by smiting down the youthful and the gay, while the aged and decrepid are left to linger on an awful pinnacle! Then it enters into the scenes of social life, and by taking away the darling child or the bosom friend, it wounds the affections, that it may secure the attention! Then it enters into the palace and the sanctuary, and strikes down the great, the noble, and the good. It is easy to shew that neither office, nor character, can exempt from the universal sentence. Such a visitation, my hearers, has just occurred to you. The man of God, who was as high in station as he was low in his own esteem; who laboured among you for nearly two generations, and whom scarcely any of us ever knew but as a saint, a minister, and a father, he is taken from among you, and the place that once knew him so long and so well, now knows him no more! What is the lesson that we are expected to learn from this event? Not that he was mortal, but that you are so. What is the practical influence which it should have upon us? It ought not to absorb us with grief for the departed, but so to teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. A remarkable dispensation has come over you, and it will certainly leave you better or worse. It is possible that similar events may have passed over you, and yet have been without any profitable effect upon your minds. But it becomes us always to be watchful, it is peculiarly needful to be so at such a period as this. Providence is stepping out of the way, to make a right impression upon our minds, while our great enemy is putting forth all his subtlety to prevent it. The sympathies we cherish towards sorrowing relatives, and the anxieties and occupations which death brings with it, are too frequently employed to carry the mind from death itself, and to prevent the course of that solemn meditation on an event to which we are constantly exposed and subjected. KNOW, THEN, MY HEARERS, THAT YOU MUST DIE! Connect not the hand of death with the scenes of your departed friend with him it has nothing to do; his work is done; and now he is in the presence of his God. Your breath is in your nostrils! your foundation is in the dust! your frailty is like the flower of the field! It is not more certain that you live, than that you are to die; the very means you employ for preserving life, are the means death usually employs to deprive you of it. The food you partake of corrupts the body; your medicine tends to exhaust you! In such circumstances, how soon will death make its appearance! I seem to see the eye closing for ever to the light of heaven, and the loveliness of nature; the ear becoming deaf to the last sounds of devoted affection; the tongue faltering as it seeks to utter the last prayer; the body stretched amidst convulsions on the bed of death; and the spirit making its passage upwards to the footstool of God! And can you forget it? Oh! let your past forgetfulness bind you to the dreadful re membrance! Let the voice of the living, who soon themselves must die, impress the truth upon your conscience! But the dead are speaking to us from the grave; and if the voice of our departed friend could be heard, anything like distinctly by us, it would say, Think not of my decease, but think of your own; "weep not for me, but weep for yourselves." We must not only endeavour to entertain the thoughts of our mortality, but we must also endeavour TO POSSESS JUST AND SCRIPTURAL VIEWS CONCERNING IT. To admit that we must die, and refer it to the arbitrary sentence of God, is to mistake His character, and to harden ourselves against the entertainment of proper views of death. We must feel it as an effect springing from a cause; that cause is sin, and sin is the precursor of death! It has brought frailty on the body, separated the soul from its Maker, and exposed us to the sentence of death and condemnation in a future state of existence! It has blighted the garden of Paradise, sown the seeds of corruption over the earth, and doomed the countless generations of men to toil, perplexity, and care, until they die, and to misery after death. The principle of all the evils which men ever endured, we have strikingly exhibited as prevailing in our hearts. Under its influence, we have chosen death rather than life! We are ruined, but we have ruined ourselves; and this should generate a spirit of deep contrition. The present occasion is meant to awaken these sentiments. Death has been busv in our circle, in striking down our friend, whom he has removed to the throne of the great Eternal. Let us humble and abase ourselves; let us justify the ways of God, and confess that we are not only appointed to death, but that each and all of us deserve to die. THE EVENT WHICH WE ARE LAMENTING IS DESIGNED TO IMPRESS US, AS SIN- To enter into circumstances, to shew that relief is necessary, would be superfluous; it is rather our duty to shew that the relief we need is possible. If death is an evil to which we are exposed, and sin is the cause of death, then it is evident what must be the nature of the remedy. It is not a remedy to be told that death is invulnerable! It is not a remedy to be assured that death will terminate the sorrows of life, by placing us beyond them! It is no consolation to be reminded that all must die, and that we shall only share the common lot of humanity! These are the comforters of the world, and miserable comforters they are; to trust in them is to be confounded for ever! It must be apparent that, if we are to find relief, it must be in resources different from where we find the evils that afflict us. Is not sin the source of mortality? then you shall find the remedy in holiness, "without which no man shall see the Lord." Having satisfied ourselves of the necessity of a remedy, we find from its nature that we can only hope for it by a special revelation from heaven. Such a revelation has actually been made, and it announces precisely such a remedy as reflection and conscience suggest to be necessary. It speaks of light and purity to discover to us our guilt, our danger, and our ruin; that we may be dead to the power of sin; that our confidence may be drawn towards him who so entirely knows our condition. It unfolds to us the means of our redemption; means which, in their issue, fill the heavens with wonder, and make the earth to tremble! God sends his own Son into the world, the Divinity dwells in the humanity, and presents in that humanity a propitiation for our sin! The great sacrifice is accepted, and sin is removed! Life and immortality are brought to light by the gospel! They are placed before us in the splendour of open day! The light of this revelation illuminates the mind! The graces of revelation subdue the heart! Love springs up in the soul; and the love of God is the death of sin and the life of holiness! Leaving all the grovelling things of time to themselves, and winging its way to life eternal, where it is to reign for ever, the spirit is already restored to spiritual life, and redeemed from the second death. The body, though it dies, dies only to weakness, corruption, and mortality, that it may rise up a glorious, and celestial, and immortal habitation for the soul. Notwithstanding the adaptation and sufficiency of this remedy, many persons are ever inquisitive to observe its real effects, where it is properly applied. The heavenly doctrine may have been applied to them, its influence have been shewn to them, but the natural mind has wanted assent to the testimony; and from the apathy and lukewarmness of those who are the avowed subjects of religion, they have sat down determined not to be satisfied without evidence of the highest order. It is such an evidence, that the hand of providence is passing under your eyes this night. You may not have regarded the testimony of the devoted Pastor of this congregation, but perhaps you will consider it now. Here is a man who, prepared by the righteousness of Christ, and by the faith of the Holy Ghost, has exemplified the principles of religion in a godly life. Hear of his growing knowledge! He confirms his living testimony, with his dying lips on the threshold of eternity. He commits his soul to the keeping of Him to whom he has often confided it. If you knew the force of his mind you could not think that he was deceived. If you knew the nature of his death you could not think that he sought to deceive others. What then do you require ? Would you, now that he has seen and heard unutterable things, that he should be summoned from the dead, to re-assure you of his faith and happiness through eternity?"If ye believe not Moses and the prophets, neither will ye believe, though one rose from the dead!" It is not evidence you want; it is inclination. There is enough of evidence: you have more evidence of the truth of religion than you have of your own existence! All things around within you; you, all things past, present, or future; all testify of your fallen condition, and of the faithfulness and sufficiency of the gospel to your recovery. Doubt that light is light; doubt that joy is joy; doubt that I am speaking and that you are hearing; but doubt not of the methods of Divine mercy for human salvation! Your unbelief is your sin, and the proof of its malignity is to be found in the fact, that you will not submit to that eternal grace that shall make you free; that has the promise of the life that now is, and of the life that is to come. Belief is the joy of the heart, 'tis the voice of God in the soul of man, as a light that guides his steps throughout the dark shadow of the valley of death, and, like the sun, graces the regions of a high and a beautiful world. "Believe, and shew the reason of a man ; Believe, and taste the pleasure of a God; Believe, and look with triumph on the tomb." THERE IS A VOICE IN THIS BEREAVING VISITATION, ADDRESSED ESPECIALLY TO YOU, WHO FORM A COMPONENT PART OF THIS CONGREGATION. There are very many in this assembly, who acknowledge the deceased and devoted pastor. You loved him fervently, and your mind is delighted when you recollect his person and his labours! You remember him as long as you can remember any thing! You were interested in his pastoral office and solicitude, before you had any power to recall to mind the benefits which you derived from him. By him you were consecrated in baptism! As children you smiled under his instruction! In more advanced life, you sat with devout emotions under his ministry! You felt yourself privileged above many, in looking to him as your intercessor. You have always connected with him the sacred enjoyments of this place, and now that he is gone, you look upon the pulpit, and the place of worship, and all the objects with which you are so familiar-You look around you, and you can hardly feel yourselves at home.. Amidst the multitude of thoughts that pain you, "you sorrow most of all to think, that you shall see his face no more!" Such sorrow is a noble and holy thing; but, in the midst of such sorrow, compose yourself with the reflection, "That he, being dead, yet speaketh." You, who have so long enjoyed his ministry, and have known, so intimately, his mind, can have no doubt as to what would be the spirit and tendency of his admonitions. You know how the inward conscience tells you of the voice of your departed friend! I beseech you to regard its suggestions! Did it not exhort you to a full and determined perseverance, to "cleave to the Lord with fixed purpose of heart?" "To forget those things which are behind, and reach forth to those things which are before, and press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" that you might be saved with an everlasting salvation? You know this to have been the purport of his exercises: when living, you often yielded to him the obedient ear; and now that his lips are silenced in death, you will not deny it. The advice of a father assumes the nature of a command; the command of a deceased parent is of the nature of a law. You will hold sacred the understood will of him, whose testimony is fixed in death. You will be followers of him, as he followed Christ. The way will be smoother, because he has trodden it; and heaven will be more attractive, |