ocean. Wearisome days and nights were indeed appointed to her; every gust of wind, and every flash of lightning that penetrated her lonely dwelling convulsed her very soul, as she pictured to her excited imagination the yawning gulf, and the unfathomable abyss of the ocean into which she feared the object of her anxious solicitude had sunk to rise no more. And when, after months and years of bitterness, spent over that child of many prayers and tears, the kindly winds of heaven wafted to her the delightful intelligence that her sailor boy was yet alivewhat mind can conceive-what tongue can tell the rapture of that moment, when she greeted his well-known voice, and clasped in her fond embrace the dearest idol of her affections?

How unspeakably great then-how inconceivably rapturous will be the joy experienced by the redeemed and glorified, when they shall be permitted to meet and welcome to their own bright and blissful abode those whom they have loved, and left for a while in this vale of tears. How soothing to the chafed and sorrowing spirit of the mourner, is the thought that soon the wound which death has made will be healed-that the tears which death has caused us to shed will be dried up, and that "the beautiful beings which now flit before us like visions, will stay in our presence forever." What an exhilarating and delightful prospect is thus presented to cheer the worn and wearied spirit of the sorrowing Christian-to banish from his heart every feeling of sadness, and to make him triumph even amid the ravages of death.

In conclusion, let this subject administer consolation to those who are called to mourn the loss of valued and pious friends. In the order of Providence, you have been compelled to drink the bitter cup of affliction-you have stood beside the dying bed of an affectionate, faithful and truly godly parent-you have watched the sun of her earthly being shedding his last lingering ray upon her once bright, but now faded countenance-you have marked with intense solicitude the fluttering pulse, the sunken eye, and the hollow cheek. At last weary nature, worn out with pain and suffering, yielded beneath the pressure of its load, and the convulsive struggle and dying groan proclaimed in language too plain to be misunderstood, that the dark night of death had thrown its sable covering over the inanimate form before you. And now, with a slow and solemn step, you follow to the tomb to see, with tearful eyes and aching hearts, the coffin lowered into its final resting place, and cheerless oblivion close her dark portals over that once loved form-now cold and dead. But is there no ray of light to shine upon the incumbent darkness-must moonless and everlasting night triumph over all that you once loved and valued? No, sweeter than odors wafted from the mountains of spices, and more enchanting far than the music of the spheres, comes the cheering announcement: "I am the

resurrection and the life. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord."

Jesus of Nazareth has grappled with the last enemy; He has entered his gloomy caverns; He has burst asunder his cold and icy fetters, and poured a flood of immortal radiance upon that dark prison house, where nought but despair had ever been known. Lift up your heads, then, and rejoice, ye weeping and afflicted pilgrims; it is true your dear friend lies motionless and cold in death, but she has only "fallen asleep in Jesus, and if she sleep, she shall do well." The all-searching eye of God is not dim, that it cannot see, nor his arm shortened that it cannot save, and at the appointed time life will revisit her mouldering arm, and she will bloom again with unfading verdure and loveliness in the region of cloudless day. "Arise, then, and depart, for this is not your rest. Go your way, till the end be, for ye shall stand in your lot at the end of the days." Take your staff, and journey on toward the promised land-go forward in obedience to the divine mandate, watched over by a father's eye, and guided by a father's hand-compassed about with a great cloud of invisible spectators, cheering you onward in your Christian course; and when you come to the margin of that stream"the narrow stream of death"-which separates between you and the celestial paradise, a convoy of angels shall be sent to bear you over the swellings of Jordan, and waft your ransomed spirits to that blissful clime

"Where rivers of pleasure flow o'er the bright plains,
And the noontide of glory eternally reigns."

SERMON DCXXV.

BY REV. JOHN DUNCAN,

PASTOR OF THE BAPTIST CHURCH, UPLAND, PA.

ENOCH'S WALK WITH GOD.

"And Enoch walked with God."-GENESIS v. 24.

A single word of commendation from the mouth of God is amply sufficient to carry one's name and virtues down to the end of time. The biography of faithful Enoch is comprised in three words; while the exploits of Alexander-the career of Napoleon, and of many of earth's bloody heroes, require many volumes to record them.

This short sentence, comprising the whole life of this good man, is a luminous point in the world's history, which no achievements in statesmanship, or martial heroism can ever equal or obscure, and which no

length of time can ever blot out. And yet, I doubt not, we have many such examples of piety and humility in our own times. God saw fit, in the case of Enoch, to exempt him from the great curse resting upon all the posterity of Adam, in consequence of transgression-the curse of death. He was, therefore, translated, so that he should not suffer its pangs and struggles, nor go into its dark and gloomy chambers. An event so strange-so entirely out of the ordinary course of nature-must have originated in a cause as singular. Adam and Eve, the first guilty pair, had already paid their debt to Nature, and been gathered under the curse of a broken law, to their resting place in the earth. Fifty-seven years after this event, Enoch, without tasting of death, was changed from mortal to immortality, and thus introduced into the presence of God, and the paradise above.

In the translation of Enoch, the great work and victory of the promised Messiah was clearly seen. The world could read in this event, the glorious resurrection of all the dead, and the nature of that great mission the Son of God was to fulfil on earth. Being the seventh from Adam, Enoch was cotemporary with him more than three hundred years, and hence, through Adam, he had a perfect knowledge of the creation, and the fall-the glory preceding, and the misery succeeding, that terrible And he must have learned the nature of that promise made to Adam-that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head.

event.

Even the heathen venerated Enoch. The Babylonians consider him as the founder of their astrology, and tell us that he is the same who is called Atlas by the Greeks, who, from his profound skill in natural objects, and particularly from his discoveries in astronomy, was hyperbolically said to sustain the heavens on his shoulders. Eusebius, the great ecclesiastical historian, who wrote in the fourth century, quotes Eupolempus-then an old heathen writer, of great credit and celebrity-who speaks of Enoch in relation to many of the idolatrous practices of the nations of the east. The Arabian writers call him Edris, and speak of the great extent of his knowledge. The translations of the Grecian heroes, or demigods, especially Hesperus and Astrea, who were said to bave ascended to heaven alive, and to have been turned into stars and celestial signs-the Dhruva among the Hindoos; the Buddha, among the Ceylonese; and the Xaca, among the Calmuchs of Siberia, all may be traced up to the translation of this good man, of whom it is faithfully recorded that "he walked with God." How extensive must his influence have been, and how pre-eminent his virtues, to have been held in such universal estimation in an age like that in which he lived.

The very name of Enoch shows the piety of Jared his father. His name signifies to instruct, imitate, dedicate, and probably his father partook of the spirit of his father again; for Mahalaleel seems to have been devoted in his piety, and close in his walk with God. But the godly character so much commended in our text, Enoch, under the Divine blessing, formed himself. He walked with God; this was a voluntary act; he chose the company and the companionship of God above that of all men. The Hebrew word signifies to set himself to walk with God, and then he did walk with God. It has, therefore, two independent meanings-the one is a fixedness of purpose; the other is a reflex influence of this purpose upon him who conceives it. The purpose of Enoch was to lead a

his

holy life, and then by divine grace the influence of this purpose upon soul, was to sustain it, and to bring it into companionship and communion with God.

He, doubtless, had the good counsel of Seth, Enos, Cainan and others, who very much contributed to his spiritual strength and resolution. How powerful is parental example. If all parents would imitate Jared, and follow his example in early dedicating their children to the Lord, how universally they would find, that "just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined;" and that when a child is trained up in the way he should go, he will not depart from his early counsel and instruction when he becomes old.

Enoch was a prophet, and the first of all the prophets who prophesied of a judgment to come. This remarkable revelation seems to have been made to him, in consequence of his eminent piety. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and that hope in His mercy." The language in which he declares an approaching judgment, is majestic and sublime, scarcely equaled by any of the later prophets, or even the apostles.

In tracing Enoch's walk with God, we shall learn what our own ought to be. Let us inquire wHAT THE FIGURATIVE EXPRESSION OF OUR TEXT MEANS "WALKING WITH GOD."

I. The expression walking together always denotes strong personal friendship and agreement.

The question is asked by one of old: "Can two walk together, except they are agreed?" By nature men are said to walk away from God, having no desire to be found with him, or to possess a knowledge of His ways. They have lost his favor, and they feel a consciousness that they are unlike Him-hating what He loves, and loving what He hates-and, therefore, cannot be happy in his presence. The Apostle Paul says: "Therefore, as by one judgment came upon all men unto condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." Condemnation, resulting from known and acknowledged guilt, destroys all self confidence. This the sinner feels, and he fears to come into the presence of his Maker, but withdraws into deeper darkness lest his deeds should be reproved. He can, therefore, never walk with God, and lift up his face and cry, "Abba, Father," unless he is redeemed by the blood of Christ, and so reconciled unto God.

The whole human family by nature, are disinherited-alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, "Children of wrath," having no hope, and without God in the world. To this universal apostasy there is not one single exception. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand that did seek after God. "They are all gone out of the way; they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no not one. This moral condition is ours, and involves deep, settled hostility to the character, the purposes, and the moral government of God. carnal mind is enmity itself against God, and is not subject to His law, neither can it be," till it is subdued and renovated by grace. "From the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, there is no soundness in us." Now, to walk with a God of such immaculate purity as He who declares the heavens impure in His sight, and who charges His angels with folly,

"The

before whom the illuminate Seraphim veil their faces; to walk with such a God, requires righteousness in character, purity in life, holiness in heart, and harmony in views, and union in feeling, of no ordinary extent or degree. Until this moral change in man is produced, he can hold no communion with his Maker, nor his Maker with him. But who, as God smiles upon him, would not exclaim, and especially, as God calls him into His presence, and invites him to hold communion with Him-" Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger forever, because He delighteth in mercy;" "for He will subdue our iniquities, and cast all our sins into the depth of the sea. Thus he removes by His mercy our guilt and moral pollution, through the blood of the everlasting covenant; and none, till they are thus cleansed and washed and purified, can walk with Him.

II. Walking with God implies active faith in Him.

By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death, and was not found, because God translated him; for before his translation, he had this testimony, that he pleased God." "But without faith," we are told by the apostle, "it is impossible to please Him; for he that cometh to Him must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of all those who diligently seek Him." His creating goodness demands it. He has made us intelligent, thinking, choosing, reasoning beings. With all the goodness he has caused to pass before us, and the attributes of His nature emblazoned on the heavens, and every where written on the earth, were we to overlook Him, or fail to recognize His lofty and sublime perfections in their resplendant manifestation in the material universe, we should richly deserve His indignation and wrath, and our unbelief against such a flood of testimony would be the very incarnation of guilt and wickedness. His preserving mercy demands the exercise of unlimited faith in Him. He has sustained us for the very purpose of our confidence and honorable trust in Him. What a bright example Enoch has set us! Our faith, like his, should be unwavering; it should be as living and as operative, and as glorious in its results.

III. Walking with God implies a conformity to His character, an obedience to His will, and a delight in His way.

God has but one way, uniform, unchanging, and eternal, in which He moves, and this way He has revealed to us in His word. Every soul, therefore, found in this way, is found in company with God. It is a high way, a holy way, a safe way-it is cast up in this waste wilderness by the wisdom and the love of God, for all His redeemed to pass over to the promised land. It is the way of prayer, of holiness, of justice, of mercy, of humility, and of love; and yet, these are but parts of His way, and how small a portion of Him is known."

Christian, are you in this way, and now walking with God like Enoch? Then are you a just man-a holy man, an humble man, a righteous man, a benevolent man, a praying man, for these are God's way. He is only found in them. If these strong moral principles do not characterize your life and actions, you cannot "walk with God," nor enjoy the light of His countenance, nor the communion of His spirit, nor the fellowship of His Son. But, "blessed is that people that know the joyful sound, and that walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance, for in thy name shall