Consolation in Life and Death, Derived from the Life of Christ: Being the substance of a sermon on the death of Mrs. Turner, preached at the Surrey Tabernacle, on Sunday evening, the 15th of August, 1824Church, J. (John)
Religion
Consolation in Life and Death, Derived from the Life of Christ: Being the substance of a sermon on the death of Mrs. Turner, preached at the Surrey Tabernacle, on Sunday evening, the 15th of August, 1824
Church, J. (John)
Funeral sermons; Sermons, English -- 19th century
None, indeed, return from the grave to tell us what it is; but it is well
known, that most of those who have been much troubled in mind all their
days, have had the most serene moments at last. That God, who has
delivered in six troubles, has always been found faithful in the seventh,
_the last_.--Descending into the waters of Jordan, the deep has never
swallowed them up: they have found the rock of ages for their feet to
stand upon, at the bottom of the brook.
I remember, after a season of long and painful affliction our dear friend
was enabled to come up to chapel. I was totally ignorant of her coming:
but previous to this, I could find no portion of scripture to speak on
but _this_: "And came to deliver them who, all their life-time, were
subject to bondage, through fear of death." This was the last sermon she
ever heard: and the truths contained in it, she sweetly felt. Her
direful complaint increased. Her sufferings were very great indeed. And
as all other persons in like sorrows, so she ebbed and flowed in mind;
but her God was with her in her final hour.--
"Her final hour brought glory to her God."
In point of gospel principles, she was always at a point: but at times
sorely troubled about an interest in Christ, by reason of the cloud that
cometh betwixt. But every fresh smile from the Saviour, every sweet word
dropped into her mind. Frequently reading the word and precious hymns,
the visits of God's dear people and humble prayer relieved her again.
The last visit I paid her, I perceived she was near home. Not being able
to speak for a time, I feared she would speak no more: but after waiting
a little while, (as a proof of what her mind was fixed upon) she
exclaimed, with peculiar solemnity, "By thine agony and bloody sweat, by
thy cross and passion, by thy precious death and burial, by thy glorious
resurrection and ascension, good Lord deliver me!" Here, on this rock
her faith was built in life, and firm in death. A friend asked her if
she was happy. After pausing, she said, "Happy, happy! I know that
Christ died for sinners, and it is _there_ I am fixed." She requested
the twelfth chapter of Isaiah to be read to her. While reading, she
said, "How precious!" and begged to hear it again. At the last verse,
"Cry out and shout thou inhabitant of Zion," she said, "Do so, do so; for
_our_ God is a great God." Soon after this, she repeated, in a very
peculiar manner, the whole of Mr. Hart's hymn:
"Christ is the friend of sinners, be that forgotten never."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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