+III. Character determines the nature of our future fame+ (verse 7). 1. _The memory of the righteous is blessed, because what they did upon the earth is the means of bringing blessings upon others after they are gone._ Many a son has received kindness for the sake of the righteousness of his father. God blesses the children for the father's sake. "I will make him prince all the days of his life _for David my servant's sake,_ whom I chose, because he kept my commandments and my statutes" (1 Kings xi. 34). "Fear not," said God to Isaac, "for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for _my servant Abraham's sake_" (Gen. xxvi. 24). Cyrus was raised up to deliver Israel _for Jacob's sake_ (Isa. xlv. 4). Men can but bless the memory of those whose past godliness is the means of bringing blessings upon them in the present. 2. _The just man's memory is blessed because he leaves behind him reproductions of his own character._ All life will reproduce itself. After a tree has decayed and gone to dust, others will be in full life and vigour that were seedlings of the old tree. Intellectual life is reproductive. The man of mighty genius leaves disciples to carry out his ideas after he is gone. Good men are the parents of good children, or make other men good by their words and lives. "They that dwell under his shadow shall return," and "_they_ shall grow as the vine" (Hosea xiv. 7). The good must be held in blessed remembrance so long as there are those upon earth who are the reproductions of their character. 3. _The memory of some is blessed because they did deeds which never can be reproduced by others--which have left a fragrance behind them which can never be repeated._ The one act of Abraham, when he prepared to offer up Isaac at God's command, can never be repeated; but it is the one which, above all his other acts of faith, causes him to be held in everlasting remembrance. And so it has been with many of the leaders of the Church in all ages. They have performed acts of godly heroism which we cannot imitate, but of which we reap the reward, and for which we bless their memory. Especially is this true of Him who is pre-eminently the Holy One and the Just, whose glorious "name is blessed for ever" (Psa. lxxii. 19), because "He endured the cross and despised the shame." But the converse of all this is the lot of the wicked. We can but remember them when we are brought face to face with the evil they have left behind them; but we turn from the remembrance as we turn from some offensive putrid object, while the memory of the just is as a sweet savour. Contrast the feelings with which Christendom now regards the emperors of Rome and the fishermen of Galilee. _OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._