Part 29 (1/2)
One week ago to-day, and at this hour, we stood in this historic church over the precious remains of our dear, departed Elder, James Knowles, so kind, so gentle, so affectionate, so humble, and so meek in his manners that we greatly miss him in our work for the blessed Master.
Ah! little did we then think that we were to be so speedily gathered together to pay the last tribute of respect to the memory of his faithful and loving wife. But G.o.d's ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts as our thoughts. How inexplicable and profoundly mysterious are His providential arrangements. It hath pleased our kind heavenly Father to say to our sainted sister, ”It is enough, come up higher.”
She also is at rest with her Saviour and her husband, to whom she was so devotedly attached. She was, indeed, a virtuous wife and loving mother.
”The race appointed she has run, The combat's o'er, the prize is won.”
[6] The substance of a sermon preached by the Rev. Duncan McNeill Young, in the Allen Street Presbyterian Church, New York, November 1, 1886, on the occasion of the death of Mrs. James Knowles, a city missionary who triumphantly departed this life on October 30, 1886, in the seventy fifth year of her age.
How blessed the change! How rich the reward! How safe from all sin and sorrow! In yonder ”land of pure delight where saints immortal reign.”
_What a meeting! What a greeting takes place at the hour of dissolution!_ How pleasing the contemplation. How inspiring to think of our n.o.ble ancestors; our holy ministers and teachers; our fathers and mothers who led us by the hand to the house of G.o.d on the Sabbath, who early taught us to lisp the ever precious name of Jesus; who are to-day singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. Let us thank G.o.d at this solemn hour, even amid blinding tears, for pious, praying parents.
Oh, that the Holy Spirit of G.o.d may touch our hearts to-day; that we may more fully realize the greatness and importance of our work, and that we may understand that this second great loss to this church is the voice of the G.o.d of Israel calling us, by the solemn dispensations of His providence, to be more zealous in our Saviour's cause. Clarify our vision just now, O Thou Divine Enlightener, that we may see light in Thy light.
I truly believe my theme to-day is a gift from the Lord, the G.o.d of Abraham, and is peculiarly appropriate for this solemn scene, and adapted to the circ.u.mstances and special wants of this church and congregation. ”Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” The text, I may add, has been graphically ill.u.s.trated in the life and labors, as well as in the death of her who now lies before us in that beautiful casket, covered with so many rich and fragrant flowers, the gifts of dearly beloved friends.
While I do not believe in eulogizing the dead, yet, nevertheless, I think, nay, I experimentally know, that great good is derived from reflection upon the lives of the great, the pure, and the n.o.ble ones who are beyond the flood. Nothing stimulates me so much to increased activity and aggressiveness in Christian work as the thought of the numerous servants of the Most High G.o.d now in heaven:
”How bright those glorious spirits s.h.i.+ne, Whence all their white array?
How came they to the blissful seats Of everlasting day?”--”Par.” lxvi. 1.
Paul, who uttered the words of our text, was pa.s.sing through great suffering when he wrote this epistle to the Church which he planted at Philippi. He was at this time a prisoner for Christ in the palace of the imperial city of Rome: for he declares, ”That _the things that happened unto me_, have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel; so that,” he adds, ”my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places.”
There are just two thoughts that we want to try and develop this afternoon, namely, that conformity to the likeness of Christ in life brings glorious gain to the Christian at death. Or, in the words of the great Apostle of the Gentiles, ”For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” From the sacred hour that the blessed Jesus met him on his way to Damascus, to the day of his martyrdom, his continual cry was, ”G.o.d forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me.” ”I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.”
”That man,” says the Hebrew bard, ”hath perfect blessedness, who not only refraineth from walking astray, but who delights in the Law of the Lord.” _Lex rex_, was his motto--”The Law is King!” For the Master has said: ”Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” He desires to corroborate the fact that--”Ye are the light of the world”--hence, he adds, ”Let your light so s.h.i.+ne before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” ”The city set on a hill cannot be hid.”
The true Christian, then, beholds the humility and majesty of Christ in defining His and our relation to the law that regulates daily life. The Gospel of the blessed G.o.d and the law conjointly elevates and spiritualizes humanity. The law is our school-master to lead us to Christ, hence Paul says, ”To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, G.o.d sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
Our loved one's life was emphatically a life of consecration. It was a life strictly devoted to the cause of her dear Redeemer. ”For her to live was Christ, hence to die was gain.” We all know that to consecrate is to set apart for holy service. Aaron of old was thus unreservedly laid upon the altar as a living sacrifice for Jehovah. A person thus set apart receives the unction of the Holy One. It was beautifully symbolized under the mosaical dispensation.
Moses took the anointing oil and poured it upon the head of Aaron, in order that he might be sanctified and set apart for the service of G.o.d.
And so, when we can truly exclaim with Paul, ”I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of G.o.d, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” It is then we receive the blessed baptism of the Holy Spirit, and are made meet for the Master's use. None can rightly live for Christ until they receive this rich and inestimable blessing. ”At that time we are _sealed_ with the Holy Spirit of promise.”
Among the personal property of Sister Knowles were found some crumbs which fell from the Master's table in the form of forget-me-nots of the Word of G.o.d, by Dr. McDuff, author of ”Morning and Night Watches.”
Valuable little works which I would earnestly recommend, and which I have endeavored to put into the hands of many young disciples in my various fields of labor. I will quote a few of the forget-me-nots, as they are very comforting in these hours of sorrow and separation. For instance here are a few of them:
”Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy G.o.d: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”--Isa. xli. 10. ”Yet will I not forget thee: Even to your old age _I am He_; and even to h.o.a.r hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.”--Isa. xlvi. 4.
Our dear Sister Knowles corroborated the truthfulness of the above pa.s.sages by her last dying words, the last she ever uttered upon earth.
”Once I was young, now I am old, and have never been forsaken.”
It is impossible for us to live a truly devoted Christian life without the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, John said, ”I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.” This divine blessing our dear sister pre-eminently possessed.
This was the reason why Christ, our ever adorable Redeemer and Daysman was continually about His Father's business. The Prophet Isaiah said concerning him: ”The Spirit of the Lord G.o.d is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.... To comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that _He might be glorified_.”
The presence here to-day, in a body, of the ”New York Female Bible Readers' Society,” out of respect to the memory of the departed, is a conclusive evidence of the fact that they recognized her sterling qualities, and her heroic missionary spirit among the fallen sons and daughters of Adam in the lower part of this great city. They fully realize that this church and community have suffered a severe loss in her removal, and their presence, together with so many elders, and ministers, deacons, and Sabbath-school workers, give proof that her life, for over a quarter of a century, during which she incessantly toiled for Christ, were years of holy and unremitting industry, and holy consecration in the service of Him whose whole life was one of self-sacrifice and self-abnegation. ”For He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
She was like Christ in this respect. Emptied of self, and was found like Mary of old sitting at the feet of Jesus, and hearing His word. As He said, ”Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
G.o.d has wisely ordained that souls are to be saved through human instrumentality, especially through those whose hearts are in the work.