SP}Lb4 dCLIJ.] 'FEE DEATH OF I£fNDitED INFROV.fiD. 211 from the sinful practices ofthe world, and I will receive you, and I will be a Father to you, and ye shall be my Aons and my daughters, saith the Lord Almighty," 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18,. Has death entered into a family, and taken the head, the husband away? The words of Isaiah grow ßweeter than ever ; Is. liv. 5. " Thy Maker is thy -Ius- band, the Lord of Hosts is his name, even the God of the whole earth." Are the widows and the fatherless children in danger of oppression, because they have lokt :their defender ? They run to the lxvlii. Ps. an,. live upon the 5th verse of it ; " A Father of tfia fatherless, and Judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation." Is a brother summoned away by the stroke of death ? .13ut the Lord Jesus is alive still : He that took .flesh and blood upon him, that he might be made like :the rest ,of the chil- dren of God " He is not ashamed to call thembrethren," lieb. ii. 11. This is a brother that was .born for the day of our adversity ; this is the friend that sticks closer than a brother, and abides with us when a brother departs, according to the expression of the wise man ; J rov. xvii. 17. .and xviii. 24. Thus the names, and çharaeters, and relations of God the Father, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, acquire a new sweetness, and appear with greater love and glory in them, at the death of our earthly relatives. There is many ,a christian can speak feelingly, and say, " Never did I live so muchuponmy God, I never knew nor loved my Saviour so well, never conversed so much with, his word, never did I find such sweetness in his names, .nor _his promises, nor such pleasure in secret converse with him, as I have done since the day I lost such .a friend, or such a dear relation by the stroke of death : ,I have learned now to put no trust in creatures ; " for their breath goeth forth, and that very day their thoughts of kindness perish," Ps. cxlvi. 3-3. Now rc- fuge fails me, no man seems to be concerned for me, since the death of such a friend ; " I say, therefore, to my God, thou art my refuge," Ps. cxlii. 4, 5. III. The death of our dearest friends ,calls us to a no- ble trial of our love to God, and our submission to his sovereignty. Human nature indeed is afraid of trials ; but when the present aids of divine grace give us the vic- tory, then "blessed is the man that endureth temptation
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