Part 3

What, then, is the conclusion of the whole matter? What is the lesson to be learnt from the text? and what from the whole history of our honoured friend? What is the lesson that he would have drawn from it himself had he been here to speak to us this day? I believe he would have summed it all up in one word, _i.e._, CHRIST. This is what he taught in his family, and made the unceasing subject of his family worship. This is what he taught in the Sunday school, and pressed with a holy perseverance on the hearts and consciences of his class. This was the subject of his addresses in the schoolroom, as well as of all his visits in the cottages. In these visits he carried many a kind gift for the body, but he always remembered his one message, and was never silent on the free grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And do you think he would speak less of Him now? Now that he sees that blessed Saviour whom he so long believed, and has himself experienced the actual joy of his presence? No, if he now were to speak to us I am persuaded it would be all of Christ. If he could give one more lesson to his class it would be to assure them that the half had never yet been told them, and that there is a joy in Christ of which he had known here only just the small beginning. If he were to speak to you young men he would tell you there is nothing that can ever satisfy your soul but Christ. Life may now seem very bright to you; but there are days of mourning before you as well as days of rejoicing, and there is nothing but Christ then can either save or satisfy your soul. And so, if He were to speak to you mourners it would still be the same thing to you. How would he tell of the balm of Gilead for the wounded heart, and of the great purpose of God, surely doing all things well for the eternal life of His chosen people! and once more, if he were to speak to those amongst us who are still unchanged, still unconverted, still without the new birth, still without Christ, how would he press upon you the great atonement made on the Cross for every guilty sinner; and how would he weep over the hard impenitent hearts that remain unmoved, unsoftened, unsaved by His grace! But we cannot hear his voice: it is now silent upon earth, and must remain so till the Lord comes. His thanksgivings are now heard only in Heaven. But the unmistakeable testimony remains, and may God so write it on our hearts, that when we are called, as he has been, to give up our great account, we may be found, as I am persuaded he is, without fault before the Throne of God.