The Death of Eminent Ministers, a Public Loss 2
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II. Eminent ministers are not allowed to remain—but are removed by death, notwithstanding their usefulness, from the scene of their labors. Neither great talents, nor eminent virtues, nor extensive usefulness, can secure for their possessor a longer exemption from the stroke of death—than falls to the lot of humanity in general. The most excellent of the human race are subject to the same law of existence as the most worthless; the most useful to the same rule as the most mischievous. Sin has diffused an incurable taint of mortality through the whole body, which affects not only the extremities—but reaches the head.
"All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever." (Isaiah 40:6-8). There is, indeed, no border country, no neutral territory, no sacred enclosure, within which the holy and benevolent may retire to carry on their labors, and protract their usefulness, secure from the pursuit of disease and death.
What men have visited our earth! what lofty spirits have been here!
What Godlike minds have appeared on the theater of our world! What burning and shining lights have thrown the splendors of hallowed genius over this dark scene! But they are vanished and gone! By a single effort of the imagination we can call up a crowd of illustrious personages, who have enlightened the earth by their knowledge, sanctified it by their piety, and blessed it by their benevolence. For awhile we seem to converse with these mighty and holy ones; but the spell is soon broken, and we find that we have nothing but their names. What lights of the sanctuary have been extinguished; what heaven-inspired eloquence has been hushed; what powerful energies have been paralyzed! Oh! sin, what has you done? Our globe is the tomb of illustrious men, and the materials of ecclesiastical history consist of monumental inscriptions.
Ministers, having partaken of the common depravity of our nature, must endure its consequences in the penalty of death; and their pulpit, vacated for their grave, is a visible comment on the evil nature of sin, more impressive than any which they delivered during the whole course of their living labor.
In some cases it may be supposed that they are removed in a way of corrective justice. Prone to extremes, men either undervalue or overvalue their mercies; and so it is with churches in reference to their pastors. Instances have not been lacking in which ministers possessed of attractive or splendid talents, united with amiable and conciliatory manners, have become the objects of popular homage; sabbath after sabbath, the eager auditors thronged around the pulpit, in which their idol was enshrined, to receive in the strains of his eloquence, the inspiration of their great Apollo.
The orator more than the preacher; eloquence more than truth; the sweet melody of voice, or the fascinating beauties of imagination, more than "glad tidings of salvation," were the objects of their delight. Who can wonder, then, if when God is thus forgotten in his creatures, he should become jealous for the honor of his great name, and remove the man who was preferred before Him. On the other hand, some undervalue their ministers; and, displeased at their ingratitude; God extinguishes the light they were not disposed to benefit by, and thus awakens them to bewail their past neglect; and the more to prize and improve the means which, in unmerited favor, he still permits them to enjoy.
May we not suppose that God sometimes removes faithful and able ministers, to prove to the world that though he uses instruments, he needs them not. "It is a piece of divine royalty and magnificence, that when he has prepared and polished such a utensil, so as to be capable of great service, he can lay it by without loss." The mortality of ministers shows, that in reference to the cause of religion, the kingdom, the power, and the glory, belong to God. He seems to have made human life short and brittle, that the splendor of his own attributes might more effulgently shine forth in the preservation and extension of his church upon earth.
This mighty and holy building is built in an immense burial ground; it rises from a valley of dry bones; all around its base are the tombs of the workmen; prophets and apostles, reformers and martyrs, missionaries and ministers, have successively withered away in the rebuke of the Almighty, and left the work unfinished, for other men to enter upon their labors. But there stands He who alone has immortality, forever uttering forth his undying word, amidst the wrecks of ages, and the ruins and relics of all the generations; contrasting his own immutability with the frailty of man, and the permanence of the work with the short-lived existence of the laborer; proclaiming over the building as it rises from the region of death, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last."
Oftentimes the ministers of the gospel are worn out in the service, and retire according to the course of nature, from the scene of their labors to the seat of their repose. They must not always bear the burden of toil—but go home in due season to enjoy their rest, and receive their reward. They must not always agonize in the closet, the study, the pulpit—they must not always mourn over fruitless sabbaths and unsuccessful sermons—they must not always bear the unkindness of friends and the malice of enemies; the inconsistencies of the church and the wickedness of the world—they must not always fight the good fight of faith. No, if to abide in the flesh be more needful for their people, to depart and be with Christ is that better state which God in his mercy has prepared for them.
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