Psalm 88:18 Lover and friend have you put far from me, and my acquaintance into darkness. I. THE SORROW WHICH WE NATURALLY FEEL WHEN WE ARE BEREAVED OF DEAR AND WORTHY FRIENDS, AND THE BOUNDS WITHIN WHICH IT OUGHT TO BE RESTRAINED. If Christianity pronounces it the height of profligacy to be without natural affections, the tears which flow from such affections, Christianity cannot forbid. What nature hath implanted the religion of Jesus means not to extirpate, but to moderate and direct. Shall it not calm the soul tossed with tempests, and if not dry up, at least diminish, the flowing tears, that a voice from heaven, the voice of the spirit of truth, declares: "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord"? They see God as He is. They are satisfied with His likeness. II. THE PRACTICAL LESSONS WHICH WE OUGHT TO RECEIVE FROM THE DEATH OF OUR CHRISTIAN FRIENDS. 1. It should impress on our minds a deep and lasting sense of our own mortality. 2. It should teach us the vanity and nothingness of this world. 3. It demonstrates the worth and excellency of religion. 4. It teaches us how important it is to discharge our duty to friends who yet survive. 5. It should kindle Within us a longing desire for a blessed eternity. We naturally wish to be with those whom we love. When Jacob hears that his son Joseph is yet alive, and advanced to great honour in Egypt, he cannot rest till he goes down there to see him. And when our friends have left that land in which we are yet strangers and pilgrims, our affections should be more weaned from it, and our desires inflamed to get to that better land, whither they have gone before us. (John Erskine, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness. |
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