A Sermon and Prayer Delivered by JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY At A Public Meeting At The Friends' Meeting House, Liverpool, 5th month 6th, 1832.
Sermons and Prayers, Delivered by Joseph John Gurney, In The Friends Meeting House, Liverpool, 1832. Second Edition. Liverpool: Thomas Hodgson; London: Whittaker, Treacher, & Co., 1832., pages 1-20 (sermon), 60-63 (prayer.)
This is The Quaker Homiletics Online Anthology, Part Three: The 19th Century.
When our Lord Jesus Christ was drawing towards the close of his ministry, and when he was about to ascend into that glory from which he came, and wherein he was with the Father before the world was, he appeared to his disciples on the mountain, at the place appointed in Galilee, which had been very much the scene of his labours in the ministry of the gospel, (for he was himself the prince of prophets;) and he said to them, when they were assembled together, "All power is given unto me in heaven , and in earth." He therefore proclaimed his own supreme authority over all things, visible and invisible, under the Father, who gave him all authority, as the glorious Mediator between God and man, in whom was the nature of the unchangeable God, and who had taken upon him the nature of man, but without sin. "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth ;" and then followed his final commission, "Go ye, and teach all nations," (or make disciples of all nations,) "baptizing them in the name," (or into the name, as the original words import,) "baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and behold I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." And blessed for ever be the adorable name of the glorious Head of his own church, he is with his disciples always, even unto the end of the world; for it is their privilege to serve, worship, and obey an omnipotent and omnipresent Saviour, who hath all power in heaven and in earth, and who rules over the universe for the church's sake; for, as the apostle hath testified, "he is head over all things unto the church, which is his body, the fulness of him who filleth all in all;" and directs that his disciples and servants may reverently believe that their Master is with them perpetually, protecting them by his presence, and strengthening them by his power; as, in a very especial manner, may they rely on his present help, when, under the influence of his own Blessed Spirit, they are engaged in proclaiming the glad tidings of salvation to the fallen children of men; for then, above all other times, they do require his help, for they have no ability of their own for so high and so important a work. And no man living, however learned, however skilled in speech, ever was, or ever will be, competent to this work, unless he is put forth by the authority, and assisted by the grace and good spirit, of the glorious Head of the church, who is the minister of the true tabernacle, and who can still pour forth of his anointing Spirit, even on the poorest and the feeblest of the children of men: and when his servants are favoured with this influence, although they are nothing in themselves, and worse than nothing, they are at times enabled, even by means of a living and powerful ministry, to baptize their hearers into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Important distinctions sometimes hang on little words; a man may be said to baptize in the name of God, when he baptizes under the authority, and by the commission of God, as John the Baptist did in the name of God; and man may be said to baptize into the name of God, when he is made the means of bringing his fellow-men into that living and saving faith, of which God is the object. And in order truly to baptize the benighted children of men into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth is the grand, essential qualification; and whatsoever opinion we may form on the subject of the outward rite, no man ever was, or ever will be, truly baptized into the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, but by the influence of the Spirit of God, who is omnipotent. And the ministry of the gospel is here described, as it appears to me, as the medium through which this essential and saving blessing is communicated, even as Christ is said, by the apostle Paul, to "cleanse his church, by the washing of water through the word." And oh! my beloved friends, my soul is filled with an ardent desire, that whatsoever may be our form of worship, whatsoever our name to religion, whatsoever the ceremonies which we practise, or of which we avoid the practice, we may all be baptized under the power of the Lord Almighty, into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; that ours may not be a barren, fruitless, speculative religion, but a religion which shall embrace the whole truth as it is in Jesus, and which shall be productive of that new creation, wherein we may serve the Lord our God in the beauty of holiness, and be made meet for the final and full enjoyment of life everlasting: for "if any man be in Christ, it is a new creation; old things are passed away, behold all things are become new." And we may depend upon it that we cannot live either by the practice of forms, or by the absence of them; "for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation:" and God grant, my beloved friends, that you may all experience this new creation, by being baptized, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, into the name of the Father.
Beloved friends, we often talk of God as if we knew him; we talk of the wonders of creation, we admire the starry firmament, we are astonished at the harmonious courses of planets and of systems, we are lost in the contemplation of the magnificent, boundless whole; we take the microscope in our hands, and scrutinize the matchless beauties of a feather or a leaf, the mysteries of divine power, and behold it in the formation of the smallest insect; and in the small, as well as the great things of nature, we find that there is a hidden infinity, into which the most perspicacious philosophy cannot dive; and we do acknowledge in words, that the Creator of heaven and earth is an omnipotent, glorious, and incomprehensible being; but for all that, he is hidden from our view, as it relates to all things which pertain to life and salvation; yea, were it not for the light of revealed religion, we should often fail, even in reading the book of nature itself.
We are blind by nature, my brethren, and utterly incapable of understanding God. "What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him, even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." But, beloved friends, when the Spirit of God anoints the blind eye of man's benighted soul, then he begins to understand his Creator; when he reads the book of nature, his mind is filled with something far better than mere Philosophical speculation; it is filled with love, with admiration, with awe, and with gratitude: and when he reads the book of revelation, under the influence of that Spirit which gave it forth, his mind opens to a glorious view of the attributes of the Creator of heaven and earth, his omnipotence, his omnipresence, his spirituality, his omniscience, his oneness; and not only so, but he is made to tremble to the very core, when it is made known to him with power, that God is holy; "Holy, holy, holy art thou, Lord God of Sabaoth."
And like to the knowledge of God is the knowledge of his law; for as God is holy, so the enlightened believer comes to perceive that his law is holy; and as God is Spiritual, he perceives that the law of God is spiritual also, and searches the inmost recesses of the heart, brings forth to view the secret springs of action, proves and examines the hidden motives from which actions spring, and judges not only the words and the deeds, but also the thought, the conception, the imagination of the mind. And behold, the awakened eye of the soul now looks up to God the Father, as the moral, as well as the natural governor of the universe; and he comes to understand that, in a future and eternal world, that tendency which is now visible even in the present life to God's perfect retribution; will be completed either in endless suffering, or in endless joy, either in heaven or in hell, my brethren. And the soul of the awakened believer is greatly humbled, when he is thus brought to understand the holiness of God, the holiness of his law, and the retribution of an eternal world; for, together with the knowledge of God, there is given to him a knowledge of himself; and when he compares the dictates of God's law with his own conduct and conversation, and with the polluted stream of his own corrupt thoughts, he begins to tremble, my brethren, he is amazed, he is lost in an awful sense of the terrors of the unchanging Jehovah, whose holiness never can be abrogated, and whose justice must stand untouched and immaculate for ever and ever.
But, thanks be unto God our Father, this is not the whole of the lesson which we learn, when we are baptized into the name of the Father; for we open the book of Scripture, and under the illumination of that Spirit which gave the scriptures forth, we read the memorable words, "God is love;" words which are in themselves are internal evidence, strong, as the strongest conclusions of reason, to prove the divine authority of the sacred book; for, friends, the natural man, in his own strength, may read the book of nature for ever and ever, and never discover that God is love; but when the soul of man is enlightened by the divine Spirit, and is baptized into the name of the Father, oh then! he is enabled to comprehend and accept the glorious doctrine that "God is love;" and we ought to be humble in reverent gratitude, for that outward revelation of divine truth by which it is clearly made known to us; and woe will be to us if we do not avail ourselves of this knowledge, that "God is love." So, friends, when we come to be baptized spiritually into the name of the Father, we learn the lesson of his holiness on the one hand, and of his love on the other. When we read of his holiness, we are assured that sin is unalterably offensive in his view; that "he is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity ;" that it always was, and always will be, condemned as an abomination by a holy God: and when we read that "God is love," we are by degrees enabled to understand that nevertheless the poor sinner is the object of his mercy; and under the light which is thus poured in upon our souls, we come to be broken and humbled under a sense of the sinfulness of sin, of our own deep unworthiness, and melted down in the view of the mercy of our God; and the fruit of a lively penitence is produced in the mind of the true believer in God the Father.
Where is our penitence, then, friends? where is our broken heart? where is our humiliation? where is our trembling ? where is our godly fear? Are you indeed baptized into the name of the Father? Why do ye not then tremble? Why are ye not amazed? Why are ye not broken down under a sense of the terrors of his law? Why are ye not humbled under the blessed tidings that" God is love?" Oh! friends, "except ye repent," said our Saviour, "ye shall all likewise perish."
But, alas ! for the poor broken-hearted sinner; how can he reconcile the holiness of God, and the unalterable sentence, that "the soul which sinneth, it shall die?" how can he reconcile this truth with the hope of mercy? All will be confusion, and all is confusion here, to the natural man, and all would be darkness still, were we not also baptized into the name of the Son; for the mercies of God towards the fallen children of men are covenant mercies; they flow through an appointed channel, a channel ordained by infinite wisdom; and the whole scheme of man's salvation flows from the unfathomable fountain of the love of God the Father. And we are not only told that "God is love," but we are also told that "herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins;" we are told that "God so loved the world, that he sent his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Now, friends, here is the turning point of the glorious gospel - here is the centre of the whole subject - here is the way to heaven - here is the way to happiness - here is the way to pardon - here is the way to peace eternal: and I beseech you all to come unto God by this way.
Behold! friends, the mystery of godliness unfolded; behold the holiness of God reconciled with his mercy, and his mercy with his justice; for the attributes of our heavenly Father are blended, but never confused, and thus severally continue everlasting in perfection, and in unutterable strength; and the holiness of God remains untouched, and his mercy cannot be so exercised as to annul his holiness: but in the gospel, "righteousness and peace have kissed each other, mercy and truth are met together," in glorious unison, in perfect harmony, and yet in unalterable perfection; joined and united, but not confused; for, "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, for the forgiveness of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." And let me ask the honest, deliberate enquirer after truth, whether it is possible for us to conceive any means whereby God could have so gloriously displayed his holiness, and his eternal abhorrence of sin, as by appointing his only begotten Son as the sacrifice for sin, and sending him into the world, to take our nature upon him, to suffer and die for sinners; for, friends, "if the blood of bulls and of goats, which was offered under the law, sanctifies, to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God."
And, friends, if you would dive into the depth of the demerit of sin, if you would measure in what degree it is abominable and offensive in the sight of God our Father, measure that depth, measure that demerit, measure that offence by the infinite dignity, by the glory, by the power, by the eternal divinity of that Saviour, who was appointed of God to bear on himself the sins of all 'mankind; and I am bold to assert that there is no other way by which we can possibly form a right estimate, either of the holiness of God, or the sinfulness of sin; and under this glorious dispensation there is stamped the eternal record of the holiness of God. And may we not believe that the universe reads and adores ? But, beloved friends, that very plan of salvation through the Son, which unfolds so marvelously the holiness of God, affords us an incomparable proof of our heavenly Father's love; so here, holiness and love are in glorious unison.
Come, thou poor afflicted sinner, come and partake of the covenant mercies of God; come and partake of those mercies, which flow to thee in such a manner as must then for ever humble thee under a sense of thy sin, and raise thy adoration of God, as the Holy One of his people.
Now, friends, you may perceive, from this view of the subject, that the doctrine of the divinity of our blessed Lord and Saviour is not a doctrine of speculation; that it does not belong, as some people suppose, to the mere theory of religion, and therefore may be laid on one side without inconvenience and without mischief; or, if not disbelieved, be disregarded as a matter of theory alone. My friends, there never was a greater proof of human blindness and ignorance than this particular error. I am bold to declare that there is nothing more practical than the glorious doctrine of God manifest in the flesh, and that no man can understand the practical influence of Christianity, who does not know him in heart and soul, by the reception of this doctrine; and though he may be partially benefitted by what he hears and reads of Christian truths, and although no doubt he is somewhat the better for that part of Christian truth which he does receive, yet he does not come home to the living spring, he does not come home to the centre of the subject, he does not come home to the very foundation, to the root of the Christian's hope, and the Christian's virtue. Do not you remember, my dear friends, the memorable conversation which took place between our Saviour and his disciples? "Whom say men, that I, the Son of Man, am?" What a question! The answer was, "Some say that thou art John the Baptist, some that thou art Elias, and others that thou art one of the prophets:" and there are those, even in this assembly, (though I know not from any outward information,) who say so; but all know there are many who say this sort of thing in the present day: he saith unto them, "But whom say ye that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Oh! friends, there was a confession indeed! and Jesus answered and said unto him, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." And, friends, I beseech you to lay aside your theories, your speculations, your dry, unprofitable disputations, and pray for the Holy Ghost, pray for divine illumination, pray for a quickening influence; for no man ever did savingly call Jesus, Lord, but by the Holy Ghost; and if ye will pray for the Holy Ghost, nay brethren, although flesh and blood cannot reveal it to you, our Father which is in heaven will make it known to you, and will take of the Spirit, will take of the things of Christ, and display them to your understandings, and impress them on your hearts, and then you will have true knowledge, that knowledge of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ, which is eternal life; and you will know of a truth that your Saviour is the Son of the living God, distinguished from all human prophets, distinguished from all created beings, distinguished from angels and archangels; for when he brought, the first-begotten into. the world, he said, Let all the angels of God worship him." It will be given unto you to know that he is the Son of the Father. And the testimony borne by Peter was gloriously confirmed by the Father himself; for soon afterwards our Lord "took Peter, and James, and John with him unto the mountain, and was transfigured before them, and his garments were white as the light, and his countenance shone as the sun," and "Moses and Elias came and ministered unto him;" which, by the way, is a pretty plain proof that the immortal soul lives immediately after death, which I believe some persons in this room dispute; alas! for the folly and the blindness of their infidelity. Well, Moses and Elias, their purified spirits, (before the day of resurrection, you know,) came and ministered to the Lord Jesus Christ, and Peter, in his busy zeal, would have raised a tabernacle for Moses and Elias, and another for his Master; just as some people, in the present day, would unite the law and the glorious gospel together. All at once a cloud overshadowed them, Moses and Elias disappeared, the Saviour was left alone, the sole object of the allegiance and faith of the disciples, and a voice was heard from the cloud, the voice of God the Father, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him."
And, therefore, friends, let us lay aside our hard heart of unbelief, and gratefully accept that divine Saviour, that glorious unspeakable gift of God, who "was in the beginning with God, and was God; the same was in the beginning with God; and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth; all things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made; in him was life, and the life was the light of men;" and who in process of time took flesh, and dwelt amongst us, and then his disciples did behold his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Yes, my beloved friends, pray for the Holy Ghost, do not lean to your own understandings, pray for the Holy Spirit, that ye may call Jesus Lord; that ye may bow before him, as Thomas did in days of old, when he said to him, "My Lord, and my God;" that ye may be baptized into the name of the Son; and then, friends, ye will be prepared for a right understanding of that great doctrine, which lies at the foundation of all our hopes, and of all our virtues; that "he who was in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God, made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross;" and that his death was a propitiation for the sins of the world, that "he was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed; all we like sheep have gone astray, and have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all." Than which, no words can possibly be plainer; "He suffered, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us unto God." "He gave his life a ransom for all, to be testified of in due time." "He was a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." A very brief selection from that multitude of passages, which are scattered over the volume of scripture on the all-important subject of the atonement made for sin; and it is truly astonishing that any man should, on the one hand, acknowledge the divine authority of scripture, and entertain for one moment a doubt on this glorious, essential, fundamental truth, which is not only stated with the utmost plainness in a variety of passages by our Saviour himself, and by his apostles, but which may be said to be interwoven in the Bible, and proclaimed from beginning to end.
Well, my beloved friends, what is the practical result? How are we to avail ourselves of it? We must come, as poor penitent sinners, "and wash our robes, and make them white from every stain, in the blood of the Lamb." We must draw nigh unto God, through faith in his Son, for justification and pardon for all our sins, through faith in the atoning blood of Jesus; that we may be justified, and stand accepted in the sight of our heavenly Father, who, for his dear Son's sake, doth array us in the white robes of his righteousness, wherein there is no spot; that we may be safe from condemnation; and that our names may be written in characters of light, in the Lamb's book of life; and God grant that it may be so with you all.
Then, friends, the sinner who is thus brought home to God, is at the same time
impressed with a deep sense of the holiness of God, who requireth such a
sacrifice, such an atonement; and he abhors himself for his iniquity--he is
amazed at the view of the sinfulness of sin--he dares not continue in this
bondage--he knows that it is fatal in its very nature--he dares not call his disease
by any soft name--he knows that no words can express the malignity of this
disease, the fearfulness, or the danger, or death, to which it leads; and he is well
aware that Christ came, not to save him in his sins, but from his sins; and
therefore he is impressed with the absolute necessity of coming, and of escaping
from the bondage of his sin. But not only so; he is filled with a sense of the love
of God; he measures the love by the greatness of God's gift; the greater the gift,
the more the gratitude: who does not know it ? who does not admit it ? And he
contemplates the glorious doctrine of God, manifest in the flesh; his very soul is
filled with love; and almighty love becomes the motive, the spring of his actions,
and moves him forward, with perpetual power, in the direction of virtue, of
happiness, of heaven, and of glory. And we may perceive, therefore, that the
doctrine of our Lord's divinity lies at the foundation of the practical influence of
the Gospel; for the gospel is not a dream; it is not a speculation; the gospel is the
power of God unto salvation. The glad tidings of salvation are communicated,
and so bring on the best affections of the mind of man; so it becomes the power
of God unto salvation.
Well, friends, God grant that we may have faith to receive truth as it is in Jesus, as there is no greater danger in the present day, than of being one-sided in religion. Man must have his mind. stretched by a divine power before he can comprehend the whole truth. I beseech you, as you value your immortal souls, come and be baptized, not only into the name of the Father, and into the name of the Son, but also into the name of the Holy Ghost; for no man ever did, or ever will, sanctify himself; and we know that in us, that is, m our flesh, dwelleth no good thing; and that "without holiness no man shall see the Lord," nor can we possibly breathe the element of heaven. And how are we to be made meet for heaven? Oh, friends! ours is a practical religion, ours is the religion of righteousness. We plead for a new creation; we plead for the putting off of the old man, which is corrupt, and for the putting on of the new man, which is created in righteousness and true holiness.
And those who truly believe in a crucified Redeemer, do receive, through faith
in him, the blessed gift of God's Holy Spirit. Now you may always observe one
thing, friends, that when people degrade the Son, they think little of the holy
Spirit; they do not f~el the need of justification or sanctification through the
blood of Christ, and they think that they may be prepared for heaven, without the
aid of the holy Ghost. For, my beloved friends, it is utterly impossible for poor
corrupt man ever to enter through the pearl gates into the city of God, unless he
is sanctified; and nothing ever will or can sanctify him, but the blessed influence
of the Holy Ghost: and the whole great concern is plainly stated by the apostle
Paul, where he says, "We were sometimes foolish, living in malice, m enmity,
hateful, and hating one another." There is the description of' man in the fall;
there is an account of yourselves, while you remain in your sins; it applies to all
mankind, --it runs through the page of history--of all experience. But after the
love of God in Christ Jesus to man appeared, "not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but by his mercy he saved us, through the washing of
regeneration, and the renewing of' the Holy Ghost, which he hath shed on us
abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by grace, we
might be made heirs, heirs of God, fitted for our inheritance, made meet for our
glorious possession." "That we might be made heirs;" and what is the use of our
calling ourselves the children of God, unless we may be made heirs, and partake
according to the hope of eternal life. And, therefore, my beloved friends, I
beseech you all, as you value your eternal inheritance, to come under the power,
the cleansing power, the sanctifying efficacy of God's holy Spirit; that ye may
now no longer produce the fruits of the flesh, but the fruits of the Spirit; which
are, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,
temperance; and then ye will be new creatures indeed; you will come to see "a
new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness;" then "ye shall see
Jerusalem (that is, the universal church), a quiet habitation, not one of her stakes
shall be removed, not one of her cords shall be loosened; but there the glorious
Lord himself shall be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall
go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby, for the Lord is our
Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King, and he will save us."
Oh! then, my beloved friends, in the name of all that is glorious, important,
virtuous, and eternally happy, I beseech you to lay aside your unbelief, your
reasonings, your speculations, your theories, your systems, and with the
simplicity of little children, and in a deep sense of your own sins, come ye, and
be ye baptized by a divine power, into the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost, one God over all, blessed for ever.
The Prayer:
O thou glorious God over all!--thou who art the author of every blessing,
temporal and spiritual--thou, from whom we have received all our comforts, all
our bodily powers, and all our mental faculties--thou, who hast endowed us with
the noble faculty of reason,--in thy great mercy and goodness hast loaded us with
benefits of every kind: thou knowest that in the fall we are degenerate and
corrupt; and even our best faculties perverted from thee; in the sense whereof,
we are broken and humbled; and do acknowledge that we are not worthy even of
the least of thy mercies; and that it is only of thy sovereign favour, and of thine
unmerited compassion, that we are not consumed.
And now, we beseech thee, thou supreme author of all good! to bestow on us, yea on every soul present, the pure heavenly gift of a saving faith in thy beloved Son--our only Saviour and Redeemer--our Lord Jesus Christ. And grant, we beseech thee, that we may individually know this faith to work in us by love; that the love of the Saviour may expel the love of the world from our bosoms: and that we may be made willing to resign ourselves to the government and guidance in all things of thy Holy Spirit ;--of thy pure anointing which does lead into all truth; and for which unutterably precious gift, we are bowed in reverent gratitude. Blot out all our iniquities, we reverently pray thee, in the blood of the great atoning; and clothe us in those white robes ora Saviour's righteousness, which are so white, as no fuller on earth can whiten them. And grant, that through the operation of thy mighty power, we may be invested also with the characters of thy beloved Son; and may be clothed in the garments of humility-- meekness-- purity-- integrity; and ever bound in love to thee, and to our fellow men.
And now, O Lord ! permit us, in an especial manner, to commend unto thee our beloved Brother,(1)--who hath now borne testimony to thy truth, as it is in Jesus; and who hath come over the mighty ocean to visit us in gospel love. O! that thou wouldest be pleased to be with him in all his works, and in all his words; and to go before him from place to place, and to be his rear-guard. Anoint and re-anoint him for thy service; and clothe him in the blessed authority of thy Truth: and when he is brought into the baptism of suffering again and again, O be thou with him even as it was with the children of Israel, when one like unto the Son of God was with them in the furnace; and they came out from it without one hair of their heads singed, and without the smell of fire passing on their garments. Be thou pleased, O gracious Lord! if it seem meet in thy sight, to give him both his natural and his spiritual life for a prey; and eventually to permit him his return to his own home, and to the bosom of his beloved family, in the abundant clothing of peace.
And grant, O Lord God! that we, thy poor unworthy children, may all be
permitted in the end to meet in one glorious fold--even in the haven of perfect
rest,--where we may enjoy together an eternal sabbath of peace ;! and be for ever
united in the acknowledgment, that thou art worthy, O God ! and that worthy is
the Lamb that was slain, for ever and for evermore, of all majesty, dominion
glory, thanksgiving and praise.
(1) Charles Osborne, from Indiana.