A SERMON

DELIVERED AT THE FUNERAL OF MRS. PHEBE FARRAR, WIFE OF SAMUEL FARRAR, ESQ., ANDOVER, JAN. 26, 1848.

John 17: 24.-FATHER, I WILL THAT THEY ALSO WHOM THOU HAST GIVEN ME, BE WITH ME, WHERE I AM.

It has been common for men everywhere to paint to themselves a heaven corresponding with their governing inclinations. The covetous, the ambitious, the sensual, all aspire after a happiness suited to gratify their predominant desires. Christians do the same. They aspire after a happiness which is

rational and pure

a heaven suited to their rectified nature. Even if they had less particular instruction than the Scriptures give in regard to the happiness to be enjoyed-if they only knew and loved the unseen Saviour and were only informed that they are hereafter to enjoy complete felicity, they would, I think, have an apprehension of the nature of that felicity, which would harmonize with the teachings of inspiration. What could they regard as complete happiness, but to enjoy that Saviour whom they supremely love? When we leave this earthly state, they would say - let us go to him who loved us and died for us. Let us be with Jesus. This is all our salvation and all our desire. This was the idea of the Apostle Paul. He speaks of a desire to depart, and to be with

Christ. He speaks of being absent from the body and present with the Lord; and of seeing Christ face to face. This was his prevailing sentiment. And this was also the sentiment of John, who represents heaven as a place where believers will see Christ as he is. And we have the most perfect and delightful expression of this idea from Christ himself. "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am." The apostles dwelt familiarly upon this view of the subject. And so it is with all those who have received their ideas of heaven from the sacred writers, and have imbibed the spirit of our holy religion. To be with Christ is the heaven of Christians. It is all the heaven they desire. It comprises everything that is necessary to constitute the perfection of celestial happiness.

In the first place, Christians in the presence of Christ, have an object before them possessed of all possible excellence — an object suited to employ and gratify all their intellectual and moral faculties, and to fill the capacities of their souls.

How happy must believers in heaven be, to see in their Saviour the highest perfection of human nature. They were once conversant with that nature in a fallen, degraded state, robbed of its proper excellence, and displaying itself in numberless forms of vileness and hatefulness. But now when they look upon Jesus, their elder brother, they see what humanity is capable of. They gaze with inexpressible pleasure, upon the exalted manhood of Jesus. And they delight in it the more, because they themselves are human, and they behold in him the exact standard to which they are to be conformed. He was always without sin-holy, harmless, undefiled. But while on earth, his character was little known. Even his disciples had but an imperfect discernment of it. But now his glory shines perpetually. And the saints love to behold it, and in the light of his glorified humanity they love to forget all that was low and weak and faulty in their fellow Christians and in themselves, and to fix their eyes upon one in their own nature, adorned with the perfection of beauty. This excellence and loveliness of Christ's human nature must be peculiarly attractive to the saints, and must bring them into a state of near

ness to him, and fellowship with him, far above what they could otherwise enjoy.

But Christ, the object presented before the eyes of believers in heaven, is possessed not only of human, but of divine excellence. And in the contemplation of that excellence, they will be constantly attaining to higher and higher degrees of knowledge. On earth they saw through a glass darkly. But now their knowledge of the divine glory of Christ is clear and certain, and is always perfect according to the measure of their understanding. But he will be continually unfolding new glories, and they, with an intensity of thought of which no one on earth is capable, will behold those unfolding glories; in consequence of which their knowledge of his character will be more and more extensive always perfect, and yet always increasing. Should they ever come to a stop in their growth, and find that no further advance in knowledge could be made, it would disappoint their hope and chill their joy. But there is no danger of this. Let their capacities enlarge and their knowledge grow, till they rise far above the highest angel, there would still be an infinite height and depth, upon which they might employ their minds millions of ages, and after all approach no nearer to a full comprehension of the lofty theme. Here is the intellectual blessedness of the saints above their ever active understanding constantly and successfully reaching towards the heights and prying into the depths of the perfection of the Mediator, knowing more and more of this most excellent of beings, and knowing at every step that there is boundless excellence beyond, which will call forth their earnest and happy efforts through endless ages.

But the saints have a moral nature also they have a heart. And the heart inclines to love. And it must have an object of supreme love. The heart pants after such an object, and would be desolate and wretched without it. This want is fully supplied

In this world they begin

to believers in the presence of Christ. to love him, though they see him not, and though they have but a feeble conception of his excellence. But what an object of affection will he be to them, when visibly clothed with the brightness

Love feasts

That perfect

of human and divine excellence in the world of light! itself upon loveliness. Perfect loveliness satifies it. loveliness they behold in the person of Jesus. And it is not only perfect, but unbounded loveliness. The creation around us exhibits unnumbered objects, beautiful and excellent in a high degree. And in sanctified men and holy angels we see various forms of moral beauty and excellence, eliciting our admiration and love, and contributing to our enjoyment. But take the most illustrious forms of moral beauty and loveliness in heaven and earth-take all the beauty in God's vast universe, and let it be concentrated in one lovely, glorious person, with a lustre outshining the sun in the firmament, and what would all that splendor of excellence be to the beauty and loveliness which the eyes of the saints will behold in the Lord Jesus Christ, the king of glory! Let their hearts then swell with emotions of love, and let the emotions rise higher and higher. Their happiness will increase with the increase of their love, because the object is invested with incomprehensible, unbounded excellence, so that their love may grow forever, and yet never equal the infinite worthiness of the object; and I am almost ready to say, they will covet moral faculties which are infinite, that they may love their Saviour as much as he deserves.

Secondly. Believers are happy in the presence of Christ, because they see him to be so highly honored and glorified. On earth their hearts were frequently grieved, that their Saviour, who was worthy of universal honor and praise, was despised and rejected of men, and his name covered with infamy. But how will they rejoice to see that he is now exalted, and has a name which is above every name! What sacred gladness will fill their souls, to see every knee bow to him, and all the heavenly hosts prostrate before him! What music to their ears, to hear the holy creation breaking forth in anthems of praise, saying, "Honor and glory and thanksgiving and blessing and praise be unto him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb." Happy their ears, that hear these anthems of praise from angels and saints, to him who was dead, but is alive again, and liveth and reigneth forevermore!

How do they exult and boast themselves in the glory of their king! And how is the benevolent prayer of Jesus fulfilled, that his disciples might "be with him, and behold his glory.”

Thirdly. The saints are happy in the presence of Christ, because they will see him to be perfectly blessed. Would it not detract from their happiness, if their Saviour should in any way, fall short of a blessedness equal to his boundless desires - if there should be the least pain or suffering mingled with his divine or his human blessedness? Does not the benevolence of Christians, demand the happiness of him who is the chief object of their love? My hearers well know that it is the very nature of finite benevolence, to be a partaker of the sorrows as well as the joys of others. Benevolence rejoices with them that rejoice, and weeps with them that weep. But in the presence of Jesus the saints have no occasion for weeping. They do indeed remember that, while on earth, he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and that when the burden of our guilt was laid upon him in the closing scene of his life, his "soul was exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death." And who that truly loved him then, could be joyful and happy to see the distress which he endured in the garden and on the cross? But his sorrows are ended. He dies no more, and he suffers no more. On the cross he finished the work of atonement. He is to be made a curse for us no more. He does not forget the sorrows he once felt-the scourging and the scorn, the nails and the thirst, the long agony, the forsaking of his God, and the last loud cry of distress. But he rejoices that these are all past, and that the result of them is experienced by his people in their eternal salvation. The Son of God is blessed in himself and blessed in communion with his Father blessed in all his works-blessed in beholding the happiness of angels, principalities and powers blessed especially in seeing his redeemed church washed from their sins, delivered from all their tribulations and sorrows, and made perfectly happy in the enjoyment of his fulness. His blessedness is a benevolent and holy blessedness, and is commensurate with his boundless perfections. In view of this immeasurable blessedness of Christ, the saints in heaven rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.