JANUARY 25.
After a very cloudy day, Jacob has a clear and calm evening. And it is but an evening. He is now called to go the way of all the earth, but his end is peace. Some die suddenly. But the more common road to the house appointed for all living is down the narrow, miry, dark, and dismal lane of sickness. The former is a privilege to the individual himself, as it saves him from "the pains, the groans, the dying strife;" but the latter befriends his usefulness more, by affording him opportunities to exercise the graces of the Holy Spirit, and showing how religion can sustain when every other supply fails, and refresh When every other spring of comfort is dried up. But we are not to choose for ourselves ; and if we can hope that the Saviour will receive us to himself, we may well leave the when, the where, and the how to his wisdom and love.
When sickness seizes persons in early life, and removes them in the midst of their days and usefulness, we seem surprised. Yet wherefore? Are not all our days vanity? And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, is not their strength labor and sorrow? What then can we expect at one hundred and forty-seven?
Jacob had some time before kept his bed, and Joseph had visited him ; but seeing no immediate danger of death, he had returned. Now the case assumes a more threatening character, and he is recalled. Doubtless they had sent to another being, saying, " Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick." But they do well to inform Joseph; and Joseph immediately leaves his public affairs, and hastens to visit him. To visit the sick is a duty. If it affords the sufferer no effectual relief, it is soothing to show our regard, our sympathy, and our readiness to help. It is always profitable to ourselves, and far better than going to the house of mirth. For here the heart is made better, more serious, and more soft. hence the dying bed is shunned by infidel and worldly companions, who love not to be reminded how soon the condition of others may be their own.
How affecting is it to visit a fellow-creature, the progress of whose disorder is saying to corruption, thou art my father, and to the worm, thou art my mother and my sister. But to see a dear friend, a beloved relation, a revered parent sinking under the decays of nature and the violence of disease ! It is a sick dying father, who' had trained him up under an affection too partial, that Joseph visits. Though death does not follow the order of nature, but the appointment of God, yet, while parents are living, there seems to be something between us and death ; but when they are removed, his course seems open to us, and we naturally deem ourselves the next object of assault.
Joseph goes not alone, but takes his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, with him. It was wise and well in Joseph to take these youths away from the splendor of a court to see the end of all men ; to view a dying-bed dignified with more than a palace could bestow ; to show them, at their entering the world, a servant of God departing out of it; to enable them to receive his admonition and blessing; and to be reminded that, though born in Egypt, Egypt was not to be their home ; but while incorporated with strangers, they were to seek the heritage of Jacob, God's chosen.
How much wiser and better was this, than the conduct of many parents, who, instead of bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, conduct their children into scenes of gayety and dissipation, exciting and feeding the pride of life, and making provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. We mourn over children that are bereaved of their parents, yet we are sometimes tempted to wish the removal of some wretched fathers and mothers, hoping that if these examples and teachers of evil were withdrawn, their children would find it good to bear the yoke in their youth, and that the Lord may take them up. The worst orphans are those who have wicked parents alive. What a dreadful, meeting will there be hereafter between their offspring and those fathers and mothers who not only neglected their souls, but taught and encouraged them to go astray!
Not that we would have children confined to religious prisons, or even cells. Hinder them not from seeing and enjoying whatever is pleasing and instructive in the world of nature, and the wonders of art. Keep them not in a frozen region, that shall chill and check every harmless budding of mind and affection. Let your piety itself be inviting, not rebuking and repulsive. But 0h, ye parents, keep them from infidel books, from vicious associates, from every path of the destroyer. Allure them to the Bible, to the throne of grace, to the grave of friendship, to the chamber where a dying Jacob is waiting for God's salvation, to every place where they are likely to meet Him who says, "I love them that love me, and they that seek me early shall find me."
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