THE MORAL INFLUENCE WE EXERT AFTER DEATH.

REV. J. CUMMING, A.M.*

SCOTCH CHURCH, CROWN COURT, COVENT GARDEN, DECEMBER 14, 1834.

"He being dead yet speaketh."-HEB. xi. 4.

THERE can be no question that the text, in its primary import, refers to the faith and accepted sacrifice of Abel; and that the Holy Spirit conveys the important truth, that the departed son of Eve proclaims a useful and healthful lesson, even from the chambers of the tomb-namely, that the blood of Jesus our sacrifice is the ground of all our hopes and acceptance, and that by Him alone, as the living way, is there access to the Father. But we may fairly depart from the personal and specific idea involved in the text, and present it as one of those general and great principles which have a bearing on all-a lesson to the living, and a truth concerning the dead. Every son of man, as well as Abel," being dead yet speaketh." Every man that plays a part in the great drama of human life, leaves, at his departure, an impress and an influence, more or less extensive and lasting. The grave of the peasant and the mausoleum of the prince, are alike vocal. The sepulchral vault in which the scion of royalty was laid the other day, as well as the cold, wet, opening of the earth in which the way-side beggar was buried, utters audible and actuating oratory. From every one of the dead a voice is heard, in some circle of the world's inhabitants, which the knell of their departure does not drown-which the earth and the green sod do not muffle-which neither deafness, nor distance, nor anything that man may devise, can possibly extinguish. Every churchyard speaks often far more thrilling accents than the senate house or the congregations of the living.

No fact is more self-evident, or more universally admitted, than the text; and no fact withal is more generally disregarded by the living. Do not the sayings and doings of your departed relatives often arrest you in the busy stir of human life, and, according to their tone and character, supply you with fresh incentives to holiness and religion, or to godlessness and impiety? Do not their words often echo in the cells of memory? Do not their features and their forms start into bright contrast with the darkness of actual absence, and light up the chambers of imagery with early recollections? Do not the sounds of the one, and the sight of the other, reach your hearts, and tell upon your resolutions, your actions, and your hopes? And, just in proportion to the width of the sphere in which the departed moved, and the strength of intellectual and moral character they possessed and developed, will be the duration and the plastic * Occasioned by the death of the Rev. EDWARD IRVING, A.M.

power of that influence they have left behind them. A son, for instance, trained to maturity under the affectionate superintendence of a religious mother, breaks loose in the days of his manhood from all the restraints and ties that bound him to the ways of pleasantness and peace, and wounds the heart of his parent, and brings her grey hairs with sorrow to the grave. In after years, and in the faroff land of his prodigality and guilt, early impressions look forth from his memory, from beneath the wreck and rubbish by which they are covered, and rivet his thoughts on the past. In this stilly hour the ghosts of departed scenes of innocence and peace flit before him, and the voice of his heart-broken mother rings amid his heart's emptiness, and she "being dead yet speaketh" from her grave, with an emphasis and effect which she could not command while she sat beneath her own roof, aud beside her own hearth. A re-action takes place in his conduct, and all by the instrumentality of the holy conversation and unblemished worth of her whose lips are closed in death, and who " nevertheless speaketh" for her God, His truth, and His glory.

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Or we may vary the illustration, and adopt that of a departed minister of Jesus. His tongue was ever eloquent in the cause of piety and eternal things, and his life was the exact counterpart of his creed-the echo of his preaching, Under such a the legible and the living illustration of all his sermons. ministry as this, many remained impregnable to the claims of eternity, "dead in trespasses and sins." When he has been gathered to his fathers, and the voice that sounded the trumpet of alarm and of battle has been hushed in the silence of the tomb, and the fingers that were taught by Jehovah to fight, and to wield the sword of the Spirit, are nerveless in death-O! often there comes from the pastor laid in the grave, a more persuasive and melting eloquence, than there came from the pastor standing in the pulpit; and from the herald of Jesus wrapped in his winding-sheet, a more successful sermon, than from the herald of Jesus robed in the emblems of his ministerial character. Deep often is the appeal that comes from his grave, and spirit-stirring and touching the discourse which "he being dead yet speaketh." His example lingers behind him; the imperishable of his nature walks among his flock, visiting their homes, comforting the mourner, warning the careless, and teaching the ignorant, and continues to stand in the pulpit which the living man occupied, and “to reason of righteousness, and temperance, and judgment."

This, my Christian brethren, is the fair side of the portrait; and were the influence left behind by the dead universally of this stamp and character, then would men be throughout their biography like visitant angels of mercy passing athwart our miserable world, distilling balm and scattering light among men's sons; or as transient gales from the spicy lands of the East, or glorious meteors arising in rapid succession amidst the moral darkness of the earth, imparting light and fearlessness to its many pilgrims, and this would be bettered by every successive generation, till it arose and expanded to its millenial blessedness and peace. But alas! if many of the dead yet speak for God, and for the eternal welfare of humanity, many, many also speak for Satan, and ply after, as before their death, the awful work of sealing souls in their slumber, and smoothing and adorning the paths that lead to eternal death. Just reverse the portraits we have drawn, Suppose that the mother we have alluded to was one that forgot, alike and altogether, the claims of her God, her soul, and her family; and, both by her

example and her tuition, fostered the evil passions which are indigenous to our nature. What is the language in which she "being dead yet speaks?" What is the influence she leaves behind her? It is the same voice that comes from her home and her grave: "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die :" and often and again will her evil maxims be quoted, and her wicked life appealed to, for incentives to sin, and encouragement in the works and ways of iniquity. She is dead, but the contagion of her character is alive. Her form is beneath the earth, but her voice is still heard to the extent of its sphere, and the spectre of her immorality stalks.among those that were attached to her in life; and, just in proportion to the many amiabilities of her character, will be the depth and duration of the impression made by the vices of her character. Or we may pass

to the higher platform, and quote the Christian minister. Let us suppose that his creed and his conduct were irreconcileable antagonists-that he preached like a seraph, and lived like a devil-that he preached so well that it was a pity he ever left the pulpit, but lived so ill that it was a pity he ever entered it. O! how destructive the sermons which he "being dead yet speaketh!" Every godless hearer he has left behind him will appeal to the doings of his deceased minister for a sort of license to his conduct, and indulgence for his sins; and the unhappy man will destroy more after his death than during his life.

Thus the departed sinner, as well as the departed saint, “ being dead yet speaketh." Thus our sins as well as our virtues survive. Thus we exert a posthumous influence which adds either an impulse upon the advancing chariot of salvation, or throws stumbling-blocks and obstacles in its way. These last characters are like baleful comets that traverse our canopy for a while, leaving behind them pestilence, and plague, and mildew; or, like the fell simoons of the desert, wafting moral death and desolation to every scene which they visit. It is for these reasons that we urge every one to read the lives of illustrious martyrs, and apostles, and saints, who "being dead yet speak," in behalf of all that is holy, and honest, and of good report; and it is for this reason especially that we would warn every man, and teach every man, to be very jealous of his life and his doings, not merely on account of the present generation, but of generations yet to come, over which his influence for good or for evil may extend.

We have hitherto spoken of the influence for good or for evil which men leave behind them in the immediate circles of their friends and acquaintance; but there are other ways in which men may speak to many generations yet to come, as loudly as if they had a voice which could be heard from the rivers to the ends of the earth. I speak not of the lettered tombstone, which is the voice of many of the dead speaking, after they are gone, to the pilgrim that is wending his way to Zion; nor of monuments erected to commemorate illustrious worth; nor of legacies and bequests to the cause of religion, which make the name of the donor to be mentioned with reverence and respect after he is gone: but I speak of the almost undying influence which genius can exert by reason of that great discovery of modern times-the printing-press. The discovery of printing is the finest illustration of my text; and well may we remark in passing, that many texts which to us appear yet weak or obscure, are waiting for greater advancement in human discoveries to be brought home to us in all their weight and their fulness. By means of printing, man may speak to all kindreds and tribes, and people, and tongues, and make his voice be heard, with simultaneous

power, beyond the Atlantic waves, and upon the shores of the Caspian sea, and amid the population of Europe. Nay, he may speak to accumulating generations after his death, with all the freshness and force of personal eloquence. Printing gives to man a sort of ubiquity and eternity of being: it enables him to outwit death, and enshrine himself amid a kind of earthly immortality. It enables him to speak while yet dead. His words that breathe, and thoughts that burn, are embodied and embalmed; and with him thousands hold profitable or hurtful communion till time is no more.

If, then, we are loudly called upon to be careful what we speak, and what we do, we are doubly warned to beware what we throw into the press, and invest with a power to endure, and a strength to pass every sea, and to visit every people. Every day as it dawns is adding to the powers, and resources, and expansibilities of man: and, if every day does not also add a larger amount of moral and religious principle to regulate this growing power, then, in the end, will the human race attain a giant's strength, but have an idiot's skill to use it. Our political power is increased; our numerical, and therefore physical, power is increased; our resources are immensely increased; our skill has enabled us, by steam-navigation, to bid defiance to tide, and tempest, and time; and our improvements in printing are now so vastly multiplied, that we can give body and form to every word that falls from the lips of man, and circulate the speech that was addressed to a few auditors yesterday to the utmost ends of the globe. We therefore want much a commensurate increase of religious principle, and need more than ever to be reminded how and what we are to do. Never was the text so true as it is in the nineteenth century; never did men being dead yet speak" so extensively, so long, and so loudly.

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If any earth-born joys are admitted as visitants amid the celestial choirs, the joy that springs from having written saving and sanctifying works, is the sweetest that reaches the hearts of the saved. And I can fancy a Baxter, a Newton, a Scott, a Rutherford, rejoice with exceeding joy when the angels that minister to them that are to be heirs of salvation, bring word that, in consequence of the " Awakening Call to the Unconverted," or "the Force of Truth," or the "Letters from the Prison of Aberdeen," some sinner has been aroused from his lethargy, and made a partaker of grace, and mercy, and peace. And if, as we believe, any poignant recollections from this side "the bourne whence no traveller returns," reach the memories of the lost, not the least bitter will be the remembrance of having written volumes which are circulated by every library, and sold by every vender, in which the foundations of morality are sapped, and the youth of our world poisoned throughout the whole range of their moral economy. O! it will be the sorest sting of that worm which never dies, and the most agonizing pang of that fire which is never quenched, that their name. and their creed, and their principles after them, gather converts on earth, and carry fell desolation to homes that had otherwise been happy, and corruption to hearts that had else beat high with philanthropy and piety. To speak in many tongues and in many lands, long after they are dead, is a source of deep joy to the holy ones that are saved; and to speak in many tongues aud in many lands, after they are dead, is a source of the bitterest sorrow to the damned. And thus it seems to come out, that the intellectual and scientific discoveries of every day, are preparing either additional matter of deep pain to the lost, or of

intense joy to the ransomed. Knowledge is not only power for good or for evil, but it is joy or sorrow to the denizens of eternity. Often and again will the great and the wise that are in glory, wish that their pens had been more employed, and their faculties put more to the stretch; and often will the lost in hell wish, that when they wrote, their right hand had forgotten its cunning, and the sun refused them his light, and the press cast out their works still-born, and consigned them to Lethean streams.

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Thus I have laid before you the mighty influence which emanates from the dead, and the many channels through which that influence may continue to I am now anxious, as flow forth upon the living, for generations yet to come. the walls of Zion, to improve all passing occurrences, and, watchman among the rest at this time, the death of one who has made a deeper sensation among the religious public, than any other minister since the days of Luther and of Knox, and who being dead speaks volumes-I mean the death of the Rev. EDWARD IRVING. His name is now perished from the catalogue of the living upon earth, but found, I am sure, in the Book of the living on high. I believe he has gone to the bosom of his Father and his God, where his sincere, but grievous misapprehensions of many great truths, are for ever done away. He held, I know, the alone foundation Christ Jesus, and adorned the doctrine he professed by every christian virtue; and while the "hay, and straw, and stubble” he built on it, are all consumed, he himself shall be everlastingly secure.

When I came first to this great metropolis, I found in Mr. Irving a friend when I had none besides, and in his session much spiritual and religious comfort. I was in the habit of spending many Saturday evenings along with a few ministers of England and Scotland, in meditations on the Greek Testament; and when I remember the child-like simplicity, the striking humbleness of mind, and the kind hospitality of that great and good man, I cannot but grieve at the awful eclipse under which he came, and the early tomb he has found. He is gone to the grave, I have reason to believe, with a broken heart. However much he continued to adhere to the unscriptural and enthusiastic notions he broached, he could not yet shut his eyes to the awful discoveries made concerning the conduct of some of his professedly inspired followers. Conceive men daring to declare that they were inspired by the Holy Ghost, and, in virtue of their pretended inspiration, ordaining Apostles, Evangelists, Prophets, and, all the while, living in the grossest violation of the ten commandments. In these things there was enough to break that good man's heart; and if we combine with these facts the various tribunals at which he has stood-his dissociation and exile from the temple in this city, which the credit of his name had reared, and in which (as he himself most pathetically said) his babes were buried-his deposition from the office of the holy ministry in that Church, whose battles he had often fought and whose walls he dearly loved; we can see more than adequate materiel to bring him to the grave in the prime of manhood. He set out on the Christian ministry like some war-ship, with streaming pennants, and with majestic way: but the storms beat, and the waves arose, and prudence was driven from the helm, and, perchance, the seven spirits that are before the throne, ceased to breathe upon the sails; and battered, and tossed, and rifted, she foundered amid rocks and shoals. I left him when I conceived that he had left truth; but still, never did I cease to esteem the man, and earnestly to pray for his recovery. It