Excerpt from The Christian's Death, No Cause for Sorrow: A Sermon, Preached in St. Andrew's Church, Montreal, on Sabbath, 21st May, 1848

How much more was the honored death of Josiah to be envied, than the miserable slavery and disgrace of his successor to the throne The prophet, in the text, endeavours to arouse the minds of the people of Judah to a just sense of their condition, by con trasting the calamity they had just sustained, in the death of their pious sovereign, with the still greater evils they were about to suffer during the overthrow and captivity of his ungodly sons. The Jews had indeed much cause to lament the death of the good Josiah, for in his days there was peace all the or dinances of God were devoutly and carefully observ ed, and the blessings of religion diffused a sacred joy over the land. But the fate of his beloved coun try was bound up with his own. It required the vigorous energy of sovereign power to curb the pas sions and controul the contentions of a corrupted and debased people. When that was withdrawn, and the reins of authority fell into feebler hands, disasters, consequent upon misrule and civil dissen sion, followed with fearful rapidity, and foreign 0p pression completed what despotic tyranny and do mestic faction had almost accomplished. The pro phetic eye of Jeremiah saw afar'ofi the gathering storm. Blending the disastrous details of their impending misfortunes with his exquisitely pathe tic lamentations for their departed monarch, he cele brated the funeral obsequies of the nation, withthose performed over the last of her kings. But if the Jews had cause for mourning and lamentation, it was for themselves, not for their king. He died full of years and full of honor, beloved by his peo ple and at peace with his God; the righteous is taken away from the evil to come, but the wick ed is reserved for the day of evil. God rewarded the exalted piety of Josiah, by sparing him from the bitter trial of seeing the throne of his kingdom overturned - his people spoiled - his country pillag ed - the temple of his God profaned. It would have been well for his sons had they also been taken away, when the crimes of the world lay lighter on them, and their deaths would have been mourned over by an affectionate and grateful nation. But they forsook the God of their father, and he left them unprotected in the day of calamity. He spared them, to fill up the measure of the nation's iniquity to overflowing fullness, and to be instru mental in bringing on the heads of their ill fated and guilty countrymen, the vengeance of heaven. Instead of being honored in life and lamented in death, they were carried captives into a foreign land, and after spending in wretchedness and chains the rest of their days, unworthy of human sympathy, they descended to the tomb afar from the place of their fathers' sepulchres.

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