ssed clean over
Jordan."

INTRODUCTION.--That must have been a striking sight! The whole of
God's people passing over Jordan. On one side, on that of the
Wilderness, a crowd pressing down, and going into the deep river bed,
on the other, those who had traversed, rising out of it, and spreading
out on the high bank, looking down and watching those who descend into
the bed, and cross through it to rejoin them. They stand in a blaze of
light. The sun is setting, and the whole sky behind them is flaming
with golden clouds, the light strikes in the eyes of those on the
further bank, and they look down into the dark channel and shrink, it
is immersed in shadow, but then again, they look up, and see the glory,
and the forms of their fathers, and brothers, and mothers, and sisters,
and children standing there, steeped in light, and they pluck up
courage and go down.

They have no cause to fear.

In the midst of Jordan stands the Ark of the Covenant, and it will not
move from that place till the last has passed over.

SUBJECT.--That story may serve for our comfort. We, like the
Israelites, are on our journey, and we have to pass through the dark
bed of the stream of Death, before we can enter into the promised land.

And we have two subjects of consolation.

(_a_) We have the Ark of the Covenant standing in Jordan to secure the
path.

(_b_) We have our dear ones watching and waiting for us on the farther
shore.

I. We have the Ark of the Covenant standing in Jordan to secure the
path. "Lo, I am with you always," said Christ, "even unto the end of
the world." That Ark signifies His abiding presence in His Church,
which stands between the living and the dead, a Church on this side,
militant, on the other, triumphant, a Church on this side made up of
good and bad, of tares and wheat, of sheep and goats, on that side, a
Communion of Saints.

The Ark and the priests stood in Jordan, so does God's Church and
priesthood ever remain, so long as the world lasts, and that world will
last till the number of the elect has been made up, till the last of
the people of the Lord is passed over Jordan.

The Ministry will remain to teach the way of the Lord, and point the
path through the river bed, and to cheer those who are downhearted, to
lift up the finger and bid them look to the further shore, and to the
glory there, and to those who stand on it watching.

The Sacrifice will remain, the atoning Blood for the remissi