The Funeral Of John Vincent

Earthen Vessel 1880:

Funeral Of Mr. John Vincent

In  the chapel Mr. Cozens said, “I will read to you the register of the births and deaths of the patriarchs of the old world (Gen. 5), and the first public funeral, of which we have an interesting account in the fiftieth chapter of Genesis.” In reading the first portion, Mr. Cozens laid great emphasis upon the words “And he died,” making ever and anon some solemn remarks upon the recurrence of those words. Before reading the account of Jacob’s funeral Mr. Cozens took us into the sick chamber and described the closing scene. The twelve boys are arranged in order around the dying patriarch, thus:—Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah (sons of Leah); Dan, Naphtali (sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maid), Gad, Ashur (sons of Zilpah, Sarah’s maid), Issacbar, Zebulun (sons of Leah), Joseph, Benjamin (sons of Rachel). He blesses his firstborn, and goes on blessing each in order down to his fourth son, Judah. He then passes by the sons of his wives’ maids, and blesses his tenth son, Zebulun. What must have been the feelings of those five boys when their father passed them! He came back to the ninth and blessed him. He passed by the eighth, seventh, and sixth, and blessed Dan, the fifth. He passed by the sixth, and blessed Gad, the seventh, and then Ashar, the eighth. And then he goes back to poor Naphtali, whom he had passed by three times. Dear Naphtali, thou art blest at last.

“Tarry His leisure, then,

Wait the appointed hour,

Wait till the Bridegroom of your son!

Reveals His love with power.”

And having blessed Joseph and Benjamin, he gave commandment concerning his burial. They were to bury him with his father Isaac and his mother Rebecca, with his grandfather Abraham and his grandmother Sarah, in the cave of Machpelah, in the land of Canaan. Having given commandment as to the disposition of his body, he yielded up the ghost. And here we find that he was buried with his fathers in the land of Canaan with great ceremony.

The service in the chapel (which was crowded) was most solemn and impressive. The following is a part of Mr. Cozens’ funeral address:—

“John says, ‘Write blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.’ We are met to pay our last tribute to the ‘blessed dead’—to one who has finished his course with joy, having fought out the fight of faith to a glorious issue. He ran the Christian race with steady steps to the goal, and won the prize—the amaranthine crown of victory, which fadeth not away. He bore the cross valiantly, and was crowned triumphantly. He endured to the end and was saved. He safely crossed the swelling tide and dropped anchor in his desired haven. He forded Jordan’s stream, and reached the radiant shore to receive the lot of his inheritance in the Canaan above. He put off dull mortality, and was swallowed up of life. And now, in the Christian’s home in glory, he sings the everlasting song, and crowns his loving Lord—Lord of all. Who would not be with him there?

“The death of our departed friend was most remarkable, occurring, as it did, almost directly after preaching his last sermon, from the last words of Paul to the Corinthians, ‘The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.’ He is gone to realise the glory of that grace, and the fulness of that love, and the blessedness of that communion sweet, in the congregation that ne’er breaks up, in the Sabbath that never ends.

“It was something grand for a man to sum up and conclude his ministry with such a blessed trinity of trinities upon his dying lips. Here we have a trinity of Persons in the one God, a trinity of names in Christ, and a trinity of things in the Church. Our brother was a true Trinitarian. He believed in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost. He loved the Lord Jesus Christ, and he had experienced the grace of Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost. No one who knew the grace of God in truth, could be long in his company without seeing the grace of God in him. He could not live without talking about the things of the kingdom; and although some of his ideas were deeply obstruse, and sometimes led to warm discussion, yet, nevertheless, there was such a religious tone and godly earnestness about him, that, you could not but respect his candour when you differed from his opinions. To say that he had his infirmities is to say that he was human, for ‘to err is human, to forgive divine.’

“The grave, like charity, covers a multitude of faults, and here we forget all but that which was virtuous, and excellent, and of good report. A man of infirmities, striving in efforts of usefulness, is a moral hero. The infirmities, and conflicts, and anguish of the chief of sinners, did not make him one whit behind the chiefest apostle. The priests were men of infirmities, and they used the altar first for their own sins, and thus they were taught to have compassion upon the ignorant and the out of the way. The prophets and apostles too, were men of like passions with us. But spite of infirmities and passions they held fast the form of sound words, and held forth the Word of Life, knowing that their sufficiency was of God, and that the treasure was in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God.

“‘He takes the fool and makes him know

The mysteries of His grace.’

“We are now separated from the presence of our brother by the concealments of the grave. But let us not sorrow as those without hope, for our friend shall rise again. The corruptible shall put on incorruption, the mortal shall put on immortality. ‘He shall change our vile body, and fashion it like onto His own most glorious body.’ ‘We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.’ When you plant a bulb in the earth, you do not think so much of its burial as you do of that beautiful flower which shall one day spring up out of it to beautify the earth. When you sow good seed into good ground, you do not think of the death and decomposition of that seed so much as you do of the glorious harvest you expect to gather from that buried seed. So also is the resurrection.”