I ask you to think of the relation between the unchanging Christ and the dying helpers.
That is the connection in which the words occur in my text. The writer has been speaking of the subordinate and delegated leaders and rulers in the Church who have spoken the word of God' and who have passed away, leaving a faith to be followed, and a conversation the end of which is to be considered. And, turning from all these mortal companions, helpers, guides, he bids us think of Him who liveth for ever, and for ever is the teacher, the companion, the home of our hearts, and the goal of our love. All other ties--sweet, tender, infinitely precious, have been or will be broken for you and me. Some of us have to look back upon their snapping; some of us have to look forward. But there is one bond over which the skeleton fingers of Death have no power, and they fumble at that knot in vain. He separates us from all others; blessed be God! he cannot separate us from Christ. I shall not lose Thee though I die'; and Thou, Thou diest never.
God's changeful providence comes into all our lives, and parts dear ones, making their places empty, that Christ Himself may fill the empty places, and, striking away other props, though the tendrils that twine round them bleed with the wrench, in order that the plant may no longer trail along the ground, but twine itself round the Cross and climb to the Christ upon the throne. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne.' The true King was manifested when the earthly, shadowy monarch was swept away. And just as, on the face of some great wooded cliff, when the leaves drop, the solemn strength of the everlasting rock gleams out pure, so when our dear ones fall away, Jesus Christ is revealed, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.' They truly were many, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death.' This Man continueth ever.' He lives, and in Him all loves and companionships live unchanged.
