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length of time can ever blot out. And yet, I doubt not, we have many such examples of piety and humility in our own times. God saw fit, in the case of Enoch, to exempt him from the great curse resting upon all the posterity of Adam, in consequence of transgression-the curse of death. He was, therefore, translated, so that he should not suffer its pangs and struggles, nor go into its dark and gloomy chambers. An event so strange-so entirely out of the ordinary course of nature-must have originated in a cause as singular. Adam and Eve, the first guilty pair, had already paid their debt to Nature, and been gathered under the curse of a broken law, to their resting place in the earth. Fifty-seven years after this event, Enoch, without tasting of death, was changed from mortal to immortality, and thus introduced into the presence of God, and the paradise above.

In the translation of Enoch, the great work and victory of the promised Messiah was clearly seen. The world could read in this event, the glorious resurrection of all the dead, and the nature of that great mission the Son of God was to fulfil on earth. Being the seventh from Adam, Enoch was cotemporary with him more than three hundred years, and hence, through Adam, he had a perfect knowledge of the creation, and the fall-the glory preceding, and the misery succeeding, that terrible And he must have learned the nature of that promise made to Adam-that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head.

event.

Even the heathen venerated Enoch. The Babylonians consider him as the founder of their astrology, and tell us that he is the same who is called Atlas by the Greeks, who, from his profound skill in natural objects, and particularly from his discoveries in astronomy, was hyperbolically said to sustain the heavens on his shoulders. Eusebius, the great ecclesiastical historian, who wrote in the fourth century, quotes Eupolempus-then an old heathen writer, of great credit and celebrity-who speaks of Enoch in relation to many of the idolatrous practices of the nations of the east. The Arabian writers call him Edris, and speak of the great extent of his knowledge. The translations of the Grecian heroes, or demigods, especially Hesperus and Astrea, who were said to bave ascended to heaven alive, and to have been turned into stars and celestial signs-the Dhruva among the Hindoos; the Buddha, among the Ceylonese; and the Xaca, among the Calmuchs of Siberia, all may be traced up to the translation of this good man, of whom it is faithfully recorded that "he walked with God." How extensive must his influence have been, and how pre-eminent his virtues, to have been held in such universal estimation in an age like that in which he lived.

The very name of Enoch shows the piety of Jared his father. His name signifies to instruct, imitate, dedicate, and probably his father partook of the spirit of his father again; for Mahalaleel seems to have been devoted in his piety, and close in his walk with God. But the godly character so much commended in our text, Enoch, under the Divine blessing, formed himself. He walked with God; this was a voluntary act; he chose the company and the companionship of God above that of all men. The Hebrew word signifies to set himself to walk with God, and then he did walk with God. It has, therefore, two independent meanings-the one is a fixedness of purpose; the other is a reflex influence of this purpose upon him who conceives it. The purpose of Enoch was to lead a

holy life, and then by divine grace the influence of this purpose upon his soul, was to sustain it, and to bring it into companionship and communion with God.

He, doubtless, had the good counsel of Seth, Enos, Cainan and others, who very much contributed to his spiritual strength and resolution. How powerful is parental example. If all parents would imitate Jared, and follow his example in early dedicating their children to the Lord, how universally they would find, that "just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined;" and that when a child is trained up in the way he should go, he will not depart from his early counsel and instruction when he becomes old.

Enoch was a prophet, and the first of all the prophets who prophesied of a judgment to come. This remarkable revelation seems to have been made to him, in consequence of his eminent piety. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and that hope in His mercy." The language in which he declares an approaching judgment, is majestic and sublime, scarcely equaled by any of the later prophets, or even the apostles.

In tracing Enoch's walk with God, we shall learn what our own ought to be. Let us inquire WHAT THE FIGURATIVE EXPRESSION OF OUR text MEANS "WALKING WITH GOD."

I. The expression walking together always denotes strong personal friendship and agreement.

The question is asked by one of old: "Can two walk together, except they are agreed" By nature men are said to walk away from God, having no desire to be found with him, or to possess a knowledge of His ways. They have lost his favor, and they feel a consciousness that they are unlike Him-hating what He loves, and loving what He hates-and, therefore, cannot be happy in his presence. The Apostle Paul says: "Therefore, as by one judgment came upon all men unto condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." Condemnation, resulting from known and acknowledged guilt, destroys all self confidence. This the sinner feels, and he fears to come into the presence of his Maker, but withdraws into deeper darkness lest his deeds should be reproved. He can, therefore, never walk with God, and lift up his face and cry, Abba, Father," unless he is redeemed by the blood of Christ, and so reconciled unto God.

The whole human family by nature, are disinherited-alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, "Children of wrath," having no hope, and without God in the world. To this universal apostasy there is not one single exception. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand that did seek after God. "They are all gone out of the way; they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no not This moral condition is ours, and involves deep, settled hostility to the character, the purposes, and the moral government of God. carnal mind is enmity itself against God, and is not subject to His law, neither can it be," till it is subdued and renovated by grace. "From the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, there is no soundness in us." Now, to walk with a God of such immaculate purity as He who declares the heavens impure in His sight, and who charges His angels with folly,

one."

"The

before whom the illuminate Seraphim veil their faces; to walk with such a God, requires righteousness in character, purity in life, holiness in heart, and harmony in views, and union in feeling, of no ordinary extent or degree. Until this moral change in man is produced, he can hold no communion with his Maker, nor his Maker with him. But who, as God smiles upon him, would not exclaim, and especially, as God calls him into His presence, and invites him to hold communion with Him-"Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger forever, because He delighteth in mercy;" "for He will subdue our iniquities, and cast all our sins into the depth of the sea. Thus he removes by His mercy our guilt and moral pollution, through the blood of the everlasting covenant; and none, till they are thus cleansed and washed and purified, can walk with Him.

II. Walking with God implies active faith in Him.

"By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death, and was not found, because God translated him; for before his translation, he had this testimony, that he pleased God." "But without faith," we are told by the apostle, "it is impossible to please Him; for he that cometh to Him must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of all those who diligently seek Him." His creating goodness demands it. He has made us intelligent, thinking, choosing, reasoning beings. With all the goodness he has caused to pass before us, and the attributes of His nature emblazoned on the heavens, and every where written on the earth, were we to overlook Him, or fail to recognize His lofty and sublime perfections in their resplendant manifestation in the material universe, we should richly deserve His indignation and wrath, and our unbelief against such a flood of testimony would be the very incarnation of guilt and wickedness. His preserving mercy demands the exercise of unlimited faith in Him. He has sustained us for the very purpose of our confidence and honorable trust in Him. What a bright example Enoch has set us! Our faith, like his, should be unwavering; it should be as living and as operative, and as glorious in its results.

III. Walking with God implies a conformity to His character, an obedience to His will, and a delight in His way.

God has but one way, uniform, unchanging, and eternal, in which He moves, and this way He has revealed to us in His word. Every soul, therefore, found in this way, is found in company with God. It is a high way, a holy way, a safe way-it is cast up in this waste wilderness by the wisdom and the love of God, for all His redeemed to pass over to the promised land. It is the way of prayer, of holiness, of justice, of mercy, of humility, and of love; and yet, "these are but parts of His way, and how small a portion of Him is known."

Christian, are you in this way, and now walking with God like Enoch? Then are you a just man-a holy man, an humble man, a righteous man, a benevolent man, a praying man, for these are God's way. He is only found in them. If these strong moral principles do not characterize your life and actions, you cannot "walk with God," nor enjoy the light of His countenance, nor the communion of His spirit, nor the fellowship of His Son. But, "blessed is that people that know the joyful sound, and that walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance, for in thy name shall

they rejoice, and in thy name shall they be exalted." He shall direct the paths of all those who acknowledge Him, and make even the munition of rocks their defence, and cause their bread to be abundant, and their water to be sure.

My dear, impenitent hearers, have you ever walked with God? Do you not even now fear him exceedingly? O, if you were wise, you would not permit this unmeasured alienation to exist between God and your own souls. You would seek a reconciliation before the judgment of the great day shall irrevocably fix your eternal destiny. Will you not do it? The piety of Enoch most likely commenced early in life-where and when the piety of every one should begin. And were all parents as faithful as Jared with Enoch, piety would be vastly more common in families than it now is. What sight on earth can equal the fervent manifestation of piety in the youthful heart? "A flower that's offered in the bud is no vain sacrifice." "I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me." "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth." My young friends, you never will find a better or more convenient time to make your peace with God, than now. You can ask for no more aids, or means, or opportunities, than God grants you now. Earlier habits are more easily formed, and when formed, are the most permanent and abiding. "It is good," says Jeremiah, "it is good for a man that he should bear the yoke in his youth."

Enoch was a man of great piety more than 300 years. How clearly are we taught that the pleasures of religion never cloy, but grow with their growth, and increase with their increase! Said David "Thy loving kindness is better than life, therefore my lips shall praise Thee. Thus while I live I will bless Thee. I will lift up my hands in Thy name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips."

Enoch sustained this religious character as a father, and the head of a numerous family. Piety is a promoter of every social virtue-a sanctifier of every domestic relation-a strengthener of every pure affection. There is no relation in life more favorable to piety than that of a husband and a father-neither is there any relation where piety is so much needed. Children copy the example of their parents so thoroughly, that parents are said to live in their children. If there is a family on earth that excites my sympathies, and for whom I feel an intense interest, it is that family in the midst of whom there stands no family altar, and where the voice of thanksgiving and of praise is never heard-where no confessions are made for sin-no mercies asked-no pardon sought-no grace invoked. Better ten thousand times dwell in a roofless house, amid descending storms, with God's presence and protection, than in houses of cedar, on which the frown of heaven rests. How sublime was the purpose of Joshua, for himself and his house to serve the Lord, compared with that carnal and worldly ambition of Bonaparte, to make his family kings and nobles. Better, said an old heathen, to raise the souls of our children, than the roofs of our houses. How patriarchal and priestly, how dignified and noble it looks to see a father gather around him his family, while he calmly, and with seeming confidence and trust, opens God's holy volume, and reads the words of wisdom and spiritual knowledge, while every eye in that little admiring group is turned on him, while the entrance of what

he reads gives them understanding-then he kneels down in their midst, and offers for them all that petition which each seems to think and feel his own. They rise, and commence their various duties for the day with consciences calm and tranquil, and with an indefinable sensation of security and peace, as though God was their friend, and He would protect them their father's friend, and He would save them. Thus felt Enoch, as he walked with God-and thus will feel every saint who imitates Enoch. O may each of you be found-not like Peter, following afar off, but like Enoch, "walking with God.”

But Enoch was carried bodily into heaven, that glorious, happy, holy place, into which all weary pilgrims will ultimately be received when they have served their generation according to the will of God, and have fallen asleep. And into the same divine and heavenly abode, just twenty-one hundred years afterwards, Elijah was borne in a chariot of fire, and on the whirlwind's wing; and nine hundred years after this again, in majestic sublimity, ascended the Captain of our salvation to the throne of universal dominion in the same lofty heavens, from the field of conflict and of death. Thus, before the law was given, Enoch was taken up to heaven, to show all who lived before the revelation of God was made, the certainty of the resurrection, and of immortality upon it. Then Elijah was taken up to heaven under the law-to represent the resurrection under that legal economy. And then Jesus Christ followed under the Gospel economy to represent that. So that each great period of the world had its representation of a final resurrection, and of a glorious immortality. Multitudes had witnessed the piety of Enoch, and then saw him depart from the world he had honored, not to the tomb, but to the bosom of God. Multitudes more had witnessed the piety of Elijah, and then, when his pilgrimage was ended, they saw the heavens opened to receive him amid its rushing hosts, and fiery chariots.

And then, again, multitudes more had witnessed the wonderful works of Jesus Christ, and after his Crucifixion, had seen him at the head of principalities and powers, ascend in triumph and in glory, as the first fruits of the resurrection of all the dead. The redemption of the body, therefore, must have been a matter of faith to all the godly, in every age of the world.

But now, dear impenitent hearer, you also will be raised from the dead-and where will you appear? You will surely stand in the judgment-but on which side of the Judge? Your eyes will behold Him as he descends from heaven-but will it be with joy or with grief? There you will see Enoch of whom I have now spoken-there Elijah that followed him on fire and flame-and there you will see Jesus who was marshalled amid unutterable sublimity and grandeur overpowering to that same immortal state; and there, God grant, for Jesus' sake, you may meet them all "robed in righteousness," and radiant in beauty-fully prepared to participate in the joys which are at God's right hand, and in the pleasures which are there forevermore.

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