A Brother Beloved

[Notes Of A Sermon Occasioned By The Death Of Mr. Covell, Preached By Mr. Hull, December 7^th, 1879.]

“A brother beloved.”—Philemon 16

The children of God are all brethren; they are one family, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the Father of all who believe in His Son. They are loved, chosen, adopted, called, and manifested by faith in, and fellowship with, the Lord Jesus, who, being bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh as to His human nature, “is not ashamed to call them brethren.” And they are brethren beloved—loved and sanctified by the Father, loved and redeemed by the Son, and loved and quickened by the Spirit. They also receive the “Spirit of love,” which is given to them of God, whose love is shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, whereby they are taught not only to love God, but also to love one another, for “every one that loveth Him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of Him;” and this love of the brethren is spoken of as a mark of grace and life: “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.” This is a love which is peculiar to the disciples of Christ, to those who are born of God. It is a love which passes the love of women; it is superior to all love which is natural, because it is of God. And there are some of the Lord’s people and servants who, by reason of the measure of grace and Spirit of Christ evidenced in them, are specially marked as beloved disciples. Such was our late dear friend, Mr. Covell, of whom we may truly say that he was “A BROTHER BELOVED,” and it is because I feel these words to be so applicable to him, that I have read them as our text this morning.

When the Lord comes into His Church and gathers one of His lilies, one of his dear saints, we are obliged to admit that He has a perfect right to do so, and that it accords with His purpose and with His word of promise concerning them; for His purpose is, that His people shall be with Him in glory, that they shall live and reign with Him for ever and ever. Thus, when He speaks to His disciples concerning His going away, He says, “I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.” This of course may have an especial reference to the second coming of Christ, when He shall “come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe; ”when He shall come to gather His Church together from the four winds of heaven, and when they shall as one family be presented unto the Father with this declaration: “Here am I, and the children which Thou hast given life.”

But that sweet portion we read at the beginning of the service shows that Paul was looking to enter into bliss and blessedness before that day. He was anticipating the time when he should finish his course with joy; yea, he says: “Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord;” that is, we have not His visible presence as we shall have in glory. We have His presence by faith now, but to be “absent from the body is to be present with the Lord;” and the child of God, while pent in the body, is anxious to get nearer to Him, until He is seen face to face. While here below, every token of His love, every evidence of His divine favour, which we may realise, tends to draw the heart and affections to Himself, so that the objects of His love continually, more or less, experience the desire expressed in those words—

“Nearer to Thee, my God, 

Nearer to Thee;”

for, while we are here in the body, there is always something wanting; and what is that? Why, that “fulness of joy, and the pleasures at God’s right hand which are for evermore.” If you have by faith realised some little of the Lord Jesus Christ in your soul, you will never be satisfied until you come where He fills your soul with unutterable peace, and still there will be something wanting; and what is that? Why, that you may see Him as He is, and be like unto Him; be launched from time and landed in His eternal embrace. Paul says: “He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God, who also bath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.” It is His good will and pleasure, when He visits His people now, that they should know and enjoy Him, and these blessed visits spoil them to everything else. The reason God’s people are so carnal now is because they live so far from Him. If we had more of Christ in our hearts; we should be more dead to the world, and more assimilated to His image; we should show forth more of the power and fruit of His blessed Spirit. We may look at these things, and speak of them, and perhaps some may think but little about them; but oh, brethren, the fact is a condemnatory one. Why, the carnality of the Church of God testifies to this. Look at the discord, the backbitings, the worldly conformity, the want of spiritual life and godly fruit. What does all this say but that “to be carnally minded is death’’? You who know Him, you who love Him, you who are favoured to have fellowship with Christ, let those quiet moments of retirement be the rule by which the matter is decided, Now dare you say, if you had more of the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ in your hearts, that you would be so carnal? Oh, no! Oh, how you would then tread the world under your feet, and, with Paul, “count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord.” You would rather drop the flesh if you might but enjoy that sweet bliss of seeing Him as He is. Our religion is very poor, there is but little of the Lord Jesus Christ in it, and that is the reason carnality so abounds among the professors of it. But there is one thing that will slay all the envyings and backbitings in the Church of God, and that is, five minutes’ fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. How is it, then, that these carnal things do so abound? Where, in the case of many, are the five minutes with the Lord Jesus Christ? Where is the closet religion? Where is the heartfelt experience of Christ’s love, mercy, and blood? I am speaking thus to some who lament it, and I am speaking to myself also. Can we say that we do not stand reproved before God? I durst not say it for the world, for I do stand reproved before Him, and I can utter the exclamation from my heart, “Oh, for more of the Spirit and power of Christ in my religion.”

“Nearer to Thee, my God, 

Nearer to Thee.”

What a mercy if we should this morning feel a unity of spirit in this matter; then there will be humility and self-abasement before the Lord, loathing ourselves for our carnality, and looking up to God for the plenitude of His grace, for more life and holiness of soul, and a begging Him to deaden us to all else, so that we may closer cleave to Christ, and so be enabled to live and walk as those who have been with Jesus—not merely as those who hope to be with Him, but those who have been with Him. Someone has spoken of individuals who have looked so long at the sun that, when they turned their eyes away, they could not look upon anything else, but the form and brightness of the sun was present with them. Oh, that we could so look at the Sun of Righteousness till we could see nothing but Him as the All in all! Oh, that it was so with me that, when I look upon the world, I could see nothing but the Lord Jesus, and when I look upon myself, that I could see nothing but Christ!

When the Lord comes to gather His ministers, it makes a gap. We miss them from the circle of our acquaintances; they are missed from the family and from the Church of God. We lose them, but our loss is their gain. They “die in the Lord and are blessed.” They are blessed in a twofold sense—they are “the blessed of the Lord,” and the blessing of the Lord is upon them; and they are blessed in the fact that now they are “for ever with the Lord”—forever with Him whom they sought and whom they loved. They dwell for ever in His kind embrace. Then there is another part of the blessing—they have for ever seen an end of sin, that which gave them so much grief, and which was a continual plague to them, and they are for ever done with all care and anxiety. They have seen an end of every trouble, every trial, every affliction, every sorrow, and now they are in that land where “the inhabitant shall no more say, I am sick,” and where God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. Their “sun shall no more go down, and the days of their mourning shall be ended.”

“When you die, will those who erect a stone to your memory be able, truthfully, to have those words engraved upon it—“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord’’? because it cannot be said of all. There are some who, when they lay down the body, will have done with their good things, and they will reap their evil things; and there are some that will have done with their evil things, and enter into the joy of their Lord. They shall enter into a heaven of rest and peace. When the Lord removes His servants from His Church below, it calls for His people’s consideration. I shall only speak briefly upon this point, as I dwelt largely upon it last Lord’s day. But, I say, it calls for the Church’s consideration, and I would to God that His voice in this bereavement might wake up the slumbering hearts of those who are at ease in Zion. You may say, “Must not God’s ministers die as well as other men?” Yes, they must. But, when the Lord takes His servants from His Church below, and their pulpits are left vacant (for we see very few raised up by the Lord to fill their places), does it not become the people of God to search and try their ways? And, although I am not going to set him up as a perfect man, yet, in the removal of our friend Covell, it is the removal of a minister eminent in his calling, a minister sent by God, a minister owned of God, a minister blessed of God, and a minister made signally useful by God, and that to an extent which eternity will alone make manifest. He was a man who did not seek fame, but he was one that sought the glory of God and the good of souls. The remarkable way in which he was brought into the ministry proved that God had a purpose in doing it. When he was a young man he had a great impediment in his speech. The Lord, however, not only called him by His grace when still young, but He also carried on that good work in his soul, and he was at length very much exercised in his soul about speaking of the things God had done for him. They began to well up in his heart to such a degree that they were like a fire in his bones, and he said in his heart, “Oh, that I could speak of these things to men and women!” But he was so greatly exercised on account of the impediment in his speech that, on one occasion, he fell upon his knees before the Lord and said, “Lord, I cannot preach; I stammer. How can I proclaim Thy grace? I have not the gift of speech;” and that word came with great power, “Who made man’s mouth?’’ From that time he believed the impediment would be removed, but he looked for the removal of it in a different way from that by which it was effected. A few friends used to meet with him for reading and prayer in his own house, and he was greatly exercised about speaking to them, which he first attempted after they had closed their meeting one Lord’s day evening in 1844, and the Lord was with him, and so removed the impediment in his speech that he never stammered from that time. How this proves the almighty power of God! There is nothing too great for Him to do. He says, “I will work, and who shall let it?” From that time, his mouth being opened, the Lord his God was with him, and that in a very marked way. He did not try to make himself a great man; he did not try to exalt himself by making a show in the flesh nor by making a show in the ministry. When he was dying he said, “I never sought to be honoured of men, but I sought to honour the Lord, and God has honoured my desires. What I am, I am by grace.” This was a very sweet testimony, and his life proved the truth of it.

There were many people who did not care for Mr. Covell’s religion, but who could not say a word against him, for he lived and walked as one who feared God; and here is the secret, brethren, “The Lord his God was with him.” The Lord his God was with him in the ministry, and many openly admit there was a secret and a depth in his ministry they are at present ignorant of. There is a great deal of show in the present day among professors in general, and a great deal of pomp and fleshly consequence among professed ministers of the Gospel of Christ; but when God comes to put it into His sieve, how little is left! But the ministry of our friend Covell proved that he was endued with the power of God. He did not use excellency of speech or enticing words of man’s wisdom, for, so far as mere learning was concerned, he was not a learned man. He was a man of medium parts, and yet a man that stood high above many who stood above him in the matter of education; and what was the secret of this? Why, he was anointed of God for the work. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.” The more I think of these things, the more I value real religion.

Thus, in his public ministry, he may truly be said to be “a brother beloved.” He was a brother in the best sense of the word. He was a man who condescended to men of low estate. When he went among the friends, either al home or abroad, what he was always feeling after was life. No matter whose company he was in, or what their speech was, he wanted to feel life. The same with the ministry. It was not the ability of the man he was influenced by, it was life he desired to find; and if he felt there was life, he was ever ready to encourage and strengthen their hands, let them be as young in the ministry as they might, and he was always ready to lend a helping hand to one who stood in need of it. In fact, it was his delight to do it.

He was not a jealous man. He was not afraid of other men doing his work, and he knew he could not do the work of another of God’s ministers; and he never sought to imitate another man, but to walk with God and to do His will; and if there was more of this singleness of eye to the will of God, there would be less strife in the Church. He proved himself to be a brother to the Lord’s ministers, and his great desire was, that God would raise up more to fill our pulpits, and to be under-shepherds in the Church. I can testify for myself that I always found him a brother, and I valued him as “a brother beloved.” From the very first time of my hearing him, I felt I was one with him experimentally. In his sermon he so picked me up, delineated my exercises, and traced out my path, that I felt I should like to know more of him. He was just the man that, the more I knew of him, the more I wanted to know.

And then, again, he was a brother to all who loved the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity—not only to the ministers, but to all the friends of the Lord Jesus Christ. Wherever he found a few who loved the Lord Jesus, they were the excellent of the earth in his esteem; and he loved to get into conversation with them upon the things of God. What he wanted, when he went about the country, was to find the people of God; and how glad he was when he could bear a good report of them that they loved the truth—not the form of truth only, but the power thereof.

Again, he was always found a brother to those in adversity, and, as he had the means, to lend a helping hand to those in distress, which he ever did most liberally. This reminds me of another marked instance of his call to the ministry as being of God. He was, at the commencement of his ministry, in a business at Croydon, a very old-established one, and a prosperous one for many years, being patronised by most of the leading families in the town and neighbourhood; and it was to him a source of great pleasure to think that he should not be dependent upon the Church for a living. He wished to preach independently of all men, to any salary; but that was not the Lord’s way, for soon after the time of his beginning to preach his business began to decline, and it fell off until at last he was obliged to tell his wife that, if he did not give up business, he should be a bankrupt. He left his business, and was congratulated by many on his being able to retire, as they thought, with a competency. But he said, “All I had in the world, when I had settled my accounts, was twenty pounds.” Well, at first he held no salary, but when his people found how matters stood, they agreed to give him one. There were only very few of them at that time, but the cause grew, and the people pushed on still more, until from a few pounds they reached a hundred. But he said, “The Lord knew my circumstances, and day by day money used to come to supply my needs.” For many years the Church acted nobly to him, and by their liberality he was well provided for. There was only one collection made for him during the year, and the last reached nearly £600. There was one thing I admired in friend Covell. He was not a mischief-maker, but a peacemaker, and I would to God there were more of that spirit. He was a man of peace, and never carried a seed-basket to sow discord, but, if he could prevent it, he did.

In his public ministry he was made very useful, and was often looked upon as one able to divine secrets. The fact was, he knew something of the spirit of the world, and he knew the infirmities of human nature; therefore, as he spoke of what he had seen and felt, this often touched someone, and he would say, “Oh, that God might touch their heart!” Thus he proved himself to be a brother. He did not set himself above them, but, by speaking of the workings of his own heart, he often reproved others. He laboured long and faithfully in his Master’s cause, and his end was blessed. Truly it might be said of our friend, “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.”

Death had no terrors to him. He was not dismayed at the thoughts of it. He met it as a man of God, and he was willing in the will of God. He was like the Apostle Paul; if it was the will of God that he should remain a while longer for the benefit of the Church of God, he was willing to do so. To those who stood around his bed, he said, “All true religion begins in love, and is rooted and grounded in love;” but he did not mean what some people represent, that theirs did not begin with trouble for sin; they were drawn by love. Here they make a great mistake in thinking that those who have trouble are not drawn by love, for the love of God is manifested in bringing us down as guilty sinners, like the publican, and in putting His fear in the heart, which fear is not a slavish, but a filial fear—a fear that is evidenced by desires to love and serve God, and all who possess it would be as holy as God is holy. Thus this fear of God will very soon be made manifest as the root of all real practical religion. We talk, brethren, about growing in grace, and sometimes fear we are wide of the mark. But this growing in grace consists in having brought out and off from everything else to this one hope, this one name, “Emmanuel, God with us.’’ Oh, the blessedness of having a part in the Lord Jesus Christ! And I am sure all such will be taught to sing, with dear old Daniel Herbert—

“If ever my poor soul be saved, 

‘Tis Christ must be the way,”

What a comfort for those who were around the dying bed of our late friend Cowell, to see this grace abound in him in his last moments, even the grace which he so loved through his life to testify of to the Church of God! Many beside his own people feel they have lost “a brother beloved,” for he was a valued friend. As far as he is concerned, he has the best of it; but his own Church especially, and the Church of God in general, have sustained a great loss. And who can supply the lack? None but God Himself. My prayer is, that He will be so graciously with our bereaved friends, to comfort and sustain their souls, that they may feel, though they have lost their pastor, they have all they need in their God. What a mercy if you and I, in our dying hours, should have Christ, the Friend of sinners, near, to thus cheer our hearts, and enable us to say, “Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”!