Thus, when "Time has shaken a man by the hand, and Death appears close behind," the most careless and infidel mind may be suddenly brought to think, though, perhaps, too late, of that one thing needful, which he has, while careful and troubled about many other things, most studiously avoided, or even scornfully ridiculed—a folly, the full evil of committing which it will require eternity to comprehend and to deplore. Lord Rochester arrived, by good fortune, at a timely conviction of this danger. Known as a great wit, a great scholar, a great poet, a great sinner, and a great penitent, he became grieved to the heart when dying, to remember his past profane life and blasphemous writings; therefore he ordered all his papers to be burned, on which very striking incident Dr. Watts wrote these lines: Strephon of noble blood and mind, As death approach'd his soul refined, And gave his looser sonnets to the flame. 66 Burn, burn!" he cried, with sacred rage; Hell be the fate! But O! indulgent Heav'n! society as if it were one of the last new publications, and astonished the Bishop of when he handed her one day to dinner, by observing to him, in her usual conversational tone, "That was a shocking affair, my Lord, about David CHAP. XXVI. THE NIGHT OF THIS LIFE LEADS TO THE MORNING OF ANOTHER. My soul! henceforth in sweetest union join YOUNG. AN indolent Christian, slumbering in placid selfindulgence, and flattering himself that he is advancing towards heaven, may be led by sudden sickness or grief, to discover that he is actually making no progress in the divine life, but rather deviating on the contrary route, or utterly mistaking the way. Affliction makes him pause to reflect and inquire. It is like stopping to change horses on the road, for a traveller then is sure to gaze around him, to ask if he is on the right track, to measure how far he is from the end, and, perhaps, instead of hastening along the broad road, which he has already pursued only too far, he may be induced to alter his course for a better line. We need not lament the rapid flight of time, if we be prepared for that better country where time passes away no more; yet in a benumbing world like this, how diligent and unceasing should our watchfulness be! Every hour the expectation must become more hopeless, that those who have continued long unprepared, shall yet overtake the great work of repenting and reforming. The thin partition shall very soon be removed that divides a mortal from immortality, and then the desire to change may come too late; for even in the case of the penitent thief, we must consider that he obeyed the first call to repentance, and so did the labourers hired in the eleventh hour; but we have hardened ourselves against many a sum mons. A Christian author mentioned once a little incident, which carries with it a moral so appropriate to these considerations, that, being authentic, it seems worth recording: "I once had a watch which went inveterately ill, but for many a long day I had patience, repaired the workmanship, but all in vain. At last, my forbearance being exhausted, I went to the watchmaker's, who undertook to break it entirely up next morning, and to send me another. That very night, at a late hour, the old watch, which for several days I had not examined, suddenly began to go! I remember listening while it diligently ticked the moments as they flew. That seemed, indeed, a last effort to redeem its own character; but I looked at the dial-plate, and the handles were entirely wrong ! To me it seemed like a solemn warning, that we may too late repent, that we may seek at last to do right, and not be able, that the sentence beyond recal may be gone out against us, and we may waste efforts in the end, which once might have led us into safety. If Dives could return back to a new probation on earth, what would he not gladly undergo to fit him for a reprieve from his eternal doom!— Even he, wretched and condemned amidst the torments of eternity, had still one good feeling in the brotherly kindness with which he wished his relatives to be warned against following the course which had brought him to everlasting woe; and it is remarkable to observe in the dialogue between Abraham and the rich man, though the one was in heaven and the other in hell, yet still the patriarch treated him with courteous language: "Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime enjoyed good things." How truly, then, ought we not only to love one another with the friendship of this world, but with such Christian affection as should dictate a daily prayer for each other in health, and a parting wish, even in the moment of death, to leave with those who have been kind to us, the benefit of our intercessions and the comfort of our example, in resigning existence with a firm, submissive, and grateful hope of God's mercy! The taper's flame then upward turns, While downward to the dust it burns. A Christian some time since thus exerted himself in his last moment to comfort the afflicted circle around him, by saying these few words,-"My friends! I now find it true, indeed, that he who leaveth all to follow Christ, shall have in this world a hundred-fold. I have that hundredfold peace of conscience with me at parting." The act of dying is not invariably accompanied by suffering, for very frequently dissolution causes bodily pain. Those who die suddenly have always a beautiful expression of peace on their countenances, as well as those whose lives are ended by gun-shot wounds, or by drowning. In any case, the eyes of many will be anxiously fixed on a Christian to ascertain what religion can and will do for him in the hour of extremity, as well as what he can and will do in bearing it |