and trusted that she was not deceived. The gleams of reason that broke in between the clouds, gave her light enough to discern her own evidences of piety, and refresh her hope. Then she repeated some of the last verses of the 139th Psalm in metre, viz.

"Lord, search my soul, try every thought:

Tho' my own heart accuse me not,
Of walking in a false disguise,

I beg the trial of thine eyes.

Doth secret mischief lurk within?
Do I indulge some unknown sin!
O turn my feet whene'er I stray,
And lead me in thy perfect way."

She was frequent and importunate in her requests for the Psalm-book, that she might read that Psalm, or at least have it read to her throughout; and it was with some difficulty, we persuaded her to be composed in silence; thus sincerely willing was she, that God might search and try her heart, still hoping well concerning her spiritual state, yet still solicitous about the assurance of her own sincerity, in her former transactions with heaven.

The next day among the roving of her thoughts, she rehearsed all those verses of the 17th Psalm, which are paraphrased in the same book, with very little faltering in a line or two:

"Lord I am thine; but thou wilt prove

My faith, my patience, and my love,” &c.

The traces of her thoughts under this confusion of animal nature, retained something in them divine and heavenly.

O blessed situation of soul, when we stand prepared for death, though it come with the formidable retinue of a disordered brain, and clouded reason! It would be too long at present to represent to you the 'sad consequences of being found asleep when Christ comes to call us away from this world,' I shall therefore only make these three reflections.

Reflect. 1. None can begin too early to awake to righteousness, and prepare for the call of Christ, since no one is too young to be sent for by his messenger of death.' I do not here speak of the state of infancy, when persons can hardly be said to be in a personal state of trial: But when I say, 'none can awake too early to mind the things of religion,' I mean, after reason begins its proper exercise, and this appears sometimes in early childhood. All our life in this world, compared with heaven, is a sort of night and season of darkness; and if our Lord summon us away "in the first watch of the night," in the midst of youth and vigour, and the pleasing allurements of flesh and sense, we are in a deplorable state if we are found sleeping, and hurried away from earth, into the invisible world, in the midst of our foolish dreams of golden vanity. Dreadful indeed, to have a young thoughtless creature carried off the stage, sleeping and dead in trespasses and sins! Let those that are drunk with wine fall asleep upon the top of a mast in the middle of the sea, where the winds and the waves are tossing and roaring all around them; let a madman who has lost his reason, lie down to sleep upon the edge of a precipiçe, where a pit of fire and brim

stone is burning beneath him, and ready to receive his fall; but let not young sinners, whose rational powers are in exercise, and whose life is every moment a mere uncertainty, venture to go on in their dangerous slumbers, while the wrath of a God and eternal misery attend them, if they die before they are awake.

"

It is granted that no power beneath that which is divine, can effectually quicken a dead soul, and awaken it into a divine life. It is the work of “ God to quicken the dead," Rom. iv. 17. Eph. ii. 5. It is the son of God who is the "light and life of the world," John i. 4. To whom the Father hath given this quickening power," John vi. 26. He calls sinners to awaken them from their deadly sleep, Eph. v. 14. And they live by him, as he lives by the Father," John vi. 57. He awakens dead souls to life, by the same living spirit, which "shall quicken their mortal bodies," and raise them from the grave, Rom. viii. 9, 11, 13. 2 Cor. iii. 3. which spirit he "hath received from the Father,” John iii. 34. And on this account we are to seek the vital influences of this grace from heaven, by constant and importunate prayer. Yet in my text, as well as in other Scriptures, "awaking out of sleep," and "watching unto righteousness," is represented as our duty, and we are to exert all our natural pow. ers with holy fervency, for this end, while our daily petitions draw down from heaven the promised aid of grace. Our diligence in duty, and our dependence on the divine power and mercy, are happily and effec

tually joined in the command of our Saviour, on this very occasion, in one of his parables, Mark xiii. 33. "Watch and pray, for ye know not when the time is that the Lord will come." And again, chap. xiv. 38. "Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation." Trust not in your own strength and sufficiency for the glorious change to be wrought in your sinful hearts, and yet neglect not your own labours and restless endeavours under a pretence, that it is God's work, and not yours. "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."

Nor should frail dying creatures in their youngest years, delay this work, one day, nor one hour, since the consequences of being found asleep when Christ calls, are terrible indeed. We are beset with mortality all around us; the seeds of disease and dissolution are working within us from our very birth and cradle, ever since sin entered into our natures; and we should ever be in a readiness to remove hence, since we are never secure from the summons of heaven, the stroke of death, and the demands of the grave.

There was a lovely boy, the son of the Shunamite, who was given to his mother in a miraculous way, and when he was in the field among the reapers, he cried out, my head, my head; he was carried home immediately, and in a few hours died in his mother's bosom, 2 Kings iv. 18. Who would have imagined that head-ach should have been death, and that in so short a time too? This is almost the case which we

lament at present; the head-ach was sent but a few days before, nor was the pain very intense, nor the appearance dangerous, yet it became the fatal, though unexpected fore-runner of death.

This providence is an awful warning-piece to all her young acquaintance, to be ready for a sudden removal; for she was of a healthy make, and seemed to stand at as great distance from the gates of death as any of you: But the firmest constitution of human nature is born with death in it. From every age, and every spot of ground, and every moment of time, there are short and sudden ways of descent to the grave. Trap-doors (if I may use so low a metaphor) are always under us, and a thousand unseen avenues to the regions of the dead. A malignant fever strikes the strongest nature with a mortal blast, at the command of the great Author and Disposer of life. My youngest hearers may be called away from the earth, by the next pain that seizes them. Nothing but religion, early religion, and sincere godliness, can give you hope in youthful death, or leave a fragrant savor on your name or memory among those that survive.

Reflect. 2. If such blessedness as I have described, belong to every watchful Christian at the hour of death, then it may not be improper here to take notice of some peculiar advantages which attend those who shake off the deadly sleep of sin in their younger years, and are awake early to God and religion.'

(1.) They have much fewer sins to mourn over on a death-bed, and they prevent much bitter repent