with the management of children, would take timely care to prevent these scourges of conscience; by endeavouring to conduct their minds into an early knowledge of Christ, and a cordial love of his truth! 66 On this hand is lodged one, whose sepulchral stone tells a most pitiable tale indeed! Well may the little images, reclined over the sleeping ashes, hang down their heads with that pensive air! None can consider so mournful a story, without feeling some touches of, sympathizing concern.His age twenty-eight; his death sudden; himself cut down in the prime of life, amidst all the vivacity and vigour of manhood; while "his breasts were full of milk, and his bones moistened with marrow."-Probably he entertained no apprehensions of the evil hour. And indeed who could have suspected, that so bright a sun should go down at noon? To human appearance, his hill stood strong. Length of days seemed written in his sanguine countenance. He solaced himself with the prospect of a long, long series of earthly satisfaction. When, lo! au unexpected stroke descends descends from that mighty arm which "overturneth the mountains by their roots; and "crushes the imaginary hero, before the moth;" as quickly, and more easily, than our fingers press such a feeble fluttering insect to death. Job iv. 19. wy-Ad instar, ad modum, tineaI retain this interpretation, both as it is most suitable to my purpose, and as it is patronized by some eminent commentators; especially the celebrated Schultens. Though I cannot but give the preference to the opinion of a judicious friend, who would render the passage more literally, before the face of a moth: making it to represent a creature so exceedingly frail, that even a moth, flying against it, may dash it to pieces.-Which, besides its closer correspondence with the exact import of the Hebrew, presents us with a much finer image of the most extreme imbecility. For it certainly implies a far greater degree of weakness, to be crushed by the feeble flutter of the feeblest creature, than only to be crushed as easily as that creature, by the hand of man.-The French version is very expressive and beautiful; à la rencontre d'un vermisseau. Perhaps, the nuptial joys were all he thought on. Were not such the breathings of his enamoured soul? "Yet a very little while, and I "shall possess the utmost of my wishes. I shall "call my charmer mine; and, in her, enjoy whatever my heart can crave."-In the midst of such enchanting views, had some faithful friend but softly reminded him of an opening grave, and the end of all things; how unseasonable would he have reckoned the admonition? Yet, though all warm with life, and rich in visionary bliss, he was even then tottering upon the brink of both.Dreadful vicissitude! to have the bridal festivity turned into the funeral solemnity! Deplorable misfortune! to be shipwrecked in the very ha ven! and to perish even in sight of happiness!What a memorable proof is here of the frailty of man in his best estate! Look, O! look on this monument, ye gay and careless! Attend to this date; and boast no more of to-morrow! Who can tell, but the bride-maids, girded with gladness, had prepared the marriage-bed? Had decked it with the richest covers, and dressed it in pillows of down? When-Oh! trust not in youth, or strength, or in any thing mortal; for there is nothing certain, nothing to be depended on; beneath the unchangeable God-Death, re lentless Death, is making him another kind of bed in the dust of the earth. Unto this he must be conveyed, not with a splendid procession of joyous attendants; but stretched in the gloomy hearse, A distress of this kind is painted in very affecting colours by Pliny, in an epistle to Marcellinus; "O triste "plane acerbumque funus! O morte ipsa mortis tempus "indignius! jam destinata erat egregio juveni; jam electus "nuptiarum dies; jam nos advocati. Quod gaudium quo moerore mutatum est! Non possum exprimere verbis, "quantum animo vulnus acceperim, quum audivi fundanum "ipsum (ut multa luctuosa dolor invenit) præcipientem, "quod in vestes, margaritas, gemmas, fuerat erogaturus, "hoc in thura, & unguenta, & odores impenderetur." Plin. lib. v. epist. 26. and followed by a train of mourners. On this he must take up. a lonely lodging, nor ever be released," till the heavens are no more."-In vain does the consenting fair-one put on her ornaments, and expect her spouse. Did she not, like Sisera's mother, look out of the lattice; cbide the delays of her beloved; and wonder "why his chariot was so long in coming?" Little thinking that the intended bridegroom had for ever done with transitory things! That now everlasting cares employ his mind, without one single remembrance of his lovely Lucinda!-Go, disappointed virgin! Go, mourn the uncertainty of all created bliss! Teach thy soul to aspire after a sure and immutable felicity! For the once gay and gallant Fidelio sleeps in other embraces; even in the icy arms of Death! Forgetful, eternally forgetful, of the world-and thee. Hitherto, one is tempted to exclaim against the king of terrors, and call him capriciously cruel. He seems, by beginning at the wrong end of the register, to have inverted the laws of nature. Passing over the couch of decrepit age, he has nipped infancy in its bud; blasted youth in its bloom; and torn up manhood in its full maturity.Terrible indeed are these providences, yet not unsearchable the counsels: For us they sicken, and for us they die. Such strokes, must not only grieve the relatives, but surprise the whole neighbourhood. They sound a powerful alarm to heedless dreaming mortals, and are intended as a remedy for our carnal security. Such passing-bells inculcate loudly our Lord's admonition; "Take ye heed, "watch, and pray for ye know not when the "time is."-We nod, like intoxicated creatures, upon the very verge of a tremendous precipice. These astonishing dispensations are the kind mes • Night-Thoughts. sengers of Heaven; to rouse us from our supineness, and quicken us into timely circumspection. I need not, surely, accommodate them with language, nor act as their interpreter. Let every one's conscience be awake, and this will appear their awful meaning-" O! ye sons of men, in the "midst of life you are in death. No state, no " circumstances, can ascertain your preservation a "single moment. So strong is the tyrant's arm, "that nothing can resist its force; so true his "aim, that nothing can elude the blow. Sudden "as lightning, sometimes, is his arrow launched; "and wounds, and kills, in the twinkling of an "eye. Never promise yourselves safety in any "expedient, but constant preparation. The fatal "shafts fly so promiscuously, that none can guess the next victim. Therefore, be ye always "ready: for in such an hour as ye think not, the "final summons cometh." 66 Be ye always ready: for in such an hour as ye think not-Important admonition! Methinks, it reverberates from sepulchre to sepulchre; and addresses me with line upon line, precept upon precept.-The reiterated warning, I acknowledge, is too needful; may co-operating grace render it effectual! The momentous truth, though worthy to be engraved, on the tables of a most tenacious memory; is but slightly sketched on the transient flow of passion. We see our neighbours fall; we turn pale at the shock; and feel, perhaps, a trembling dread. No sooner are they removed from our sight, but, driven in the whirl of business, or lulled in the languors of pleasure, we forget the providence, and neglect its errand. The impression made on our unstable minds, is like the trace of an arrow, through the penetrated air; or the path of a keel, in the furrowed wave.-Strange stupidity! To cure it, another monitor bespeaks me, from a neighbouring stone. It contains the narrative of an unhappy mortal, snatched from his friends, of injustice in their hands; and some surprised, in the very act of lewdness, or the attempt of cruelty. Legions, legions of disasters, such as no prudence can foresee, and no care prevent, lie in wait to accomplish our doom. A starting horse may throw his rider; may at once dash his body against the stones, and fling his soul into the invisible world. A stack of chimnies may tumble into the street, and crush the unwary passenger under the ruins. Even a single tile, dropping from the roof, may be as fatal as the fall of the whole structure. So frail, so very attenuated is the thread of life, that it not only bursts before the storm, but breaks even at a breeze. The most common occurrences, those from which we suspect not the least harm, may prove the weapons of our destruction. A grape-stone, a despicable fly, may be more mortal than Goliath, with all his formidable armour.-Nay, if God give command, our very comforts become killing. The air we breathe, is our bane; and the food we eat, the vehicle of death. That last enemy has unnumbered avenues for his approach. Yea, lies intrenched in our very bosom, and holds his fortress in the seat of our life. The crimson fluid, which distributes health, is impregnated with the seeds of death. Heat may inflame it, or toil oppress it; and make it destroy the parts it was designed to cherish. Some unseen impediment may obstruct its passage, or some unknown violence may divert its course; in either of which cases it acts the part of a poisonous draught, or a deadly stab. Ah! in what perils is vain life engag'd! We die; of want, of superfluity. The all-surrounding Heav'n, the vital air, |