"For Ever and Ever!"

DEAR READER,-There is yet a more solemn thought, fitted to show the reasonableness of your present anxiety of mind, for consider

me

YOU ARE IMMORTAL!

Were death to be to you what it appears to be to the lower order of creatures-a cessation of being, with all its darkness and terrors, it would involve no after issues, and you might do well to forget all about it. Were death to be what sceptics have argued, and thousands wish it to be-perfect annihilation, then your unconcern about it would be comparatively justifiable, and a stoical indifference would be, perhaps, the best state of mind in which to meet it. Or, again, if death were to be the commencement of an eternal sleep, in which the soul would never again wake up to consciousness, nor, for one moment, be susceptible of pleasure or pain, there might be reason in the decision of those who say,

'FOR EVER AND EVER!"

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"Let us eat, and drink, for to-morrow we die."

sorrow.

we

But, no; man dieth not as the beast that perisheth. "The spirit of a beast goeth downward; but the spirit of a man goeth upward." Death is not annihilation. Reason revolts at the thought. Conscience denies. it. Scripture "has brought life and immortality to light by the gospel." Death is not an eternal sleep. It is the starting point. in an endless career of intense joy or When you die, you begin to live eternally. This life is but the infancy of your immortal being; it is closely linked with, and is a solemn preparation for that immortality. Now is the seed time, eternity is the harvest. You reap then what you sow now. As the first link in a chain of immeasurable length; as the first step in a journey that is never to end; as the first outline of a picture that eternity will be ever filling up, but will never finish, the present life is of momentous value, and your concern about it is indeed rational and right. Were eternity but a few thousands of years that you could calculate upon coming to a close, you might be pardoned in thinking less

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'FOR EVER AND EVER!"

about it, although then, neglect of the subject would seem madness indeed. But when you remember that it is not a few thousands of years, but an endless succession that will continue to roll on as long as God himself shall last; that it is "for ever and ever;" that it will know no change but that of an increase of joy or sorrow; that it will admit of no transition from the one to the other; that its issues can never be reversed; that if you die unprepared and perish, you perish for ever, and that without remedy: I say, when you consider all this, you must see that anxiety about your wellbeing in that eternal state is the most reasonable and wise. "FOR WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT A MAN IF HE SHALL GAIN THE WHOLE WORLD AND LOSE HIS OWN SOUL; OR WHAT SHALL A MAN GIVE IN EXCHANGE

FOR HIS SOUL ?" Mark viii. 36, 37.

The Solemn Fact:

THINK not, dear reader, that I am needlessly seeking to probe the wound under which your anxious spirit is smarting, when I proceed to tell you another saddening reason why you should cherish your present deep concern. It is better you should know the whole truth about your case; it is better you should see your real disease and danger, for then will you the more gladly embrace the precious remedy, and the more cordially listen to the Great Physician. There is yet a further, and a stronger reason still, to justify your anxiety about your future wellbeing

YOU HAVE SINNED?

Had you been perfectly holy; had you kept all the commandments of God; had you done nothing to endanger your eternal well-being, and were there the mere possibility of a dark cloud gathering over that awful future, your concern about it would be

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THE SOLEMN FACT.

natural indeed. But how altered the case now stands! How changed your position! Death assumes new terrors; he displays that which can alone excite real terror. It is not that mortality itself would be so dreaded; it is not the mere fact that it ushers in immortality, that renders it so terrible. No; these are not the sting of death. "The sting of death is sin." Had you no guilt-stains on your soul, death could not have such terrors. But you "have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” “If we say we have not sinned, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." You feel that your guilt is too well established. Your sins have been too many, too aggravated, too evident to escape detection. They have been committed through so long a period-in childhood, in youth, in riper years. Their catalogue has gone on increasing from year to year. The witnesses against you are too numerous to admit of your escape. A neglected Bible is a witness against you. A deserted closet is a witness against you. Broken Sabbaths witness against you. An unfrequented sanctuary is a witness against you. Friends and acquaintances, who have