tacle, appointed for all living, has no charms for the saint any more than for the worldling; but it is the inestimable privilege of the former, to contemplate these separations from his dearest friends, who die in the Lord, however painful the stroke may be, as neither final nor really afflictive. Who that is daily groaning under the burden of sin, and toiling in the Christian warfare, shall desire those who have laid down the burden and finished the conflict, to return and resume them again to exchange their crown for a helmet, their palm of victory for a sword? And although length of days are numbered among the blessings and the rewards of the obedient; affliction inevitably accompanies them: for who can long travel in this wilderness, without experiencing it to be a land of drought, of fiery flying serpents, and of every evil thing that infests a desert. Happy those who, after having sustained the tedious conflict, and endured the heat and burden of a long day, and passed through the

fiery trial, come forth as gold seven times refined: happy those also, when he who numbers our days, and who, from the beginning, has allotted us our appointed time on earth, by an immutable decree cuts them short, and with them all their accompanying woes!

6

Ah! fellow-traveller, do you find your mortal frame so shaken and deranged under this painful stroke; and shall you wish the dear departed again to return and encounter all the pain, and all the bitter regrets, under which you are now groaning? to return from that salubrious atmosphere, where the inhabitant shall not any more say, I am sick;' to experience again all those harassing symptoms of decay, those harbingers of dissolution, which you so painfully and anxiously witnessed, without having the power to ward them off, and which so tortured your own bosom with gloomy anticipations, and deep dismay? What an escape! what felicity! what felicity! To have passed the dark, the long dreaded valley,

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once for all! to have encountered the last enemy; and to be now for ever placed beyond his power! With you, and with me, these evils are yet in prospect; we know not how many, nor how few our weary steps are yet to be in this wilderness, ere we must engage in the same fearful conflict; nor can we tell what sore afflictions may intervene : but we do know, whatever they may be, that our dear departed friends shall never participate in them; as they have for ever done with their own personal sufferings, so also they have done with ours; those eyes, now so peacefully closed, shall never more be held waking with anxiety on our account. In the land which they now inhabit there is no more sorrow or crying, and all tears are wiped from their eyes. No; they shall not return hither again; and can we add, with humble confidence and hope, we shall go to them? It behoves us now to make this our grand concern; for, if it yet remains a doubtful case, they would say, could they now address us, Weep

not for us, but weep for yourselves.'— Shall the withered or unripe fruits of this desert track be preferred to the'ripe clusters of Canaan's fruitful land, and be retained with such eager grasp, that when we approach the margin of that river which terminates our wilderness travels, and the sound of its rolling waves vibrates on our ears, we stand appalled, and linger

'Shivering on the bank,

And fear to launch away?'

rather, with hopes full of immortality, although our dust must likewise descend to the grave, and mingle with that we have so reluctantly deposited there, shall our emancipated spirits also unite with theirs, and hold sweeter converse than ever they held below.

Behold, how yonder bright luminary cheers our dubious path! how desolate and forlorn should we be if deprived of its invigorating rays! But in that bright abode whither our departed friends are gone, there is no need of the sun : a glory

infinitely more resplendent there perpetuates an everlasting day. O! then, Death, where is thy sting? O! grave, where is thy victory? For that precious dust shall be reclaimed, and death and the grave, at the appointed hour, shall yield up their prey. Yes, it was sown in corruption, in weakness, and in dishonour. I watched, with anxious eye and misgiving heart, the slow approaching ruin all that the tenderest solicitude could suggest was done to uphold the tottering fabric. It did not fall with a sudden crash; but every succeeding day effected another, and another dilapidation. Here I propped, and there I repaired a gap; but, alas! alas! it baffled my utmost skill, and I saw the fair tenement that which I had fondly hoped would have proved my shelter during the wintry blast of age, levelled with the dust:- it shall not shelter me more; it shall no more shield my hoary head from the pelting storm. Yet shall I not be destitute and defenceless; for behold a refuge from the wind,