that we are hastening on to something better, and greater; and, that it is beneath the wisdom, and firmness of man, to weep and lament, for that which is as brief in duration, as it is insignificant in effect.

Meditation on death aggrandises the mind, as the near approach of death itself is commonly accustomed to do;-for, though men are accused of acting on their death-bed, they usually act greatly, and evince an heroism of which their lives have afforded little, or no symptom. For what are the last scenes we witness of dying men? A forgiveness of injuries, which should have been forgiven years before; an avowal of faults, which should have been avowed, and rectified, before half the race of life was run; a confession of Christ, who had been denied before the world; sudden, and sublime flashes of wisdom, piety, and magnanimity, which bear no relation to the previous life, but indicate how awful, and how omnipotent, are the warnings of death.

t

If the distant contemplation of death cannot so effectually inspire us with godly thoughts, it, at least, leaves us greater time for godly actions; whatever seeds it casts into the mind may spring up, and fructify; none of its energies need be barren; death frustrates none of its admonitions; the feeblest thought of piety has time to expand itself into a wise, and active system of good works.

ན་

Mub live Meditation on death induces us to con sider by what means we shall avert its terrors; when our hour is come, we cannot discover that the ordinary objects of human desire, and the ordinary sources of human gratification, will be then of any avail; and we are thus led, by an happy foresight, to lay up the remembrance of good actions, even when the last day is still far distant from us. Can we figure to ourselves anything more dreadful than an human being at the brink of death, who has never once reflected that he is to die? To hear those cries of anguish, to which nothing human can now minister relief?-to behold him looking up to the warm sun, and clinging

་

to the cheerful world in vain? give him but another year, but a month,but a day, and he will make some preparations for death! The widow's heart shall sing with joy, and the hungry be filled with good things; this is the unspeakable wretchedness, and this the horrid surprize which it is the great business of Christian wisdom to avoid. Let us rather, in the middle period of youth, and strength, when the evil day is yet far off, commune with our own hearts, in the stillness of our chambers, and gather a decent firmness for that trial; and when we pass through this shadow of death, let our minds be pure from every bad passion, as they must be at the true death; and when we have meditated on these things, and forgiven all injuries, and purposed benevolent deeds, and filled our minds full of fear, and fair love, and holy hope, we shall go back with new hearts, and pleasures unknown before, to the common scenes of life.:

But the greatest of all advantages to be derived from the meditation on death, is the prospect of that eternity to which it leads,

12

a reflection which is the support of every suf fering, the soul of every pleasure, and the source of every virtue; it prevents that weariness which the sameness of life is so apt to produce; it gives a motive for enduring sorrow, and for conquering passion, by opening a boundless region to the fancy; it promises ease to every pain, gratification to every desire, and enjoyment to every hope. In the contemplation of a second existence, the persecuted man figures to himself a state of rest; the poor, an exemption from want; the sick, health; the weak, power; the ignorant, knowledge; the timid, safety; the mean, glory. In the contemplation of eternity, that which is broken is bound up; - that which is lost is restored; that which is quenched, is lighted again; the parent looks for his lost child across the great gulph; the wretched widow thinks she shall see the husband of her youth; the soul, filled with holy wishes, lifts itself up-to the great Author of our being, who has sanctified, and redeemed us, by the blood of Christ; who has given cheerfulness and dignity to our existence, and made the short agonies of death a sure prelude to immortal life.

tre But we must not make our comparison between voluntary meditation on death, and the total seclusion of the idea; the choice is, shall we meditate voluntarily on death, as a religious exercise, or shall we be haunted by the image of death, as a terrific spectre? Shall we gain wisdom, and innocence, by meeting the danger, or shall we, like children, be bribed by the tranquillity of a moment, to keep it off? The image of death follows the man who fears it, over sea and land; it rises up at feasts and banquets; no melody can sooth it; no sword and spear can scare it away; it is undaunted by the sceptre, or the crown ;the rich man may add field to field, and heap vineyard upon vineyard, and make himself alone upon the earth, but death's image strides over his towers, and walks through his plains, and breaks into his nightly bed, and fills his soul with secret fear! All men suffer from the dread of death; it is folly to hope you can escape it. -Our business is to receive the image, to gaze upon it, to prepare for it, to seek it;" and, by these means to disarm.;