hour. Is it, then, for sin you live, and move, and have your being? Are you the slaves of such a monster? It will kill your body!—it will damn your soul if you die in it! Yes! thoughtless creature !—if you die in your sins, you will rise in your sins; be judged in your sins; be damned in your sins! The dust returns to dust again;

66

The soul in agonies of pain

Ascends to God; not there to dwell,

But hears her doom, and sinks to hell.

Secondly. Death is a display of the justice and truth of God. He said, Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return." See! how faithful to his word he appears, in executing the sentence. The saint and the sinner; the man of age and the infant; the sage philosopher and the idiot; the man of rank and the humble cottager; the wealthy and the poor; the slave and the free; all nations, ages, and conditions, are levelled by the hand of God, in the stroke of death. Yes, look into the graves in yonder church-yard, “The small and the great are there, and the servant is free from his master."

Thirdly. Death is a display of the sovereignty of the Divine dominion. Why do we see one creature live to see one hundred years, a second fifty, a third ten, a fourth a day, a fifth an hour, and a sixth born dead?-All are under the same sentence, yet die, various in years. Why is it thus ? "Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight." But this is a Christian's happiness, that his times are in such hands. This is a bad man's torment; the uncontrollable power of God, joined with his sovereign pleasure, he trembles at, when he dares reflect. Nor,

Fourthly. Is the wisdom of God less apparent in death. Here he takes an infant from a world where its mother was a widow; there, he takes a believer from the world, in some of the greatest straits of his whole life. Then he cuts down a tyrant, just when his plans of cruelty were ripe for execution. Again, he taketh away an object, which had been, or soon would have been, an idol and a snare to others. At another time, he removes the arm of flesh (perhaps a minister, or friend), on which many leaned more than on God. Again, he sees a be

liever on the brink of some awful precipice, or within a few days of perilous times, and snatches him away from danger and sufferings.

Death is a farewell to the world. It is a general farewell to all. Not to this friend or that; but to every relation and connexion in life. We have often used the word farewell to a friend, a relation, an acquaintance; and sometimes with a peculiarly affectionate emotion, as, when we have not met for a considerable time before, or are not likely to meet again very soon. But death is a general farewell-an adieu to all !—and often an unexpected and abrupt one. "Ere one is aware, the soul is made like the chariot of Amminadib," in its departure from the body.

In another sense, it is a partial farewell. We take our leave of the persons, business, and pleasures of sense. The Christian leaves the trials, sins, and infirmities of time; yea, and time itself. To many duties, and the exercise of many graces, he will say farewell. No more sorrowful confessions, nor prayers for the pardon of his sins. Adieu to the duties of brotherly reproof, of fasting, and of every thing which implies imperfection. Yet we shall not forsake the contemplative part of duty, relative to the blessed God. The work of grateful praise will go on for ever.

It is a long farewell. It is true, we shall meet again at the judgment-day; meet our bodies, our friends, and enemies; but that is for a length of time to come. The believer may soon meet with his pious wife, his converted child, his holy brother, sister, friend, or fellow-Christian. Soon after his arrival in heaven, he may welcome them; but with that part of his acquaintance who may die unconverted,- -no more he meets them till the last meeting of the great day of account. The wicked, too, may not be long in hell, before their favourite companions may arrive, to share in their misery, as once they partook of their sins. Awful union in rebellion and torment! But long will it appear to these reprobates, before they meet believers again.

Death is an eternal farewell to all the temptations and afflictions of life-to all the conflicts, mistakes, and weaknesses of

time.

Adieu for ever to pain, to fear, and doubt. No more dull frames, anxious cares, or delusive pleasures. Farewell to every want, to every open enemy, and false friend. Adieu, evermore, to a deceitful, hard, unstable heart. Sin, sorrow, and Satan, an everlasting farewell to you then, with all the carnal business and pleasure of this world.

In the dying hour the ungodly take an eternal farewell of all the means of grace; of all the interests and pleasures of time. Their wilful ignorance, false hopes, and lying profession, are then no more. Their pretensions to holiness, to wisdom, and to happiness, die with them. But the final parting is reserved until the dead are raised, the judgment set, and the books opened. Then, then comes the last meeting of saints and sinners; then for the last, the eternal farewell: they part to meet no more!

COMPARISON OF LIFE.

BISHOP Cowper compares the life of a believer to a piece of mixed cloth, the threads of which, from end to end, through the whole length of life, are comforts, but the woof, from beginning to end, filled up with crosses.

NATURE OF HERESY.

"THERE is no heresy," says an ancient Father, " in which, taken as a whole, there is not more of truth than of error." So there might be more of food than of poison in a fatal dish, in which, but for the food, the poison would not be tasted. Still the poison is more than sufficient to kill, and is the food then an advantage? The fatal chalice of the murderer of souls must be made palatable, and is often beautiful and luxurious besides, or else it would not be so eagerly quaffed by the multitude.

"I WOULD NOT HAVE YOU IGNORANT, BRETHREN, CONCERNING THOSE WHO ARE ASLEEP, THAT YE SORROW NOT, EVEN AS OTHERS WHO HAVE NO HOPE."-1 Thessalonians iv. 13.

Of all the flowers of Eden left us,

The few, few buds of that realm of light:
Of which e'en the curse has not bereft us,

Though drooping they seem beneath its blight;
The sweetest by far are they which bloom

In the garden of LOVE, and by FRIENDSHIP form'd;
Water'd by tears, in sorrow's gloom,

And in joy, by the sunshine of sweet smiles warm'd.
But these,-alas!-how often they wave,

Their beauty fled,
Drooping and dead,

Over some dear, and some cherished grave!
And when MEMORY thinks how sweet they were,
Though withering now in such sadness there;
Greater, it seems, is the pain they give,
Than the pleasure before,

For that pass'd o'er,

The flowers all die, but the thorns still live.

A sky of unclouded, unchanging bliss,
A summer whose sun shall never set,
A region of brighter rays than this,

Awaits those withering flowrets yet:
And oh were it not for such a thought,
What bosom the transient bliss would buy,
That feels, when all most lov'd must die,
How dear that pleasure must be bought!
LOVE clasps fresh roses to her breast:
But DEATH Comes by, and, as in scorn,
Touches the bud she prized the best,
And every rose becomes a thorn!

PURE FIELDS OF HEAVENLY LIGHT-in you
There is no parting, no adieu,

But life streams flow, and bowers, whose shade
No sin can taint, no death can fade;
Spirit that twined with spirit here,
Shall in thine ever-peaceful sphere,

More sweetly twine, and not a grief
Be shed-that love should be so brief!

And HE, whose throne makes all the ray

That lights that one eternal day,

The bound and centre of the whole,

Shall seal this sweetness of the soul;
And his Almighty signet be

To all so dear,

That wither'd here,

The stamp of IMMORTALITY!

THOMS, PRINTER, 12, WARWICK SQUARE.

E.

NEW SERIES,

ENLARGED AND IMPROVED.

THE EVANGELIST.

EXPOSITIONS,

SKETCHES, AND SERMONS.

XI.

NOTES, CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY, ON THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.

(Written expressly for this work.)

CHAPTER I.

Continued from page 86.

Ver. 10. FOR DO I NOW PERSUADE MEN, OR GOD? OR DO I SEEK TO PLEASE MEN? FOR IF I YET PLEASED MEN, I SHOULD NOT BE THE SERVANT OF CHRIST.

DIVINE Providence raises up great men for great occasions ; and every true philanthropist feels deep interest in retracing the course of those, who, like the prophets of the Old Testament, or the apostles of the New, have rendered distinguished' service to the church, and to the world. No age or nation, perhaps, has been wholly destitute of eminent individuals who have exerted considerable influence over the public mind; for in almost all countries there have been seasons in which genius,

NO. IX.