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,

a reflection which is the support of every suffering, 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.

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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 it.

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It is the greatest of all errors, to attempt to escape this feeling, by averting the mind from it; and there are many consolations, which the steady contemplation of it affords, by which the magnitude of its terrors is circumscribed, and the idea of death rendered more tolerable to the mind of man,

In our sympathy with the dead, we think not so much of the real importance of their situation; of the awful futurity which awaits them from the judgment of their Saviour; but we think it miserable for them to be deprived of the sight of the sun; to be shut out from human intercourse, and laid in the cold grave, a prey to corruption, and the reptiles of the earth; to be no more thought of in this world, but to be obliterated, in a little time, from the memory of their dearest friends and relations ;-the happiness of the dead, however, is affected by none of these things; nor is it such circumstances which can disturb their profound repose; they are sleeping in their dust, unconscious of the mouldering scene around them; nor will they awaken any more, till the last

trumpet calls them to the judgment of Christ. Therefore, reflection may at once cut off all this outward scenery of death; whatever it is, the dead know it not; nor is it wise to inflame, by all the terrors of imagination, an evil in which there are so many realities to dread; neither are we to suppose that death, coming at last, is so unwelcome as our fancy, viewing it at a distance, would lead us to suppose ;-long sickness induces a weariness of life; the body is comfortless in old age; and it deadens the mind; our friends are all gone before us; perhaps, our kindred, and our children; every succeeding year dissolves some tie which binds us to the world; extinguishes some affection; annihilates some power: weakens some appetite; impairs some excellence; so that we perish, day after day, till little of the true man remains, and the grave has but a small portion to receive.

Meditation on death teaches us, that the evil is not without its remedy; that foresight can diminish that evil; that it is an evil which may be brought within the compass of our own sway, and dominion;