and watching his countenance, till the scene is closed by death.

The voice of God calling away the spirit from its present habitation, sounds in the ears of one man as the death-warrant of all his hopes, all his pleasures, all his schemes, all his peace: to another it will be the pledge of deliverance, the shout of triumph, the seal of immortality. When it is said "the hour is come"-one man shudders ; horror and dismay thrill through all his soul; the blood curdles in his veins; he sickens with apprehension; another feels exultation quicken the palpitations of his heart; joy sparkles in his eyes; expectation sits upon his countenance; hope springs forward on the wings of triumphant anticipation. One man says, 'Behold I die!-Farewell, my possessions and my honours! Farewell, my my children and servants! Farewell, my hopes and my schemes, my pleasures and my felicity! How terrible, O Death, is thy approach, and how dreadful are thy consequences! This world fades from my eyes, and how fearful are the features of eternity! I am leaving my gods, and there is none to deliver! I see before me the bar of Jesus Christ; but who may abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he appeareth? I have refused his friendship; and can I expect his smile? I have slighted his love; and can I receive his approbation? I have consented to live without him, and now he leaves me to die without him-O for a shelter from his indignation !-Another looks with a calm and

bright eye upon the grave, and says, 'I must shortly put off this tabernacle! Welcome, death; welcome, glory! Farewell, years of misery and of sin! Farewell, world of sorrow and of vanity! Farewell, for a season, my companions in tribulation! I go to my Father and to your Father; to my God and to your God. Hail, ye scenes of approaching and unfading felicity. Hail, death, the messenger of peace, the herald of immortality

Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife,

And let me languish into life!"

Thus differently do men think, and speak, and feel upon the same subject: but these different views of death must arise from opposite principles; and there doubtless exists a powerful reason why he is to one man "the king of terrors," and to another

an angel of light." It is in connection with the sufferings and the atonement of our blessed Lord alone, that death loses his sting. "Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."

DEATH OF JACOB.

There are certain great principles in our nature which discover themselves in the very article of death; and among these is the well-known pro

pensity which we feel to be anxious respecting the rites of sepulture. We are not satisfied with having enjoyed the converse of those whom we loved while they were yet alive, but we wish to repose by them when dead. It is our last desire that our bones should lie by their bones; and that our dust should mingle with their dust. It is the last earthly thing that occupies our attention. Thus was it with Jacob and that he regarded it with no common solicitude, is evident from the reiterated charge, and from the particular description of the spot again and again repeated. Recognize in the dying patriarch your own feelings, and learn that he is "flesh of your flesh." See, how strongly nature lives with him! He has done with the things of time. They attract, they torment him no more. His earthly career hastens to a close. He is breathing the last sigh. One thought, and only one is stolen from heaven, and it hovers over the dust of his departed family. Lay the map of the world before him he regards not its empires-his eye glides over them, in search of another object, it fixes upon a little obscure field, and there he buries his remaining earthly wishes. Remove that spot, and the whole globe is nothing to him: it excites no interest, it retains no further tie upon him. There his last reflections linger, till they are recalled to the skies. "There," said, he, "they buried Abraham, and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac, and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah." With feelings something akin to these

the Christian sends his thoughts to Calvary, and his affections linger upon the sacred mount with mournful delight, while he reflects, "There they crucified him."

But the bonds of nature could no longer hold à spirit so prepared for heaven. The last wish was expressed; the last struggle was felt; and he fled to enjoy the immediate presence of God, and to join the society of those, whom, living, he loved, and dying, he fondly remembered!"Let me die the death of the righteous; and let my last end be like his."

THE BAD MAN IN SOLITUDE.

It is night. The sun enlightens another hemisphere. The moon leads forth the hosts of heaven: her beams tremble on the water; and her testimony to the power and wisdom of God is given in silence. All nature sleeps. The murmur of merchandise ceases. The noise of business, and the voice of riot, are hushed. The gates of the city are closed. Man has resigned his cares and his pleasures to temporary oblivion: his senses are locked up in repose: and the image of death is impressed on his countenance. All sleep, but the wicked prophet. Avarice permits him not to close his eyes or if slumber surprise him, it cannot sooth him into forgetfulness. His imagination is at work on the materials of the day. He sees

rendered callous-it may be silenced-it may be perverted-it may be darkened, as well as defiled. And in vain shall we then watch for the impulses of sympathy, or hope to perceive moral symmetry: -the beauty of virtue will not attract-the deformity of vice will not terrify—we dare not trust the actions of such a man to the influence of the harmonies of society-or confide to him the decision of what is generally useful. He will sacrifice all utility to expediency, and find it expedient to secure his own interest, or that which he considers such, at the expense of the interests of others; his heart will grow cold, selfish, and contracted, and morals will be dried up in their bosom-spring. Dr. Paley, who so unhappily, at least in my judgment, introduced the dangerous doctrine of expediency, into his masterly system of Moral Philosophy, finds at last no rest for the sole of his foot, but in the will of God, and reposes safely his moral system there.

PROPHECY.

THE BIBLE, A CLASSIC:

IMAGINE to yourselves a number of men with minds divested of prejudice, opening the sacred volume, to read it with care and with attention. Such is its variety, and such its beauty, that it will interest each of them in his own peculiar way: but to some it will appear infinitely more impor.