they have passed away as the swift ships-asthe eagle that hasteth to the prey-as the cloud is consumed, and vanisheth away, so is he that goeth down to the grave. He shall come up no more he shall return to his house no more-neither shall his place know him any more!'-Is there not, my children, something very melancholy in the repetition of these affecting words-no more? He shall come up no more he shall return no more— his place shall know him no more—his home, his village, his companions, his poor mother shall know him no more! "Thou shalt seek me,' may he say, 'in the morning, but I shall not be: I am gone whence I shall not return: I am gone to the land of darkness, and the shadow of death.-A land of darkness, and the shadow of death, without any order; and where the light is as darkness:'

"But life, my dear children, is not only short but full of trouble, and this you will all know, if you shall live as long as I have done in the world. For, as Solomon saith, "What hath a man of all his labor and vexation, wherein he hath labored under the sun? for all his days are sorrows'-not one, but many sorrows-All his days are sorrows and his travail grief;' and his nights also, what

are they?—'yea, his heart taketh no rest in the night.'

"To these melancholy testimonies to the shortness and vexation of life, given by the man of Uz, the man that was perfect and upright, and that feared God, and whose authority is therefore not to be disputed; we have added the testimony of Solomon, the wisest of kings—the man that lay in the lap of pleasure, whose kingdom extended from Beersheba unto Dan-and in whose reign every man sat under his own vine, and under his own figtree; and who, therefore, might be supposed to know something of the value of life. Το the testimony of Solomon, we may add that of David, the best of kings, and the man after God's own heart, and the sweetest singer in Israel; the exquisite beauty, tenderness, and softness of whose language, in speaking of the shortness, and fragility of life, seem peculiarly applicable to the delicacy, freshness, and loveliness of the dear child-who is not. 'As for man saith David, 'his days are as the grass-as the flower of the field, so he flourisheth; for the wind passeth over it, and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more no more! For all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass;

the grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away.' To these melancholy annunciations of the shortness-the fleetness of life, I shall add but one sentence more-the word that was uttered by the Voice, in the ear of the holy Prophet.

"Isaiah tells us, that he heard a Voice, and the Voice said unto him, "Cry,'-the prophet, pausing for divine direction, is represented saying, 'What shall I cry? The answer to this question, my dear children, is what I wish you now to hear, not only from my lips, but from the grave of your dead companion. What! can the dead speak! O yes, my children, and with a voice most solemn.-Listen to that voice.

'And the Voice said cry, All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field; the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand for ever!'

"If it be said," continued the teacher after a pause for the children were all sobbing when they heard the little girl's motto thus solemnly pressed home upon them, "If it be said that many live long, and many grow old and grey-headed, yet hear what the word of God saith-yea, hear what an old man himself saith-Jacob's answer to the question of Pha

raoh, when he said, How old art thou? "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years; few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of my fathers, in the days of their pilgrimage.'-But since the time of Jacob, you know the period of man's life is diminished to a span; the days of the years of our life are now threescore years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.'-When the Lord correcteth man for iniquity, he maketh our beauty consume away as a moth; we are crushed before the very moth.-The moth, an insect so evanescent, so weak, so delicately fragile, that you but touch it, it dies yet we are consumed before the very moth!

if

"Now, I hope, my dear children, that these mournful scriptures, which I have just read to you, will be the means of leading you to work out your own salvation, while it is called to-day-seeing the night cometh, and hath come to one of your number so soon-in which ye can do no work; for there is no work in the grave, no knowledge, nor device, nor wisdom in the grave, whither we all hasten.

"Death is the wages of sin. It is appoint. ed unto all men once to die-for all have sinned -and after death the judgment. But though it is appointed unto all of us once to die, the particular hour when we shall die is not specified. 'Watch,' said our blessed Lord to his disciples, and what he saith unto one, he saith unto all, Watch!-Watch, for ye know not the hour when the Son of man cometh. Be ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh.-Watch, for ye know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of man cometh. Ye know not when the time is: ye know not when the master of the house cometh, whether at even, or at midnight, or at cock-crowing, or in the morning; Watch, therefore, lest coming suddenly, he find you sleeping.' Now from these scriptures we might be apt to think, that the hour of death, was wrapt up in much uncertainty and obscurity; on the contrary, they appear to my mind, while they inculcate the duty of watchfulness, preparation, and prayer, to fix even the moment of death, at least to leave us no moment of life in which we may not expect it-this moment, or the next-this hour, or the next-this night, or the next-at even, at midnight, at cockcrowing, or in the morning, without any other