must die. If life be protracted a few years longer, still you must die. Perhaps you look on death as dreadful. To youth, especially, there is something peculiarly repulsive in the idea of death; for shocking is the contrast between beauty and ghastliness, soundness and corruption, gay hopes and the last farewell; but faith in Christ can conquer all such uneasy feelings, and dissipate them so completely, as to call forth the song of triumph, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" You must die; yet, if possessed of an interest in Christ, you may die in peace; and when the hour arrives which to many proves the occasion of disquietude and anguish, and indescribable distress, you may hail its approach, with "come, Lord Jesus, come quickly." Then, when languishing in your last sickness, you may wish for nothing less, and fear nothing more, than recovery and longer life. O, when this scene of vanity is ending, and the world, with all its possessions and attractions, is fading away from your view; when all that has here been the occasion either of joy or sorrow, hope or fear, shall cease to interest, or to awaken one feeling in the heart; then you shall experience the invigorating influence of faith and hope, and as you advance towards the border of an awful eternity, and look back upon what you are leaving, and forward to what awaits you, you shall be enabled to say, "the world is now leaving me, but I regret not its loss; I have long renounced it as vanity; more substantial bliss I have in prospect; afflicted I am, but my affliction is light and momentary;-less, far less than I have deserved. It is the will of my heavenly Father, and Ì submit. He makes my bed in my sickness, and puts underneath and round about me his everlasting arms. I see death approaching, but I am not afraid to die. My sins, of which I have repented, the blood of Christ hath washed away, and being reconciled by his death, how much more shall I be saved by his life. O, how precious is Christ to my soul! Farewell, ye scenes of imperfection, ye scenes of sin and folly, I go where joy for ever reigns, where there is light and no darkness, joy and no sorrow, holiness and no alloy. I go from mortal to immortal things, from dying men to the living God. 66 My cares and my labours, my sickness and pain, And sorrow, are near to an end; The summit of bliss I shall speedily gain, The height of perfection ascend." At length your last conflicts end,-your tongue is silent,your eyes are closed,-the silver cord is loosed, and the golden bowl is broken. Surrounding friends look not on you, but on your lifeless clay. The soul is escaped to other scenes, to an unchanging and eternal world. Dark and dismal as the hour appears to the eye of sense, if you are found in Jesus, it will not be so to you; but when your last painful struggle is over, O, what a mighty change shall you experience! Admitted into heaven as your final home, what new prospects will present themselves; what new treasures will be unfolded; what ecstatic joys shall be formed in your heart. You will then be favoured with the immediate presence of God; you will gaze upon the unclouded glory of Him whom you have loved, though not seen; you will be blessed with the society of angels, and of just men made perfect; you will be crowned with unfading glory; you will have an over flowing fulness of divine enjoyment; you will then be a king and a priest unto God, will abide in his immediate presence where is fulness of joy, and at his right hand where there are pleasures for evermore. O, if all the other advantages of early piety were to be expunged, surely here is more than sufficient to induce you to make religion your choice. If not before, now then be decided; to God, your creator, preserver, and redeemer, now surrender up your heart. Rest not until your peace is made with him. Then saved by grace, you will be happy; the remnant of your days, whether they be many or few, will be strewed with sweet peace, and heavenly hope, and bursting joy; and death rendered stingless, will be welcomed by you as a friend, and as a necessary passage to the regions of blessedness. Beyond the grave, while the sinner amidst eternal torments, the fire that never is quenched, and the worm that never dies, is experiencing the bitter fruits of a life of sin and folly, you will begin to reap the fruits of a life devoted to the service and glory of God. Admitted home to your Father's house, and placed in that mansion which your loving Redeemer hath provided for you, you will live only to become increasingly wise and happy ; and a strong feature in your employment will be to sing, "unto him that hath loved me, and washed me from my sins in his own blood, and hath made me a king and a priest unto God, unto him be glory and dominion for ever and ever." Be wise then for eternity. Devote your youth to God, and he will remember you for ever. He will be your God here, and your portion for ever and ever. OLD AGE IN AFFLICTION. God of my childhood and my youth, Wilt thou forsake my hoary hairs, Let me thy power and truth proclaim To the surviving age; And leave a savour of thy name When I shall quit the stage. 66 AND EVEN TO YOUR OLD AGE I AM HE; AND EVEN TO HOAR HAIRS WILL I CARRY YOU." ISAIAH XLVI., IV. OLD age is what most wish to attain, and of which, those who reach it are generally disposed to complain. There is a great variety in the circumstances and feelings which usually accompany this period of life, but, with all who attain it, it is the time when their "strength fadeth ;" and with numbers it is an evil time, a time of gloom and sadness, of labour and sorrow. Caleb could affirm, "now lo! I am fourscore and five years old; as yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me to spy out the land: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now for war, both to go out and come in." But how few can adopt this language. To the generality of the aged the language of Barzillai is much more appropriate, "I am this day fourscore years old, and can I discern between good and evil? Can thy servant taste what I eat, or what I drink? Can I hear any more the voice of singing men or singing women?" Yes, to the greatest portion of those who attain old age, it is a period which brings along with it a thousand premonitions of that affecting catastrophe by which the "earthly house of this tabernacle" shall be dissolved. The physical deterioration attendant on old age is peculiarly afflictive. Of this Solomon has given us a highly figurative, but truly impressive description. He speaks of it as a time “when the sun, and moon, and stars are darkened ;” when the understanding, the imagination, the memory, those superior powers which rule in the body of man, like the heavenly luminaries in the natural world, become obscured, and fade away, as when darkening clouds interpose between us and the lights of the firmament. In the latter instance, however, the obscuration is but temporary, whereas in the former it is final. In every period of life afflictions and vexations occur, yet the storm is usually succeeded by sunshine and calm, and these serve to obliterate the impression from our minds; but now the "clouds return after the rain." Old age is a period of continual sorrow, precluding the prospect of renewed health, or of better days. "The keepers of the house," the arms and hands, which are made to defend the body, "tremble;" and the "strong men," the shoulders, where the strength of the body is placed, and which were once able to bear every weight, begin to stoop and "bow themselves." "The grinders cease;" the teeth decay, and are mostly lost; the few that remain become incapable of mastication, and thus |