eternity, that does not receive the mandate from him. Now, who shall presume to imagine that compassion does not triumph in his bosom, whenever he calls a youthful pilgrim from his earthly sojourn to dwell with him for ever in "his blest kingdom meek, of joy and love?" To his glance the future is unveiled. He sees the train of evil, the entire array of all the calamities and sorrows that threatens to surprise and crush the yet unconscious heart of that fragile and susceptible being, and he opens for it an asylum in his own pavilion; and of many a daughter of heaven, whose sudden and premature removal from this scene of woes, excited the deepest anguish of surviving relatives, it is recorded in the annals of eternity, " And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not."

An early death is desirable on account of what it confers. Where there is a genuine, vital, and glorious hope of immortality, can that hope be realised too soon? To live indeed is Christ. Important purposes are to be answered by the long continuance of many Christians upon earth. The interests of the church, of the world, of the divine glory, all demand that multitudes should remain to bear the heat and burden of the day, to toil on through much tribulation, and for many years, before they can enter the kingdom, and become meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. And God has "set one thing over against another." The old disciple shall receive his appropriate reward. His future station in heaven will correspond with his present character. "Behold, we count them happy that endure." Those that persevere to the end, and that overcome, shall wear diadems of victory. But there is a favoured band in glory, the infants of our race, a multitude which no man can number,

"Innocent souls! thus set so carly free
From sin, and sorrow, and mortality;
Their spotless spirits all-creating love
Receives into its universal breast."

Next to these, the virgin souls of

chastity, "the king's daughters all glorious within," the evening and morning stars of this world's hemisphere, who rose in their brightness only to pass into other regions, where they are to shine for ever, encircle the throne of Immanuel, or sparkle like so many lustres in his crown. What is our time, is their eternity. They began with us the sojourn of earth, but they have found their heaven, while we toil on in doubt and darkness, wearied with conjecture and oppressed with woe. Truth, which by us is dimly seen, reveals all her glories to them. We see through a glass darkly; they know even as they are known ;-with us, the fear of death interposes and gives a sudden damp to our joyous anticipations; with them, the bitterness of

death is past. We are praying and agonising at the footstool of that throne whose seat is in the highest heavens, and which unutterable glory conceals from our view; they, encircled by that glory, and undazzled by its splendour, pour forth their strains of adoring gratitude in its immediate presence, "where there is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore."

An early death is desirable, and ought to be a subject of gratulation rather than of regret, on account of what it secures; or, in other words, on account of the alluring and attractive form with which it invests the example of departed excellence, and which can never be impaired by the temptations of the evil one or the accidents of time. Alas! how many have outlived their character, or survived long enough to disappoint the hopes which were inspired by their early promise. The bloom of youthful piety is too delicate for the tainting atmosphere and rude tempests of the world. It is often like the first rose of summer, the most beautiful of its tribe, but the most transient. Of few comparatively can it be truly affirmed, that their "path is as the shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect day." During their course something happens to obscure their splendour; they emit a fitful rather than a steady lustre ; and

resemble a taper glimmering in darkness, and every moment ready to expire, rather than the orb of heaven, which brightens as it advances, and enlarges its sphere with its progress. The Scriptures exhibit but few instances of a uniformly consistent excellence; and its best characters shone brightest in their youth. If David had died before he had treacherously seduced Bathsheba and slain Uriah, the church would have been spared her regrets, and the infidel his taunts; and the man after God's own heart would have been held forth through all time as his purest representative on earth. While heaven is enriched by the accession of a youthful heir of glory to its blest society, earth is signally benefited by the influence of the unsullied example which remains after the spirit is fled, and which ever and anon rises, like a beauteous vision, before the memory of relatives and friends, uttering, with all the solemnity of death, the brief injunction, "Follow me." Such a departure, preceded by such an example, is like one of those clouds of evening,

"The pure offspring of the sun,

Flung from his orb to show us here,
What clouds adorn his hemisphere."

It is glorious in its loveliness, and instead of melting away or fading into air, floats along the ether into higher and invisible spheres, growing more and more beautiful as it departs, and then vanishing at the very moment of its highest splendour. Or it may be compared to the magic of unbroken melody, not arrested by a sudden gust of wind, nor marred by dissonance, nor falling in a dying cadence into silence, but carrying us upward, and charming the delighted sense, till imagination feels itself in heaven, entranced in the raptures of immortality. Death sets the seal of eternity upon the youthful example, before it becomes visibly sullied by the pollutions of our depraved nature, or mixed up with the evil habits of a sinful world.

The advantages of an early death will be further manifested by a consideration of its probable influence upon

You

surviving relatives and friends. may now dismiss your fears and apprehensions. The beloved one, for whom you cherished such deep solicitude, whose happiness was dearer unto you than your own, is placed at an everlasting distance beyond the temptations, the sins, the sorrows, the calamities of this state of trial. Disease shall never again throw its sickening veil over that beautiful spirit; its lustre cannot now be dimmed by the tears of this world. Temptation has made its last effort; the prince of darkness, baffled and confounded, will haunt his intended victim no more; the schemes of earth, which were fondly cherished, but which might have proved the snares of innocence, and the destroyers of the very happiness they seemed to promise, are superseded by an economy of blessedness, which is subject to no contingency, and which is as perfect as it is perpetual. The last enemy has fled from the field of conflict in disgrace; where he looked for an easy prey, he found a triumphant conqueror.

Again; such a departure is peculiarly beneficial to survivors, on account of the virtues and graces which, when sanctified, it improves, refines, and invigorates. The virtues which are consigned to the superintendence of afflic tion, and which she is commissioned especially to nurture and improve, are submission to the divine will, and grateful adoration of the divine sovereignty. And these virtues are never more seasonable, and they never reflect more glory upon the holy religion of which they are the offspring, than when they elicited by those bereavements which are the most agonising to human

are

nature.

To survivors, such an event as that we have been contemplating is desirable on account of the holy and heavenly aspirations which it inspires. The heaven which we anticipate is enriched with another treasure. Our best friends are there. We shall soon be with them and at rest. They are gone a little while before us. They have lost nothing by the change, but the imperfections and sorrows which

excited our sympathy and regret when they were with us; their love to us is not diminished. Heaven is not a place where hearts grow cold. There affection is purified, not extinguished. How soothing is this reflection! and how sweetly does it encourage and sustain that love to the departed which it is so natural for us to cherish; and which never fails to follow them into the world of spirits.

This mutual affection subsisting between the dwellers in heaven and their former associates upon earth, cannot be without its sympathies; and these sympathies, refined and exalted by religion, must invest our future inheritance with one of its most powerful attractions. This attraction, too, is wonderfully increased when the youthful precede the aged, and children, instead of following their parents, are their precursors in the path of glory. If the heart of the patriarch was warmed with unusual delight when he exclaimed, “Joseph, my son, is yet alive; I will go and see him before I die;" what a magnificent thing death must appear to those who know that their children live "high in salvation and the climes of bliss ;" and that all that is necessary to enable them to rejoin their society and dwell with them for ever, is the dissolution of the body; in one word, their departure.

Thus it must, I think, be admitted, on the clearest principles of reason and piety, that an early death possesses various advantages, which,

when it is preceded by decisive evidence of the formation of religious character, render it an event to be desired rather than deprecated. And we might easily show that the thing really to be deprecated would be a temporary resurrection. This would, indeed, be a calamity-to the individual, because such a resurrection would suspend the joys of immortality, retard the progress of the spirit, subject it again to all the temptations, pollutions, and dangers incident to a probationary state. and lead to another separation perhaps more painful than the former; while it would deprive survivors of all those benefits which the death of their youthful and pious relatives cannot fail to bestow, and which I have thus endeavoured to enumerate. It is sufficient for us to know that our friends departed, and that we survive, believers of a general resurrection, and expectants of a blessed immortality; that they now enjoy what we shall shortly realise, and that the hour is coming "when all that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and shall come forth;" when what is sown in corruption shall be raised in incorruption; when what is sown in dishonour shall be raised in glory; when that which is sown in weakness shall be raised in power; when that which is sown a natural body shall be raised a spiritual and immortal body. "He that testifieth these things, saith, Surely, I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

J. S.

Matt. ix. 14-17; Mark ii.

THIS parable, like Pharaoh's dream, is doubled; and is recorded in the same connexion, and almost in the same words, by three of the evangelists.

18-22; Luke v. 33-39.

It seems, therefore, to take the first rank among the sayings of Jesus.

That the parable relates to congruity, there can be no question.

66 a

It appears that the disciples of the Pharisees and of John concurred in the inquiry, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?" Jesus seems sufficiently to have answered that question, Matt. ix. 15, "Can the children of the bridechamber fast while the bridegroom is with them ?" There is a time for every purpose, time to weep, and a time to laugh." This, to my disciples, is the time of joy, and, therefore, fasting would be unseasonable. When I am taken away from them, then will my disciples fast and lament, as John's disciples do now, because their master is in prison and in danger of death." See Matthew xi. 2.

For what purpose, then, was this remarkable parable added? All that I can gather from the few Commentaries to which I have access, is, that the parable was intended as a farther apology for his disciples. And the apology in substance is this:

'You, the disciples of the Pharisees and of John, have been long trained under your respective masters. You are inured to severe discipline; and are, therefore, able physically and morally, to endure these frequent fasts. But my disciples are novices; recently called from the world and from secular employments. Providence tempers the weather to the shorn lamb; and I must gradually inure my disciples to Christian discipline." Now this certainly presents this subject of congruity in a new light; and there is something plausible and Christ-like in the interpretation. But two questions occur :

1. Did Christ thus gradually train and inure his disciples to fasting? Had he not already said, that fasting was unseasonable while he was with them; and that when he was removed they would need no master to teach them to fast? The sad event would effectually teach the lesson and enforce its execution.

2. Is this interpretation naturally suggested by the parable? According to this interpretation, novices, young disciples, are compared to an old worn

out garment, and to old, long-used, and shrivelled leathern bottles. And the ancient practice of fasting is compared to new cloth and new wine. This seems to me like lucus a lucendo, but very unlike Christ.*

I respectfully submit the following paraphrase as conveying what I conjecture may be the spirit of the parable.

Fasting, as observed among the Pharisees, is a mere human tradition, and, therefore, entirely repudiated. Fasting is appropriate to the transition doctrine of John, and the transition state of John's disciples; (hanging, as it were, in suspense, and supplying the connecting link between Judaism and Christianity;) appropriate to his doctrine of repentance; and especially appropriate at the present time, while John is in prison, and his disciples are awaiting his fate.

I am the great Prophet and the true Messiah, of whom Moses and all the prophets spake.. I am come as the salvation of Israel and the light of the world. So far from deeming it necessary to conform myself to the doctrine of the Pharisees, or the discipline of John, I acknowledge John, though greater than all the prophets, merely in the character of my most honoured servant and special forerunner. “He that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."+ The morning star must be content to veil itself, and disappear behind the splendour of the rising sun.

I am not come to patch up the wornout garment of Judaism, either with human traditions or new institutions. I cannot be guilty of the folly of putting new wine into old bottles. "That which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away," Heb. viii. 13. And let it pass. The full moon shines in

*Poole, in his Synopsis, introduces this objection, and furnishes a brief reply. "Obj. Discipuli novi erant, ideoque veteribus, &c. mali comparantur. Resp. Veteres appellantur, aut propter veterim consuetudinem omnino dissimilem, aut propter infirmitatem."

President Edwards considers that Jesus Christ here speaks of himself.