Page images
PDF
EPUB

ON THE DEATH OF RELATIVES AND

FRIENDS.

"WHEN we visit the tomb of some justly beloved friend, let us behold it with a steady faith that one day it will be opened and set its prisoner free; and while we gaze upon his present dormitory, let our musing thoughts run in the following train :

"Not long since thou wast, what I am now, one of the actors in this passing scene. To all thy sighs I lent a pitying ear, and my heaving bosom beat, responsive to. thy sad, complaints. With thine my tears were mingled in the hour of affliction; and, when joy brightened thy countenance, my heart felt a kindred pleasure. With thee I sat, or walked by the way, and held sweet converse. To thee my soul was knit by the ties of cordial amity and soft endearment. Now thou hast left me to mourn the loss of thee in pensive silence. On thy hallowed grave I drop the tender tear, and bid thy sacred ashes rest in peace. Ere long shall I join thee in thy dark abode, thy companion in the dust, till we be called forth in the end of the days. In life was I united to thee; in the same cold arms of death shall 1 soon lie; and, Q, transporting thought! together shall we rise, no more to feel the agony of parting. All hail that blessed, morn which shall restore thee to my fond embrace! Methinks, I see its sprightly beams gilding the horizon, and leading on the bright triumphant day! Yonder appears, the Judge arrayed in majesty, and holy myriads form his glorious train! He bids the trumpet sound. I hear its awful voice, which pene trates through all the mansions of the dead.

Methinks I now behold thy tomb opening to make a passage for thee, I see thy mortal frame, which was sown in corruption, dishonour, and weakness, raised in incorruption, glory, and power. I run to meet thee on thy release from the delightful recollection of our former friendship. We mark with gratitude together the kind hand of heaven, which led us through the pilgimage of life, nor left us in the vale of death. Risen to pass an undeclining day, we re. new the joys of social intercourse, undiminished by the fear of interruption. We trace, with admiring wonder and gratitude, evidences of divine wisdom and benignity in the appointment of events, the particular uses of which had before eluded our discovery. We survey together the beauties of renovated nature; and as we gaze, the pleasure of each is heightened by the participation of the other. We seek and find, among the countless multitude, the sight of whose happiness augments our own, the chosen few in whom our souls on earth delighted. With them we revive our former acquaintance. Engaged with them, and all around, in the most pure and sublime exercise of our noblest powers and affections, we share each other's and the general bliss. With the rapid improvement of our knowledge and goodness the increase of our felicity keeps an equal pace. Eternity, not to be shortened by the lapse of twice ten thousand ages, opens to our enraptured minds the prospect of rising higher in intellectual and moral excellence, and higher still beyond all imaginable limits. Struck with the refulgent splendours of celestial glory on every side, joined in the bands of an indissoluble union with the assembly of the just made perfect, feeling within the refined satis

faction of conscious integrity, placed under the government and protection of Jesus, the friend of man, rejoicing in the love and approbation of our God and Father, and secure of enjoying for ever those sources of inexpressible delight, we find our happiness adequate each moment to our capacities, through growing for ever in proportion to their continual enlargement !" Bretland.

THE REVOLUTION OF AN YEAR.

"THESE regular returning aspects of nature which divide Man's time into equal parts, and which he has only to number as they succeed each other, like the lettered stones erected on the sides of our roads, to inform the traveller what space of ground he has traversed, serve to give notice to the passengers through human life, how far he has proceeded in his path to the grave.

"The divine wisdom which has thus measured our time, more especially appears in that annual division of it, which periodically calls our attention to the lapse of those larger parts of the life of man, the susceptible departure of which excites, of necessity, a peculiarly alarming sense of diminution of our days. Nor is that wisdom less conspicuous in the striking nature of those sigus in the system around us, which indicate the departure of the perpetually perishing parts of our time. Most pointed are the marks, most forcible are the mementos of their expiration. They irresistibly rouse our attention to the wings of time and force us to take notice of his flight. Nature signifies it to us by no faint intimations; she proclaims it with a loud voice--she paints it in strong co

lours. The monitor must and will be heard. Vegetation starts from the ground-a green resurrection surprises the eye-the leaf fades and falls-the forest is stripped--the shower is frozen--and the waters are fettered to spar to his duties irresolute and procrastinating man! This repeated proclamation of nature to mankind, which revolving seasons successively utter, that their years are rolling swiftly, once in every year it is their custom to echo. Once in every year they tell one another what nature tells them more than once-that those longest periods of their time are passing rapidly from them! another of those years of which only a few make up the life of man, is become a part of the irrevocable past! A year is a season of magnitude in the little life of man. It is an ample stride to the tomb. A few more steps will bring us all thither !"-Fawcett.

RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.

"TWICE had the sun gone down on the earth, and all as yet was quiet at the sepulchre: death held his sceptre over the Son of God: still and silent the hours passed on the guards stood by their post: the rays of the midnight moon gleamed on their helmets and on their spears: the enemies of Christ exulted in their success; the hearts of his friends were sunk in despon. dency and in sorrow; the spirits of glory waited in anxious suspence to behold the event, and wonder at the depth of the ways of God! At length the morning star arising in the east, announced the approach of light; the third day began to dawn upon the world, when on a sudden the earth trembled to its centre, and she powers of heaven were shaken, an angel of

God descended-the guards shrunk back from the terror of his presence, and fell prostrate on the ground; his countenance was like lightning, and his raiment was white as snow; he rolled away the stone from the door of the sepulchre, and sat upon it. But who is this that cometh forth from the tomb-with dyed garments from the bed of death? He that is glorious in his appearance, walking in the greatness of his strength. It is thy prince, O Zion! Christian, it is your Lord! he hath trodden the wine-press alone, he hath stained his raiment with blood; but now, as the first born from the womb of nature, he meets the morning of his resurrection. He arises a conqueror from the grave--he returns with blessings from the world of spirits; he brings salvation to the sons of men. Never did the returning sun usher in a day so glorious-it was the jubilee of the universe! The morning stars sung together, and all the sons of God shouted aloud for joy! The father of mercies looked down from his throne in the heavens; with complacency he beheld his world, restored; he saw his work that it was good. Then did the desert rejoice, the face of nature was gladdened before him, when the blessings of the eternal descended as the dew of heaven, for the refreshing of the nations !" Dr. Handy.

THE CONSUMMATION OF ALL THINGS! "NATIONS may undergo correction or suffer extinction, but the grand purposes of infinite benevolence are not for a moment impeded. In the midst of conflicts, tumults, and revolutions. of empires, they move on with perpetually ac celerated speed towards their completion. How

« PreviousContinue »