Burial Service. we continue to live, than that we should forget one moment that we are to die! Nothing can be more beautiful, nervous, and expressive, than the following fine prayer used in our Burial Service: "Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery! He cometh up, and is cut down like a flower; he fleeth as it were a shadow; and never continueth in one stay. "In the midst of life we are in death: of whom may we seek for succour, but of thee, O Lord, who for our sins art justly displeased? "Yet, O Lord God, most holy, O Lord most mighty, O holy and merciful Saviour, deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death! "Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts; shut not thy merciful ears to our prayers: but spare us, Lord most holy, O God most mighty, O holy and merciful Saviour, thou most worthy Judge eternal, suffer us not, at our last hour, for any pains of death to fall from thee." Were we influenced at once by the doctrine and the piety of this incomparable prayer, there is no doubt but we should make a better estimate of Life and of Death than is usually done; should Man's Insignificancy. set a less value on the one, and meet the other with more courage and constancy. For what is man, and what is his life?-Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, -short indeed, suppose it to extend to the utmost length of human existence, even to fourscore years. But, alas! too commonly, extent of life is but extent of sorrow; the time, though short, is yet full of misery. The natural and acquired evils, the evils unavoidable, and the evils brought on ourselves by our own folly, vice, and imprudence, are many, are great. Our best happiness is short, precarious, and uncertain : he cometh up, and is cut down like a flower, to-day we flourish in all the external accommodations of life, to-morrow the taste can no more relish its delicacies, nor the ear be delighted with the melody of the viol; no more the tongue can chant with pleasing harmony; the eyes open no more on sublunary scenes, the useless lids for ever closed by the trembling hand of our weeping friends. As the shadow that departeth, that fleeth away, and its place is known no more, so we vanish from the earth, and our memory is soon buried in total oblivion. To us little regard Man's Insignificancy. is paid any longer: still our associates, with their usual gaiety and ardour, pursue their several designs; still, as before, the business of life goes briskly on; the sun shines as brightly; the earth blooms as gayly; the forests echo as sweetly with the music of the winged choristers, and all things wear their accustomed form; while our neglected clay is mouldering in the dust, and trodden over by many a thoughtless-perhaps many a friendly foot. Many a friendly foot!-yes, even now, while I wander in the silence of the night, amid these lonely receptacles of the dead, how many graves are around me, which contain the precious relics of neighbours and fellow-creatures, by myself consigned to their last earthly home!-wretched, wretched home, had man no hope in his death; were not the soul secure of immortality; were not the body lodged in the grave, as a faithful deposit, hereafter to be raised to life and glory, by the almighty Redeemer's irresistible trump. That reflection sooths all the sorrow, and extracts all the poison from the dart of Death!What is that I read on yonder tomb-on which the passing moon reflects her full light, as she Christian Life and happy Death. moves majestic in brightness through the skies, and makes her silver way through the dark and mantling clouds-Oh Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory? The sting of Death is sin, and the strength of sin is the Law-But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.-These were the words which last hung on the lips, and at his desire are engraven on the tomb, of OSIANDER, who died full of faith, a man whose death might well inspire the wish-Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my latter end be like his! O NEGOTIO! how unlike to thee was OSIANDER! how unlike in life, how unlike in death!though the same temporal concerns, the same worldly occupations, were common to either. Happy in parents, who well knew the influence and importance of religious principles, OSIANDER was early initiated, and perfectly instructed, in the school of Piety: abundantly did he verify the truth of the wise man's observation; for conducted, when young, into the happy path of truth, he never departed from it. His youth was amiably distinguished by the most conscientious and tender regard to his parents; Christian Life and happy Death. presage of his future felicity; and his whole demeanor was tempered with the most winning modesty, and engaging respect. Rare felicity in OSIANDER, he obtained a partner, formed with every qualification suitable to his own: it might well be said of them, so similar were their tempers, their desires, their pursuits, so much that Like objects pleas'd them, and like objects pain'd, 'Twas but one soul that in two bodies reign'd. No wonder then OSIANDER was a pattern as of filial, so of conjugal affection. Peace and serenity ever welcomed him to his house, and true satisfaction departed not from his happy dwelling. Hence he found no cause to search abroad for the felicity which multitudes cannot find at home; nor dreamed of the tavern and the club, the place of merriment and diversion, to drown the cares he never knew, to give the bliss continually enjoyed. Happy in so choice a companion, he was diligent to discharge, in the exactest degree, the paternal duty toward those dear pledges of his |