heart "there is no God," are firm believers in death. Oppressors and profligates, "who fear not God nor regard man," both fear and tremble before the "king of terrors.' That deadliest foe to piety-the love of the world, and the love of pleasure-relaxes its iron grasp in the presence, and often at thoughts of death. Men are, and were designed to be, "all their lifetime in bondage" to the fear of death, until they find deliverance by submission to Him who obtained for us the victory.

This one omnipresent, mighty idea, which no sophistry can obscure, and no audacity disarm, is all abroad among the habitations of men, denouncing the world as a vain illusion, and pleading for the rights and interests of eternity. Of all preachers of righteousness, of all precursors of the Gospel, the fear of death is the most effectual. I doubt not it has its agency in every conversion of a soul, and it may be doubted if, in the absence of these sermons from the grave, "these terrors of the Lord," other agencies of sufficient potency would remain to awaken impenitent sinners, and lead them to feel their urgent need of a Savior. Now it is obvious that whatever power over the human heart belongs to this great argument, it is derived not less from the uncertainty of the time of our dissolution, than from the certainty of its ultimate coming. This is precisely the argument used by our Savior: Ye know not the day nor the hour when the Son of Man cometh. Watch, therefore, that when he comes ye may be found ready." Let us suppose that instead of the present irregular, sudden, apparently fortuitous visitations of death, some limits were settled from which the destroyer should be excluded; that neither children nor youth, nor the middle-aged, should die, but only the sated guest who had sat undisturbed at the feast of life his threescore years and We can not for a moment doubt the terrible effects of such a change. Sinners, who, under the present dispensation, with the fearful presages of death forever haunting their

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guilty souls, are with such infinite difficulty, and such fearful infrequency, persuaded to repent, would infallibly postpone religion till the pressing hour of imminent need should come; that is, to a time when wicked habits have become strong, the conscience seared, the susceptibilities blunted, and all changes, but from bad to worse, nearly impossible. Who does not perceive, in this view of the subject, that it is an infinite mercy to us that God arms the destroyer with so many and so great terrors? He will not leave us to sleep on quite There is a voice

to the brink of hell.

ye

that cries, prepare the way of the Lord," coming up from every age, and every circle, and every habitation. Are the friends so unceremoniously and so unseasonably snatched away, young, lovely, pious, full of talent and of promise? Let us not misinterpret the omen. We needed, it seems, a stern rebuke; we required a loud call. The victims were indeed costly, but the warning is so much the more impressive. Alas! there are half earnest Christians, who need just such a call to put on their armor and gird them for the battle. There are ever backsliders, who will perhaps give heed to lessons spoken from the place of judgment, though they refuse all gentler rebukes. There are impenitent sinners who will perhaps listen reverently to this most audible appeal from the grave, though they have so long refused to hear Moses and the prophets.

In order to comprehend this argument in all its grasp and force, we have need to observe, that precisely those instances of mortality which most shock our sensibilities as violent and untimely, are most adapted to produce these great moral results, contemplated, as we must presume, by the Almighty disposer of life and of death. The dissolution of the aged comes to be regarded as a thing of necessity, a matter of course, which hardly awakens more surprise or emotion than the observed fulfillment of nature's other laws. It seems needful, therefore, to a realization of the moral purposes in

trusted to the close of human life, that tribute to the grave should be exacted from every age and condition; from the ranks of business and ambition, to break, if possible, the omnipotent spell by which the world enthralls its bondmen; from the circles of youth and gayety, to second and enforce the lessons which Religion is now, in her chosen time, struggling to impress upon susceptible though wayward hearts; from guileless infancy, we may believe, to rescue these "children of the kingdom" from evil to come; we are quite sure with purposes of divine mercy toward parents, brothers, sisters, friends, whose unsatisfactory religious state imperatively demands such an appeal. With regard to those who are thus early removed, even before their probation has commenced, we can not doubt that they find the most glorious compensations for all they have been called from here. Heaven will no doubt afford the noblest field for growth, and for the cultivation of the virtues and graces wanted for their high career; nor is it given to us, in our lowly sphere, even to conjecture the heights of moral and intellectual excellence to be attained by those who are transferred to celestial regions in the first dawn of their being, and form their character in the presence of angels and of the spirits of just men made perfect, and in communing with Him on whom to look without a vail is to be "transformed into his image."

We must pass the other ground of dissatisfaction with life with only a brief notice. The patriarch's days were "evil," as well as few." Keeping in view the Christian theory, that life is a probation, we satisfy this objection to the divine administration in a single utterance. "Evil" as it is, the pleasures and seductions of life constitute the chief hinderances to piety. If this world were more attractive, men would love it the more. Success intoxicates, riches and power corThou hast goods laid up for many years, language of a man prosperous and at ease in his possessions. Life is "evil," and yet the vast majority

rupt, the soul.

eat, drink," is the

of those who make this complaint choose it, with all its drawbacks, in preference to Christ and heaven. Endowed with additional fascinations, who would resist its seductive influence?

Could we see as God sees, we should perceive the good and "evil" of life wisely proportioned and adjusted for the promotion of life's great end-the cultivation of piety. Enough of enjoyment there is to awaken gratitude in well-disposed minds, and to demonstrate the divine benevolence. Enough of trials and sufferings there are for the purposes of moral discipline; of satisfactions, to gild the house of our pilgrimage, and to cultivate in pure minds a taste for the unalloyed fruitions of heaven. We should esteem life's intermingled sorrows and joys as wisely planned to multiply conjunctures for the production and the cultivation of Christian virtues. So "death and all our woe" were admitted into the world along with the earliest promise of a Savior. The consequences and the penalty of transgression, they were wisely and mercifully subjected to such laws as favor the sinner's restoration. This is the plain teaching of the Holy Scriptures, and no other theory leaves any solid ground either for faith or hope. All others must precipitate us upon sheer atheism.

In this view, every instance of Christian piety may be received as a demonstration of the Divine wisdom and goodness that preside over the adjustments and providential allotments of our probationary state. The conversion and sanctification of a fallen, depraved intelligence is a work so high and difficult, and so contrary to nature, that every example of its successful achievement illustrates the excellency of the method; and the "days of the years" of that life which secures the only worthy end of life can not be pronounced "evil," however numerically insignificant, or however darkened by untoward events.

"Long life," "length of days," "fullness of years," "good old age," are among the rewards of virtuous life; and when

consecrated to God's service, they often become distinguished blessings to the favored individual and to society; while the sinner, being a hundred years old, shall be accursed.

Let us now seek the fit improvement of this subject, and illustration and support for the principles and arguments set forth in this discourse, in the special, solemn occasion which has called together this great multitude to pay their tribute of respect and affection to the venerable friend whom it has pleased God to remove from our society, and exalt into his own more immediate, glorious presence. After a life of more than ninety-six years, devoted in an eminent degree to the glory of the Savior, and to the temporal and spiritual welfare of her fellow-creatures, she has now entered upon her great reward, leaving to us, her friends, her brethren, her kinsmen, for our edification and comfort, an example of Christian piety as pure, beautiful, and attractive, I think, as the Church militant in these latter days is wont to exhibit. In the contemplation of such a career, all beautified with holiness, and shining more and more unto the perfect day," it does not occur to us to think of either the brevity or the trials of life as evils;" we rather adore the infinite wisdom and grace which has overruled its vicissitudes and events to the production of such a character. Christian piety, early, deep, symmetrical, and graceful, effective in life, and triumphant in the hour of death, clearly demonstrates how wisely God. has established the conditions and appointed the means under which it has found its developments. Such a marked example of holy living and peaceful dying precludes all doubt in regard to the wisdom and goodness concerned in the divine administration; it might rather suggest the question why such a Christian was detained here so long-why kept in a state of discipline, and subjected to the conditions of our frail mortality, a full half century after she had manifestly attained meetness for heaven. Let this suggestive inquiry be our guide in some concluding remarks.

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