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that you and I shall see, on a day not very distant, blooming in all the glories of immortal youth.

There abide thee, brother Saul, till that glad hour arrive when thou shalt come down from heaven to receive thy body, re-moulded by him whose grace has saved thy soul. Would God that I were with thee, and that all these were with thee, though we reached the same distinction by chains and floods and fires! Would God that all of us may come down with thee from heaven, and that the same loved hand may clothe us as we know he will clothe thee! Fools may deride this wish as a grovelling ambition, and cowards may shrink from the reproaches of the cross; but none will deem it folly in the day of God Almighty to have loved and prepared for the appearing of Jesus Christ.

Friends! you hope for more than to accompany our a postle when he comes to be fitted for the reception of his crown. You have the words of my text for it that crowns are provided for every sinful soul, that hears, like Saul did, the words of eternal life, and makes every thing subservient to the hope of salvation. Yet doubtless not in every case, such crowns as he shall wear. For while pardon and life are offered freely to every creature, and while the recompense of righteousnes is freely bestowed on all, only through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ; yet doubtless that variety which lends a charm to all creation, and that endless gradation in dignity and happiness which characterizes creation through all its ranges of life and intelligence, even up to the "princedoms and dominions" of the skies, will subsist among the multitudes re: deemed by Jesus Christ, as well as among the angels who kept their first estate. So this same apostle testifies in his first epistle to the Corinthians, when he compares the væ

ried glories of the righteous when raised up, to the variety which has place in the splendor of the stars. Be it then that all their honours are awarded solely through the merits of the Saviour; yet if there must be diversity in the awards pronounced, what standard so equitable for fixing the measure of distribution as that to which the scriptures every where refer us-the measure of our faith and ser vices, while here!

Who then would aspire to the apostle's joy in death; and to a crown like his in the day of Jesus Christ? Like him let them avow and adhere to the faith of Christ: like him let them fill the stations which providence has actually assigned them, in the way that will best promote the cause of Jesus Christ: like him let them adopt as the ba sis of their whole conduct the great scriptural principle that "no man liveth, and no man dieth to himself; but whether living or dying, we are the Lord's:" and finally, let them cherish the grand considerations, that, while “all are not apostles, all are not prophets, all are not evangelists," all are equally bound to own the common faith and to obey the common law; and that of every one it will be required "according to that which he hath." Above all things be it remembered, that if Paul accounted all things but loss for Jesus Christ, and exemplified in his own person the Redeemer's parable of the merchant who gave up all to obtain the pearl of price; it is madness in us to hope the humblest crown in heaven, if we attempt to neach it by any other way: for straight and narrow still, as when the Saviour said it, is the way to life eternal, and few, it is to be feared, have the courage to enter in.

And now, my fellow mortals, you must make your own election. Prepared or unprepared, you must ere long

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buffet that dark oblivious flood that rolls between mortality and the world of spirits. How stands your preparation for that trying hour? Do you calculate on finishing your course with joy; or shall the sun of your last day sink down and leave you to eternal night? Will a crown or a prison be awarded as your meed, when your spirit abides the scrutiny of that omniscient judge, who "is no respecter of persons?" You have glanced over the terms on which alone you need expect to reach the crown of righteousThe difficulties, the sacrifices, the sorrows inseperable from a christian course are before you. Our apostle exemplified them in their most forbidding forms. Was a death like his a compensation for such a life? Or rather, was the joyous expectation of a crown of righteousness, a sufficient compensation for a death like his?-I have your answer! 'An hope like Paul's might well sustain us under any trials.' 'A death like his, and such bliss as he inherits, were cheaply purchased with whole ages of endurance.' *Yes, we would be christians, if we could be like Saul of Tarsus.'

Then be like Saul of Tarsus! The Saviour whom he trusted, is the Saviour of our race; and the salvation he inherits, is the salvation which he preached. Multitudes, since the day when he bowed his head in death, have pondered his instructions, imitated his example, and at length yielded up their spirits as triumphantly as he did. "Go thou, and do likewise!"

To-day it is our blessedness to add another name to that great cloud of witnesses, whose ever-augmenting numbers multiply and vary and endear the proofs that the arm of the Redeemer is not yet shortened so that it cannot save, nor his mercies clean gone that he will no more be gracious.

Could thy voice now be heard, Margaretta Fletcher! a mid the radiant throng that begirts the throne of God, though thou wert no apostle, but only an humble imitator of the apostle's faith and obedience, yet would every heart in this assemby feel it that other triumphs than those which gilded the last hours of Paul, may turn the scale in favor of salvation, and another and far weaker than that valorous hand beckon them on in the pursuit of the salvation they have chosen.

And even as it is, though no mortal ear can catch those words "unspeakable," which, if heard, it were unlawful for any man to utter; though no human sight can pierce yon empyrean, and scan thy cherub form joyously gliding over heaven's eternal plain; yet our eyes have seen thee, as we read of Saul of Tarsus, decided in thy choice and firm in thy profession; and our ears have heard thee, as we read of Saul of Tarsus, joying in thy last hours in the hope of immortality. Let thy life, let thy death, let thy triumph, my best friend, teach other friends how precious such an hope!

Margaretta Galbreath Nicholas was so well known to most of those whom I address, that any attempt at her biography must be considered perfectly out of place, even had we time for the fullest exposition of her short but interesting story. The lot of her infancy was cast in your own neighbourhood; and in your own town she spent the greatest portion of her days. Of her earlier days we have, therefore, nothing more to say, than that they were spent in a way which secured for her a degree of consideration and respect much greater, we believe, than ordinarily falls to the share of persons at her years. Many anecdotes which go to illustrate the firmness of her character;

the strength of her principles, her prudence, tenderness, and general intelligence, are treasured up in the memory of her friends. And to this little stock of precious recollections, it is happily in the power of your preacher to make additions. But be these the topics of those little circles with which the stranger does not intermeddle. It is her more public, it is her christian character, or rather, it is that same intelligence and excellence, as unfolded under the shadow of the Saviour's cross, that we are bound to-day to exhibit for your improvement.

The earlier years of Margaretta Nicholas were, nevertheless, not marked by that best of all distinctions, the con secration of the roses of yer youth to God. The period of her youth was peculiarly unfriendly to the interests of knowledge and piety in this town; and we are not aware that much pains were employed to store her mind with the truths of revelation. Indeed we have it from very good authority that the skepticism which at one time deluged Lexington, had fixed its taint in the bosom of our friend. But a mind like her's, inquisitive, self-poized, and remarkably decisive, was not likely to hold opinions which must al ways owe their prevalence either to a want of knowledge, or a want of virtue. Still, however, she remained a stranger to "the hope of Israel," though in words confessing him; till it pleased God to visit her with severe calamity. The loss of the partner on whom she had reposed her hopes for life, was made the happy mean of driving her to him with whom alone the heavy laden can find rest. Far from home when calamity overtook her, far from almost every friend to whom her heart could turn for consolation, far from almost every thing that merits the appellation of christian institutions, in the city of Orleans, she raised her cry to heaven; and "the shield of the stranger," and "the stay of

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