VIII. that, while their neighbours are engaged in SERMON the usual affairs of life, they shall be shut up in a dark lonesome mansion, forgotten and cut off from among men, as though they never had been! I said, in the cutting off my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave. I am I am deprived of the residue of my years. I shall not see the Lord again in the land of the living. I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world* Let us now observe, that the dejection in which we are apt to sink at such a juncture, will bear proportion to the degree of our attachment to the objects which we leave, and to the importance of these resources which remain with us when they are gone. He who is taking farewel of a country through which he had travelled with satisfaction, and he who is driven from his native land, with which he had connected every idea of settlement and comfort, will have very different feelings at the time of departure. Such is the difference which, at the hour of death, takes place between the righteous and the ungodly. The latter knows nothing higher or better than Ifaiah, xxxviii. 10, 11. ·P 2 the SERMON the present state of existence. His interests, his pleasures, his expectations, all centered here. He lived solely for the enjoyments of this world. Dreadful, therefore, and insupportable must be that event which separates him from these for ever. Whereas the culture of religion had previously formed the mind of a Christian for a calm and easy transition from this life. It had instructed him in the proper estimate of sublunary happiness. It had set higher prospects before him. It had formed him to a more refined taste of enjoyment, than what the common round of worldly amusements could gratify. It gave him connections and alliances with spiritual objects, which are unknown to the men of the world. Hence, though he be attached to life by the natural feelings of humanity, he is raised above the weak and unmanly regret of parting with it. He knew that it was intended as preparatory only to a succeeding state. As soon as the season of preparation should be finished, he expected a removal; and when Providence gives the signal, he bids adieu to the world with composed resolution and undisturbed heart. What though death The VIII. death interrupt him in the middle of his SERMON designs, and break off the plans which he had formed, of being useful to his family and the world? All these he leaves with tranquillity in the hands of that Providence to which he has ever been accustomed to look up with resignation; which governed the world wisely and graciously before he existed; and which he knows will continue to govern it with equal wisdom and benignity when he shall be in it no more. time of his departure was not left to his own choice; but he believes it to be the most proper, because it is the time chosen by Him who cannot err. Honourable age is not that which standeth in length of time, nor that which is measured by number of years. But wisdom is the grey hair to man'; and an unspotted life is old age *, When he beholds his friends and relations mourning around him, his heart may melt, but will not be overpowered; for it is relieved by the thought that he is bidding them only a temporary, not an eternal farewel. He commends them, in the mean time, to the blessing of trat God whom he Wisdom of Solomon, iv. 8, 9. VIII. SERMON has served; and while he is parting from them, he hears a voice which sooths his spirit with those comforting words, Leave thy fatherless children; I will preserve them alive; and let thy widow trust in me*, BUT death is more than the conclusion of human life. It is the gate, which at the same time that it closes on this world, opens into eternity. Under this view, it has often been the subject of terrour to the serious and reflecting. The transition they were about to make was awful. Before them lay a vast undiscovered region, from whose bourn no traveller ever returned to bring information of the reception which he found, or of the objects which he met with there. The first conception which suggests itself is, that the disembodied spirit is to appear before its Creator, who is then to act as its Judge. The strict inquisition which it must undergo, the impartial doom which it must hear pronounced, and the unalterable state to which it shall be assigned, are awful forms rising before the imagination. They are ideas which conscience forces upon all. * Jerem. xlix. II. Mankind Mankind can neither avoid considering SERMON themselves as accountable creatures, nor VIII. avoid viewing death as the their account is to be given. season when Such a sentiment is with most men the source of dread ; with all men, of anxiety. To a certain degree, a good conscience will convey comfort. The reflection on a well-spent life makes a wide difference between the last moments of the righteous and the sinner. But whose conscience is so clear as to strike him with no remorse? Whose righteousness is so unblemished as to abide the scrutiny of the great searcher of hearts? Who dares rest his everlasting fate upon his perfect conformity to the rule of duty throughout the whole of his life? We must not judge of the sentiments of men at the approach of death, by their or dinary train of thought in the days of health and ease. Their views of moral conduct are then, too generally, superficial; slight excuses satisfy their minds, and the avocations of life prevent their attention from dwelling long on disagreeable subjects. But when altogether withdrawn from the affairs of the world, they are left to their own reflections |