ing youth; ask him, "Can you feel any pleasure while sickness blasts all the joyous prospects which the young possess, and threatens you with an early tomb?" Let one reply, who being dead yet speaks, "O, that I could but let you know what I now feel! O that I could shew you what I see! O that I could express the thousandth part of that sweetness that I now find in Christ! you would all then think it well worth while to make it your business to be religious. O, my dear friends, ye little think what Christ is worth upon a death-bed. I would not for a world, nay, for millions of worlds, be now without Christ and a pardon. I would not for a world live any longer: the very thoughts of a possibility of recovery makes me even tremble. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Death, do thy worst! Death hath lost its terribleness. Death, it is nothing; death is nothing (through grace) to me. I can as easily die as shut my eyes, or turn my head and sleep I long to be with Christ-I long to die. O that you did but see and feel what I do! Come and behold a dying man more cheerful than ever you saw any healthful man in the midst of his sweetest enjoyments. O sirs, worldly pleasures are pitiful, poor sorry things, compared with one glimpse of this glory, which shines so strongly into my soul! O, why should any of you be so sad, when I am so glad! This, this is the hour that I have waited for."* Or now ask the pious young woman, who, while others of her age are flaunting away in vanity and folly, lies on the bed of pain and suffering; say to her, "Is religion pleasant in your esteem?" "Yes," she might reply, yes, I am very happy; I would not change situation with any one living. Do not weep for me, I have no wish to live; if I might have life by wishing for it, I should rather choose to die, and go to my Redeemer." "I long to go home." "I am truly happy, and if this be a dying, it is a pleasant thing to die." "Not for 66 all the world, not for a thousand worlds would I be restored to health." The purport of these expressions was actually uttered by two young ladies, neither of whom completed her sixteenth year. O happy they who learn so soon, so well to die! and could you follow Janeway. ↑ Eliza Cunningham, and Eliza M-——. these to the triumphant family above, and see that glory which no heart conceives, then might a heavenly voice say to you, "Hither lead the despised and neglected, but pleasant paths of early piety." My young friend, shall they lead you there? Can you be truly happy in any other way? Can you be happy too soon in this? surely you cannot too soon become acquainted with real pleasure. Seek it, then, at once; O seek it in the love of your Redeemer, and the favour of your God. A Prayer, imploring the pleasures of Early Religion. Ever blessed God, thou art thyself infinitely happy; thy presence gladdens the holy hosts of heaven; and thy word discovers the way by which, I, a child of dust, may pass from toilsome life to never-ending rest! May I, through the Lord Jesus, receive from thee that grace which will make me, in these my early years, a partaker of all the sweet comforts that religion yields. May I possess that pure delight, that holy joy, that steadfast peace, which flow from humbly believing on a crucified Saviour. May I view him as GOD MY SAVIOUR; and may my spirit rejoice in him, with joy unspeakable.and full of glory. While many of the young around me 6 grasp seeming happiness, and find it pain court pleasure, and win perdition; may I obtain solid peace, and rest, and happiness in thee. Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me, and cheer me with thy smile. Give me, O my God, a humble assurance that I am thine; and may I look backward with pleasure on dangers escaped; and praise thee, for bringing me from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to thyself. Number me with thy saints; and let me, in delightful anticipation, contemplate future scenes. By faith may I see Salem's golden towers, and heaven's eternal mansions; may I behold the bloodbought crowns, the palms of victory, and robes of light, designed for those who follow Jesus, and who are faithful unto death. Let me live, rejoicing in him as my guide, my Saviour, my all; and let me die, by the eye of faith discerning him waiting on the heavenly shore, to welcome me to himself, and to introduce me into thy ment arrives, when I must exchange time for eternity, O grant that I may find the ways of early wisdom the ways of true pleasantness, and paths of most solid peace! May my heart be attuned for devotion, my soul be transformed to relish the sacred pleasures, and to delight in the holy exercises of meditation, praise, and prayer. Thus may I have meat to eat, which the world knows not of; pleasures of which they cannot partake; and may it be my meat and drink to do my Father's will. Let me find in thy promises, consolations more valuable than a thousand worlds. In serving and loving thee, in communion with thee, and in anticipating thy kingdom, may I taste, even in this world, some humble foretaste of the joy to be possessed hereafter. Blessed Redeemer, I look to thee. To thee would I come, not merely for life, but for happiness also. May I draw water with joy, from the wells of salvation. Give me to drink from that fountain, of which thou hast said, Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life. May I partake of this water, and thirst no more; but feeling through thy grace, an ever-flowing spring of holy joy in my own soul, may I look with indifference on the boasted delights of a vain world. Whatever happens to me, let not my heart be troubled, but believing in God, and believing in thee, may I find the light afflictions, which are but for a moment, working for me a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Grant this, O thou most compassionate Saviour, to me one of the most unworthy of thy creatures, and thine shall be the praise. Amen 1.2 Cor. v. 17. T CHAPTER XII. The happy conclusion of a religious life, a motive for early piety. SECT. 1. Religion yields the truest support in the hour of death. s. 2. Holy triumph over death, exemplified in the history of the apostle Paul....s. 3. Happiness of such a departure from the world....s. 4. Various instances of the happy conclusion of a life of early piety....s. 5. The young reader is assisted to contemplate what may be his own peaceful departure, if he possess the blessings of Religion....s. 6. And what his happy entrance on the eternal world....s. 7. The reader urged to meditate on these things, and on the solemn, but, to the chris. tian, joyful solemnities of eternal judgment. SECT. 1. IT is, my young friend, the peculiar excellence of religion, that its blessings yield most support when that support is needed most. The humble chris They whose tian does not love a forgetful God. strength and prime are devoted to their Maker's glory, will experience his presence and support when weakness and languor overcome the powers of nature; when their flesh and heart fail; and when death is at hand, to remove them to the eternal world. If you remember your Creator in these your blooming days, he will remember this kindness of your youth through all the scenes of your following life; and he will remember you for good, when you come to lie down and die. Death is approaching; and when all sublunary objects can yield you no support, God would remember that, in you, he had a child conflicting with the last foe; and you might, with pleasure, think Though unseen by human eye, Though death is naturally dreadful to man, yet many of the young disciples of the Lord have passed, with calm composure, or holy joy, through its dark valley to the realms of everlasting day. Sect. 2. You are called on to imitate those who, ises. Take then a view of the concluding scene of the life of one, whe was once a persecutor, and afterwards an apostle, and who in his youth became a disciple of the Lord's. Think not that in referring you to the apostle Paul's departure, as an example of holy triumph over death, I refer you to that of too elevated a character. Like you, he was but man. Like you, was once a sinner. The same blood that washed away his sins, may blot out yours. The Saviour, who was his all, is willing to be yours. The grace he possessed, you may obtain. The strength by which he conquered, you may enjoy. The spirit, that made a temple of his heart, is willing to make one of yours. Though not called with a call miraculous as his, though not employed in labours important as those in which his life was spent, yet you may be dear to his Lord; entitled to the same supports and privileges; and an heir of the same blessings as he. Long had this blessed apostle been, like his Lord, a man of sorrows. Sufferings had embittered his life, and his years had been worn out in labours; at length the end arrived, when he might take a farewell to earth; and he did so with a calmness worthy the heir of a better world. His triumphant language was, The time of my departure is at hand; I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.1 I know in whom I have believed; and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. We may imagine this happy man looking round on the world he was about to quit, as a world which concerned him no longer. He could smile at its hatred, and pity its happiness. A brighter, a better, and an eternal scene lay before him. Yes, we may imagine him looking back on past scenes of suffering and labour; retracting, in his thoughts, many a weary step, and many a painful hour, and then rapturously exclaiming, "This is all over now; my course is finish23 Tim. i. 12. 12 Tim. iv. 13. |