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CHAP. XVI.

THE PATH TO CONSOLATION.

'Omniscient Master, omnipresent King,
To Thee-to Thee my last distress I bring.
Thou that canst still the raging of the seas,
Chain up the winds, and bid the tempests cease,
Redeem my shipwreck'd soul from raging gusts
Of cruel passion and deceitful lusts.

From storms of rage and dangerous rocks of pride
Let thy strong hand this little vessel guide
(It was thy hand that made it!) through the tide
Impetuous of this life; let thy command
Direct my course, and bring me safe to land.'
PRIOR'S SOLOMON.

Inquiry if any Suicide can be saved-Melancholy and Despondence from worldly or religious Causes dispersed by the Light of Heaven-Illustrated by a German Fragment on the first Spring discovered by Adam and Eve after the Fall-Exemplified in Cowper's Melancholy, and the Means of his Recovery-Balm for every Wound-Summary of Arguments against Suicide.

PERHAPS it may be asked, Can we entertain no hope of the final salvation of one who destroys his own life?' This is a question which it ill becomes

a blind and erring mortal to decide with confidence. It is possible that a true child of God may be so far under the power of mental derangement as to rush unbidden into the presence of his heavenly Father. I believe that instances of this kind have sometimes occurred; and, if so, concerning the salvation of such persons no doubt can be entertained. But it may be questioned, on very solid ground, whether a real Christian, in the exercise of his reason, ever became his own executioner. Let those who incline to adopt a more favorable opinion ponder well that solemn declaration of the Spirit of God, 'No murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.' How small, then, is the proportion of self-murderers for whom we can cherish the least hope beyond the grave! When men leave the world in au act of daring and deliberate rebellion against God, distrusting his providence, agitated by the worst of passions, and trampling upon all the obligations which bind them to their Creator and their fellowmen, how can Charity herself avoid considering them as strangers to the covenant of promise,' and weeping over them as 'children of perdition?'

This conclusion will be confirmed if we look into the sacred history, and examine the characters of Saul, Ahithophel, and Judas, the only instances of suicide which the pen of inspiration has recorded.

Do we discover in the last moments of these wretched self-destroyers any thing to warrant a hope concerning their state after death? Alas! no. We find them throughout manifesting that spirit of pride and enmity to God, and that hateful compound of inalice and despair, which characterize the fiend, and which torture the bosons of the accursed in their dark abodes.

With what solemn language, then, does the consideration of his future destiny address every one who contemplates this mode of terminating his earthly sorrows! Pause,O man! and recollect, before the irrevocable step be taken-recollect that thou art to exist beyond the grave! Art thou, then, prepared to die? Art thou sure-miserable as thy present state may be-art thou sure that death will not land thee in still greater misery, in that prison of eternal despair, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched,' and where the heaviest calamities of this life will sink into nothing when compared with that torment, the smoke of which ascendeth for ever and ever?'

Such are the guilt, the folly, and the doom of the self-murderer. May God, of his infinite mercy, preserve us all from an infatuation so deplorable, from a crime of such complicated malignity! Let

me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.'-Amen.

The sweet rural poet of Britain possessed at times a melancholy which arrayed in gloom the brightest objects of nature.

It is possible to be brought by afflictions, sorrows, and distresses, into a situation in which Melancholy sheds her mildews upon every object. far worse, however, are the gloom and distress occasioned by a sense of guilt. Then clouds of blackness seem to darken the horizon, and thunders of wrath to roll over our heads; whilst the forked lightnings disclose to us only a wintry scenetrees stripped of their foliage-the ground barren, desolate, and bound with impenetrable frost: not a bud seems to peep forth from the desert plains and naked groves; but all seems sterility, destitution, want, and wretchedness. But when humility has bended the proud knees, compunction softened the obdurate heart, penitence rendered sin hateful, and prayer encouraged us to lift up our desponding eyes to Heaven, then the face of Nature begius to relent into a smile, the barren trees bud with nascent foliage, verdure again gladdens the plains, and flowers adorn the margin of the purling stream : the heart awakens from its despondence, takes cou

rage to look up to the God of Heaven, hopes that there is mercy yet in store, and that a brighter day is dawning, when we shall receive the oil of joy for mourning, and the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness. And the man who erst was ready to plunge himself into the stagnant pool now goes smoothly forward, like the streamlet gliding at his feet; and carols with the birds, instead of suspending himself to the tree on which they perch; and resolves to live, to be of use among the creation of God, to sip the comforts of existence, or to bear with fortitude its trials, confiding in the goodness of a gracious God, who loves while he chastens, and refines us for a better world while he tries us in the crucible of worldly troubles. As examples bring home so powerfully to the heart the speculations and precepts of the mind, I shall add the following beautiful illustration of the above sentiments:

ADAM AND EVE.

'Autumn was coming on, when Adam and Eve descended, weeping, from the heights of Paradise. They were quitting its gay blooming flowers, and verdant prairies, ever smiling in the robes of Spring, for a dreary and desolate clime; and its woodlands and brakes, where innocence loved to