who goes onward to the tomb as to his everlasting abode; to the man entirely depraved by fins and iniquities, and who trembles at the idea of a judgment and a state of retribution, to him death. must appear in the most terrific form. But to the wife man, to the chriftian this is not the form he wears. To him he prefents himself as the escort to a fuperior, better life, as the conductor to greater perfection. To him he appears as the meffenger of peace, who puts an end to all the troubles and afflictions, the inconveniences and temptations of life, to all the conflicts with himself and the world, and leads him to reft, to triumph, to the reward of his fidelity, to the enjoyment of more refined fatisfactions and happiness. To him he brings the gracious fummons of his heavenly father, which calls him to him, to his nearer intercourfe, from his toilfome and dangerous pilgrimage to his abiding home. From him death ravishes nothing for which he will not be more than indemnified. Him he feparates not for ever from what really merited his esteem and affection. To him he holds out no menace of an auftere judge, of any punishment, of any mifery. To his view he unfolds the most brilliant prospects in that kingdom whofe foundations are on the everlasting hills, the kingdom of light, of love, of felicity. Him he conveys to the captain of his falvation, who once died and rofe again from the dead for him, and who is now lord of both the living and the dead, and gathers to him all thofe who have refigned them

felves to his guidance to make them partakers in his life and in his glory. As thou wouldft then have death to appear to thee in this defirable form, as thou wouldst make thyfelf ready for his arrival as for the arrival of a friend, be from the bottom of thy heart a christian, make thyfelf continually better acquainted with the doctrines of christianity, ftrengthen thy faith more and more in its promises, form thyfelf more completely upon its fpirit from day to day, adhere always more clofely to Jefus, th precurfor and guide, gain daily a nearer affimilation with him, then wilt thou have in him a powerful protector in death and in the unfeen world, thou wilt neither anxioufly dread the lofs of the prefent nor the obfcurities of the future, and triumphantly exclaim with his votaries: Death, where is thy fting? Grave, where is thy victory? Death is fwallowed up in victory. Thanks be to God, who has given us the victory through our lord Jefus Chrift!

This, my dear friends, is the proper method of fetting our house in order, of preparing and making ready for death. Thus fhould our whole life be a conftant, manly preparation for death. Have we fettled our temporal affairs; have we fulfilled the conditions, whereon God promifes us pardon, forgiveness of fins and eternal felicity; do we moderate our attachment to what is terreftrial and tranfitory; do we regularly avoid whatever might disturb us in the hour of death, and torment us with reproaches

and remorfe; do we diligently purfue always whatever may then foothe and refresh us; do we ftudy as chriftians to contemplate death from the proper point of view and to hold it for that, which it is: then let the awful mandate iffue forth from the almighty arbiter of life and death, let the voice: Set thine house in order; thou must die, refound in our ears, fooner or later, today or tomorrow, while engaged in our acts of devotion, or in the affairs of our calling, or in our pleasures, fhould thefe eyes never open upon the light of another day, it will be never formidable to us, never rush upon us unawares, never go forth to us at an inconvenient hour, always fhall we be able manfully to obey the fummons, to advance to the tomb with that grace and decorum which become our rational and immortal nature, and prefs onward through death into life eternal. Amen.