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four hundred years after it was uttered, and the pledge which their fathers had given was faithfully redeemed. Those, especially, who are appointed to offices of trust, should honestly and promptly discharge the duties imposed on them, and rather suffer personal inconvenience and loss, than that principle should be impeached. To take undue advantage of the confidence which has been reposed by the dead; to infringe, whether by misappropriation, or by fraud on another's right, will be found a high misdemeanor in the court of heaven-a crime of darkest hue! And if the departed have left the record of Christian excellence, it should be the constant aim of survivors to imitate their virtues. We cannot better show our sense of their worth, or respect for their memory, than by copying into our own life the traits of a holy, spiritual character, so conspicuous in theirs. "Whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." Their dying counsels, and parting prayers for our decided piety and growing usefulness, should sink deep into our hearts. They ought to be our monitor through all the devious paths of life; and, when in danger of being diverted from the line of duty, the recollection of what we have seen and heard, in the still chamber of death, should decide our conduct, and stimulate our perseverance.

We conclude this chapter in the powerful language

of a popular living writer, addressed to a young lady on the death of her relative.

"I consider the scene of death as being, to the interested parties who witness it, a kind of sacrament, inconceivably solemn, at which they are summoned, by the voice of heaven, to pledge themselves in vows of irreversible decision. Here, then, as at the high altar of eternity, you have been called to pronounce, if I may so express it, the inviolable oath, to keep for ever in view the momentous value of life, and to aim at its worthiest use, its sublime end-to spurn, with lasting disdain, those foolish trifles, those frivolous vanities, which so generally wither in our sight, and consume life as the locusts did Egypt and to devote yourself, `with the ardour of passion, to attain the most divine improvement of the human soul; and, in short, to hold yourself in preparation to make that interesting transition to another life, whenever you shall be claimed by the Lord of the world."

CHAPTER III.

THE MOURNER'S EXERCISES.

Should there remain of rescuing grace
No glimpse, no shadow left to trace,
Hear thy Lord's voice, ""T is Jesus' will;"
BELIEVE, thou dark, lost pilgrim, still.
Then, thy sad night of terrors past,
Though the dread season long may last,

Sweet peace shall from the smiling skies,
Like a new dawn, before thee rise;
Then shall thy faith's firm grounds appear,
Its eyes shall view salvation clear.

LUTHER.

A SEASON of affliction, especially if it be severe and

long continued, is often one of deep mental anguish, and bitter temptation. There is an intimate connexion between the mind and the body; a reciprocal influence is felt; the disease of the one enfeebles the energy, and destroys the enjoyment, of the other. Let the understanding be beclouded, and the passions strongly excited, and how soon does the most vigorous frame lose its high tone of health, waste, and decay! On the other hand, let "the earthly house of our tabernacle" be shaken by the progress of disease, or the infirmities of age, and the highest

intellectual powers will be shorn of their strength, or reduced to the imbecility of childhood. It has been said that the nervous system is the medium of communication between mind and matter; that where no sensation exists, the nerves are destroyed; and that without sensation we have no idea of external objects. We profess not to determine the precise part of man which forms the mysterious link: it is sufficient to admit that a mutual sympathy exists between his intellectual and corporeal powers.

Strong mental dejection is not unfrequently induced by great outward trials. They strike the mind through the medium of the senses, distract thought, darken the understanding, and disquiet the affections. Every thing appears to the sufferer in a new and gloomy point of view; painful remembrances are excited, and fearful forebodings indulged; faith loses its hold of those truths which are most calculated to yield consolation and support; and the cheering influence of hope gives place to brooding melancholy and self-reproach. Sometimes his misgivings and fears are groundless and imaginary; they are rather the result of mental depression, produced by a derangement of the nervous system, than of conviction, arising from an enlightened judgment and a tender conscience. At other times they are real and spiritual; the offspring of a soul awakened by the Divine Spirit to a full sense of its own guilt, and seeing in the affliction with which it is visited, the just punishment, or salutary correction, of sin.

As social beings, holding the most important relations, and possessed of strong affections, no trial presses with greater weight on the animal spirits, or induces feelings more distressing in the religious experience of the Christian, than the loss of an object habitually delighted in, and tenderly beloved. Every other loss, the loss of substance, the good opinion and countenance of friends, the advantages of health, and the comforts of life,- seems easy to be borne, so long as we enjoy the smiles of the companion of our youth, and our children, like olive branches, flourish around our table. A man's wife is himself divided; a man's children are himself multiplied: and when death destroys the link of union, and removes the pleasant vine which grew luxuriantly by our side, or the slender scion which sprang up from our roots, it inflicts the pang of parting with another self-a pang which time, and the consolations of religion, alone can assuage. Those who have felt the keenness of the stroke, have comforted themselves with the thought that the dear departed was spared the agony of separation, and have exclaimed, "It is the survivor who dies!" As it is the greatest of all earthly trials, so it is accompanied with the most painful mental exercises; often throwing a cloud over the sources of our spiritual comfort, and harassing the soul with bitter and withering temptations.

The stroke of death awakens in the bosom of the mourner a sense of past sin, calls up the remembrance of past failings, and revives former convictions.

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