In this solemn hour, when those around his bed-side were expecting each breath to be his last; one of his children, in the anguish of her soul, enquired, "Oh dear father, tell me if you have any hope?" To which he distinctly replied, "No! I have no hope!" These were the last words he uttered. As his spirit passed away, he gave two fearfully distinct gnashes of his teeth; loud enough to be heard throughout the house.As I stood at his bed-side, both before and after his death, I thought, could the worldling witness, see and hear, what I, in this case, had witnessed, seen and heard, he would no longer make his soul the costly forfeiture for those things which "wax old as doth a garment."—I thought, could the careless-the halting and the procrastinating, who are swiftly passing toward eternity, but witness, see and hear all that this case presented as a warning; they would, without delay, respectively "do with their might, whatsoever their hand found to do." Reader, art thou a procrastinator ?—a neglecter of thy soul's salvation? If so, be entreated unto an immediate consideration of your ways, no longer tamper with the life of thy soul; but seek directly unto the Lord, while He may be found-ere the days come, in the which thou shalt say, "I have no pleasure," -seek unto Him with all thy heart; nor rest till thou knowest that He is thy REDEEMER. Then-press untiringly forward in the pathway of obedience unto holiness. And when thou approachest the dark valley and the shadow of death, thou shalt neither be left hopeless nor alone;-for the Lord that saith, "The wicked shall be driven away in his wickedness," hath also said, "That the righteous hath hope in his death." May the Lord in mercy grant unto us that hope, as the anchor of our souls, both sure and steadfast. DIVINITY. CONSOLATION TO BEREAVED PARENTS, ON THE DEATH OF THEIR PIOUS OFFSPRING. [From the Evangelical Magazine.] I HAVE lived long in the world, and experienced many of its vicissitudes. I am a parent, but never, till I became a bereaved one, could I understand all the beauty or feel all the desolation of heart conveyed in the well-known eloquent passage of Mr. Burke, when alluding to the loss of an only son, and the cheerless gloom which in consequence darkened the evening of his life, he exclaims, "The storm has gone over me, and I lie like one of those old oaks which the late hurricane has scattered about me. I am stripped of all my honours; I am torn up by the roots, and lie prostrate on the earth. There, and prostrate there, I must unfeignedly recognise the divine justice, and, in some degree, submit to it." These are the natural feelings of a father, and they came home to my heart, but did not relieve it of its burthen. I wanted consolation under a sense of the divine mercy, in order to enable me to bow with submission to the inexorable stroke of the divine justice; I therefore turned to the Book of God, and my eye soon rested on the page which records the affecting story of the widow of Nain, and I was powerfully struck with the words,-" When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not." At first I envied the widow, whose only son the compassionate power of Jesus so miraculously restored to her arms. But my mind gradually awakened to thought. Meditation and led to a train of soothing reflection; and, if the reader pleases, I will furnish him with the result. prayer Fully appreciating the compassion of our Lord in this instance, and thankful for a miracle of kindness which showed to his enemies and to his followers that he was the Resurrection and the Life, and thus afforded an irrefragable evidence of the divinity of his mission, I felt persuaded that every Christian parent, called upon to follow a Christian child to the grave from which he shall not arise till the last day, is placed in far more favourable circumstances than the widow of Nain, even at the happy moment when she received her only son from the dead; and that whatever compassion was displayed towards her, a greater degree has been exercised towards him; and I at length arrived at the conclusion, that a premature resurrection, in all such instances, is not only to be deprecated, on account of the serious evils which it would involve, but that the death, from which it would only prove a transitory deliverance, however it may approach in the form of a calamity, contains a positive and rich infusion of the divine mercy, which we should not only meet with submission, but receive with gratitude. Of the particular instance before us, ignorant as we are of all the circumstances of the case, we cannot form a satisfactory judgment. We are quite sure that kindness to the parent involved no injustice to the child. If the young man thus miraculously summoned back from the invisible world had entered that world as a state of punishment; and if, by this exercise of the divine power, he became at once the subject of a natural and a spiritual resurrection, his exposure by the one to the evils of life, and his consequent obligation of enduring a second time the agonies of death, would be infinitely compensated by that immortality of sinless blessedness, of which the other was the pledge and the assurance. But if, on the other hand, the world from which he was recalled was a state of happiness, then unquestionably what was most gratifying to the heart of his mother, must have been the greatest possible sacrifice to himself: and as it is to the pious only, to those who die in the Lord," that the present argument is applicable, the assumption on which it rests may be fairly admitted. According to the enlightened views of the Christian faith, an early death, where the heart is right with God, is not to be deprecated as an evil, but rather hailed as a good both by the departing individual and the surviving relatives. pre This will be evident, if we reflect upon the evils which it vents. The struggles which every Christian, while upon earth, is called to maintain with Satan, with sin, and with the world, are always painful, often hazardous, and sometimes fatal to his peace. The innumerable ills that flesh is heir to,-disease, depression; the loss of friends, of fortune, of reputation; insidious malignity, open violence; corroding care, perplexing anxiety; the bitterness of the heart, which is known to itself alone; fears of the future, and sorrowful remembrances of the past,-these are the concomitants of protracted life. When we pass the line which separates youth from maturity, we leave the regions of vanity for those of vexation of spirit. Life is a dangerous ocean to navigate, as the thousand wrecks which float on its surface, or lie scattered on its shores, sufficiently attest. What matter of thankfulness, then, and of congratulation, when favourable gales and felicitous circumstances transport the youthful voyager, without let or accident, to the haven of eternal repose! Let it also be remembered that those to whom is vouchsafed the privilege of an early departure, are removed by the express appointment of that same Jesus, whose compassion led him to restore the widow's son. For he has the keys of death and of hades; " he opens and shuts, at his pleasure, the gates of the invisible world. This is his sole prerogative; nor is there a spirit summoned from the body into eternity, that does not receive the mandate from him. Now, who shall presume to imagine that compassion does not triumph in his bosom, whenever he calls a youthful pilgrim from his earthly sojourn to dwell with him for ever in "his blest kingdom meek, of joy and love?" To his glance the future is unveiled. He sees the train of evil, the entire array of all the calamities and sorrows that threatens to surprise and crush the yet unconscious heart of that fragile and susceptible being, and he opens for it an asylum in his own pavilion; and of many a daughter of VOL. II. First Series. October, 1842. 12 heaven, whose sudden and premature removal from this scene of woes, excited the deepest anguish of surviving relatives, it is recorded in the annals of eternity, "And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.” An early death is desirable on account of what it confers. Where there is a genuine, vital, and glorious hope of immortality, can that hope be realised too soon? To live indeed is Christ. Important purposes are to be answered by the long continuance of many Christians upon earth. The interests of the church, of the world, of the divine glory,-all demand that multitudes should remain to bear the heat and burden of the day, to toil on through much tribulation, and for many years, before they can enter the kingdom, and become meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. And God has "set one thing over against another." The old disciple shall receive his appropriate reward. His future station in heaven will correspond with his present character. "Behold we count them happy that endure." Those that persevere to the end, and that overcome, shall wear diadems of victory. But there is a favoured band in glory, the infants of our race, a multitude which no man can number, "Innocent souls! thus set so early free Next to these, the virgin souls of chastity," the king's daughters all glorious within," the evening and morning stars of this world's hemisphere, who rose in their brightness only to pass into other regions, where they are to shine for ever, encircle the throne of Immanuel, or sparkle like so many lustres in his crown. What is our time, is their eternity. They began with us the sojourn of earth, but they have found their heaven, while we toil on in doubt and darkness, wearied with conjecture and oppressed with woe. Truth, which by us is dimly seen, reveals all her glories to them. We see through a glass darkly; they know even as they are known ;-with us the fear of death interposes and gives a sudden damp to our joyous anticipations; with them, the bitterness of death is past. We are praying and agonising at the footstool of that throne whose seat is in the highest heavens, and which unutterable glory conceals from our view; they, encircled by that glory, and undazzled by its splendour, pour forth their strains of adoring gratitude, in its immediate presence, "where there is fullness of joy and pleasures for evermore.” An early death is desirable, and ought to be a subject of gratulation rather than of regret, on account of what it secures ; or, in other words, on account of the alluring and attractive form with which it invests the example of departed excellence, and which can never be impaired by the temptations of the evil one or the accidents of time. Alas! how many have outlived their character, or survived long enough to disappoint the hopes which were inspired by their early promise. The bloom of youthful piety is too delicate for the tainting atmosphere and rude tempests of the world. It is often like the first rose of summer, the most beautiful of its tribe, but the most transient. Of few comparatively can it be truly affirmed, that their "path is as the shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect day." During their course something happens to obscure their splendour; they emit a fitful rather than a steady lustre; and resemble a taper glimmering in darkness, and every moment ready to expire, rather than the orb of heaven, which brightens as it advances, and enlarges its sphere with its progress. The Scriptures exhibit but few instances of a uniformly consistent excellence; and its best characters shone brightest in their youth. If David had died before he had treacherously seduced Bathsheba and slain Uriah, the church would have been spared her regrets, and the infidel his taunts; and the man after God's own heart would have been held forth through all time as his purest representative upon earth. While heaven is enriched by the accession of a youthful heir of glory to its blest society, earth is signally benefitted by the influence of the unsullied example which remains after the spirit is fled, and which ever and anon rises, like a beauteous vision, before the memory of relatives and friends, uttering, with all the solemnity of death, the brief injunction, "Follow me." Such a departure, preceded by such an example, is like one of those clouds of evening, "The pure offspring of the sun, Flung from his orb to show us here, What clouds adorn his hemisphere." It is glorious in its loveliness, and instead of melting away of fading into air, floats along the ether into higher and invisible spheres, growing more and more beautiful as it departs, and then vanishing at the moment of its highest splendour. Or it may be compared to the magic of unbroken melody, not arrested by a sudden gust of wind, nor marred by dissonance, nor falling in a dying cadence into silence, but carrying us upward, and charming the delighted sense, till imagination feels itself in heaven, entranced in the raptures of immortality. Death sets the seal of eternity upon the youthful example, before it becomes visibly sullied by the pollutions of our depraved nature, or mixed up with the evil habits of a sinful world. The advantages of an early death will be further manifested by a consideration of its probable influence upon surviving relatives and friends. You may now dismiss your fears and apprehensions. The beloved one, for whom you cherished such deep solicitude, whose happiness was dearer unto you than your own, is placed at an everlasting distance beyond the temptations, the sins, the sorrows, the calamities of this state of trial. Dis |