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Death.

CHAPTER V.

Still frowns grim Death: Guilt points the tyrant's spear!
And whence all human guilt?-From Death forgot!

YOUNG.

WERE it possible to avoid the stroke, or to escape the victorious arm of Death; they would have something to plead for their conduct, who shun with all their power the solemn reflection; who make it the whole business of their lives to dissipate the important thought of that, for which they were created, and to which they are inevitably doomed! But as no human power can arrest, even for a moment, the fatal dart; as every individual must pass this black and lamentable flood; surely wisdom dictates a serious and frequent attention to so interesting a concern, and reason advises the most diligent great survey

Death.

of this dreadful evil; and we may learn to encounter it with courage, or at least to submit to it without reluctance. Death, viewed with a hasty and trembling eye, appears in formidable terror, as the cruel blaster of all human hopes and joys; but Death, viewed with an eye of faith, and contemplated with the coolness of rational deliberation, loses much of its terror, and is approached with no small degree of complacence and peace.

You tremble at the fear of Death; come, draw near, and let us see what that is which thus alarms your quickest apprehensions. Seen in the most fearful garb, Death is only the ransomer of frail mortals from the prison of a sinful, painful and corrupted frame; their deliverer from a transitory and vexatious world; their introducer to an eternal and-oh that we could always adda blessed state! But there, there alas, is the dread! It is this which clothes Death in his terrors, and gives all its sharpness to his sting. Could we be assured, had we a rational and wellgrounded presumption, that the departing soul should enter on a state of felicity, and be received into the bosom of its Saviour and its God: we

Death.

should then universally lay down the load of mortality, not only without regret, but with triumph.

Whence then comes it to pass-let us no longer lay the blame on Death, for it is fairly exculpated -whence comes it to pass, that we dare to live without treasuring up "this rational and wellgrounded presumption," which the Christian religion so copiously supplies, and which we are all called upon to treasure up by every motive of interest, of common sense, and of duty! If we neglect this, let us not pretend to quarrel with our fate, and to repine at the fearfulness of death: we ourselves give all his fearfulness to him, and from ourselves alone proceeds the cause of our bitterest disquietude. For God hath plainly declared to us the irreversible condition of our nature. Our death is no less certain than our existence. He hath graciously provided a sovereign and infallible antidote against the fear of Death, in the victorious resurrection of his Son. hath informed us, that our bodies must return to dust; that all our possessions must be left behind; and that a state everlasting and unalterable

D

He

Death.

awaits us a state of bliss with him, or of misery with condemned spirits.

If then, my soul, deaf to his informations, and regardless of his mercies, thou shalt forget the condition of thy nature; pride thyself in the beauties of thy present body; boast thyself in the possessions of thy present state; neglect to secure an interest in thy Saviour by faith unfeigned, and obedience unreserved-thine, and thine eternally will be the just condemnation: nor canst thou wonder that the stroke of death, in this view, is horrible to thy apprehension; for it will separate thee from all thou holdest dear, and it will convey thee to a region dolorous and unwelcome, where thou hast no treasure, and canst not have

either hope or love.

But remember, in this case, Death deserves no blame; for it is not Death which is terrible in itself; it is man, foolish man, who renders it so, by his inexcusable neglect.

It is from hence arises the fear of Death; from estimating too highly the things of this life, and from forgetting the immutable condition annexed to every mortal blessing. Hence sprung all the mistakes and all the miseries of the young, the

Misella.

lovely MISELLA; and all the piercing pangs which tore her wretched parents' heart.

MISELLA was blest, by the great giver of all good gifts, with a frame peculiarly elegant and pleasing. Softness and sweetness dwelt in her countenance; the down of the swan was rivalled by her skin; her shape was faultless, her limbs were finished with the most beautiful symmetry, and her voice was musical as the harmony of the lute. She was taught from her cradle to value this fine person; and her fond and overweening parents fed the soothing vanity with every food which their dotage could supply. Her education was perfectly polite, adapted to set off the graces of her frame, little calculated to expand or improve the more valuable beauties of the mind.

Her taste for dress was remarkably elegant; her manner of dancing particularly genteel; she excelled much at cards, and few were happier in devising schemes, and engaging parties of pleasure. As her voice was charming in itself, so was it improved by art, and aided by the soft touches of the guitar, which she handled with inimitable grace; preferring it to all other in

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