fires of Christian love and enthusiasm? Do we live in degenerate times, and have we now no chivalrous men, no courageous women, who are willing to go forth and join the great leaders from heaven in the battle of truth against error, of right against wrong? Cannot we, the children of this modern day, arise from low pursuits and ignoble occupations, and press forward in noble ranks to overcome and trample under foot, the hosts of evil which have so long ruled the world, and kept it piled and strown with the wounded and dead? Are we asleep at our posts? Are we content with our heaps of shining dust? Have we no Christian selfsacrifice? Do we put to God the question of Cain, and say, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Do we trade in the bodies and souls of men? Do we withhold from the needy the pittance of relief? Do we say in our life, the wisdom of heaven is not better than rubies? that the worldly, or the selfish man is the wise man, the only successful man, and that the righteous man shall be forsaken, and that his seed shall beg for bread?

Oh, let us not be exposed to these imputations; but let us, in the spirit of our Master, who gave his life for the world let us, with the holiest aspirations, and the most benevolent aims, toil and strive, to promote the best interests of our kind.

DISCOURSE XXXIII.

DEATH.

ECCLESIASTES III. 2.

A TIME TO DIE.

The wise author of this book truly remarks, that “to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven;" and he mentions in an enumeration of such seasons and times that there is 66 a time to die." Thus it is still. In our own day, there is a time for everything - and, as well as other periods, "a time to die." We have no doubt of this; nor do we wish that it may not be true. But when or how we shall die, we cannot tell. Here, we may die one after another. In another place, hundreds or thousands may die in a single day.

Every where in the world death is common common that Mrs. Hemans has truly written, seasons are thine own, O death."

"We know when moons shall wane,

When stars shall set, when flowers

SO

" All

-

But we cannot tell when we ourselves shall die, whether in old age, or in our prime - unless, indeed, we have already run out the most of life, whether our little ones will leave us soon, or far along in years to come. All that we can say is, that God only knows when each will "take his place in the silent halls of death," or 66 go to be a brother to the insensible rock, or to the sluggish clod which the rude swain turns with his shoe and treads upon." And this is well. It is well that God knows that we do not know.

Learning what we do of God, from Nature and the Bible, we believe that he brought us into life for a good end, and that his purpose towards us will never change. He is Love. So we are taught by his handiworks, and by the holy Scriptures. He was Love when he gave us life. He meant then, that our existence should be a blessing. He will not send Death to us, to do a work not comprehended in his benevolent plan.

It is often said, that God does not change, - that he is without variableness, or even the shadow of turning. We should consider this truth, and what is involved in it. If we believe it, we shall believe too, that God intends our good in afflictions and death.

I repeat, it is well that we do not foreknow our own time to die, or how we shall go from the earth. It has not been left with us to set our own time. If we were required to do this, we should be unable to obey; or, if we attempted to obey, we should not be likely to choose the best time. Our wisdom is not sufficient. God's wisdom is, and we should be thank

He is so wise

ful that he does not require this of us. and good, so just and merciful, we can believe that he will order and do for us, better, infinitely better, than we could do for ourselves. We cannot suppose that he who numbers the hairs of our heads, who does not permit a sparrow to fall to the ground without his notice, will ever neglect or forsake us, or fail to guide us to the destiny which he has appointed.

However Death, as the minister of God, may come, we ought never to think that God is not kind. He is always the same, always Love. And Death, as his Minister, obeys as benevolent a command when he sweeps suddenly a crowd into the graves of the earth, as when slowly and gently he leads a single mortal down to the tomb. And we should contemplate the work of Death, as thoughtfully, as profoundly, when one person is taken from our company, as when a hundred, or a thousand are removed from the world. God is as near to us, and is as particular to punish our sins, when our burden of affliction or sorrow is light, as when it is heavy. And when the yellow fever or the cholera is cutting off scores, or fifties, or hundreds, in some of our villages or cities, he is not less benevolent than when those places are blest by the angel of health.

We cannot tell for what particular reason he now sends to a particular place a terrible plague. Yet, we rest in the truth that he is love, and that he never errs. We might suppose, if we accepted the idea conveyed by the language of many persons, thet God is affected by the conduct of men as we are by that of

one another, when we are not controled by the Christian spirit; and that when he is pleased he rewards us with outward health and prosperity, and that when he is wroth, he scourges us with epidemics and pestilences. It ought not to be necessary for me to say, that this is not true that this view of God is a Pa

gan view, not a Christian one.

As Christians, we can see, that to one who is dying, it is the same whether he be alone, or thousands with him. So far as he himself is concerned, the one case is no more appalling than the other. There are those among the living, who look upon the condition of one going from the earth in company with a multitude, as more terrible than that of one going alone, -not because they have made up their mind after calmly considering the matter, but because their view of God, as he reveals himself in the form of Death, is dark and hideous, and they are alarmed with regard to themselves, and their future. This class is spoken of in the Bible as "all their life-time subject to bondage, through fear of Death."

Probably if I should converse with certain persons of this class, they would ask me at the very beginning of our talk, if I believe that God punishes the wicked. In such case, I should say to them frankly, Yes; God "will by no means clear the guilty. Though the wicked join hand in hand, they shall not go unpunished." God will "render unto every man according to his works." But I would also tell them, that death alone is not punishment. Death is one thing, and punishment is another. The best of men die. Death is