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presence of Him who has brought life and immortality to light, and who alone can dispel the terrors of the last enemy. The last three days she was evidently on the verge of the dark river. A solemn beauty rested on her countenance, and it was occasionally lighted up, as she spoke of the themes on which she most loved to dwell, with an inexpressible radiance. The night previously to her death her cough was incessant. In the morning, when her husband entered the room, gasping for breath, she begged him to raise her up. The window was

open, and her sister fanned her; but she grew rapidly worse, and it was evident the last conflict was at hand. For half-an-hour the struggle was most severe, and extorted from her, unable as she was to speak, a low and plaintive' cry. On her sister asking her if she felt the Saviour precious, she raised her hand with an expression of indescribable triumph. At length the gurgling breath came slower and slower, and in a few moments her head fell on her sister's shoulder, to be raised no more till the "resurrection of the just."

That day was her twenty-seventh birthday—so soon was her work on earth accomplished. Yet, young as she was, she had made herself so universally respected and beloved, that funeral sermons were preached for her alike in church and chapel; shops were closed on the day of her interment; and the unbought homage of the poor who followed her to the grave rendered the burial of this youthful follower of Christ a solemn and impressive scene. 66 Being dead she yet speaketh."

Thus, at an age which multitudes regard as yet too soon to think seriously of religion, her work was done. Nearly half of her brief life had been redeemed from its vanity by her faith in the Redeemer, and her consecration to the service of God. She found the gospel the guide of her youth, her solace in trial, and her hope and joy in death.

"She came to the cross while her young cheek was blooming,
And raised to the Lord the bright glance of her eye;

And when o'er its beauty death's darkness was glooming,
The cross still upheld her, the Saviour was nigh."

Reader, the same Saviour in whom she trusted asks your heart. Your sins can be forgiven only as you believe in Him; but he can cleanse you from all your guilt. You can secure no true happiness except as you are assured of pardon through his precious blood, and are devoted to his service. Whatever good you may accomplish apart from religion, will fall inconceivably short of what you might effect as an earnest follower of the Redeemer. The best servant of his age is the

man who serves it by the will of God, and who makes it his great purpose to lead men to the cross of Christ. And you are prepared to die-prepared to enter heaven-only as you are reconciled to God through Christ. Let it be your first care, then, to obtain salvation by faith in Him, and in the enjoyment of that salvation resolve that your best affections shall be centred on Him, and your best energies devoted to His service.

"THE Saviour! oh what endless charms
Dwell in the blissful sound!

Its influence every fear disarms,
And spreads sweet comfort round.

Here, pardon, life, and joys divine,
In rich effusion flow;

For guilty rebels lost in sin,

And doomed to endless woe.

O the rich depths of love divine,
Of bliss a boundless store!
Dear Saviour, let me call thee mine;
I cannot wish for more!

On thee alone my hope relies ;
Beneath thy cross I fall;

My Lord, my life, my sacrifice,
My Saviour and my all."

J. F. SHAW, BOOKSELLER, SOUTHAMPTON ROW, AND
PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON:

AND W. INNES, BOOKSELLER, SOUTH HANOVER STREET, EDINBURGH.

London: J. & W. RIDER, Printers, 14, Bartholomew Close.

Ir has been beautifully said, that "the anchorite, who, to render himself more acceptable to God, retires from the society and service of man, who sleeps upon the earth, who wraps his feeble limbs in the coarsest garments, who lives on roots and water, and sees his meagre frame waste every day without a wish to restore its vigour by a diet of richer nourishment, is one whose superstitious weakness we may lament, while we respect the very error from which it flows. But what should we think of him, if, while he slept upon the earth, and covered himself with sackcloth, and scarcely tasted even his scanty food, he were desirous of amassing the means of acquiring the softest couches, the most splendid robes, the richest fare, the most magnificent palaces ?" Inconsistent as we might deem such conduct in such a man, there is a greater inconsistency still. There are thousands, who, with wealth and all the means of luxurious enjoyment in their possession, deny themselves every comfort of life; and the only property which they seem to have in their wealth is to keep others from possessing it. They have no heart to use it, because, in using it, they are haunted with the idea of coming poverty and destitution. Others there are, who spend what has been entrusted to them by a kind and gracious Providence with such prodigality and extravagance as to betray the very extreme of imprudence and of folly.

Both cases are bad. It is wrong so to hoard up wealth as to be afraid to make a right and proper use of it; and surely it is anything but wise and considerate to squander away in profligacy and extravagance that which God has given you as a means of comfort to yourselves and of good to others. You are not at liberty either to waste or to hoard. The miser is not more to be despised than the spendthrift is to be condemned.

Money is a defence. It arms its possessor against a thousand ills to which flesh is heir, and gives him the power to command a thousand comforts of which the poor know nothing but the name. Poverty reduces to straits, and difficulties, and struggles, of which the rich are comparatively ignorant; while in her long, dark train may be seen disease, and suffering, and almost every earthly woe. Not that wealth is essential to happiness. The peasant, in his mud-walled cottage, eating his scanty meal, may be a better man and a happier, than he whose mansion lies embosomed in beauty, whose only labour is to contrive to fill up the hours of the day, who has only to say to his servant-"Do this"-and he doeth it, whose table groans

beneath the luxuries of life, and whose resources place within his reach all the recreations and enjoyments of this present earthly state. Still, in numberless ways and in numberless things has he the advantage of the poor man. He stands like one clothed in mail; while the other is exposed to every arrow that flieth by day, and to every terror that reigneth by night.

In proportion to the power and the advantages which wealth insures or commands, is the responsibility connected with its possession. Why is one man rich and another man poor? Is not the difference to be resolved into the arrangements and the distributions of Infinite Wisdom? While the hand of the diligent maketh rich, whence come the health and energy which qualify the man for such close and persevering application to the claims of business, and without which he might in vain wait for the tide of prosperity? In tracing effects to their cause, we can never rest till we ascend to God himself as the Fountain of life and the Source of every blessing. It is from Him, as the Father of lights, that there comes down every good and every perfect gift; and, since you have nothing which you have not received, you are only the stewards of the manifold bounty of God, and it is required of a steward that he be found faithful. On your fidelity there may hang consequences of unutterable moment.

In this day of benevolent and widely-ramified activity, you can be at no loss to find an appropriate channel in which to let your bounty flow forth, or to select an object worthy of your confidence and support. Never were the claims of humanity and of Christian enterprise more numerous or more pressing than in this our age. Nor can you turn away from these claims without increasing your responsibility and your guilt. Let your profession of religion be what it may, and let your attachment to its outward observances be ever so strong, this will avail you nothing if there be not the filling up of all practical duty. You are linked to your race by an indissoluble bond, and, as partakers of our common humanity, you are called to sympathize with them in all their wants and woes, and, so far as your means will admit of it, to succour and relieve them. So says the voice of Inspiration;- "If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit ?”* The sufferer is in no better condition; and your professed sympathy, being confined to words, and not reaching unto deeds, has melted away into

James ii. 15, 16.

thin air, but not without leaving a heavier burden of sin upon your heart. Your conduct is a practical denial of Christianity. The religion of Christ is a religion of love. Did not God so love the world as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life? Did not his Son love man even unto death, and pour out his soul an offering for sin? Does not the Holy Spirit, in renewing and transforming the man, shed abroad the love of God in the heart? Is it not true that he who dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him? Is not this principle the very essence of all true piety? "He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love." And in whomsoever this love exists it will have its outward expression. So reasons the beloved disciple,-"Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?"* To prove that religion is with you a reality, you must love, not in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

Nor must your solicitude be confined to the mere outward conditions of humanity. There are millions on millions walking on the same green earth with yourselves, and under the same bright sky, who are living and dying without God and without hope; and if it be a duty to provide for their temporal relief and comfort, the obligation is surely not less binding to provide for their spiritual life and their everlasting interests. If the life be more than meat, and the body more than raiment, is not the soul and her final destiny greater and grander than anything else? "What shall it profit a man, if he should gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ?" If in itself it be so precious, then what shall we say of its redemption? It could be redeemed with nothing less than the blood of Christ. Its salvation implies the highest reach of almighty power and grace; and hence no labour and no sacrifice would be too great in the effort to insure its final and eternal happiness. But who is to care for this soul? You may answer "the church." Granted. But is not the church made up of individuals? And is not that which is binding on the church as a collective body equally binding on every individual member? We ask not to what communion you belong; it is enough that you profess to be a member of the one holy catholic church of Christ; for as such you are solemnly pledged to the work of subjugating this world to Him, of sending the gospel to the heathen, of evangelizing the nations, and thus of bringing all things on * 1 John iii. 17; compare chapter iv. 8, 16.

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