Dr. Samuel Finley, President of Princeton College, received the messenger of death with joy. "A Christian's death," said he, "is the best part of his existence. Blessed be God, eternal rest is at hand. Eternity is but long enough to enjoy my God." Among the last words of Dr. Guyse were these, "O my God, thou who hast always been with me, wilt not leave me. Sweet confidence! Blessed readiness!" The Rev. Mr. Toplady in his very last hour, said, "It will not be long before God takes me; for no mortal can live (bursting into tears of joy) after the glories which God hath manifested to my soul." The Rev. Samuel Pearce when dying, said to his friends, "I find myself getting weaker and weaker, and so my Lord instructs me in his pleasure to remove me soon. At such a prospect I cannot complain. No, blessed be his dear name who shed his blood for me, he helps me to rejoice at times with joy unspeakable. Now I see the balm of the religion of the cross. It is a religion for a dying sinner. It is all the most guilty, the most wretched, can desire. Yes, I taste its sweetness and enjoy its fulness, with all the gloom of a dying bed before me. And far rather would I be the poor emaciated creature that I am, than be an emperor with every earthly good about him, but without a God." When Lady Glenorchy was dying, she remarked, "If this be dying, it is the easiest thing imaginable." The Countess of Huntingdon, shortly before her death, remarked to a friend, "I cannot tell you in what light I now see these words, 'If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him.' To have in this room such company, and to have such an eternal prospect! I see this subject now, in a light impossible to be described. I know my capacity will then be enlarged, but now I am as sensible of the presence of God, as I am of the presence of those I have with me.' "" Hannah More, at the close of her useful life, when one spoke to her of her good deeds, replied, "Talk not so vainly; I utterly cast them from me, and fall low at the foot of the cross." The Rev. Dr. Nevins, of Balti more, died young, and in the midst of usefulness. When the pains of dissolution were upon him he said, "Dear Saviour, thou givest me some suffering, but nothing compared to what many saints and thyself suffered;" and within a few minutes of his departure," Death! death! now come, Lord Jesus-dear Saviour!" and his eyes closed upon the world for ever. When Dr. Doddridge was dying, he said, "I have no hope in what I have been or done; yet I am full of confidence; and this is my confidence there is a hope set before me. I have fled, I still fly for refuge to that hope. In him I trust; in him I have strong consolation and shall assuredly be accepted in this Beloved of my soul." Mrs. Rumpff, formerly Miss As |