cannot prevent the approach of the inevitable hour, are circumstances of additional distress, sufficient to appal the stoutest heart. In these gloomy and distressing moments, the saint reflects and experiences that his death is precious in the sight of the Lord. This gracious promise, replete with every comfort, fortifies him against desponding fears, and brightens his soul with the beaming rays of hope, when this world darkens on his view. Sympathizing angels hover round his departing spirit, ready to conduct it to the realms of glory. That benevolent Saviour, who himself trod the thorny paths of life, and who hath taken from death the dreaded sting, is at the hour of dissolution more particularly present, to strengthen every grace, to fortify the mind against the terrours of the powers of darkness, and to bring comfort to the bed of sickness when the body is fast wasting away. Believing and rejoicing in him who is their salvation and their glory, and blessed with a foretaste of the joys to come, the saints depart in peace ; willing to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord. To them the passage through the dark vale loses all its terrours; and the tremendous gates of death are the portals which lead to those pleasures at God's right hand, where, according to the Apostle's emphatick expression, they shall be "filled "with all the fulness of God." The death of the saints is precious in the sight of the Lord, because by it he brings them to everlasting life. In all men there is a presage and earnest desire of immortality; and the belief of a future existence is insepara bly connected with our idea of an all-powerful, wise, and just God. The darkness that rested on this prospect, notwithstanding the general prevalence of the doctrine, is now removed by the gospel of Christ. He hath brought life and immortality to light, dispelled those clouds that rested on the grave, and pointed out a state of endless existence beyond that dark region. This is one of the great advantages of the Christian institution, that, it gives the clear promise and sure hope of eternal life. It represents death as a departure hence, in order to bring us to our exalted Redeemer, who lives and reigns for ever, and by whom the saints shall be presented faultless before the presence of the divine glory with exceeding joy. We are to consider the everlasting rest which remaineth for the people of God, as the fruit of the Saviour's merits and sufferings, as one of the greatest and noblest effects of his ascension into heaven, and of his powerful mediation for us at the right hand of God. The felicity of heaven is indeed the gift of God; but that gift is secured and acquired for us through Jesus Christ, our Lord. "I give "unto my sheep eternal life," saith he, " and they shall never perish, neither shall any one pluck them out of my hand.” This eternal life imports more than we can express or comprehend; something more excellent than eye hath seen, or ear heard, or heart can conceive. Crowns, sceptres and triumphs, every kind of worldly success and prosperity, are but faint resemblances of this eternal, unspeakable, inconceivable happiness. No pain, nor sorrow, nor death are there. There is fulness of joy and happiness for everNor shall the souls only of the saints be thus blessed and happy: their bodies which now rest in hope, shall also be raised with immortal beauty and excellence. They are still under the guardianship of that blessed Saviour, to whom the very dust of the saints is precious, who will not suffer one atom of their bodies 'more. to perish; who was himself the first fruits of them who sleep, and who by the resurrection of his own body, has consecrated theirs to a glorious immortality. "For, since by man "came death, by man came also the resur"rection of the dead; and, therefore, when "Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we "shall also appear with him in glory." By that almighty power by which he made the worlds, and upholds them in being; by which he nailed our sins to the cross, triumphed over the king of terrours, and conquered all the legions of the prince of darkness, he will also rescue the captive bodies of all the saints from the power of the grave, raise them up in his own most glorious likeness, and swallow up death in victory. He will command the four winds to restore those bodies which they have scattered over the face of the earth. The winds and storms shall obey his word; the sea shall give up the dead which are in it, and death and hell shall deliver up the dead which are in them, and all the generations of men shall return to a life which endureth for ever. "I will ransom them from the power of the 66 grave: I will redeem them from death. “O death I will be thy plague: O grave I |