of nearly twenty years in the service of God, he can say, from experience, that it is no weariness to serve the Lord; that his "commandments are not grievous;" that Christ is not a hard master; but that "his yoke is easy, and his burden is light." Religion is not a dull, irksome, and joyless journey through life," Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." We speak from the testimony of others, of christians of every age and name, who have tried religion; from the new convert, who has but tasted of the good word of God, to the hoary pilgrim, who has felt the powers of the world to come for threescore years. There, says the child of God, who was born of the Spirit only a moment before, "O how happy I feel; I wish I had believed sooner." Yonder is a venerable and patriarchal saint, who has walked with God for more than half a century; see how he leans on the top of his staff, and shakes his hoary locks for joy, as he approaches the borders of the better land! Hark! how he sings of the pleasantness of piety :

:

"O happy day that fixed my choice,
On thee, my Saviour, and my God;
That bid my bounding heart rejoice,
And tell its raptures all abroad."

It is remarkable that, however christians differ on other subjects, they almost universally agree on this -the pleasantness of religion. Old men and maidens, young men and children, say, it is so. The rich and the poor, the master and the servant, the manufacturer and the merchant, the soldier and the sailor, the philosopher and the hero, the peasant and the peer, the pauper and the prince, say, it is so. The

learned, the illiterate, the Englishman, the Foreigner, the Australians, the New Zealanders, the South Sea Islanders, the Chinese, the Asiatics, the Africans, the Americans, and the Europeans, say, IT IS SO. All who have tasted the true spirit of Christianity, whether they be ministers or members in the church, babes in Christ, or fathers or mothers in Israel! or whether they be Episcopalians or Presbyterians, Conformists, or Dissenters, Methodists, Baptists, or Independents; they confirm the testimony of each other; and say, IT IS SO! The healthy and

the sick, the living and the dying say, it is so: her ways are ways of pleasantness. And if they who professed religion had not proved it to be happiness in this life, yet still it would be so, to such as possessed it for thus saith the Lord-of the wilderness journey from earth to heaven,-" Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace."

If the reader has already obtained joy and peace through believing, we exhort him to continue in welldoing, to "walk by the same rule, and to mind the same thing." Living in the enjoyment of an enlightened and cheerful piety yourself, seek to bring others into the possession of like precious faith; and, filled with peace and hope, "go on your way rejoicing." And, if you still belong to the class of mortals, who, being strangers to the pleasures of religion, are ever asking, “Who will show us any good?" we most cordially recommend to you the christianity of the New Testament; or, in other words, we would invite you to commence the journey to the better land: "Acquaint now thyself with God, and be at peace, and thereby good shall come unto thee;"-the good of providence,

the good of grace, and the good of glory. Religion is good for the body, and good for the soul. It is good for individuals, and good for society. It is good for the young and the aged; good for the rich and the poor. It is good in health, better in sickness,-and best of all, in a dying hour. It is only good! it is always good! it is supremely good! it is eternally good! "Oh taste, and see that the Lord is gracious;" for "happy is the man that findeth wisdom." "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." Amen.

CHAPTER X.

The Final Departure.

"THE TIME OF MY DEPARTURE IS AT HAND.". 2 Tim. iv. 6.

HAVING endeavoured to convince you, that the journey to heaven is neither compulsory, expensive, nor dangerous, but reasonable, profitable, peaceable, and pleasant; and having placed in your hand the spiritual emigrant's infallible guide to the better land; we now invite your attention to his final departure from the shores of mortality to the regions of eternal life. We have already witnessed his departure out of spiritual Egypt, and followed him in his wilderness journey toward the celestial Canaan; and, as he is just about to cross over the river that rolls betwixt the desert and the paradise of God, let us contemplate his final departure to the promised land. Observe

we

1. It is frequently affecting.

"By faith, Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph."-Heb. xi. 21.

There is much in dying circumstances that is common to all who are mortal; and some peculiar influences, arising from special relationships in life, which

may alike affect the saint and the sinner in their departure into the world of disembodied spirits. Like all who are mortal, the christian emigrant may be afflicted with strong corporeal pain, while the soul is quitting its tabernacle made of clay. He may heave with convulsions, and toss to and fro with agitation, or sink under the influence of extreme prostration and sickness of body. His physical nature may labour for life until the damps of death bedew his dying cheeks; he may agonize and groan while his heart-strings break, and his flesh fails; and, in respect of his body, may die as other mortals die, because these are influences that affect him, not as a christian, but as a mortal man. As a relation in the family, as a citizen in this world, or as a member of the church, he may feel exquisitely when the silver cord of affection is loosened, and be subject of strange emotion when the golden bond of familiar friendship and brotherhood is broken, and when he must leave those behind who have been with him in all his tribulations. As a parent, he may feel it a keen stroke that severs him from an obedient, affectionate, and beloved family of children,--endeared to him by a thousand ties of flesh and blood,— endeared by the price which they have actually cost him, -a thousand anxieties and fears,-a thousand toils and cares, a thousand reproofs and prayers,-and a thousand smiles and tears. The same may be said of any other member of the social circle during life's last hour; the parting period, the farewell feeling, the final adieu, and the last lingering look, may excite the tenderest sympathies of the human heart, and fill the departing soul with such exquisite emotion as language fails to express. The emigrant and the transport have