in uncompromising review before our awakened recollection that then to our own clear comprehension, free from the veil of self-deception, the actions of our past life will be brought in judgment before us, for good or evil. In that great day, when the unerring wisdom, and longsuffering goodness of God will appear as manifest to us, as our own blind, rebellious, and ungrateful course, may it not be some little source of comfort to the soul, bowed down in shame and remorse, to find, if but one bright spot in that dark account, some record of sins repented of, and trials submitted to with unwavering faith and constancy? And then, too, with what intense thankfulness and adoration, must sinful man look up to that Being, in whose awful presence he stands—Who, knowing our weakness, and pitying our infirmity, has cast into the scale of almighty justice, the vast offering of His own perfection and expiation, to out-weigh the evil of a guilty world! Then how blessed will be those words, "I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins, return unto me for I have redeemed thee." ""* "Fear not, I have redeemed thee, Isa, xliv. 22.

I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine.”* "Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungered and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and ye took me in; naked and ye clothed me; I was sick and ye visited me; I was in prison and ye come unto me. Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."t "Enter thou into the joy of thy

Lord."

* Isa. xliii. 1.

+ Matt. xxv.

CHAPTER III.

"How many blessed groups this hour are bending,
Thro' England's primrose meadow paths, their way,
Toward spire and tower midst shadowy elms ascending,
Whence the sweet chimes proclaim the hallowed day.
The halls, from old heroic ages gray,

Pour their fair children forth; and hamlets low,
With whose thick orchard blooms the soft winds play,
Send out their inmates in a happy flow,

Like a free vernal stream. I may not tread,
With them, those pathways--to the feverish bed
Of sickness bound: yet, Oh! my God! I bless
Thy mercy that with sabbath peace hath filled
My chastened heart, and all its throbbing stilled
To one deep calm of lowliest thankfulness."

THE SABBATH SONNET.-MRS. HEMANS.
(Her last production.)

"Unto Thee lift I up mine eyes, O Thou that dwellest in the heavens."-Psa. cxxiii.

"Open Thou mine eyes that I may see the wondrous things of thy law."-Ps. cxix. 18.

We have seen in the texts that have been considered, with what sure trust we may believe, that "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." Secondly, that the Christian who is " faithful unto death," closes his eyes on this world only to open them at once, "to day," in the presence of the spi

rits of just men made perfect: there to await in safety, repose, and happiness beyond human conception, the re-union with the body at the last day. In this state we have seen, thirdly, that there will be identity of person; and, fourthly, that even as our Saviour ceased not to be recognized by His disciples while surrounded by light and glory at His transfiguration, so in calm reason may we conclude, that our own natural recognition will be as certain, when rejoining those in Paradise who have gone before us; where, as our Saviour has declared, "Many shall come from the East, and from the West, and from the North, and from the South, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob."

How full of wonder, and of sublime hope, are these promises! Among that "many" must there not be present, not those only with whom earthly affection yearns to be re-united, but all who were the great and good in old time. The first born of the earth, the prophets, the patriarchs, the apostles, the martyrs, with "a multitude of the heavenly host!" Will not the song of triumph be there, at dangers passed, no more to be encountered; at pardon received, and victory ensured once and

for ever over the great arch-enemy of God and man. In that blessed state when human passions have ceased, and the mind, pure and enlightened, expands to a full conception of heavenly things, what exquisite happiness will there not be, in the love and fellowship of angels and ministering spirits, with whom we are made "equal," and from whom we may learn, in hours of peaceful contemplation, all we would know of the mighty past, and of all that is yet to come. Well and profitably may we now devote the utmost powers of the mind to such meditation, for thus shall we best acquire courage to resist "the evil that does so easily beset us," and become "steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as we know our labour is not in vain."* Such hope will be " As an anchor to the soul both sure and steadfast.''+ And thus shall we be led truly to understand, how fleeting, how like the momentary sorrows of childhood, at which we smile, how little to be regarded, except as opportunities for proving our love, our faith, and our obedience, are the heaviest trials of human life.‡