over the face of nature. Where is now the pleasant landscape I so lately beheld? It is lost to my view: and the warbling people, with their wing-covered heads, sit silent on the spray only the bird of eve ushers in the gloom with her irksome solitary dirge, while labour reclines her head on the bosom of rest, and balmy sleep, endeared by toil, refreshes animal life.

And is this delightful day come to an end? O my soul, so shall soon the day of this life, and all its bustle, be silenced in the tomb. How much then doth it concern me, and all men living, to be putting by our work in our twelve hours! O that while it is called today we might labour for the meat which perisheth not, but endureth to everlasting life, John vi. 27., seeing the night of death approacheth, wherein no man can work; for there is no work, nor device, nor know, ledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, Eccl. ix,

10.

This dewy evening, calm and serene, mindeth me of the close of a Christian's life in old age. Happy alone then is he, who, while his head is flourishing like an almond

tree, can calmly reflect on a well spent life * such shall come to his grave "like as a shock " of corn cometh in in his season." Job v. 26.

As the Lord once said unto Jacob, " Fear "not to go down into Egypt: I will go "down with thee into Egypt, and I will al"so surely bring thee up again," Gen. xlvi. 3.; so he will say, as it were, to such a one, Fear not to go down to the dust of death: I will go down with thee, and I will also surely bring thee up again.

But O hów reverse is it with the hoaryheaded sinner, who hath spent his days in the pursuits of sin and vanity! Conscience that was rocked asleep in the narrow, short, bed of carnal delights, in the close of life awakeneth from her slumbers like a mighty giant, and screameth ten thousand times more terrible in the ears of the guilty soul, than that owl from the ruinous tower does in mine; while remorse and sorrow, more

* This did the great Addison when on his death-bed; grasping the hand of a young friend, he said, "See "with what peace a Christian can die !”

fierce than the vultures of the desert, prey upon the mind, ushering in the worm which never dieth.

From this learn a lesson, O my soul, to be husbanding the time well, and answering the end of thy creation, that the evening of life may be calm and serene, and I may say with the apostle, "I have fought a good

my

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fight, I have finished my course, I have

'kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up "for me a crown of righteousness, which "the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give "me at that day; and not to me only, but "unto all them also that love his appearing." 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8.

How tasteless now are all the beauties of nature. The flowery meads, and delightfully chequered lawns, which but a little ago appeared in all the gaiety of dress, charming the eye of the beholder, now shrouded in sable, please no more. Just so shall it be with all the pomp of this world in a dying hour. O that mortals would be wise in time, and chiefly seek after that which would then yield real satisfaction! Will frothy conversation, vain entertainments, licentious company, the

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sparkling bowl, or midnight revels, or (what is more plausible) wealth or fame, dignified stations, high sounding titles, or great honours, give that? No, no; these may, and often do, fill the death-bed with thorns; religion alone streweth it with roses. Nothing less than an interest in the merits of Christ will comfort the soul, when hovering on the utmost verge of life.

-Though religion be scoffed at by some, disregarded by many, and trifled with by the most part of mankind, yet there is a reality in it which all must either sweetly or awfully experience. Many complain on a deathbed of not having been religious enough, but never one of having been too much so.

There are many fools in the world, but none so great as those who leave their salvation-work till a dying hour: in these trying moments, though reason be continued, which is often not the case, tossing sickness and racking pains, will leave the mind but little time for serious meditation: Besides, how many are snatched away in a moment?

nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: "let them not feed nor drink water: but let "man and beast be covered with sackcloth, "and cry mightily unto God; yea, let them "turn every one from his evil way, and from "the violence that is in their hands. Who "can tell if God will turn, and repent, and "turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, "that they turned from their evil way; and "God repented of the evil that he said hẹ "would do unto them; and he did it not,' Jonah iii. 4. to the end.

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We see what a blessed effect such humiliation had; and shall heathens put Christians to shame? Shall we in this land, in the year 1801, when the Lord is thundering over our guilty heads in his awful judgments, by war abroad, tumults and famine at home, with disorders in the state, and divisions in the church, such as never were known in the annals of Britain, not humble ourselves. under the mighty hand of God, and cry mightily unto him, that he would avert the judgments, which, like dismal clouds, not only gather thicker and thicker, but