nothing more, than recovery and longer life. O! when This life's tempestuous sea, And when you reach the very borders of that awful and amazing state, as, with an angel's eye, you might survey a vanishing world, and take your last adieu of earth and time—“ Farewell, ye scenes of imperfection! Farewell, folly, sin, and vanity! Farewell, all that once I knewthe spots I trod-the places where I dwelt-the scenes endeared by friendly converse-the retreats made sacred by youthful devotion-all farewell! I go where joy forever reigns. I go where sickness never comes. I go where death is never known. I go where perfection and purity, happiness and endless life, shall be my long, long portion. I go from mortal to immortal things; from dying men to the living God; from fickle mortals to the steadfast Saviour; from sinful creatures to joyful saints and holy angels. Adieu, vain world of cares, and doubts, and fears; yet sacred world, where heaven was made my portion! Adieu, thou weary seat of troubles and imperfections; yo endeared region, where the Saviour's love dawned upon my soul; and glory, honour, and immortality, became my inheritance! Adieu for ever, departing world, adieu ! But O! welcome, ye blessed spirits, that cone to convey me to my God! Welcome, my Saviour's gracions call to his abode! welcome ye blissful scenes of peace, and love, and joy, and praise! Welcome, heaven ! Welcome, everlasting life! Sect. 6. At length your last conflict ends-your pulse stops to beat no more forever-your last hour comesand goes--and you have done with the world for ever. Your tongue is silent-your eyes are closed-the silver cord is loosed, and the golden bowl is broken-surround, ing friends look not on you, but on your lifeless claythe soul is gone-gone to other scenes to an unchanging, eternal world. Oh, my young friend! dark and dismal as this hour appears to the eye of sense, if you are found in Jesus it will not be so to you; but when your last painful struggle is over, in a happier world will your departed spirit find that the blessed Jesus did not forget the kindness of your youth. Then will your triumphs, begin. Others may hear your parting groan, your expiring sigh, while you triumphantly pass into your Redeemer's presence. O blessed change, when mortals weep because a friend is dead, but angels exult because a friend, has entered real life! Those who loved you may complain, "Alas! our beloved friend is dead to-day!" But, could we hear the words of angels, should we not hear. such expressions as these-" Another heir of glory has now begun to live-has left all sorrows for endless joys, -the sad chamber of sickness for these blessed mansions of heaven--weeping mortal friends for Jesus and for God; and now is this happy spirit with the Lord of Glory, who, a few hours ago, was a prisoner in a feeble, diseased, and dying body! 139 Sect. 7. O my youthful reader, if all the other advantages of early piety were to vanish in a moment, surely these should be sufficient to lead you to make humble religion your lasting, only choice. A few hasty years, at longest, must lay you in the dust; but C think of such an. entrance into glory, and of an eternal dwelling there! Think of the joy with which, after a life of humble religion, your spirit would ascend into the presence of your Saviour, even before your forsaken body was committed to the grave, even before your lifeless limbs were stiffened with the cold of death! Think of the congratulations of the holy saints and martyrs that fled to heaven before you, and of their warm welcome on your arrival there! Think of the approving smile of your Redeemer and your God! that smile which would repay, in one. hour, the labours of ten thousand years. Think of the delightful words, "Come thou blessed!" Think of the joy with. which you would behold the God you loved, and the Saviour you trusted! And O think of that great day when, the divine Redecmer, before an assembled world, would give you the crown of glory, that fadeth not away! Ther you, a shining inhabitant of heaven, would see without concern, the sun turned into darkness, and the moon cease to shine; the stars fall from heaven, and the heavens vanish away; and when the last trumpet shall have proclaimed that time shall be no more, you might rejoice, that though time had ended, eternity will never end; that though earthly pleasures proved a dream, heavenly delight will endure forever and forever; and O you might add, "This eternity, this heaven is mine!" And now, thou God of Grace, let not those who read these pages be unmoved by motives so powerful, that they should soften even hearts of stone, but by thy Spirit make them successful; for without him even these will be urged in vain. Pity the young, that may be careless of these solemn truths; lead them to the Saviour. Then shall they find him their friend in life, in death, and at judgment, and for ever; and thee their God through endless days. For Jesus' sake, thus bless them, O thou compassionate Lord of all! CHAPTER XIII. The happy termination of the young christian's course, a motive for early Piety. Sect. 1. Eternal Judgment.... Sect. 2. The reader reminded that he must then receive his doom, and that the young christian will even then be unutterably triumphant and happy.... Sect. 3. Brief notice of the separate state of the soul previous to the judgment day.... Sect. 4. Happy entrance of the soul on its lasting rest....Sect. 5. Heaven....Sect. 6. The Christian's blessedness eternal....Sect. 7. the vanity of the world and the importance of eternity illustrated, by a reference to the history of Paul and Agrippa. Prayer. SECT. 1. HAVING, my young friend, endeavoured to persuade you to embrace carly religion, by a view of the scenes through which you must pass on this side the grave, let me now beseech you to contemplate the awful and infinitely important scenes beyond that solemn bound of earthly things. Already you have glanced at the tremendous day of eneral judgment; yet, for a few moments more, turn. your thoughts to "that day for which all other days were made." That day, while it covers the wicked with confusion, will realize the young christian's fondest hopes. You must behold all its solemnities. Then God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in the body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; and the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up. Seeing, then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be, in all holy conversation and godliness?3 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God: and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.* When the son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats, and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on the right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Then shall he say unto them on the left, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. And these shall go away into everlasting punishmet; but the righteous into life eternal. How solemn is this representation-how infinitely so will be the reality! Here is an assembled world-all generations are met at once-around are countless angels, spectators of the great event there is the Lord of heaven, enthroned as the 3 2 Pet. i. 10, 11. Judge eternal. With the same ease as a shepherd distinguishes and parts his sheep and goats, does the Judge divide this mighty multitude, and then pronounces that doom which will make heaven's eternal mansions ring with praise, or hell's tremendous dungeons yell with horror. Sect. 2. Before that judgment throne you and I must meet; there must I account for the motives that have influenced me in writing these pages, and you for the improvement that you have made of them. How happily will you meet that day, if now you listen to your God, and choose the path of early piety and peace! If you now remember your Creator and your Saviour, he will remember you in infinite mercy then; for, O boundless grace! the eternal Judge will then delight to honour those who honoured him betimes below. If you could now behold the Lord in that glory, what trifles would all that life can give appear, compared with his favour! Small would seem the value of the universe, in comparison of hearing from his lips, "Come thou blessed!" Riches, pleasures, joys, splendour, would be vanity itself; the passing shadow not so empty, nor the flying feather half so light. Even crowns and kingdoms, and all for which the soul is neglected, would appear so worthless, that you would not raise a finger to gain them all. If you partake of his grace here, you wi!! see him there as your beloved Saviour and your kindest friend. Infinitely welcome will be those solemn and decisive words of his, that will fix your happiness for ever: "Come," will the Judge say, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." What rapturous meditations will fill their souls who hear this sentence! what sweet immortal praises flow from their lips! Early piety will then appear true wisdom; and probably the far greater part of that glorious company will be seen to have sought their God in youth. "It is passed," may each of these exalted conquerors then say; "It is passed the scene at which I trembled, and yet rejoiced, in mortal life is passed; and oh! the prize for which I prayed, the blessedness for which I looked to Jesus, through the few years of mortal life, is all my own! It is finished! my conflicts are finished,` and my glory completed. I have heard the sentence of |