darker (if poffible) than his.

"Fear not: I

am the firft and the laft: I am he that liveth and was dead; and behold I am alive for ever 'more, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of ' death".

To conclude, the late event folemnly repeats its author's charge to BE ALSO READY2. Your friend is gone; your following is certain; it may be fudden; it may be next.But should it take place this night, and find you provided with nothing better for the change than the miserable fubterfuges of the prophane, or the fcarcely less miferable fupports of the formal, what an alarm (if you are not left to the most affecting delufion or ftupidity) will it occafion!-What an awful tranfition to pass from the SAVIOUR to the JUDGE! without love to him; without even an acquaintance with him; unwilling, unreconciled, unrenewed!-And to Him who has fo often invited you, warned you, and, at times, affected your confcience with the

y Rev. i. 17, 18.

z Matt. xxiv. 44.

truths

truths we have been confidering!-What a fubject for eternal reflection You would not • come to him, that you might have life!'

God forbid, however, that this should be your cafe! I only suppose it, left it should; and it is too common to render the fuppofition improper. From fuch a danger we cannot be too fecure; and, therefore, having lately seen how foon the night cometh when no man can work, let us seek to-day, in the redemption which is in Chrift Jefus, that peace and fafety which you must be conscious can never be found out of it, and which it may be too late to seek to-morrow.

Some things belonging to our important change are wifely hid from us; nothing, however, is more plain, than that it is near ; and therefore demands our most serious attention: that it is finally decifive; and therefore warns us to watch against those errors which eternity cannot rectify :—and, that the

hour is uncertain; and, therefore, calls us to ftand prepared.With our loins girded, and our lights burning, may we thus wait for our Lord! Whatever reflections befide attend us at his coming, we shall feel no regret that we miffed those splendours he taught us to decline; but much gratitude for the tears we fo ftudiously fought to avoid. I earnestly pray that the present may be sowing to be reaped in joy; and the late affliction sent to be a subject for everlasting praise.

Contemplating this End, I have often wished to take the afflicted by the hand, and lead them to a resource their paffions have obfcured. I have wished them to see that the christian hope is then moft alive and full of immortality, when every other hope perishes. A friend requesting something of this kind more compendious than he had yet seen, now produces these imperfect hints.-Like a few words, however, presented by the road's fide to the eye of a lonely and apprehensive traveller, they may afford you fome present direction

direction and relief.-And fhould He, who is pleased to employ the feeblest means in his greatest work, conduct you by them (though but a single step on your way) towards a Morning without clouds - a House without mourning; the fervice of your affectionate Friend will obtain an high reward.

FINIS.