tion, and that very sudden temptations to impatience and repining may seize you, and take the more hold upon you from their coming unawares. There is no state on this side the grave in which we must cease to stand upon our "watch tower." "Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation."a "Watch thou in all things, endure afflictions."b

"Work your work betimes, and in His time He will give you your reward."c

You will find work enough to do, if you will but be constantly looking up to God to give you your hourly portion of it; and to show you what He would have you to do; and if you are constantly looking out for it. It will come to you probably in bearing and forbearing; in little acts of self-denial; in helping others, in ways for which you will get no credit; for theirs will be the seen, and yours the unseen, work :-in the continual renunciation of your own will;and living for others instead of for yourself. All that you have learned in your sharper sickness; all that you are learning now in its lengthened effects of weakness, so great as to disable you from the delights of active service; will greatly assist you in what now lies before you.

a Mark xiv. 38.

b 2 Tim. iv. 5.

c Ecclus. li. 30.

PART VII.

Death.

I.

THE FEAR OF DEATH, AND THE FEAR

TAKEN AWAY.

THERE are some persons who have never known the fear of death; they have often seemed to be very nearly dying, but they have always rejoiced; they have hailed the Angel of death as a bright presence, they have spoken of death as a joyful prospect; of death itself as "beautiful." They have never had any sympathy with those who have spoken fearfully of it; they have thought it either want of moral courage, or great want of faith, or a proof of earthliness of heart; they have said hard words, or indulged in hard thoughts of others. They say that they cannot understand how any one can fear death. But their turn is come at last! "Fearfulness and

trembling are coming upon them "a now, their "heart is sore pained, and withered like grass."b O how their hard words about others come back upon them now!

Perhaps there may be no particular cause at present for this "sudden fear." You may not be more ill than you have been, nothing may have occurred to stir up such thoughts; but you find suddenly, that it has seized upon your whole soul, there is no escape from it; death has fastened his eye upon you, there is no escaping the fixedness of his searching look. You must meet it; and for the first time it makes you quail. You have often met it before, why then should you fear to meet it now? You cannot tell. It comes to you as a perfectly new apparition. It is its exceeding and indescribable vagueness that terrifies you. You feel that something is going to seize upon you, to grasp you, but what is quite unknown; no one can tell you much about it, for no one has returned to tell what they passed through. You seem to be going all alone, and you tremble at the exceeding loneliness. "A horrible dread"c hath overtaken you; your "whole nature, both in body and in soul, trembles to its very centre." "The consciousness of personal sinfulness: a sense of unfitness to meet God, our unreadi

a Ps. lv. 5.

• Ps. lv. 5.

b Ps. cii. 4.

ness to die, a multitude of personal faults, evil tempers, thoughts, and inclinations: the recollection of innumerable sins, of great omissions and lukewarmness in all religious duties, the little love and gratitude we have to God, and the great imperfection of our repentance;-all these make us tremble at the thought of going to give up our account. We feel as if it were impossible we could be saved."

"When we come, as it were, into the range and presence of death, our whole consciousness is penetrated with a sense of sin. We see not only the evil we have done, but the good we have left undone. And the good, if so be, that we have striven to do, we seem to see for the first time revealed by some strange and searching light, in which all looks blemished, marred, and sullied."

Let sin but drive you closer to His Cross; give up yourself, your sin, your will into His hands.

He will not leave you to yourself, He will not forsake you. "He is near, that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God will help me; who is he that shall condemn me?"a

"Let us ask again, Who, then, shall separate me? There is none that can. Though all

a Isa. 1. 8, 9.

powers of hell be against me for my unutterable guilt, all holy powers are on my side. God the Father loves me, and gave His Son for me; God the Son loves me, and gave Himself for me. God the Holy Ghost loves me, and has regenerated, prevented, restrained, converted me; the ever-blessed Trinity loves me, and desires my salvation; all heavenly powers and all holy angels love and rejoice over one penitent soul. The whole world unseen is benign and blessed, full of love to sinners, of whom I am chief.' I give myself into the hands of a boundless love: as an infinite misery, I cast myself upon an infinite mercy. This is my only stay, but it is allsufficing."

But though some may desire death, others may shrink from it to their inmost souls; they may desire life under any form of suffering, rather than to meet death. In some minds there is an instinctive, a natural fear of death; from which they are "all their lifetime subject to bondage." The very idea of death is a terror to them; they can scarcely bear to hear the subject mentioned; they have tried by faith and earnest prayer to overcome this dread; but all their lifetime it abides with them until they are brought into the very presence of death. Then generally, either the fear is removed, or

a Heb. ii. 15.