cast yourself upon the arms of him, who is styled the God and husband of the widow, and he will be with you in trouble; he will order out all the circumstances of your life in covenant mercy for your good; he will support you in death, and be your everlasting portion beyond the grave. The children of the deceased will please to accept our sympathy. You mourn the loss of a kind, and affectionate parent, who appeared to feel a deep solicitude for your welfare, and assiduously laboured to instil into your minds, the principles of piety and virtue. May you long remember his instructions, and derive benefit from those prayers, which, for many years, he offered in your behalf. Labour to follow his example as far as he followed Christ. To religion alone can you look for consolation in this and in every scene of affliction. May you view the hand of God in your bereavement, exercise due submission to his will, and so live as to be prepared to sing the song of triumph, O death! where is thy sting? O grave! Where is thy victory? To the aged sisters of the deceased, God, in his providence, is speaking in emphatical language, and loudly admonishing them to be waiting in constant readiness for the coming of their Lord. Dear friends, God has come very near to you in this affiction; he has removed your only surviving brother, and is plainly saying that you must soon follow him. May you look to the Lord and be comforted in your tribulation. Let this mornful dis 1 pensation of providence, stimulate your efforts to be always ready for death's approach. Remember that your times are in God's hand, who may call you away, at a moment when you think not. May you have your lamps trimmed and burning, be supported under this affliction, and under all trials of life, and the infirmities of age, and at last, come up from the wilderness, leaning on the arm of the Beloved. Let all the relatives of the deceased be exhorted to make a wise and salutary improvement of this afflictive providence. Remember, my friends, that "no man hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit, neither hath he power in the day of death; and there is no discharge in that war."— Your times are in God's hand. At an unexpected moment he may terminate your earthly existence, and call you to his awful tribunal. As you cannot control the time, nor circumstances of your death, it is your wisdom and interest, to be always ready to meet the king of terrors. Let this dying assembly be constrained, by the solemnity of the funeral-scene, this day, by the worth of the immortal soul, by the joys of heaven, and the miseries of hell, to seek in earnest after preparation for death. Improve time as it passes. Put not off the evil day. Wait not for a more convenient season.— How soon you may die, or what may happen at the close of life, you know not. You may be de |