says, "The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." As Winkelried, the patriot of Switzerland, broke the phalanx of the foe, by rushing upon the points of their spears, and burying in his bosom as many of them as he could grasp-thus by his own self-immolation, securing the deliverance of his country; so Christ bared his own bosom, that he might receive for sinful men the sting of death, and lo! when it was withdrawn, it was a pointless dart, with all the poison gone. Every sinner who comes in lowly penitence and implicit faith to God, through Christ, is pardoned; for whilst it is written, "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanseth us from all sin," it is also recorded, "Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." He then, who would be prepared to die, must believe with all his heart in the Lord Jesus Christ.

There must also be faith in the discoveries of the gospel, respecting the world to come. The consciousness of pardon is unquestionably the first and greatest thing. That consciousness, however, was enjoyed largely by believers under the Old Testament dispensation, but still their views of death were often very gloomy. The fact is, their knowledge of the state of the departed was far less than ours. Some of them (Hezekiah, for example) seemed to regard man after death as enduring much privation; so much so, that it was felt to be a great calamity to die. But it was the design of Christ to deliver us from all fear of death, not only by a full exposition of the method of pardon, but by affording to his church the most comprehensive and inspiring revelations of the future state. The clouds and shadows which envelop the sepulchre have been dispelled by Him "who has abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." We know now that as soon as the body dies, the spirit "departs and is with Christ, which is far better." We know, that "with Christ" is everything which can render the spirit completely blest; and we know too that a day is coming when the body itself will be raised glorious and immortal, no longer liable to corruption and death, but fashioned like His who sits on the throne of heaven, and destined to flourish for ever in undecaying beauty and immortal youth. He who dwells in the light of the invisible, and who with the eye of faith, and the uplifted glance of hope, expatiates in the visions of immortality, recognising in all that is bright and enduring in heaven his own inheritance, and his everlasting home, may well say, "Surely the bitterness of death is past.'

Again, that bitterness may be said to be past, when there are vouchsafed by Jesus Christ gracious support and consolation. It was his promise to his disciples, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." It was his assurance to the apostle Paul, and that assurance was intended for every one who confides in his mercy, My grace is sufficient for thee." There is no time when his presence and aid are more needful than when “heart and flesh fail,” and there is no time when they are more freely extended. Having himself endured the sharpness of death, he knows the sorrows and fears of the spirit in its last conflict, and can minister to it consolations which will not only prevent it from sinking in despair, but fill it with abounding joy. "I have been in the near prospect of death for the last six weeks,” said an eminent minister of the gospel to the writer, "and during all that time I have endured sufferings so great, that I could not have thought it possible for them to proceed from a part so remote from the centre of vitality; but I have enjoyed so much of heaven, that I would gladly pass through those sufferings again, if I might have the same enjoyment. Indeed, I have had so much of heaven, that I have sometimes thought I could scarcely have enjoyed more, even in heaven itself." "O my friends," said the excellent and devoted Janeway, a youthful minister, who died in 1657, at the early age of 24, "stand by and wonder; come, look upon a dying man. I cannot myself but stand and wonder-sure this is akin to heaven, and if I were never to enjoy more than this, it were well worth all the torments that men and devils could invent, to come through even a hell, to such transcendent joys as these! If this be dying, dying is sweet. Let no true Christian ever be afraid of dying. O sirs, worldly pleasures are poor, pitiful, sorry things, compared with one glimpse of the glory which shines so strongly into my soul." And multitudes more have encountered death in the same spirit, and felt that its bitterness was past.

There is just another thought. It has been represented as one source of the bitterness of death, that it involves the sundering of ties which bind us to those we love. When the christian husband and father sees surrounding his death-bed the partner of his days, so soon to be left a widow, and his children, so soon to be fatherless, no wonder that he should desire, if it might be permitted, to live for their sakes a few years longer on earth. But then he remembers that He, by whose appointment his days are cut short in their midst, has promised to be the husband of the widow, and the father

of the fatherless; and though he would grieve at the thought of leaving them alone in the world, he feels that he can commit them into the hands of a loving and a faithful God. And then, there is the prospect of re-union. He knows that if they participate in his faith, they will follow him to his reward, and he leaves them in the hope that they shall meet again.

It is when these circumstances are combined; when there is an enlightened faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; when there are clear and scriptural views of the discoveries of the gospel, and a firm persuasion of their truth; when the soul is sustained by special manifestations of divine mercy; and when the departing Christian can commit those to whom he bids farewell into the hands of his father and theirs: it is then that the bitterness of death may be said to be past. The gospel has sustained and comforted the spirits of unnumbered myriads, as they have contended with the last enemy, and it has sustained and comforted them, as nothing could do so besides. It has done this for men of every variety of character, at every stage of life, and in every peculiarity of circumstances. It has been well said, that the gospel "never yet has had a dying penitent," I mean, any one in the hour of dissolution, repenting of having trusted to it. I ask for an instance of any individual, in perfect possession of his mental powers, unaffected by any morbid hallucinations, and in the full prospect of death, expressing regret for the folly, or repentance for the sin, of having believed and followed Christ; disowning the foundation on which he had rested through life, as now seen in the searching light of its closing hour, to be false and unstable. Infidelity, and every system of human framing, have had their dying penitents by thousands. How comes it that the gospel has had none? To me it appears as the seal of the God of heaven to his own truth; evincing its divine adaptation to all our nature's consciousnesses, and to all our nature's exigencies, and peculiarly in the hour of that nature's extremity. It proves itself, in this unvarying experience, to have proceeded from Him who "knoweth what is in man!"

Perhaps it would be scarcely right to say, that in any case the bitterness of death is so completely overcome, that not a trace of it remains. At all events, the cases in which it is so are comparatively few. To many, it is a struggle to the end. Though the "last enemy," death is still an enemy. Just as when some nauseous draught was mingled with what was sweet, in order to render it less unpalatable, the most that could be said was, that the sweetness predominated; so in the experience of such persons, all that can be said is, that the joys

and consolations rise superior to the fears by which the soul is still visited. But even in the case of the most timid and doubting, when God's purposes are all accomplished, and the perfected spirit of the believer is re-united with his body, then risen and glorified, with what exultant joy will he exclaim, without the slightest thought of reserve, "The bitterness of death is all past, and death is swallowed up in victory!"

There are very few who do not love to hear and read of the manner in which death has been overcome by the Redeemer. The emotions with which that triumph is regarded, are akin to those with which men hail the downfall of some relentless and cruel despot, who has been hurled from his throne, and crushed in the dust. It is possible, beloved reader, that you have appropriated that triumph to yourself, and have imagined yourself pressing the bed of death, and exclaiming, as you rise superior to feebleness, and pain, and fear, "O death, where is thy sting! O grave, where is thy victory!" We trust that the picture will be realised, and that as weeping friends turn away from your death-bed, it will be with the aspiration, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." But suffer us to ask, on what ground you cherish the hope of such a death-bed? Is it because you have already believed in Christ, or, because you only intend to do so?— If it be only because it is your purpose to believe, be assured, that everything which relates to your prospects is most dark and portentous till that purpose is accomplished, and be entreated to fulfil that purpose at once. We have spoken of a death-bed. You may have no death-bed. It is within the range of possibility that you may be smitten whilst engaged in the business of life at the social boardas you pass along the street-or in the swift railway train, which, crowded with its multitudes, is in an unlooked for moment dashed to shivers. Or, if a death-bed be permitted, there may be no opportunity of preparation. As in the case of the lamented nobleman, of whom we spoke in the commencement, there might elapse only a few hours-and those spent in racking agony-between your seizure with your last sickness and your death. Believe in the Saviour now, and then it will matter little how or when you die, for death will be to you but the messenger who calls you to your everlasting home in heaven.

J. F. SHAW, BOOKSELLER, SOUTHAMPTON ROW, AND
PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON; AND

W. INNES, BOOKSELLER, SOUTH HANOVER STREET, EDINBURGH.

J. & W. RIDER, Printers, 14, Bartholomew Close, London.

THE SOLDIER'S VICTORY.

THE following beautiful narrative of a truly victorious soldier, borne out of the field of battle mortally wounded, was in substance presented years ago to a large christian audience, in a neighbouring kingdom, by an eminent servant of Godnow in a better world-as an illustration of the infinite importance of circulating the precious treasure of the Word of God in the army and navy. In its essential characteristics, however, the narrative is far from being singular. Many similar illustrations have been recorded of both christian officers and soldiers rising triumphantly to glory; and ere they departed hence, joyfully declaring their victory over the last enemy, through faith in the blood of the Redeemer.

The horrors of the battle field cannot be told. Its dread scenes can scarcely be imagined by any one who has never witnessed them. Who but those who have heard its thunder, and felt its shock, can estimate, in some degree, the fearful amount of mental and physical suffering which suddenly accumulates on the mortally wounded soldier, left on the field, far from friends, from human sympathy, from help? And yet these very appalling circumstances, like the dark background of a picture, have tended not unfrequently to reveal the grand superiority of the Christian to the man of the world in the prospect of eternity! How often have they served to illustrate the glory of the Gospel, which enables the true believer to triumph over suffering and death, even under their most dreadful forms!

Surely, then, at this eventful period, when so many of our countrymen are rapidly entering the arena of war, the hearts of all Christians ought to rise to God on their behalf; that by the blessing of His Spirit on the Holy Scriptures, with which they have been so generously provided, they may obtain the