accelerate the fatal hour: And how sedulously they strive to keep themselves from every thing that would prove a memento of it! One of the kings of France gave orders that death should never be mentioned in his hearing. Catharine, the Empress of Russia, forbade funeral processions to pass the street near her palace, and required all burials to be performed in the night. Many avoid every reference to their deceased relations and friends, as if in tenderness to their memory; while it really arises from an unwillingness to think of an event to which they are themselves equally exposed. The constant effort of multitudes is to banish the thought from their minds, or to hinder its entrance. The Apostle therefore says, that they are all their lifetime subject to bondage, through fear of death. Not always actually in it, but liable to it as reading, or hearing; a coffin, or an opening grave; on accident, or disease-may urge the subject upon their revolting attention. And it is easy to imagine the wretchedness of such a life: for how hard must it be to keep off from their thoughts a thing that they very much hate and dread; and which daily and hourly occurrences must often obtrude upon them. Yet, as soon as the sentiment is felt, all peace and comfort vanish.

-But the difficulty respects the Christian. Why should he be afraid in the prospect? Is not death conquered? and rendered harmless with regard to him? But the serpent may hiss, when it cannot bite. The poisonous fang may be extracted before our eyes, and yet we may feel, at taking the harmless adder into our bosom. There are many Christians whose anxieties and forebodings with regard to death, are only dispelled and destroyed by the event itself.

Let us look at the case; and see if we cannot remove a stumbling-block out of the way of God's people. There are several things to be considered

The fear of death is naturally unavoidable; and must therefore in itself be innocent. The very law of self-preservation necessarily makes every being averse to danger and injury. All the animal creatures have a dread of death. In them, this is merely an impulse, and operates without any distinct apprehension of evil; but in man, this instinctive repulsion has blended with it the result of reasoning, and of local attachment, and social love, and moral responsibility, and reflection, and forecast. Adam and Eve felt this fear in Paradise. To this principle the words were addressed, "In the day thou eatest For this denunciathereof, thou shalt surely die " tion had been no threatening, had not death been viewed by them as the greatest evil. The Apostles themselves, who had the first fruits of the Spirit, said, "For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven if so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life." What wonder therefore if ordinary Christians feel the same!

And how much is there to excite apprehension! There is the novelty of the case. For, as Joshua said to the Jews, this is a way they have not gone heretofore. Here their own experience affords them no assistance: nor can they derive advantage from the experience of others. No one has returned to "blab the secret out," and tell them what it is to die,

When they think of the leaving for ever of objects to which they have been long accustomed, the separation from weeping friends, the pains, the groans, the dying strife, the destruction of the body, the consigning of it to the lonely grave, the conversion of it into food for worms, their immediate access into the presence of Purity and Holiness, the judgment that follows after, questionings of their acceptance with God, uncertainties about their future state-is there not enough here to try all their confidence and courage? There is one thing more to be taken into the acOthers not only endeavour to avoid thinking of the seriousness of the subject, but in some measure they often succeed. By infidelity, and vain reasonings, and dissipations, they may preserve a kind of composure even to the last. Yea, they may amuse themselves even in death itself, as Hume was, joking about Charon and his boat

count.

Yea, they may even bring their principles over to their deluded interest. For though unbelief and diversion do not abate their danger, they affect their apprehension of it, and make them insensible. A man walking upon a precipice is not secure because he is ignorant of his situation; but this ignorance keeps him easy, and laughing, and singing, till he falls off. And thus we are told of the wicked, that they have no bands in their death; and their strength is firm." But a Christian does not turn away from the subject. He must look at it. He must examine its nature, and bearings, and consequences-and in doing this, he feels much more in

the prospect, than numbers of those feel who are ruined by the reality.

Be not therefore ashamed to own your feeling, especially to your fellow Christians and to your minister. Do not conclude that it is an evidence against the reality or degree of your religion. Do not imagine that it disproves, or renders suspicious your attachment to the Saviour. "O! if I loved him I should long to be with him; and then I should love his appearing; and then I should be able to say, Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly." But you do love him; and you wish to be with him, by wishing full conformity to his image, and the constant beholding of his glory. But you dread the passage, It is thus with the absentee, when thinking of his return. His estate, and wife, and children are in America. And his heart is there also. Yet when he looks on the vast Atlantic, he shudders and shrinks back. But he does not from hence question his love to them, or his desire to be with them.

We acknowledge however that as believers you stand in a very different condition from others: and you ought to endeavour to rise above the fear of death. And there is enough, if you ever realize it, to produce in your minds a noble confidence. And it does not follow, that what you now feel, you will feel when the season of dissolution arrives.-For,

II. THE DYING OF THE CHRISTIAN IS COMMONLY MUCH INDULGED AND DISTINGUISHED, In the ActUAL EXPERIENCE.

Thus it is said, "The righteous hath hope in his death." The degrees of this hope vary. In some

we see this hope contending with fear, and not always able to repel it. In some, it produces a serenity in which the mind is stayed upon God, yet unattended with any higher feeling and pleasure : while some possess and display the full assurance of hope; and have an entrance ministered unto them abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of their Lord and Saviour. Amidst the wreck of nature, these are joyful in glory; and shout aloud upon their beds, as if they were already within the veil.

Now we are not going to claim this joy unspeakable and full of glory, or even this perfect peace, or even this supporting confidence, for all Christians in their dying moments. And yet we mean to say, that the highest degree is attainable; and that in general, they are much more favoured, as to religious consolation, in death than in life.

Here we will not speak of things beyond our reach. Were we to say-That the chinks and breaks made in the falling tenement of clay, may let in more light than could enter before— that the believer's nearer approach to the world of glory, may bring him more under its influence and impressions-that when he reaches the borders of the river, between him and Immanuel's land, he may glance the hills, and hear something of the harmony, and inhale the fragrance blown across you would say, perhaps, and say justly, all this is figure. But there is truth in the dying privilege of the Christian. And four reasons may be mentioned for his superior indulgence at that solemn hour.

First, He has now more of that single and entire dependence on the Saviour, which is so friendly to our relief and comfort. A legal bias is natural to