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should remember that they must die. If an opportunity offer of showing them that death is not really terrible to a Christian, it may be to them a very useful lesson. They should learn never to fly from distress which they can relieve, but to be kind and compassionate; and they should learn the vanity of all earthly things, by seeing that they lead only to the grave. These reflections will not rob a man of happiness whilst he is young, and they will secure his possession of it when he is old. They will teach him to remember his Creator in the days of his youth; they will teach him to fear GOD, and to know no other fear. "I have sent for you," said the great and good Mr. Addison to a young man whom he loved; "I have sent for you to see how a Christian can die." It is indeed a glorious sight, and the triumph of our holy religion.

And now let me entreat you to remember in what manner we ought to consider death. It is an awful change to all, but it should be an object of terror only to wicked men. To them, indeed, it is dreadful beyond the power of language to express; but it must be endured by them and by us all. Other evils may possibly be avoided,

some crimes escape the punishment of human laws, and some wicked men appear to be in great prosperity; but that prosperity must soon be over. "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment."* This ought to make every man tremble, who has not reason to hope for the mercy of GOD; but to such men only death is terrible. To the humble follower of CHRIST this last enemy appears as a kind friend. Death is to him the road to life; it has no terror in the eyes of the true believer. He views it only as the gate of Heaven, the appointed path to eternal joy. Death will end all his sorrows; death will confirm all his hopes; death will seal the pardon of all his sins; death will crown all his virtues. Death has no power to keep the Christian from his Saviour and his GOD. Like the great Captain of his salvation, he will rise triumphant from the tomb; he will look back on this world as on a dream when one awaketh; he will view its pleasures with contempt, its sorrows with a smile. He will hear that voice which calls to every faithful servant of CHRIST, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the

* Hebrews ix. 27.

foundation of the world."*

These are the bles

sings of redeeming love, these are the hopes, these are the prospects, which support the dying Christian. Under the severest sufferings, nay even under the deepest sense of his own weakness and imperfection, on the bed of sickness, and at the hour of dissolution, he is still enabled to say, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory ?"

Now to Him who for our sakes overcame death, and opened to us the gate of everlasting life, to Him, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be glory now and for ever. Amen.

*Matt. xxv. 34.

SERMON XVIII.

ST. MATTHEW xxvi. 64.

Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of Heaven.

E here learn, from our Saviour himself,

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the certainty of that great event which every Christian expects, as the completion of all his hopes; and every pious heart is prepared to answer, "Even so come, LORD JESUS."

In discoursing on a subject which is so far above the reach of our weak understandings, it is my intention carefully to avoid saying any thing which is not revealed in scripture. It shall be my humble endeavour to collect from the Word of God, what is told us concerning the judgment of the great day, and the happiness or misery to which every human being will then be sentenced.

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