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ought certainly to yield the best affections of our hearts to him who hath made death a translation to a Father and to a home. What are you willing to give up to him who for your sakes yielded up the ghost? Can you say, I will renounce every thing but the grace he hath given me? The dearest connexion, and the most valued possession shall be surrendered at his call. What think ye of his atoning death? To this question I hope you can thus reply: So much do I value it, that I have fixed on it my dependence for eternity. I glory in it for the redemption it obtained, for the peace which it made, and for the graces which it displayed. It is the common centre of faith, love, and joy to Christians on earth, and of admiration and triumph to spirits in glory. And while you now commemorate that death, may the eternal Father, to whom it was an offering and a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour, ac、 cept, strengthen, and maintain your delight and your confidence in the cross of his Son.

After the Service.

It is worthy of notice, that the language in which Christ commended his soul into his Father's hands was that of David, whose Son, and whose Lord he was; and thus he hath recommended to us the petitions of good men, which are recorded in Scripture, to be used in devotion, and especially in the supplications of the dying. Were I to complain of any want in the narratives of the last hours of some good men, it would be of the language of Scripture. These words of eternal life must have a sweetness and power to the heart of the man that utters them, and of those that hear them, which none of the expressions of human wisdom or

genius can possess. In using the language of Scripture, let your application of it be judicious and suitable, and let it be done with the reverence which is due to that word which God hath magnified above all his

name.

It is also worthy of our attention, that our Lord did this with a loud voice. His expressions of relation to God had been derided by his enemies; but, to shew that he had made no claim to which he was not fully entit led, he committed his soul to his Father with a voice which might reach the surrounding multitude, and strike insolence and cruelty dumb. The eternal Father heard him with approbation and delight, and a voice from the excellent glory reached the heart of the expiring sufferer, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."

It is very remarkable that our Lord, in using these words of David, begins them in a manner which shews his affection to God, and employs the term " Father," which is not to be found in the verse of the Psalm to which he refers. His Father's wrath had overwhelmed him with anguish, and in him he had seen an avenging Judge, yet he calls him by this most endearing name, and commits the spirit which he had tried so severely into his hands. We find it difficult, in the hour of God's anger against us, to address him in the language of hope and love, and imagine that the frowns of his face, and the blows of his rod, are intended to repress it; but Christ's affection to his Father could not be shaken by all the horrors of Calvary. Satan laboured to suggest to him many hard thoughts of God, but they were expelled instantly from that heart in which piety had the undivided throne, and which looked for its rest, reward and bliss, in God alone, and in him for ever. In the spirit of your Lord, call Jehovah your Father,

even when he speaks roughly to you, and demands from you your dearest comforts, and say, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.”

No sooner had our Lord uttered these words than he gave up the ghost. Man, in dying, obeys the law of his nature, and the spirit, thus required of him, he can no longer retain : but Christ had power to lay down his life. Death was in him an act of sovereignty, and not the sinking of exhausted nature. The loudness of his last cry shewed the strength of the vital principle. It was not necessary that life should be protracted any longer, for every prediction about his sufferings had been fulfilled, and it only remained for him to lay it down for us, and this he did with generous promptitude at the appointed moment.

O ye, from whom life must be torn as it were by violence, and who testify your reluctance to die by your sobs, and cries, and vows, behold Jesus yielding it up while he had power to retain it, and you will feel ashamed to struggle. And let those who are tempted to take away their own lives, in the agony of disappointed passion, or utter despair, look to Jesus enduring the cross, and their gloom will be scattered, and their fatal purposes repressed.

Keep your hearts with all diligence, for with no confidence can you commend to God when you are dying, a spirit which anger has inflamed, unchastity has defiled, or avarice hath engrossed? Let meekness keep them in perfect peace, let temperance guard them from every sensual desire, and charity influence them with every feeling of kindness. When anger rises check it by thinking on the long suffering of your Lord; when corruption is excited, repress it by crucifying the flesh; and when the world solicits, look from it to the grave and to heaven,

Be frequent in prayer. It was a favourite exercise of your Lord, and with it his life was closed. Many have begun to pray at the approach of death. It hath wrung prayers from the lips of the proudest blasphemer; but we must give ourselves to prayer through life, if we wish to call on God with comfort when we die. Nothing will strengthen for duty, dispose for felicity, or prepare for affliction like prayer.

"Commit the keeping of your souls to God in well doing, as to a faithful Creator." An indolent selfish devotion, which consults only its own indulgence, or which yields nothing but good words, and fair speeches, is an abomination in his sight. While your lips utter the voice of prayer, and your hearts feel the emotions of affectionate confidence, be active in good works. If the wicked are so eager and determined in the service of Satan, it will be most disgraceful to you, if you be come languid and careless in the work of the Lord.

Anticipate death with the feelings which become Christians. How easy is that bed of death which hath the gracious promise of Jesus for its pillow, and how happy is the man to whom the grave is the house of a Father! And if Jesus said, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit," amidst the severest agony of body and mind, you cannot pretend that you are in circumstances in which you cannot express it. Your last throb, your last look, and your last words, are due, not to relatives, however valuable. The last throb of your hearts should be produced by love to Christ, and by a desire to be with him; your last look must be to his cross, and your last words should be, "Lord Jesus receive my spirit."

Finally, Meditate on those prayers which he addresses to his Father in your behalf, "Holy Father, keep through thine own name, those whom thou hast

given me." With such a protector none can harm you. "I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever." With such a companion to soothe, and cheer you, you need fear no evil. And this is the language in which he pleads for your admission to heaven, "Father I will that they whom thou hast given me, may be with me where I am." O blessed hope! Its influence shall make solitude pleasing, and death desirable. "And now, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among them that are sanctified."

ADDRESS XXXVIII.

MATTH. XXVIII. 5.

"And the angel answered, and said unto the women, Fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified."

THESE are the words with which the angel calmed the minds of the pious women who had come to pay the last offices of respect to our Lord's body. When they beheld the consternation of the keepers, the glory of the heavenly messenger, and the tomb of Jesus open, they were filled with anxiety and dismay. While the Roman guards were left to the gloomy suggestions of their own minds, the angel addressed these disciples in language kind and animating; and the view

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