long?" It is finished, the number of Mine elect is accomplished; I go that I may awake each out of sleep.' Then will that which was "sown in corruption, be raised in incorruption; that which was sown in weakness, be raised in power; that which was sown in dishonor, be raised in glory, that which was sown a natural body, be raised a spiritual body." Thus it is, that the dying believer, in commending his soul to God, can leave the body with full assurance of a re-union: "My flesh shall rest in hope."

This as to the body. The soul, at the very instant, enters into its rest-a rest not of inactive quiescency, but such as befits its powers. And long before the first gushings of affection have subsided of weeping relatives, and the door closes upon the forsaken and motionless form, the happy spirit, borne upon angels' wings hath traveled its celestial road, and finds itself with kindred spirits, "each one walking in its uprightness." Think, then, what death does to every believer. It emancipates the spirit; it transfers it with perfect powers to a perfect world. It destroys every hindrance to its perfect service and its perfect bliss. It completes its walk with God. If the latter clause of the text be understood as descriptive of the saint walking with God on earth in uprightness, it follows not but that it is descriptive of the saint after death walking before God in uprightness. Grace was the region of the one, glory is the region of the other. Oh! to contemplate them now each one walking before Him in her uprightness-each like the angels, in activity, in service, in glory; each enjoying a Sabbath which will never end, associated with a congregation where nothing defiles, in strains immortal joining in the music of the spheres, seeing not through a glass darkly, but face to face, bearing the weight of glory and yet not burdened by it, and listening to the great Teacher himself

unfolding His own promise-"What I do you knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." To awake to thoughts like these, our surprise at their early removal or our sorrow at their early death must alike be moderated. They are not lost, but gone before. Their service is not at an end, but infinitely exalted and perfected. Their sun may have gone down while yet it is day; set prematurely, as we think, beneath our horizon; but it has been only to rise again in the hemisphere of celestial brightness, where not a cloud will ever darken their glory, where their happy spirits will have full scope in their Redeemer's heaven, where the sun will no more go down and the moon never withdraw its shining, but the Lord will be their everlasting light, and their God their glory; and the days of their mourning, imperfection and sin ended.

DYING IN THE LORD.

REV. W. D. HORWOOD.

ABERGAVENNY, MONMOUTH, ENGLAND.

ON THE DEATH OF MISS H.

"Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them." REVELATION Xiv: 13.

AMONG all the dispensations of God to us there is

not one more striking, more impressive, and more affecting than that of death. It comes to us all alike without any distinction, whether we are rich or poor, learned or unlearned, young or old. Such is the great fact of our mortality. And the manner of this visitation is oftentimes sudden and unexpected, coming, it may be, like a flash of lightning, swift, yet silent; or like the darkening shadow of a thunder cloud, creeping on darker and darker, and then suddenly bursting into

sound, loud and terrific. It is well for us to bear this truth in remembrance, for the decree goes forth to destroy in the midst of man's revels and engagements, whether of sensual pleasure, or of ambition, or of covetousness, or of pride and self-esteem. The decree, too, goes forth in secret to destroy, and this without warning. The earth was doomed to the flood one hundred and twenty years before "the decree brought forth," or men heard of it. The waters of Babylon had been turned, and the conqueror was marching into the city at the very time when Belshazzar was making ready for his feast. "Pride infatuates man, and self-indulgence and luxury work their way unseen, like some smouldering fire which for a while leaves the outward forms of things unaltered. At length the decayed mass cannot hold together, and breaks by its own weight, or on some slight and accidental external violence."

I. Let us consider the BENEDICTION of the text. "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth :"

1. A particular dead is here named, such as "die in the Lord." And the expression, "in the Lord," implies it may be conceived a close union with Christ in the glorious objects or purposes of His mission, in the benignity and grandeur of His life, in the supreme excellency of His character, in the purity and beauty of His example, in the infinite love which led Him to the cross, and in the everlasting results of His mediation. Such an intimate union with Him implies also a reflection of His Image in the soul. The blessedness, therefore, of those "who die in the Lord," consists in their union with Him, in their being one with Him, in their security and shelter in Him, and in their partaking of that glory and happiness, which He has provided for them. When their bodies die, when their outward

tabernacle is dissolved, they still being in Christ, have a house not built with hands eternal in the heavens. They pass away to the inheritance prepared for them.

2. Thus we can trace the blessedness of those who "die in the Lord" onward to the resurrection," For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first." They shall have the pre-eminence. They shall be the first to realize the glorious consummation of Christian faith and hope. In their blessedness, pronounced by the voice from heaven, in the resurrection of the just, they shall ascend from their earthly sepulchres into the clouds above them, "to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall ever be with the Lord." They who "die in the Lord" are blessed by all the grand and eternal issues of the resurrection, embracing all which throws a halo of hopeful brightness over the sleeping dead, and all that makes their resurrection an opened gateway to the Eden where no secret enemy lurks in ambush, where no form of death can enter, where no sigh or sound of grief is heard, and where all tears of the eyes are wiped away for evermore."

II. The Divine response. "Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works. do follow them."

1. In this response we have two reasons assigned for the benediction. The first is rest; "They rest from their labors." The rest hereafter of the saints of God, will not be inert, like that of the rock, but it will be the rest of activity without fatigue or wearisomeness. We speak of the calm rest of stars, but they are constantly moving round their common centres, constantly working out the grand designs of the Creator. And so with those who "rest from their labors "-from their earthly

labors, from the toil of bodily exertion as well as of mental, from the labor attendant on earthly sufferings, on missions of Christian benevolence, on the struggles of adversity, and on the trials of temptation-in their heavenly rest they still are active, still carrying out the grand purposes of their being, but in their rest there is the quiet beauty of repose, the stillness of a lovely image reflected on a mirror.

2. And the second reason is, "their works do follow them.' The rewards and consequences of their good deeds and labors attend them in the eternal world. Thus, by our conduct here, we can make the present affect our future for good, and so lay the foundation for happiness millions of ages to come.

It were presumptuous perhaps, in me to speak at much length of the character of her who has just departed from us, so well known among you, and throughout this town, and the whole of the county. Yet I well know of your high esteem for her, and it may be soothing to hear a beloved person spoken of, even though the speaker fail of doing such a person justice. We are all more or less witnesses of her character, of those excellent qualities which have endeared her to her friends, and made her name respected. And now while we offer some humble tribute of affection to her memory, we are reminded by the church, in which we offer it, and the adjoining building, of that kindliness of heart, and of that true benevolence which can never be forgotten. But when the stone walls of these buildings shall crumble away and mingle with the dust; when the proudest and noblest monuments of man's wealth and genius and munificence shall be no more; the brightest memorial of our dear departed friend will still be found in the hearts of those she has benefited, for her works will follow her.