mortality in the glass of other men's experience! Would the world with its gaieties appear half so attractive on their leaving the chamber in which the frame is tossed to and fro in agony, and where death's varied harbingers seem with one voice to cry, This is the end of all? The sons of Joseph, we doubt not, received impressions on that occasion which would not speedily be effaced; and, long after Jacob was buried would they have cause to say that it was good for them to be there. That was, indeed, a very solemn and interesting occasion. The grandfather, who had now lived seventeen years in Egypt, and under whose eye they had grown up to manhood, was now about to go the way of all the earth, and soon they would cease to hear his once familiar voice. Who can doubt that often, as old men are won't, he had recounted to them the particulars of his history; that he had, so to say, linked them with the very dead; and that, by the aid of his descriptions, they had lived in imagination and feeling with the patriarchs of a former age. An old man is always most eloquent in regard to the occurrences of his early life; and they who have passed much of their childhood in the company of the aged can best tell what the potency of that charm is which binds together the generation that is rising up with that which is all but gone. So, probably, had it been with Ephraim and Manasseh, Jacob's grandchildren. Having seen so much, and having come through so much, he could never lack materials wherewith to entertain them; and, although not more intense, yet almost more lively and playful would be their affection for him than that which they cherished for their illustrious parent. But now his eye was waxing dim,

and his departure was at hand.

"THE TIME DREW

Prudently, there

NEAR WHEN ISRAEL MUST DIE." fore, as well as piously, did Joseph take them along with him to the mortal chamber.

Having heard that Joseph was come, "Israel strengthened himself upon the bed."-It is in the time of its deep affliction that a generous heart is most alive to kindness. The friendly offices which at other times may have been more lightly esteemed, are then highly valued. Every little attention is prized, as every appearance of neglect is felt to be acutely harassing. It must doubtless have been a very high gratification to Jacob to find himself thus visited, in his hours of serious indisposition, by his illustrious son. Nor is the aged man's behaviour on the occasion without its practical use. We may learn from it that it is proper for the sick and afflicted to be as cheerful as they possibly can when friends or relatives come to visit them. Not only was Jacob patient under his last ill. ness; but, so far as nature would allow, he was agreeable and courteous. He strengthened himself; that is to say, he did what he could to receive Joseph comfortably. Instead of either showing a sullen disposition or exaggerating his ailments, he appeared to forget them for a time, that he might the more freely enjoy conversation with his beloved son. The frame was indeed feeble, but the spirit was good; the constitution was breaking down, but the mind was quite entire; and so reconciled was he to his condition, that, instead of falling into any fit of peevishness because he must so soon leave the world, he took occasion, while yet in it, to make those about him as contented and happy as possible.

My readers may have perhaps witnessed such a death-bed as this. It may have been your lot to see old age bearing itself well under the load of its infirmities; delicately afraid to give unnecessary trouble; pleased, in a manner, with everything; thankful for every attention shown to it, and turning even from its own ills to soothe and comfort the griefs of others. It may have been your fortune, also, to witness the exhibition of a very different temper; to see every kindness insensibly met, and every sacrifice ungratefully requited, the mind more fretful than the body was pained, and the unhappy man taking the opportunity, when a stranger entered, of magnifying, or at least, if not magnifying, of giving full expression to all his troubles. What a disparity in point of enjoyment, both as regards the person himself and others! How satisfying and satisfied the one-how sad and saddening the other! We will not go so far as to assert that there can be no religion at all in the second case; for certain allowance must be made for natural temperament and constitution; but this we may freely say, that its exhibition (if it does exist) is far less amiable than in the first; and as in every stage of life it is the duty of men to adorn the doctrine of godliness, it ought now to be our prayer and our determination, through grace, that, when sickness is sent. upon us, we may endure it not only with patience of mind, but with cheerfulness of temper.

The discourse of Jacob is made up partly of remembrances, and partly of anticipations; (see Genesis xlviii. 3, &c.) First of all he calls to mind the fact, that when he was a young man leaving his father Isaac's house, a revelation of the Divine glory had

been vouchsafed to him.

"God Almighty appeared

to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me." That had, indeed, been a very memorable night, and it was not wonderful that the Patriarch should now revert to it. A lonely traveller, he had there at sunset chosen for himself a place to lie down upon. Hard as was the pillow on which his head rested, his sleep was sweet and his dream cheering. Then it was that he beheld, in a supernatural vision, a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, and on his ear a voice fell charged with gracious assurances. There, too, in the morning, he had entered into solemn covenant with the God who gave him songs in the night, and vowed that he would serve him with fidelity all the days of his life; and now, on his death-bed he makes grateful mention of this event, as if wishing to make it appear that he had no reason at the close of life for regretting the choice he had made at its commencement. Had there been any cause for lamenting that covenant which he had made with God, now would have been the time for declaring it. But reason of this sort there was none; for his sun was now going down in peace, and his last days were happier than his first.

Need we here stop to show that it is in like manner proper for dying Christians to call vividly up to their recollection the bygone instances of their Heavenly Father's care, their seasons of sweet communion with him, and their experiences of his lovingkindness. Is it not certain that oftentimes the withered cheek and the dim eye of such have been lighted up with something like celestial brightness, when the memory rested on that sacramental table, where, for the first time, they partook of wisdom's bread and

drank of the wine that she had mingled; that the tongue, faltering before, told eloquently of words and sentences indelibly inscribed upon the heart; and that prayers or exhortations which had come home powerfully to the youthful bosom were found to be still very edifying and comfortable to the aged saint? That singular event in Jacob's history resembles in many points a first communicating. Who, that possesses aught of religious feeling, can forget, or wish to forget, that important step in his spiritual history? Is it not true that with many, long and far back as may be the time, the occasion when they first formally dedicated themselves to the service of God is fresh as the events of yesterday; that they can tell almost the precise spot which they occupied ; and that the hopes, the fears, and the purposes which they exercised are still vividly present to their minds? Perhaps you have, like Jacob, been faithful in the main to your solemn vows; and when you represent to yourselves the condition in which you then were placed, you are disposed like him to say, Almighty God blessed us in his house, and we felt as if it were indeed the very gate of heaven. If so, it will be no unsuitable exercise when you are about to die to tell your children, and children's children, that such was your experience, and such your happiness; you will in that case testify with your latest breath that no good thing failed which the Lord had promised you; that the service of God is the only one which can bring comfort at the last; and that all which you desire for those whom you love most dearly upon earth is, that they also may join themselves to him in a covenant not to be forgotten. Oh! it is pleasing, indeed, when the dy