shortly find that peace and happiness which creatures cannot give.

Thus, tranquil with respect to what is past, disregarding the present, transported with joy that he has at last arrived upon the borders of that future state which was the object of his desires; seeing the bosom of Abraham already open to receive him, and the Son of man seated at the right hand of the Father, holding in his hands the crowns of immortality, he sleeps in the Lord, and is borne by blessed spirits to the abode of the saints,-to mansions of eternal bliss. May you, my brethren, thus see your earthly course terminate! This is what I wish you all.Amen.

Sermon V.

PREPARATION FOR DEATH.

BY L. BOURDALOUE.

LUKE VII. 12, 13.

Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her.

In this passage of scripture, my hearers, ma

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ny interesting circumstances are mentioned ;-a mother who has lost her son, and who is thus deprived of her most pleasing hope ;-a young man taken away in the flower of his age,-an only son, the sole heir of his family, suddenly cut off from all his expectations;—and a crowd of people accompanying the corpse to the grave, and taking part in this funeral ceremony.

These were circumstances calculated to touch the Saviour of men; and it was impossible that a God of love and mercy should not be moved with so mournful a retinue, with a sight so worthy of pity. But other objects affected him still more sensibly. The loss of a son, the grief of a mother, the death of an heir, the desolate situation of a widow, these were considerations drawn wholly from this world; and what gave our Lord greater pain than L

any of these, was the excessive though natural attachment of this mother to her son; the want of piety in this woman, who looked upon death not with the eye of faith, but with the eye of sense; and the unhappy condition of this young man, who had been surprised by an unexpected death for which he was not prepared.

Now, to confine myself to this last idea, which appears to me the most essential and the most important, is it not thus that many die every day; that is, without having thought of death, without being prepared for the closing scene? And what is there more deplorable than the situation of a man who finds himself at this last moment when he least expects it ; and who has made no preparation for an event the consequences of which are eternal? It is then of the greatest moment, my dear hearers, that you learn to prevent so dreadful a danger; and for this reason I propose to discourse to you at present concerning a preparation for death.

St. Chrysostom, in the rules which he has given for the conduct of life, makes a preparation for death consist particularly in three things: A persuasion of the certainty of death: Watchfulness against being surprised by death: And, that practical acquaintance with death, which consists in dying daily to the world, or in making of life itself a continual apprenticeship to death.

What excites compassion in the Son of God in relation to us is that though we fear death, to a great degree, we nevertheless live in an entire negligence, and profound forgetfulness of that period. We fear death; and yet however certain, and even near it may be, we are scarce ever persuaded that we must certainly die. We fear death; and yet however uncertain, in some respects, it may be, and however liable we are to be deceived and surprised by it, we take as little precaution as if we were fully instructed as to the time and manner of our death. In fine, we

fear death; and yet, notwithstanding the daily and sensible experience we have of death, we never really learn to die. To the illustration of these three points your attention is now called.

I. It is in a persuasion of the certainty of death that a preparation for that important event must begin. For it is difficult for us seriously to prepare for any thing, of the certainty of which we are not fully persuaded; and if it is to be attended with consoquences so irreparable and so terrible as death, it is not possible, if we are strongly persuaded of it, that we should not apply ourselves to prepare for it, with all our power. Do not consider what I shall now say to you, my hearers, as paradoxical, or as affording no instruction; and do not reply,-Death is so certain that there is nothing of which men, in spite of themselves, are more fully convinced. For I assert, on the contrary, that there is nothing, or almost nothing, of which they are less so. This is a truth which may surprise you, and which I should not myself comprehend, if I did not know in what sense it is to be understood; still it is a certain truth of which I hope to convince you.

It is true, my brethren, we are all persuaded that a sentence of death is decreed against sinful man in the sovereign tribunal of a just God.; and that this sentence is irrevocable and without appeal. But by a certain enchantment of our self love, we insensibly forget that this sentence is to be executed upon us; and we live, in effect, as if we were persuaded that we are never to die. We know well as a general truth, that all men arc mortal; but by a thousand illusions, and a thousand false hopes which deceive us, whatever may be the general truth, we always make a particular exception in favor of ourselves. Or, to speak more properly, though we have a speculative evidence and conviction that we ourselves shall die, yet a thousand practical errors make us