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From his long fleep in the chamber of the DISC. grave, he will awake to behold the neverfading glories of a world, which “ will " have no need of the fun, neither of the " moon, to shine in it'; for the Lord God " and the Lamb," those brighter and inextinguishable luminaries, shall enlighten it for ever". The Almighty shall again with complacency survey the works of his hands, and pronounce every thing he has made to be "very good;" he shall again rest on the seventh day; the children of the refurrection shall enter into his rest, and keep an eternal fabbath. Let us "comfort one "another with these words."

A view of the different materials of which man is composed, may teach us to form a proper estimate of him. He stands between the two worlds, the natural and the spiritual, and partakes of both. His body is material, but its inhabitant descends from another system. His foul, like

2 Rev. xxi. 23.

the

DISC. the world from which it comes, is immor

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tal; but his body, like the world to which it belongs, is frail and perishable. From it's birth it contains in it the seeds and

principles of dissolution, towards which it tends every day and hour by the very means that nourish and maintain it, and which no art can protract beyond a certain term. In spite of precaution and medicine, " the evil days will come, and the years "draw nigh, when he shall say, I have no " pleasure in them." Pains and forrows will fucceed each other, as "the clouds " return after the rain," blackening the face of heaven, and darkening the sources of light and joy. The hands, those once active and vigorous "keepers of the house," grown paralytic, shall "tremble;" and "the strong men," those firm and able columns which supported it, shall "bow " themselves," and fink under the weight. The external " grinders" of the food, the teeth, "shall cease because they are few," and the work of mastication shall be imperfectly performed. Dim suffusion shall veil the organs of fight, " they that look DISC. " out of the windows shall be darkened."

"The doors," or valves, "shall be shut in "the streets," or alleys of the body, when the digestive powers are weakened, and "the found of the" internal "grinding is "low." Sleep, if it light upon the eyelids of age, will quickly remove again, and " he will rise up" at the time when the first "voice of the bird" proclaims the approach of the morning. " All the daugh" ters of music shall be brought low;" he will hear no more the voice of finging men, and finging women. Timidity and distrust will predominate, and he will be alarmed at every thing; "he shall be "afraid of that which is high, and fears " shall be in the way." As the early " al" mond tree," when it flourishes in full blossom, his hoary head shall be confpicuous in the congregation, the sure prognostic not of spring, alas, but of winter; he who, like "the grashopper," in the season of youth was so sprightly in his motions, now scarce able to crawl upon the earth,

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DISC. earth, "shall be a burden" to himself; and, the organs of sense being vitiated and impaired, "defire" and appetite " shall fail." The spinal marrow, that "filver cord," with the infinite ramifications of the nerves, thence derived, will be relaxed, and lose it's tone; " and the golden bowl," the receptacle of the brain, from which it proceeds “ shall be broken." The vessel, by which, as a "pitcher," the blood is carried back to the heart for a fresh supply, " shall "be broken at the fountain, and the "wheel," or instrument of circulation, which throws it forth again to the extremities of the body, "shall be broken at "the cistern *." - When this highly finished piece of mechanism shall be thus difjointed and dissolved, "then shall the dust," of which it was framed, "return to the " earth as it was, and the spirit shall return " to God who gave it." Learn we from hence, to bestow on each part of our com- DISC. position that proportion of time and attention, which, upon a due confideration of it's nature and importance, it shall appear to claim at our hands.

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To stamp on man his own image, was the defign of God in creating him; to restore that image, when lost, was the defign. of God in redeeming him. Could greater honour have been done to human nature ? Never may the guilt be ours of debafing our nature and obliterating "this image and "superscription;" a species surely of treason against the majesty of heaven. Sloth will cuscure the fair impression; it's attendants, ignorance and vice, will destroy it. Let diligence therefore be appointed to watch over it, and to retouch, from time to time, the lines that are faded; till, the whole standing confeffsed in knowlege, righteoufness, and true holiness, men may glorify our father which is in heaven, while they behold his resemblance upon earth. So shall we answer the ends of our creation

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and