came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he of the night. But are the dead only there? Perreturn to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labor, which he may carry away in his hand." | "For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him."

What is any condition without society? But the grave forbids all intercourse, all interview. Says Hezekiah, with tears, "I shall behold man no more, with the inhabitants of the world."

There he

Here the man boasts of his relations. says to corruption, thou art my father, and to the worm, thou art my mother and my sister.

haps some one has been turned to dust beneath the
pew in which you are now sitting. Perhaps your
house stands, and your garden blossoms, over the
remains of some who were once as active as you.
What walk can you take, and not trample on the
ashes of those who are gone before?
"What is the world itself? Thy world?-A grave.
Where is the dust that has not been alive?
The spade, the plough disturbs our ancestors;
From human mould we reap our daily bread.
O'er devastations we blind revels keep.
Whole buried towns support the dancer's heel.
As nature, wide our ruin spread; and death
Inhabits all things but the thought of man!"

There all his active functions, and the feelings which they engendered or subserved, have ceased. "The living know that they shall die; but the dead know not any thing. Also their love and hatred, and envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun." His business, his profession, descends to his successor, or passes to his rival. Even his religious exercises are there abandoned. "In death there is no remembrance of thee. In the grave who shall give thee thanks? Shall the dust praise thee, shall it declare thy truth? Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave ?" "Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy right-rable before him!" eousness in the land of forgetfulness?"

Then, how numerous its victims! How soon the power of calculation fails in reckoning up the myriads that do occupy, and will occupy this dark abode. Seven hundred and fifty millions constitute the population of the globe. These, in less than a century, will be all lodged in the grave. Yet what are these to the multitudes which will follow, and to the immensities that precede!-"Every man shall draw after him, as there have been innume

Then, how impartial its demands! Infinitely diversified as the ways of human life are, here they all approximate and unite. The paths of glory lead but to the grave. Here come the nobles with their titles, and princes with their crowns, and scholars with their volumes.

"Why all this toil, the triumph of an hour?

The body itself, that fine piece of divine workmanship, so fearfully and wonderfully made, is here broken and thrown by as a vessel wherein is no pleasure. The hands have forgotten their enterprise. The cherubic tints have left the cheek, cold and palid. The bright eye is quenched in darkness; and the tongue that excited so much emotion What, though we wade in wealth, or soar in fame, is muteness itself. Nor is this all. There is enough Earth's highest station ends in-Here he lies! in the body, even while living, to prevent all gloryAnd dust to dust concludes her noblest song!" ing in the flesh. It had its humbling appetites and infirmities: it was the seat of diseases which some- "One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at times required all the force of duty and friendship ease and quiet. His breasts are full of milk, and to discharge the offices of humanity. See Job co- his bones are moistened with marrow. And anvered with sore biles from the crown of his head to other dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never the sole of his foot, sitting among the ashes, and eateth with pleasure. They shall lie down alike in scraping himself with a potsherd. But let the ana- the dust, and the worms shall cover them." There tomist take off from a human body that translucent lies the babe that perished in the porch of life; and veil, the skin; and then observe the hideous and there the thrice greyheaded Parr. The beautiful shocking spectacle of flesh, and sinews, and mus- and the deformed, the rich and the poor, there meet cles. View the skeleton, when every thing is re- together. "There the prisoners rest together: the moved from the dry bones. But see the body in the small and the great are there; and the servant is various stages of decomposition and putrefaction-free from his master." "Do not all go to one place? What an exhibition of expense and finery is that All are of the dust, and all turn to dust again!" funeral! Why all this pomp and artifice? It is in honor of the deceased. Why then do you not show to the multitude of gazers, "the Principal concealed, for whom you make the mighty stir ?" You dare not. You have been obliged to enclose, and solder, and coffin him up. What tears bedew the grave at parting! Why then do you part? Why not take and preserve at home "the deceased angel?" You dare not-The form is intolerable. You must bury your dead out of your sight, and shut too the door, and inscribe over it

not,

"How loved, how valued once, avails thee To whom related, or by whom begot: A heap of dust alone remains of thee; 'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be." Thirdly, We may notice it as an universal receptacle. "I know that thou wilt bring me to death: and to the house appointed for all living."

Then, how large its extent! Though the memorials of death do not every where meet your sight: and particular spaces are properly appropriated for interment; and some of them are very capacious and crowded: yet there is scarcely a spot, that holds not some portion of humanity. You feel as you march over a field of battle: you feel as you walk through a church-yard, especially in the darkness

Then, how painful its separations! If it be appointed for all living, then must it entomb the friend that is as thine own soul; the child of thy love, the wife of thy bosom, the guide of thy youth. There Mary goes to the grave to weep over Lazarus. There David cries, "I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan." Who has not sustained some bereavement? Who has not some spot the dearest on earth, and rendered sacred by a deposit more precious than gold? Thus every man feels an interest in the grave. It is to him the residence not of strangers and foreigners, but of kindred who detach him hence. What do I here, and what have I here? I am related not to the living, but the dead -There lie all that bound me to earth. "Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and my acquaintance into darkness."

Then, how personal its claims! If it be appointed for all living, it must require me. I may escape a thousand other things that befall my fellow creatures; but I must follow them here. I see, in their end, the emblem, the pledge, the certainty of my own. No privilege can exempt me here. I am going the way of all the earth. If I wait, the grave is mine house."

But surely there is one exception to be found. We read of a peculiar people, and who are not to

be numbered among the nations. They are the children of God: and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. The Christian, is not he free? No. There is no entering heaven but under ground.

Yet, even in those things in which the Christian seems confounded with others, he is really, he is divinely distinguished. The Christian can view the grave with an eye of faith, as well as of sense. He can view it not only in connection with that sin which has reigned unto death, but in connection with that grace which reigns through righteousness unto eternal life. Though he cannot escape it, he need not dread it. He is prepared to meet it: to encounter it; to vanquish it; to triumph over it; to insult it; to say, "O grave, where is thy victory?" -Let us pass to the

to the Scripture. And hereby he not only said, See how certain my death is; but, Are you afraid to enter the grave? I will go in before you, and render it safe and attractive-Yes, the Lily of the Valley, and the Rose of Sharon, was laid there, and has left a long perfume. Whenever I am committing the remains of a believer to the tomb, I seem to hear the angels saying, Come, see the place where the Lord lay."

46

"The graves of all his saints he blest,
And softened every bed;

Where should the dying members rest,
But with the dying Head ?"

But who

Secondly, When you think of the grave, remember, It is a place of repose. Hence Job adds, "I sleeps the less sound for the darkness? The darkhave made my bed in the darkness." ness aids our slumber. And who, after the fatigues of the day, dislikes or dreads the refreshment of night? The sleep of a laboring man is sweet. He lies down and forgets his sorrow, and remembers his misery no more.

II. Part of our subject, and consider WHAT THE CHRISTIAN CAN FIND TO RELIEVE THE SCENE. People seem to have found a kind of satisfaction when entering the grave, from the thought that they are going to join their connections. Hence, as well as from the pride of distinction, sprang the mausoleums of the great, a kind of family-tomb. Hence, God has a hiding-place for his people even in among the Jews, the frequency of sepulchres in life; and often says, "Come, my people, enter thou their gardens; where they seemed still to retain the into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee; departed near them; and maintain a kind of com- hide thee also for a little season, until the indignamunion with them; and feel soothed at the thought tion be overpast." But here the clouds return after of blending with them, in the exclusive and endear- the rain; and as long as earth is their abode, bonds ing abode. Hence Ruth said to Naomi, "Where and afflictions abide them. Therefore, says Job, thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried." "O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave; that Jacob said, "I will go down into the grave to my thou wouldest keep me secret until thy wrath be son." "I will lie with my fathers; and thou shalt past; that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their bury-remember me!" God takes away his people from ing-place." "And he charged them, and said unto the evil to come. He foresees it; but they do not. them, I am to be gathered unto my people; bury He therefore lays hold of them, and places them in me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of a sheltered retreat. And you often clearly see, after Ephron the Hittite." "In the cave that is in the their removal, what some of your connections would field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the have suffered had they continued here a little longer. land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the Ah! says one, whose purposes are broken off-his field of Ephron the Hittite, for a possession of a bu- very heart desolated within him-Ah! what should rying-place; there they buried Abraham and Sarah I have escaped, had I been allowed an earlier rehis wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his tirement. "For now should I have lain still and wife; and there I buried Leah." Nor was this only been quiet; I should have slept: then had I been the language of faith, but of nature. In vain I am at rest." Yes-from the snares and vexations of told there is no reason in the thing, since there is no the world; from the reproaches and persecutions conscious community in the grave. There are of the ungodly; from the perfidy or weakness of beautiful insects, too fine for dissection: yet there is friends; from the temptations of the Devil; from in them all the reality of organization. There are the conflicts of flesh and spirit: there all will be sentiments to be felt rather than explained-instincts peace; all will be quietness; all will be assurance of the heart; it is nature-it is the God of nature for ever. "There the wicked cease from troubling, that speaks in them. We often feel most forcibly and there the weary are at rest." an impression whose cause is hidden and undefina- Thirdly, When you think of the grave, rememble. What occurs to the mind in a kind of distinct ber that it has only a partial empire; it only receives proposition may be met, and argued, and repulsed; what is corporeal and mortal. Here we are not but a principle whose influence is really, yet secret-going to enter into metaphysical reasonings. We ly and unaccountably exerted, resembles those in- understand but little of the connection of spirit, with visible laws in the natural world, whose agency we matter; yet why should we doubt the possibility of ean neither deny nor withstand. To which we may its existence separate from it? Are we not conadd, that whatever tends to diminish the gloom of scious of some mental operations, in which the body the grave, and to render it more inviting, is to be seems to take no share? And when the powers of cherished, and not despised. But we have some- the body are suspended in sleep, is there not something superior to all this. There are five things thing that sees without eyes, and hears without ears? which a Christian should think of with regard to Do we not even then dream? and often with an the grave. Jesus himself has been in it. It is a amazing degree of activeness? place of repose. It receives only a part of the man. It will not be able to retain this always. It must not only restore it, but restore it improved.

First, When you think of the grave, remember that Jesus himself has been there. How far did he, who is all your salvation and all your desire, carry his humiliation! He descended into the lowest parts of the earth. As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so the Son of man was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. He not only died, but was buried, according

The heathens seemed to allow that something in man could exist, and would either suffer or enjoy independently of the body-for of the revival of the body they never had the least notion. But we turn at once to the Scriptures, the only source of satisfac"Then shall tory information in a case like this. the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." Hear the statement of the Apostle: "Absent from the body, and present with the Lord." And his own wish expressed to the Philippians: "I long to depart to be with

Christ, which is far better;" i. e. far better for him, | Saviour found it in the Pentateuch; and deduced though to abide in the flesh was more needful for it from the declaration of God at the burning bush: them. Now if he did not believe that his soul would "I am the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of be immediately with Christ, his desire is perfectly Jacob, God is not the God of the dead, but of the unintelligible. For by dying, he would have been living:" for all live unto him-purpose and accom no sooner with Christ, than he would by remaining plishment being the same with him. In Isaiah we alive, as to time; nor so near, as to enjoyment; for read, "Thy dead men shall live: together with my here he had access to him and intercourse with him. dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye How undeniably is this distinction admitted by our that dwell in the dust for thy dew is as the dew of Saviour, and made the rule of his most solemn ad- herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." Many monitions. "Fear not them which kill the body, have supposed, with much probability, that here is but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him a promise of the resurrection of believers through which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." their union with Christ. But if the evidence of this "I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them supposition be not strong enough to bear such an that kill the body, and after that have no more that argument, it is undeniable, that the deliverance of they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye the people of God from a state of the lowest degrashall fear fear him, which, after he hath killed, dation and hopelessness, is here held forth by an hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, image taken from the resurrection of the dead.fear him." To which we may add his promise to And Ezekiel employs the same image in the vision the thief on the cross; which, though often tortured, of the dry bones, raised to union and life. still refuses to support any other principle; "Veri- what can more clearly prove that the doctrine of ly, verily, I say unto thee, this day thou shalt be with the resurrection of the dead was in those days a me in Paradise." known and popular sentiment? For an image employed to represent any thing in the way of allegory or metaphor, whether in poetry or prophecy, must be generally and well understood, or the end of its appropriation is defeated. In the New Testament, it is more than merely admitted. It is every where affirmed, and reasoned from, as an important principle. And how commonly the notion and belief of it prevailed among the Jews, appears from the language of Martha; "I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." And from the defence of Paul before Felix; "And have hope towards God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust."

This being premised and proved, we observe, that the souls of believers are in their bodies, as the lamps of Gideon in the pitchers: at midnight the pitchers are broken, and the lamps shine forth, and the victory is obtained. This, to drop the metaphor, this is the ground of consolation taken by the Apostle : "And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness."

Fourthly, When you think of the grave, remember that its reign is not only limited as to subject, but as to duration. Even the body, which it does receive, will not, cannot be retained by it always; therefore the Apostle adds, "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you."

The grave is called our long home, not because it is far off, for we live in the very neighborhood; but because our stay there will be long, compared with our stay in our present home. This, indeed, will not apply to all. Some at the last day will have been buried only a year, or a week, or a day. The sexton will be performing his office on some at the very instant; and the re-animated corpse will burst the coffin before it be confined in the grave; and the attendants be all changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. But you will lie there till the heavens be no more. Many will have been found dwelling there for thousands of years. Yet whatever be the length of the occupancy, it will have an end, and all the inhabitants will be sent forth.

And why should it be thought incredible that God should raise the dead? With God all things are possible. But you say, appearances do not render it probable. We see nothing more of the body we inter; yea, we know it dissolves and returns to dust. Yet was not that oak once an acorn? Did not that beautiful insect once lie in its little mummy grave? But it burst its confinement, and now owns the air and sky. What do men produce from the rudest elements? Show a stranger to the process, a figure of glass; and then place him before the bare materials from which it is deduced. "How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die; and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain; but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body." But how decisive is the testimony of the Scripture! The doctrine is found even in the Old Testament. Our

And

Here also we have it in fact and example. Several were raised again: and one of them after he had lain in the grave four days, and the process of corruption must have more than commenced. But Jesus himself arose: and he is not only an instance, but a pledge. If ever an event was proved, it was at the resurrection of Christ. But if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some that there is no resurrection of the dead? But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that sleep. His resurrection is the claim, as well as the proof of ours-" Because I live, ye shall live also." Our nature was revived in his person; and thus we are quickened with Christ, and raised up, and made to sit with him in heavenly places.

But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterwards they that are Christ's, at his coming. Our Saviour repeatedly said, "I will raise him up at the last day." For this is the period appointed for the resurrection: and the reason of the appointment, in a measure, appears. If each body was raised in succession previously, the order of nature and Providence would be perpetually invaded, and miracles would be constantly required. And not only for this reason, but also for the greater honor of the Redeemer, this greatest and sublimest exertion of Almightiness is reserved for the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe. Then, O Death! he will be thy plagues; then, O Grave! he will be thy destruction; and repentance shall be hid from his eyes.

Finally, Remember, to complete your comfort, that what you resign to the grave will not only be restored, but infinitely improved. As Egypt was compelled not only to allow the Israelites to depart, but to send them away enriched; and as Cyrus not only gave up the captives from Babylon, but ordered

them to be helped with silver and gold, and with | insensibilities of sleep, and frequent returns of food, goods, and beasts, beside their own free-will offer- to renew its strength and keep it fit for action: but ings to the house of God; so will it be in the resur- capable of serving Him in his temple day and rection. Believers will not only leave the grave as night, without languor, and without repose. "It is they entered it-they will be, not only delivered, but sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body:" exalted; they will not only have life, but have it Not a spirit, but spiritual. Not spiritual in its esmore abundantly. sence, but in the refinement of its senses, and inI deem this an important part of our subject: you dulgences, and functions, and use. For "There is will therefore allow me a little enlargement. Who- a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." ever has looked over the early attacks on Christi- The second is, to hold forth the conformity it will anity will have observed, that the pagan philoso- bear to the body of our Saviour. "And so it is phers not only denied the doctrine of the resurrec- written, The first man Adam was made a living tion, but affected to contemn the thing itself. They soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. considered it a bane, rather than a benefit; and re- Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but presented it as imprisoning us again, and burdening that which is natural; and afterward that which is us again, after the soul had been freed from its fet- spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the ters and load. And some Christians really seem to second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the be almost like-minded. Few appear to consider it earthy, such are they also that are earthy and as a prize; at least, such a prize as Paul did when he is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavensaid, "If by any means I might attain unto the re-ly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, surrection of the dead." And the reason is proba- we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." "It bly this. They now know the disadvantages of the doth not yet appear what we shall be; but this we body, and are insensibly led to judge of the future know, that when he shall appear, we shall be like by their feelings at present. And indeed if the bo- him, for we shall see him as he is." And this likedies raised up were no better than those laid down, ness takes in the body as well as the soul. What a the resurrection would excite but little eagerness of body was that, which after his resurrection could desire. But what saith the Scriptures? Do not the render itself visible and invisible at pleasure; sacred writers supremely lead forward your minds which walls and doors could not exclude; which to this, and point your highest hope, not to the inter- moved with the ease and expedition of thought; mediate state, but to your re-embodied?" He shall which ascended up on high without impulsion; be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." "I which appeared to Saul, and at noon-day shone am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I above the brightness of the sun; in which he is have committed to him against that day." Man, in now worshipped by all the angels of God; and in his primeval state, was incarnate: and if hereafter which he will judge the world in righteousness, and we could attain perfection and happiness without reign for ever and ever! But this, O believer, is our bodies, what need would there be for their re- the model of thy destination. "We look for the production from the dust? Yet, according to the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change views and feelings of many, this grandest exertion our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his of divine power seems to be entirely, or almost, un- glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.""

necessary.

But let us not be wiser than our Maker. However incapable we may be of reasoning convincingly upon the subject, there must be an accession of perfection and happiness to be enjoyed in a state of reunion with the body, unattainable in a separate state. The life of a mere spirit must differ much from its subsistence in a corporeal organization. Without the latter, it can hardly connect itself, for want of a medium, with the material universe, the new heavens and the new earth. It must be a stranger to the pleasures that depend on our senses and passions; and also those which arise from imagination. Was it not a privilege for Enoch and Elias to enter heaven embodied?"But their bodies were changed." It is allowed. And ours will be changed also; for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. And what a change must that be, that can fit us for such a state! We are therefore not to think of our future incarnation by our present. The body then will not be a prison, a burden; it will not be a hinderance, but a help; and will even subserve the soul in knowledge, holiness, benevolence, and enjoyment.

There are two ways by which the Scripture elevates our conceptions of the resurrection body. The first is, to compare, or rather contrast it with the body we now have. "So is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption:" Not only incapable of defilement, but of dissolution, of declension, of injury: impassive; immortal. "It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory:" No longer composed of base elements, subsisting on gross supplies, subject to the same laws with the beasts that perish, employed in low and degrading toils and pursuits. "It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:" No longer fatigued with a little exertion, and requiring long

-Let this assurance and confidence lead us to bless God for revelation, and the explicitness of its discoveries. With us the darkness is past, and the true light shineth. And what does it leave undiscovered that is important to our safety, or our welfare, or our comfort? Whatever reasonings and conjectures the Heathen had with regard to a future state, it is well known they gave up the body. No one for a moment ever supposed that the grave could re-open, and the dead arise. When Paul was at Athens (where the immortality of the soul was frequently asserted,) and preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection; even the men of science, forgetting the gravity that became their character, "mocked!" and said, "What will this babbler say?" But there is not a peasant or a child in our land of vision, but knows that the dead, small and great, will stand before God.

-This prospect should comfort you in the loss of your connections. You are not forbidden to feel

"Your grief becomes you, and your tears are just." Jesus wept. But Weeping must not hinder sowing." "I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." "But they were so dear!" They were. But they are much dearer now. They have left all their imperfections, and all their sorrows behind

"They sleep in Jesus, and are blest:
How sweet their slumbers are;
From suffering and from sin released,
And freed from every care."

And this is not all. "Martha! Thy brother shall

When I lie buried deep in dust,
My flesh shall be thy care;
Those with'ring limbs with thee I trust,
To raise them strong and fair."

-But what is all this to some of you, my brethren? Let me speak freely; and do not consider me as your enemy because I tell you the truth. Who of you have not frequently been at the grave of a neighbor, a friend, a relation? Sometimes you have been deeply impressed there. But how soon did the impression wear off; and you renewed your pursuit of the world, as eagerly as if you had never heard, never seen, never felt that all was vanity and vexation of spirit.

rise again. Rachel! You weep for your child, and refuse to be comforted, because he is not."-"Why was this loved babe born? why was I torn with pain at his birth, and again rent with anguish at his death? What purpose has his brief history answered? What has now become of him?" These and a thousand other inquiries which the busy mind will ask, could never have been answered, but for this book-never so precious as in the hour of trouble. There the mystery is explained. There, you learn, that a sparrow falleth not to the ground without your heavenly Father; that the present is only the threshold of existence; that the soul of this infant is now in the Shepherd's bosom, and that his body will not perish, but be seen again, "all heavenly and divine." "Refrain thy voice from weeping, What do you think of your own grave? Perand thine eyes from tears; for thy work shall be re-haps the thought never enters your mind; or if warded, saith the Lord; and thy children shall come it does, you deem it an impertinent and hateful again from the land of the enemy." O ye children! | intruder; and you drive it from you, as you would who are yet spared, and are now responsible for your a serpent. Some of you have been led down very conduct; let this comfort be put into our hearts with nearly to the grave, by perilous accident or disease. regard to you. Remember your Creator. Live and And how did it appear? Did it not seem an awful die in the Lord; and then, though we lose you for a thing to enter an invisible and changeless state? moment, you shall be restored to us, equal to the Did you not turn your face to the wall and weep? angels, and be the children of God, being the child- If ever you prayed, was it not then? "O spare ren of the resurrection. And you, parents! endear- me a little, that I may recover strength, before I ed by so much affection, and whose venerable looks go hence and be no more." Where now are the remind us of separation; fear not to go in good confessions and vows of that hour? Perhaps the time. We will rock the cradle of your age; and very scene is rendered disagreeable by your aposcomfort you on the bed of languishing; and kiss tacy from your convictions-your endeavor to foryour cold cheeks, and close your eyes, and lay you get it-and you shun the Christian, and the minisin the dust-But we shall see you again; and our ter you called in, because they are now witnesses heart shall rejoice, and our joy no one taketh from us. against you. -And let this animate you when looking towards Here is an awful case. And what can you do? your own grave. And surely some of you must be If you wait, the grave is your house--and you thinking of it. Your complaints, your infirmities, know you must enter it. You may play the infidel; your years, must lead you to ask, How long have you may deny the truth of the gospel; but it is useto live? Well if you are a Christian, you have less to deny that you are on the borders of the every reason to think of it with resignation and grave-you may reason about it; you may look up pleasure. God says to you, as he did to Jacob trem- and curse God and your King. But you cannot bling on the confines of Egypt, "Be not afraid to go escape. Perhaps you would be shocked to be undown: I will go down with thee; and I will bring buried; but this is not likely to be your case. You thee up again." He will watch over your sleeping may have a good grave-a much better grave than dust, and he will bid it rise. If it be trying to part many of your neighbors; and it will afford your with your companion the body, remember it is only body ease; and in this sense, the clods of the valley for a time; and it will be restored to you in the will be sweet about you. But is there not a spirit image of God's Son. Say then, "I am not follow-in man? Where will your soul be while your ing cunningly devised fables. Í build upon a rock. It is true, sin takes away my health and breath, and lays my body down in the grave. But I hear Him saying among the tombs, I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. At the sound of this, I take courage and go forward. I am not stumbling over a precipice, uncertain where I shall fall, and not knowing that I shall ever rise. I descend into the grave by a gentle flight of steps, leaning on my Beloved and my Friend--I choose to die. It is thou, my God, my Saviour, who callest me; and I give up my life into thy hand, assuredly persuaded, that thou art able and willing and engaged to return it." This is not empty declamation. I have taken the very language from the lips of a dying saint-I stood by and after she had surveyed her reduced and wrinkled hands and arms, she ended her address-and life too, a few moments after-with the words of the sweet Psalmist in our British Israel:

body is resting in the grave? Yea, and how is the body to be disposed of at last?

The Lord Jesus will raise you, as well as his people; but his agency will have a very different principle. The resurrection of the godly will be performed by him-as their Lord and Redeemer, under the administration of grace; but the wicked will be raised by him as the Ruler and the Judge, under an administration of law; for they are under the law, and not under grace. They refused the ransom, and died in their guilt; and the grave received them as criminals in charge, bound over to justice-for as many as are under the law, are under the curse; and as they live, and die-so they rise the same.

There is also a difference 'in the bodies revived. What the bodies of the righteous will be, you have heard; but they that sow to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. The evils attached to your bodies will not be left in the grave, but will cleave to them for ever; and they will inherit the seeds of disease, and the principles of deformity; and they will have the same raging appetites and passions-but all unindulged.

The conditions following also differ. "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." "Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth: