ness about you, and which is so often brought to your remembrance by the deaths of one and another of your friends.

And these same considerations are of powerful efficacy to render us resigned to the departure of those who are called before us. It is tranquilizing to know that they have died by the will of God. It is soothing to consider that they are joined to their ancestors, and the spirits of the just. When we consider the dangers and miseries of the state from which they are taken, we shall be restrained from wishing them back. It will much cheer us under the sense of our own bereavement, to consider that they are gone to the bosom of their God. There is holy submission inculcated by the comforting truth, that "He who raised up Christ from the dead, will also quicken their mortal bodies." With these thoughts, then, let the relations and the friends of departed excellence, derive consolation, and learn submission. Let it be the chief concern of surviving friends to have their affliction sanctified to their souls. And let us all, my hearers, when we see the aged and the young, and people of every age, passing in constant succession out of the world, be induced to set our own houses in order, and to remember that we, too, must die. Let us live the life of faith and obedience, having respect in all ways to the revealed will of our God; that when our summonses shall arrive, the considerations which will reconcile the good man to dissolution may be ours, and we may be able to say, "Lord, here am I, do with me as seemeth unto thee good."

SERMON XXXI.

ON DEATH.

ISAIAH, lxiv. 6.

"We all do fade as a leaf."

HIS metaphor of the prophet's is one of the most beautiful

THIS

which can be found in the sacred volume. How strikingly does it describe the perishableness of man. In the spring of his being he shoots forth tenderly, and gradually expands his beauty and vigour to the view. In different individuals, his form and beauty are varied according to the will of the divine Creator. He continues awhile, sometimes quiet in the sunbeams, and sometimes shaken by the winds. But soon he begins to change. Some blight, or worm, or time's corroding influences, impairs his beauty and life. He withers, dies, and falls into the dust. "We all do fade as a leaf."

The metaphor of the prophet marks the certainty of every one's death. Every leaf, whatever its form, or properties, or beauty, must eventually decay. None is exempt. Even the evergreen, which stands through all the seasons of the year, has its period at which it must fail, and resign its place to a succeeding generation. "It is appointed unto all men once to die.” And, one after another, whole generations of men appear and vanish like the transient foliage of succeeding years.

This beautiful metaphor also reminds us of the uncertainty of the time of any individual's death. Leaves fade of every age. And which of them is our peculiar emblem we are unable

to ascertain. Some stand through winter, verdant amidst the Some are fitted by nature to enjoy Some the concealed moth secretly And some are nipped from the We are unable to say which of Few, very few, however, are the

snows and frosts of age. and adorn a short summer. and unseasonably consumes. stock as soon as they appear. these fates shall be our own. leaves which survive the autumn of the year. It is much more probable, that we shall be cut down in the midsummer, yea, or in the very spring of life, than that we shall reach the winter of old age. And if we should stand through all the seasons, how soon is the whole year gone!

But, this instructive metaphor suggests to us the renovation which will follow our decay. Nothing perishes in the material world. There is, indeed, a death of vegetative nature. But it is only for a season. Everything fades to be renewed. The leaves which are fallen, shall in the spring be all replaced. The Almighty "turneth" them "to destruction; again he saith, come again," ye offspring of my power: when, lo, the tree which seemed desolate, is reanimated; and from the earth, with which its faded leaves were mingled, there arises a new covering for it of transcendent freshness and beauty. Thus, in the material world, decay is invariably succeeded by life. The grain dies in the earth, and is quickened. The sun which sets, rises. The leaves which fall, are restored in wonderful order, and each, in its own peculiar form and properties. And who, that contemplates these things, and observes the power and economy of God, in the natural world, can doubt his ability or willingness, to preserve, in the moral and spiritual world, the nobler beings to whom he has given existence! Who, that beholds all men fading as a leaf, and reflects upon their superior endowments, can avoid embracing the hope, that there shall be for them, a glorious spring, in which the Almighty Father shall say, “Come again, ye children of men." Blessed be his name, that "he hath begotten us" to an assurance of this "lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." The gospel confirms and enlarges the virtuous expectations of nature. By its light,

we see a beautiful analogy in all the operations of the Most High. The doctrine of our immortality converts every plant into a preacher. Even the affecting remark of the prophet, that "we all do fade as a leaf," reminds us that we shall be renewed; and, distinguished lot! renewed in a resemblance to the tree of life, whose leaves neither change nor fall, but flourish forever in immortal beauty by the river of the city of God.

Having thus developed the truths, which the prophet has so beautifully wrapped in the text, let us ask ourselves what influence they should have upon our lives.

And in the first place, do "we all fade as a leaf?" What a foundation is this for humility. We are prone to be proud of our wisdom, our beauty, our accomplishments, our strength, and our wealth; and to nourish, enjoy and display these, constitutes a great part of the business of mankind. But what a satire. upon all this is the text! How should it check all the pride of life, to know that it must end in the abasement of the grave! Come, ye beautiful and young; ye wise and accomplished, descend into the chambers where sleep the dead. Open that coffin. Lovely in death is the beauteous ruin it contains. But ah! on that pale cheek was once the rose's hue! That eye once sparkled with the diamond's lustre. Those limbs were once the seats of elegance and dignity. Alas! how changed! Faded as the fallen leaf, and hastening to be converted into dust! Are you proud of your personal accomplishments? Have the honours and charms of this life captivated your heart? Remember that to this state. you must presently come.

Again. Do mankind fall like the leaves of every age, and can no one ascertain the time of his death? Let us not presume upon our lives. Let us not flatter ourselves that the day of our dissolution is far distant. It is blinding ourselves on the edge of a precipice. It is refusing to listen to the voice of experience, and of providence, while we yield ourselves to the delusion of our hearts. For what ground have we, on which to think our lives are safe, which they had not, who are now no longer among the living? Are we young? So were they.

Are we healthy? So were they. Are we useful in the world, and necessary to our families? So were they. Are we enlisted under the banners of faith, and fortified with the armour of virtue? So were they. Yet, in the midst of life, they are cut down. Their hopes and expectations in this world are perished. They are snatched from the scenes which they seemed destined to beautify for many years to come, before they had expanded half their charms. We are of the same substance with them. To the arrows which pierced them, we are ever exposed. And while we are busy in life, and letting our hearts cheer us with many joys, the fatal shaft may be winging its way towards us, which shall lay us in the grave. What a motive is this to diligence and watchfulness! If we have yet an interest in the Redeemer's kingdom to secure, what an inducement does the uncertainty of life furnish, to do it "while it is called to-day." The realities of eternity at stake, and the probation in which they may be secured, liable to be terminated with the passing hour! "Whatsoever thine hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might, for there is no wisdom, knowledge, nor device in the grave, whither thou art hastening."

Once more. Are we destined, like the face of nature, to be renovated after our decay? Let us not be dismayed by our own mortality, nor by that of our friends. The knowledge of a resurrection is sufficient to reconcile us to all the painful concomitants of death. When our virtuous friends decay, the idea that their spirits have ascended to the care and enjoyment of their God, should alleviate the sting of our bereavement. And in the anticipation of our own dissolution, the spirits of Christians should be supported by the prospect of the glory reserved with Christ, and the assurance, that he "will never leave them, nor forsake them." Our chief concern is, while we are passing through this mutable state, to lead a life of faith and obedience; that in the last day we may not be gathered for the burning, but be found among "the trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord," which he will glorify.

These are the truths suggested to our hearts by the affecting