death; and although he knows he must fall in the conflict, yet faith assures him, though he falls, he will conquer-will gain the victory through the Captain of his salvation, who has won it for him; he can therefore, by anticipation, shout the triumph even before he engages in the conflict, "O death, where is thy sting; O grave, where is thy victory." As the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law, and as Christ has become the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth, he has disarmed sin of its power, and death of its sting.

To real Christians, death has, as it were, changed his form, yea, even lost his substance, and nothing of him is left but his shadow; sleep is merely the image of death. It is death, not the Christian that dies. The Christian just begins to live; he falls asleep in Jesus, and his soul awakes in immortal life, glory and blessedness, where death can never enter or have any more dominion over him for ever. Death is only a conquered enemy; but he is also transmuted into a friend. "Death is yours," saith the Apostle; yours to deliver you from all sin, sorrow, and suffering; yours to introduce you into the presence of your God and Saviour, and into all the pure and holy joys and felicities of heaven.

Who would not wish to die the death of the righteous, and have their last end like his ? And whose inmost soul does not shudder at the thought of dying the death of the wicked, and to have his last end and final portion like theirs? What cause have we to thank God for giving to feeble, dying mortals, such a victory over the monster death, as to enable them to contemplate the closing scene of life not only with composure, but with pleasing anticipation, having a desire to depart and be with Christ." And many others, who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage, when their time of departure drew near, and they were about to step down into the lone valley, have found death so disarmed of his sting, and disrobed of his terror, that they could, while passing through his shadow, triumphantly sing

66

66

"Lend, lend your wings, I mount! I fly!
O grave! where is thy victory?

O death! where is thy sting?"

O what a debt of love, gratitude and praise do we owe the ever-blessed Saviour, who has purchased all this for us by his own sufferings and death; he encountered death, that he might give his faithful followers an easy and triumphant victory over death.

"Now to the God of victory

Immortal thanks be paid,

Who makes us conquerors while we die,
Through Christ, our living Head."

J. HEADLEY.

THE STORMS OF LIFE.

Lines suggested by the recent Storm on the Coast of Cornwall.

I SAW the ocean roused, I heard the roar
Of mighty billows dashing on the rocks
In fearful rage. The breeze became a storm,
And howl'd in fury o'er the surging deep,
Lashing it into madness. On it sent,
Wave after wave with potent violence,
As if determined to engulph the land
And batter down the workmanship of time.
The storm increased, and plied its utmost
force,

But still the rocks stood silent in their
strength,

Unwasted, unimperill'd, undismayed,
Dashing their furious enemies afar,
Back to the sea all spotted o'er with foam.
While thus I gazed in silent adoration,
Admuing the Omnipotence of Deity,

That storm methought showed human life; Those waves were emblems of the Christian's foes,

Those rocks were symbols of the Church's
head;

The bluster of that disappointed storm
Shadow'd forth the trials of our pilgrimage;
And as the rocks triumphantly drove back
The warring surges of the angry deep,
So Christ, the Rock of Ages, will repel
The storms that beat around the Christian's
soul,

And guard the treasures of its faith and love,
Till time with it shall cease, and death dis-
play,

The wonders of a pure and heavenly state.
R. H. H.