Servants. wanted; for leave is light; and returning punctually at the time you promise, shews obedience, and is a proof of sobriety. XXIV. If you are dissatisfied in your place, mention your objections modestly to your master or mistress, and give a fair warning, and do not neglect your business, or behave ill, in order to provoke them to turn you away: for this will be a blemish in your character, which you must always have from the place you served. Contemplation. CHAPTER XVIII. Faith builds a bridge across the gulph of Death, YOUNG. WHILE Wrapt in the silence of the night, I take my solitary and contemplative walk in the churchyard, with what a feeling concern do I reflect on the living world around me! How striking the contrast Here rest in quiet and peace the well nigh forgotten remains of those who once filled up busy spheres on the earth! All those distinc Contemplation. tions which they so anxiously courted, are now for ever done away; all those animosities which they so warmly agitated, are now for ever hushed and forgotten; and all those complainings and sighs which they so mournfully uttered, are silenced for ever, and heard no more- -Yet on the great theatre of the world the same parts are still acting; the same ardour for place and preeminence; the same propensity to malice and envy; the same repinings and lamentations are found as if generations preceding read no lessons of instruction; as if men utterly forgot that their hour appointed was hastily advancing. : Oh that they were wise, that they understood these things, that they would consider their latter end! Benevolent wish! for nothing so powerfully, so strongly teaches as a consideration of that latter end-which is of general concern, for every son of Adam is equally interested! Can we reflect upon the day of dissolution approaching, when every sublunary hope shall cease, and every worldly project vanish as the shadow ; can we survey the solemn mansions of the dead, where the mingling dust bespeaks the folly of all earthly Contemplation. pre-eminence and honour;-and yet pursue, with unremitted chace, the fleeting vanities of life; and yet indulge, with unrelenting hearts, the burning passions, which torture human peace, and murder man's best felicity? Nay, and can it be possible that we should look beyond the grave, and recollect that an existence everlasting awaits us, and not use every wise, every rational method to secure to our souls the comforts of that existence, when time hath closed upon us, and we have bid an eternal adieu to all things here below? Thrice awful meditation! May its powerful instruction deeply impress my soul!-Nothing teaches like Death. It is, indeed, the wages of sin, and a fearful evil, we must needs allow it! but then it is a persuasive monitor, and, superior to all things, convinces us of, and leads us to combat and conquer, sin! The sting of Death is sin! From thence we may plainly discover what is the grand remedy against its fear and its power to harm. Destroy 'sin, and Death becomes no longer formidable; he cannot hurt or annoy, for his sting is taken Consolation. away. But how shall we achieve this desirable enterprize, how destroy the sting of death? It is done, already done for us! Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Here then, thou trembling mortal, who art every day distressing thy feeble soul with the fear of approaching death-here behold the first and greatest consolation under it: "Faith in Jesus Christ," who through death destroyed him who had the power of death; and will deliver thee from that fear of death, which all thy life-time hath kept thee in bondage! Look to that triumphant Conqueror, who died on the cross, and lay in the grave, to sanctify it for us see in his precious redemption a full pardon for all thy offences ; and, with the eye of faith steadily fixed upon him, thou also shalt triumph over an enemy, already vanquished. This is the grand remedy against, and chief consolation under, the fear of Death, "the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ;" which, properly understood, comprehends every other lation. But that we may not be misunderstood, let us, as a second consolation and re conso |