unable to move either hand or foot, having more than four years been entirely deprived of the use of his limbs, yet the whole time suffering extreme anguish from swellings at all his joints. I asked, "Are you left alone, my friend, in this deplorable situation?" No, sir," replied he, in a touchingly feeble tone of mild resignation, "I am not alone, for God is with me." I asked him if he ever felt tempted to repine, under the pressure of so long continued and heavy.a calamity? "Not for the last three years," said he, "blessed be God for it!" the eye of faith sparkling, and giving life to his pallid countenance, while he made the declaration; "for I have learned from this book in whom to believe and though I am aware of my weakness and unworthiness, I am persuaded that He will not leave me, nor forsake me. And so it is, that when my lips are closed with locked jaw, and I cannot speak to the glory of God, he enables me to sing his praises in my heart.”

My young friend, are not such hopes, such prospects as have been mentioned, sources of real pleasure? If you are a follower of the world, what is there in all your vain delights, that can bear any comparison with that holy peace, that pure delight, which flows from the love of God, and a hope full of immortality?

If you yourself perceive no charms in these pleasures, ask those who have tried them, what support and delight they yield, even in the last awful hours of life. Go to the sick bed of the humble believer, and say, "Poor sufferer, can you find comfort in the midst of anguish ?" "Yes," says one, 66 I have pain, but I have peace, I have peace." What! can you contemplate death itself, with comfort? "Yes," replies another, "I bless God, I can lie down with comfort at night, not being solicitous whether I wake in this world or another." But they who made these declarations, had reached advanced life. Go then to the sick bed of the dying youth; ask him, "Can you feel any pleasure, while sickness blasts all the joyous prospects which the young possess, and threatens you with an early tomb?" Let one youthful christian reply, who being dead, yet speaks, "O, that I could but let you know what I now feel! O, that I could show you what I see! O, that I could express the thousandth part of that sweetness that I now find in Christ! you would all then think it well worth while to make it your business to be religious. O, my dear friends, we little think

* Baxter.

+ Watts. Janeway. See his Life, No. 10. Christian Bio

graphy.

what Christ is worth upon a death-bed. I would not for a world, nay, for millions of worlds, be now without Christ and a pardon. I would not for a world live any longer: the very thought of a possibility of recovery, makes me even tremble. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly! Death, do thy worst! Death is nothing (through grace) to me. I can as easily die as shut my eyes, or turn my head and sleep: I long to be with Christ; I long to die. Worldly pleasures are pitiful, poor, sorry things, compared with one glimpse of this glory, which shines so strongly into my soul! O, why should any of you be so sad, when I am so glad! This, this is the hour that I have waited for."

Ask the pious young woman, who, while others of her age are flaunting away in vanity and folly, lies on the bed of pain and suffering. Say to her," Is religion pleasant in your esteem?" Yes, she might reply, "Yes, I am very happy, I would not change situation with any one living. Do not weep for me, I have no wish to live; if I might have life by wishing for it, I should rather choose to die, and go to my Redeemer." "I long to go home." "I am truly happy, and if this be dying, it is a pleasant thing to die." "Not for all the world, not for a thousand worlds would I be restored to health." The

purport of these expressions was actually uttered by two young ladies, neither of whom completed her sixteenth year. O happy they who learn so soon, so well to die! and could you follow these to the triumphant family above, and see that glory which no heart can conceive, then might a heavenly voice say to you, "Hither lead the despised and neglected, but pleasant paths, of early piety." My young friend, shall they lead you there? Can you be truly happy in any other way? Can you be happy too soon in this? Surely, you cannot too soon become acquainted with real pleasure. Seek it then at once. O seek it, in the love of your Redeemer, and the favour of your God.

CHAPTER XI.

The happy conclusion of a religious life, a motive for early piety.

It is the peculiar excellence of religion, that its blessings yield most support, when that support is needed most. If you remember your Creator in these your blooming days, he will remember this kindness of your youth, through all the scenes of your following life; and he will remember you for good, when you come to lie down and die. Death is approaching, and when all sublunary objects can yield you no support, God would remember, that in you he had a child conflicting with the last foe; and you might, with pleasure, think,

"Thongh unseen by human eye,
My Redeemer's hand is nigh;
He has spread salvation's light
Far within the vale of night."

O, my young friend, let me tell you, and tell you seriously, that you must die; and unless you obtain the consolations of religion, must know their importance when tor late. Think then, that thus in your case