Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/406

 398 acquainted her she was dying, she lifted up her hands and thanked God that he had at length heard her prayers; and she spent her last moments in wholesome admonitions to all about her, and in blessing us her children and all that we have. Thus," adds my dear brother, "our dearest mother made a most glorious end! which, God grant we may all have the happiness to make whenever we shall be called upon!" Amen! say I; and so I am confident will you too. The grand business of life is to prepare for death, as that is preparing for eternity. Of all the acts of that piece, the last is the most important as well as the most difficult, and therefore requires spiritual succor to perform it well. My mother having performed her last act so well, is much comfort even in the midst of affliction. Death, it seems, was regarded by her in the true light, as a removal from a laborious and fatiguing post to a state of reward, for having so faithfully maintained it. This, surely, caused her consolations to abound and overflow in that hour of darkness, and has, I hope, had the same effect on her surviving friends, as far as self-love and other imperfections of human nature will permit.

The decease of a person of her character, if we listen to divine revelation and unbiased reason, cannot be lamented on the person's own account, except we think it acting a rational and Christian part to grieve that the deceased has exchanged mortality and corruption for immortality and in-corruption, and removed from the busy, perplexing and toilsome scenes of life to a permanent and immutable state of rest, and peace, and bliss. However, at first, it is true we are but too apt to do so; prompted thereto partly by the tender affections of humanity, and partly by a very singular regard for ourselves, which makes us reluctant to part from the comfort