Page:Serious thoughts for the living.pdf/10

 To theſe, how calm was the evening of life! In what a ſmiling ſerenity did their ſun go down! When their fleſh and their heart failed, how reviving was the remembrance of an all ſufficient Redeemer; once dying for their ſins, now riſen again for their juſtification: How chearing the well grounded hope of pardon for their tranſgreſſions, and peace with through  our ! How did this aſſuage the agonies, and ſweeten the bitterneſs of death?—Where now is wealth, with all her golden mountains? Where is honour, with her proud trophies of renown? Where are all the vain pomps of a deluded world? Can they inſpire ſuch comfort, can they adminiſter any ſupport, in this laſt extremity? Can they compoſe the affrighted thoughts, or buoy up the departing ſoul, amidſt all the pangs of diſſolution?——The followers of the Lamb ſeem pleaſed and triumphant even at their laſt gaſp. "'s everlaſting arms are underneath" their fainting heads. His Spirit whiſpers peace and conſolation to their conſciences. In the ſtrength of theſe heavenly ſuccours they quit the field, not captives but conquerors; with "hopes full of immortality."

And now they are gone.——The ſtruggles of reluctant nature are over- The body ſleeps in death, the ſoul launches into the inviſible ſtate.—But who can imagine the