Page:Sermons preached in the African Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Thomas', Philadelphia.djvu/246

242 heart, deposits in the grave a departed friend who died in the Lord, he may look forward with a lively hope to the resurrection morning, when the vast empire of death shall be utterly abolished; when the bodies of the saints shall arise all-glorious and immortal. Then, these earthly tabernacles will no longer be clogs to the soul in her devotional exercises; but happy instruments and assistants in all the exalted services of the Church triumphant above. But, on the other hand, the wicked, being "vessels of wrath fitted to destruction" will be raised with bodies built upon indestructible materials, only to be made capable of enduring in union with the soul, that "horrible tempest" of wrath, which is to be their portion forever and ever. Oh, who does not wish to escape this tremendous doom of the finally impenitent, and to share in the ineffable glories that are in reserve for the godly. Baalam exclaimed: "Let me die the