Sh. Sable Night, mother of Dread and Fear, And in her vaulty prison stows the day. 121 Ed. "Blackness of darkness forever." The sinner's final inheritance. "Outer darkness." The sinner's dismal landscape. "Dark mountains." That hide their sun forever. "Mist of darkness." That will drown them in perpetual sorrow. "Thick darkness." Which they will keenly feel eternally. "Light of eternity." A bright, azure cloud, that will cheer saints, but with a dark side to fill sinners with universal and ever-increasing darkness. 198. DARKNESS, MORAL. What wonder the world walk on in darkness, when those set for lights in the world are hid each one under his own bushel. Ed. Moral darkness differs from night, in fancying itself to be luminous. 199. DEAFNESS. None are so deaf as those who will not hear. Ed. Both old and young hear badly, when God and conscience speak. 200. DEATH. Those who ripen early, like fruit, drop early. Em. Death is a most important event. It stamps the characters and conditions of mankind for eternity. As death finds them, so they will be found to all eternity. Ib. Good men, as well as bad, commonly die very much as they lived. If they have lived in stupidity, they die in stupidity. If they have lived in darkness, they die in darkness. If they have lived in hope, they die in hope. If they have waited for death, they die in peace and joy. Ed. Death, - the transition from darkness to intellectual light, and from time to eternity. A celebrated European physician tells us that, taking 122 DEATH APPROACHING. the whole world together, more than half die before they are eight years old. Young. Death loves a shining mark, a signal blow; A blow, which, while it executes, alarms; And startles thousands with a single fall. There is nothing more certain than death, and more uncertain than the time of dying. Most men die, before they get ready to live. Watts. Ib. Cowper. Young. Death, like an overflowing stream, Cut down and withered in an hour. His quiv'ring lip hangs feebly down, Then, speechless, with a doleful groan, But oh, the soul that never dies! Ye thoughts, pursue it where it flies, Up to the courts, where angels dwell, - 201. DEATH APPROACHING. Fate steals along with silent tread, Life's latest hour is nimble in approach, DEATH, THE END OF EARTH. 123 How swift the shuttle flies, and weaves thy shroud! Thrown down the gulf of time, as far from thee, Spring. To-day we are upon the stream of time; tomorrow, we are floated forth upon the ocean of eternity. There is no intermediate state of being; no line of separation between this world and the next. Another step, and we have entered upon the world of everlasting retribution. Carrie. A joyful messenger of peace, whose kind hand opens to the weary pilgrim the gates of immortality, and lets the oppressed go free, is death. The damps of autumn sink into the leaves, and prepare them for their fall; and thus insensibly are we, as years close around us, by the gentle pressure of sorrows, being prepared to be laid in the dust. 202. DEATH, THE END OF EARTH. Malcolm. Mysterious in its birth, And viewless as the blast; Where hath the spirit fled from earth, I ask the grave below; It keeps the secret well. I call upon the heavens to show; They will not tell. Of earth's remotest strand, Are tales and tidings known; But from the spirit's distant land, Returneth none. Winds waft the breath of flowers, To wanderers o'er the wave; Beyond the grave. 124 DEATH. Proud science scales the skies, From star to star doth roam; But reaches not the shore, where lies The spirit's home. Em. There is no circumstance which renders death so solemn, so interesting, and so alarming, either to the dying or the living, as its being a final separation and removal from this world. It is the certainty that death has carried our friends whence they shall never return, that makes their leaving the world so painful, so awakening, and so instructive. There is no language so impressive as that of the dying and the dead. Hence God, in mercy to the living, never suffers the dead to return. He sends them forward to call the living to prepare to follow them; and he expects that the living, instead of desiring the dead to return, should ardently desire to go to them. Young. Watts. 203. DEATH OF SAINTS. The chamber where the good man meets his fate, Is privileg'd beyond the common walk Of virtuous life, quite in the verge of heaven. Heaven waits not the last moment; owns her friends, And greater still, the more the tyrant frowns. This life's a dream, an empty show; And flesh and sin no more control The sacred pleasures of the soul. 204. DEATH OF THE WICKED. He dies like a beast, who hath done no good while living. Sh. Ah! what a sign it is of evil life, When death's approach is seen so terrible! R. Blair. How shocking must thy summons be, O Death! To him that is at ease in his possessions! Young. DEATH. Who, counting on long years of pleasure here, 205. DEATH OF CHRIST. 125 The sun beheld it ;- No; the shocking scene Drove back his chariot: midnight veiled his face; A midnight nature shudder'd to behold; A midnight new! a dread eclipse (without Opposing spheres,) from her Creator's frown. Em. The circumstances attending the death of the Lord of Glory, rendered it extremely affecting. The great city of Jerusalem was crowded with foreigners out of every nation under heaven. The amazing scene opened at the time of a Jewish festival, which called the nation together. Not only all Jerusalem, but all Judea, felt deeply interested in the fate of such an extraordinary personage. This would naturally draw together persons of all characters, of all parties, and of all conditions, in vast multitudes, to see his death, and to mark everything that was said and done, with the greatest sensibility and attention. And everything was said and done, to move every passion of human nature. To heighten the solemn scene, the God of nature controlled the law of nature, and, at noonday, spread a deep and solemn gloom over the face of the earth, |