Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

gies of his mind to securing the comfort and entertainment of so short a period, and to make no provision for an eternal existence ?-There he lies! all that he ever appeared to care for he has lost forever. Those curious collections which he made with so much pains and cost, all those fruits of his patient and laborious studies which we have been admiring, will, in a few hours, be disposed of and dispersed; the cheerful mansion will be empty and deserted other inhabitants will occupy it; in a few years his name will be no more remembered! so that the only thing that was of any real consequence to him, is that which, it is greatly to be feared, he totally neglected.

"But the extremity of his folly was this:-that this change which he has undergone, this loss of all that he valued, was what he was well aware must, somewhere about this time, befal him. He knew, as well as all other men, that he must die. He knew, too, that the great Creator, whose works he spent his life in investigating and admiring, had, by an express revelation, informed him, in common with others, of the only way of securing everlasting life and happiness. Of these things he could not be ignorant: nor did I ever understand that he professed to doubt them: yet, strange to say, that divine volume stood unopened on his shelves. It is said this unhappy man rarely read the Bible!—That he, who could spend whole nights in gazing on the heavens, bent not his knee to the Former of them all. That while so plenteously partaking the bounties of His providence, he never (unless with the utmost formality,) acknowledged his obligation; or appeared to feel his dependance.-Even of late, when he knew he must be drawing towards the close of life, he appeared to engage, with as much avidity as ever, in his favourite pursuits : though he loved conversation, and delighted to discourse on other subjects, yet he was never known to talk about

[ocr errors]

the life to come, upon which he was so soon to enter. Thus he deliberately chose to enjoy these few poor years, and to neglect his concerns for immortality. Now, if this clever man had purposely set fire to his beautiful house, and had calmly seen all his valuable collections consumed by the flames, every body would have exclaimed-" what a fool!"-As it was, he was extolled and applauded by most men, although guilty of incomparably greater madness than this.

"Children, endeavour to conceive, (though it is impossible you should fully comprehend it,) the tremendous folly of neglecting a book which God has sent us to read! It is only because it is so very common for men to disregard their Bibles, that we are not more struck with the strange absurdity of it. This gentleman was particularly admired for the universality of his talents: and, it was always spoken to his praise, that, while so much engaged in scientific pursuits, he attended equally to the elegancies and refinements of life; he was as cheerful a companion, and as finished a gentleman, as he was a sound philosopher. But, alas! how very far, it is to be feared, he was from being universally sagacious!-how very partial and limited even was his cleverness !—He not only knew that in a few years he must die, but, in some ways, he deliberately prepared for the event. He made his will: he gave particular directions as to what should take place after his decease; he even caused this vault to be built, left directions for his funeral, and wrote an inscription for his monument. So that, you see, he left nothing undone but that one thing, which, alone, was of real consequence to him. This poor clever fool had no forethought, made no provision for his soul!

"I have been told, that the last thing that occupied his attention was an improved method of raising pineapples. By a great deal of thought and ingenuity, he

succeeded in raising them some weeks earlier, and of a finer sort than any that were grown in the neighbourhood. Yes, children,-here was a man of nearly seventy, really interested about pine-apples, while the great business of his eternal welfare was still unattended to! A party of friends was invited to dine with him, in order to partake of this rich desert; but, on the eve of this intended entertainment, it was said to him,-" This night thy soul shall be required of thee."-He was found the next morning dead in his bed; and now, whose are those things that he possessed ?"

Julia. Oh, papa!

Father. Now, children, let us leave this melancholy spot; remembering that whether or not our fears of this individual are well founded, we are but too well assured that the world abounds with men and women who, if not as clever, are quite as foolish as we have supposed him to have been. Let it be our chief concern that we may not be of the number. But never, never, till that day, when this sepulchre shall be torn open by the voice of the archangel, will any human mind be fully able to comprehend the dreadful difference between a plain wise man, and a clever fool.

66

XXVII.

REVELATION XIV. 13.

"I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord."

BUT is it not a dismal thing to die?-to leave this busy and beautiful world,-to close the eyes for ever on all the engaging objects that surround us,-to forsake the pleasing and interesting pursuits of life,--to have done for ever with its pleasures,--to break off from every

favourite scheme, and all our agreeable recreations,can all this be otherwise than painful? And still more so is the thought of leaving the endeared circle of our friends; to see those faces no more that are so familiar and so much beloved; no more to make one of the domestic band of which we have long formed an animated part; for our voice to be heard no more in the lively discourse; our smile never again to enliven the social intercourse! and even this is not all: to die, is not merely to be absent, (as we may frequently have been,) at a distant place, from whence we could still hold some intercourse with those we love but it is to go for ever whence we cannot either return to, or maintain any connexion with, them. Besides, whither is it to go? Is it not to the cold grave? This body which has been nourished and cherished with so much care and tenderness, to which so much cost and pains have been devoted to make it comfortable and agreeable; which has been, perhaps, tenderly screened from every blast,--this body must lie and perish in the comfortless tomb! This it is to die thus death is naturally regarded by us :-no wonder then that it is an event so universally dreaded and so carefully avoided. All ages naturally shrink from death, from the youngest child that is capable of any reflection, to the old man who has arrived at the utmost verge of life. All ranks fear it: the poor, who have so little to attach them to life; as well as the rich, whose treasure lies in this world; the servant and the slave, as much almost as their master,--the savage as well as the civilized. This then is the cry from earth.

:

Now let us hear the voice from heaven: "Blessed are the dead :". -What a strange difference is this! In what an opposite light do these parties view the same circumstance! Let us inquire which of them is best qualified to judge of it; and whether this view of the subject is likely to be correct.

[blocks in formation]

Observe then, that this voice was not that of some pious minister, by whom we may frequently have heard the blessedness of the saints in heaven asserted; nor was it the voice of mourning relatives, consoling themselves with this consideration for the loss of some dear friend. Nor was it the voice of the Scriptures only, although by them we now hear this truth declared. Nor was it the voice of some lost soul; who from the regions of misery and despair, might lift up his eyes and behold afar off the blessed society of heaven. These voices indeed, would be impressive, and we might justly give credit to any of them. But this voice came with still greater authority than any of these:--it came from Heaven. Perhaps it was not even the voice of an angel; but might be spoken by one of those very blessed ones who had died in the Lord. However this might be, it proceeded from some one of the inhabitants of the place where the spirits of the just abide; and who was therefore well qualified to judge of the state in which they exist. While this voice spoke, the light and glory of heaven itself shone upon the speaker. How impossible would it have been to impress that heavenly orator with an idea that there was any thing gloomy or lamentable in the death of good men, while on the one hand he looked down upon this dark and sorrowful world, whence they came out of great tribulation; and while on the other he beheld the glories of Paradise, and stood in full view of those heavenly mansions which the Lord has prepared for his saints. Amid that “innumerable company of angels and of the spirits of just men made perfect"-partaking of that fulness of joy, of those rivers of pleasure, which flow through the celestial regions, how must he pity the darkness and unbelief of those, who start and shrink and fear to launch away,' into life and happiness.

6

« ForrigeFortsæt »