surprise. This is not one of those rare and uncommon accidents which a regard to our own peace of mind makes it more prudent to despise than to provide against. Vain are the terrors of those who live in continual fear, that, the thunder will come forth to blast their devoted heads; that an earthquake will bury them in the ruins of their habitations, or that the shipwreck shall consign them to the watery tomb. The singularity of these calamities makes them terrible, but at the same time the less to be dreaded. The surprise of death, on the other hand, is perfectly familiar to us. Every day affords us examples of it. Almost all men have seen the tyrant approach to claim them as the subjects of his dominion, when they still believed him at a great distance : and, with all their attachment to life remaining, with all their strong passions unconquered, and with all their extensive projects unfinished, they have seen some hurried into the land of silence. This was the fate of that rich man in the parable, (Luke xii. 20) whose ground brought forth plentifully, who pulled down his barns and built greater, and who said to his soul, Soul thou hast much goods laid up

for

many days: take thine ease, eat, drink, and

"be merry." But God said unto him, "thou

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fool, this night thy soul shall be required of "thee; then whose shall those things be "which thou hast provided?" But we need, only, look to those of our relations, and friends, and acquaintances who have gone before us to the world of souls, and this truth will be brought nearer to ourselves. They have almost all quitted the stage suddenly and unexpectedly. We have been surprised at the quickness of their death we have sought for the causes of it in the want of assistance, in the imprudence of the patient, or the unskilfulness of the physician; but the true and proper reason is this, that "the day of the Lord cometh as a thief "in the night." Human life is an unceasing warfare. To-day we may have escaped from the fight; but we have seen many fall by our side, who expected, as well as we, to come home in safety. We must return to the field to-morrow: there is no rest in this combat ; and, if fortune has been unfavourable to others, we cannot suppose that it will be always favourable to us alone. One day we must fall in this battle, and, surely, it must be the height of folly, to indulge in security, or to build a settled habitation on that spot where others will soon dig our tomb.

When the fatal nor power, nor

It is impossible to suppose a situation in which death may not surprise us, or in which some of our fellow men have not been cut off from the land of the living. mandate is issued, no rank, riches can retain the breath in its mansion.No force can resist the arm; no flattery can sooth the dull cold ear of death. Herod gave up the ghost amidst the shouts of his courtiers who styled him a god. Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain on that night which he set apart for revelry, while drinking and carousing among his princes, and his wives, and his concubines. The conqueror of the world, after having braved the dangers of war, and trod the path of glory in safety, was struck by the unseen hand of death, when seated at a sumptuous banquet. How many have fallen asleep to wake no more! How many has the scythe of intemperance swept away in the moment of gratification! How often do the slightest maladies baffle the skill of the physician and the cares of the patient! How innumerable are the accidents which may prove the boundary of our days! Death's thousand doors, through which life may issue forth, perpetually stand open. Nothing, then, can

secure us from a state of surprise, but a state of constant preparation, or, as our Lord expresses it, to have our loins girt, and our lights burning, and to be like those who wait for the coming of their Lord. Of this truth all men pretend to be convinced. What fatality, then, O ye deluded race! for ever prevents you from taking a single precaution to secure yourselves from danger?

tance.

3. The uncertainty of death becomes highly important, and ought to excite us to constant and serious attention, when we reflect, that, it involves in it not only the time, the place, and the manner of death, but likewise the condition of our souls at that awful moment. If we die in the Lord and fall asleep in Jesus, every other thing is of little imporIt is the wish, indeed, of every man (and the sage and the philosopher will never be able to eradicate it from our breasts) to have his eyes closed by some friendly hand, even when the name of friend or of kinsman is interesting no more; and to have some memorial erected on his grave to protect his bones from insult. But the great question is, whether we shall die in a state of reconciliation with God, or with all our sins and imperfections on

our heads? What will be the condition of our souls in that other world where the state of every man is unalterably fixed? into what hands shall we fall, when we have left this tenement of clay? whether shall we be conveyed by blessed spirits into the bosom of Abraham, or be dragged by accursed fiends into the prison of everlasting darkness and despair?

I do not say that it is impossible to obtain, even in this life, such hope and assurance of glory as will smooth the bed of death, and calm the terrours of the last hour. But, surely, the best way to get rid of such terrours, is to be prepared for them, and the most effectual way to add strength to them, is, in thoughtfulness and security, to let death approach, as if it were to determine nothing in which we are concerned. Upon the supposition that death was nothing, and that there was nothing after death, then there might be some foundation. for this resolution of the wicked man, "let "us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die :" because it would be his interest to enjoy present life as much as posssible. But, when the gospel reveals to us a state of everlasting rewards and punishment beyond the grave, how