you may face death with composure, yea, with triumphant feelings. "O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory?" 4. Seek and obtain that state of mind which prompted Job to say "I would not live alway.” Job, vii. 16. Which prompted the apostle to say, "For me to live is Christ, to die is gain." Phil. i. 21. "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." 2 Cor. v. 8. "For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better." Phil. i. 23. With such a strong desire to be freed from the sins, and the temptations, and the spiritual privations of this life, death can have no terror, but is welcomed as a friendly messenger to bear you to the skies, and to the bosom of your Saviour. 5. Wean your hearts from this world; always look upon earthly things in the light of divine truth, and of eternity. "Count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." Phil. iii. 8. To make the sweets of this world tasteless and insipid, you should feast your soul on the loveliness and preciousness of Christ. When you take upon you the yoke of Christ, you will be weary of the yoke of sin. When look steadily by faith into the invisible world, this world in which you live gradually loses its charms for you. you To die daily to the world, is a Christian's duty, and it is a Christian's interest, for when death comes, it will be no stranger. You have been daily cultivating its acquaintance. "Death is swallowed up in victory," and therefore not to be feared. "Death is yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." I Cor. iii. 22. Death, therefore, is not only conquered, but taken captive. Being weaned from this world, you are prepared for the next. O what a change does the believer experience at death! Now in the body, conversing with men, and living among sensible objects, and in a few moments, he is in the world of spirits. One hour in this world, just as we now are, and the next in the third heaven, with angels and the spirits of the just made perfect. O what a blessedness, to be lifted from a bed of sickness and pain, to a throne of glory. To leave a sinful world and a suffering body, and in a moment enter a holy, happy world, and to be freed from pain and care and sorrow. Heaven is the believer's rest, and dying is but going home. This world is a sea of trouble. Heaven is a place of unalloyed happiness and perpetual repose. Believers there "shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor For the Lamb which is in the any heat. midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." Rev. vii. 16, 17. You have now before you the nature of that preparation of mind, for the article of death, which is requisite in order to meet it, as becomes the heir of an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away; and also the rules by which that preparation may be made. It is injurious to the influence of religion, when believers discover great alarm at the approach of death. It destroys the confidence of the world in the power of religion, and tends to weaken the faith of young disciples. It should be one great end of a Christian's life, so to meet death, as to convince the gain-saying and the ungodly, that "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord," and that true religion disarms death of his sting, and dis |