414 FEAR OF DEATH. prudence, so to fear death as to fear to meet it in an unprepared state of mind ; and that fear will always be safe and salutary which leads to the preparation. Prayer against the fear of death, by keeping up in us a constant remembrance of our mortality, will help to wean us, from a too intimate attachment to the things we are so soon to quit. By.this habitual preparation to meet our Judge, we shall be brought to pray more 'ear- nestly for an interest in the great Inter- cessor ; and to strive more effectually against every offence which may aggra- vate file awfulness of that meeting. - Above all, such prayer will more empha- tically remind -us that it was sin which brought death into the world, which in- troduced that original principle and first act of sin, from which all our natural evil, and practical offences are derived. But let us not be accustomed to think of death as a detached and separate object, as the mere insulated circum- stance of its closing our eyes for ever on
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