THE DEATH DP KINDRED IMPROVE'D. CSRRM. JILIT3 and gave us comfortable hope in his death, then it leads our thoughts naturally to heaven, and most powerfully touches the springs of our heavenly hopes. It raises our pious wishes to the upper world, and we say, as Thomas did at the death of Lazarus, " Let us go, that we may die with him ;" JoIm xi. 16. Let us go to our God and our holy kindred, and enjoy their better presence there. Let us not " sorrow for the dead as those that mourn without hope ; 1 Mess. iv. 13. but look upward to things unseen, and forward to the great rising-day, and rejoice in the promised and future glories that are be- yond life and time." Every dear relative that dies and leaves us, gives us one motive more to be willing to die : Their death fur- nishes us with one new allurement toward heaven, and breaks off one of the fetters and bonds that tied us down to this earth. Alas ! we are tied too fast to these earthly tabernacles, these prisons of flesh and blood. We are attached too much to flesh and blood still, though we find them such painful and such sinful companions. We love to tarry in this world too well, though we meet with so many weaning strokes to divide our hearts from it. O it is good to live more loose from earth, that we may be ready for the parting hour : Let us not be angry with the sovereign hand of God that breaks one bond after an- other ; though the strokes be painful, yet they loosen our spirits from this cottage of clay, they teach us to practise a flight heaven -ward in holy meditations and de- vout breathings ; and we learn to say, " How long, O Lord, how long ?" THE RECOLLECTION. " Have any of us lately felt such parting strokes as these ? Have we lost anv of our beloved kindred? God calls upon us now, and enquires, " What have you learn- ed of these divine lessons ?" I would ask myself this day, Have I' seen the emptiness and the insufficiency of crea- tures, and recalled my hope and confidence from every thing beneath and beside God ?" Have I passed through this solemn hour of trial well, and shewn my supreme love to God, and my most entire submission to his so- vereignty, by resigning so dear a comfort at his demand ? llave I been taught by the inward- pain which I felt at parting, and by the smart which still remains, how dan- gerous a thing it is to love a creature too well? Have I
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