240- DEATH A BLESSING TO THE SAINTS. [SEEM. XLIII. and to hold sweet communion with them in the purest intercourses of love ? " But there are still sweeter allurements to a holy. soul ; God, even thy God, dwells in the midst of his saints on high, and that in the full glories of his love : Jesus thy Saviour, whom thou hast known, and whom thou hast loved, though thou bast never seen him ; Jesus is Lord of that country, he waits for thee there : God himself dwells there as the fountain of felicity, and shall be no more absent from thee. Thou shalt no more com- plain of the withdrawings of the light of his countenance, or the short visits of his grace : Thou shalt sitsolitary:no more, nor mourn under the dark eclipses of the sun of righteousness. It is the pleasure of that heaven thou hopest for, " tobe for ever with thy Lord, to behold his glory, to see him as he is, and to be made like him, and wilt thou not enter in at the gate into the new Jerusalem when he calls thee, but trembie and start backward, because there is a short dark valley that lies on the side of it ? " Remember, Omy soul, death is thine : There is no- thing in that dark valley shall hurt thee. Lift up thy head, arise, and shake thyselfout of the dust. Let thy faith take a sweet prospect over the little hills of time, and beyond the vale of death . Look far into the invi- sible world, and banish all 'thy fears under the strong allurement of the joys that are prepared..for thee; watt with pleasure for the hour of thy departure, and rejoice and triumph when the divine message shall come. While thou continuest here, " life is thine. When thou goest hence, death is thine : things present and things to come are thine ;" and the invisible world to which thou art hastening, has everlasting joys in reserve for thee: Hea- ven itself is thine: Heaven is the inheritance of all the saints : The glories laid up there arewaiting for thy pos- session : The dissolution of thy earthly tabernacle shall çonvey the einto the midst of them." " Awake, arise, and meet the happy moment, when thou shalt be undressed of this sinful flesh and blood : O let thesedefiled garments ever sit loose about thee, thatthey may be cast off without pain and regret: Go, my soul, at the summons of thy God and Father, and when the
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