940 THE ENri OF TIME. [DISC. I. born of God ? Have I,begun the life of a saint? Am I prepared for that awful day, which shall determine the number ofmy months on earth ? Am I fit to be born into the world of spirits through the straight gate of death ? Am I renewed in all the powers'of my nature, and made .meet to enter into that unseen world, where there shall be no more of these revolutions of days and years, but one eternal day fills up all the space with divine pleasure, or one eternal night,with long and deplorable distress and darkness ? When I see a friend expiring, or the corpse ofmy neighbour conveyed to the grave : Alas ! their months and minutes are all determined, and the seasons of their trial are finished for ever ; they are gane to their eternal home, and the estate of their souls is fixedunchangeably : The angel that has sworn, their " time shall be no longer," has concluded their hopes, or has finished their fears, and, according to the rules of righteous judgment, has decided their misery or happiness for a long immor- tality. Take this warning, Omy soul, and think of thy own removal ! Are we standing in the church-yard, paying the last honours to the relics of our friends ? What a number of hillocks of death appear all round us ! What are the tomb -stones, but memorials of the inhabitants of that town, to inform us of the period of all their lives, and to point out the day, when it was said to each of them, your " time shall be no longer." O may I readily learn this important lesson, that my turn is hastening too ! Such a little hillock shall shortly arise for me, on some unknown spot of ground, it shall cover this flesh, and these bonesofmine in darkness, and shall hide them from the light of the sun, and from the sight of man, till the heavens be no more. Perhaps some kind surviving friends may engrave my name, with the number of my days, upon a plain funeral stone, without ornament, and below envy; There shall my tomb stand, among the rest, as a fresh monument of the frailty of nature, and the end of time. It is possible some friendly foot may, now and then, visit the place of my repose, and some tender eye may bedew the cold memorial with a tear : One ór, another of my old ac- quaintance.may, possibly, attend there, to learn the silent
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