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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
of
my
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
of
my
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
fixed
unchangeably
:
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,
O
my
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
bones
of
mine 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