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THE WATCi1FUI. CHRISTIAN DYING
IN PEACE.
DISC.
"
Doth
secret mischiefs lurk
within
?
Do
I
indulge
some
unknown
sin
?
O
turn
my feet whene'er I stray,
And
lead me in
thy
perfect way."
She was
frequent and importunate
in
her requests
for
the
psalm-book,
that
she might
read
that
psalm, or,
at
least,
have
it
read
to
her
throughout;
and
it
was
with
some difficulty
we
persuaded her
to
be
composed in si-
lence
;
thus sincerely willing
was she,
that God
might
search and try
her heart,
still
hoping
well
concerning
her
spiritual
state,
yet
still
solicitous
about
the assurance
of
her
own
sincerity, in
her
former transactions
with
heaven.
The next
day,
among the rovings
of
her
thoughts, she
rehearsed
all
those
verses
of the
xvii.
Psalm, which
are
paraphrased
in
the same book,
with very
little faultering
in
a
line or
two
:
"
Lord,
I
am
thine;
but thou wilt prove
My faith,
my
patience, and
my love," &c.
The
traces
of
her
thoughts,
under
this
confusion
of
animal
nature, retained
something
in
them divine and heavenly.
O
blessed
situation of
soul, when
we
stand prepared for
death, though
it
come
:with
the formidable
retinue of a
disordered
brain, and clouded reason
!
It
would be
too
long,
at
present, to
represent
to
you the
sad consequences
of
being found asleep, when
Christ
comes
to
call us
away from this world,
I
shall
therefore
only
make these
three
reflections
:
Reflection I.
"
None
can begin
too
early to
awake
to.
righteousness, and
prepare
for
the
call
of Christ,
since no
one
is
too
young
to
be
sent
for
by his
messenger
of
death'
I
do
not
here speak
of
the
state
of
infancy,
when
persons
can hardly be said to
be in
a personal state of trial
:
But
when
I
say,
none
can awaken too early
to mind
the
things
of
religion,
I
mean,
after
reason
begins
its
proper
exercise,
and
this
appears
sometimes
in
early childhood.
All
our
life in
this world,
compared
with
heaven,
is
a
sort
of
night,
and
season
of
darkness
;
and
if
our
Lord
summon
us
away in the first watch
of
the night,
in
the
midst
of
youth
and
vigour, and
the pleasing
allurements
of
flesh
and
sense,
we
are
in
a
deplorable state,
if
we
are