DISCOURSE 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 plea- sure, 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 gone 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 immortality. Take this warning, O my soul, and think of thy own removal ! Are we standing in the church -yard, paying the last ho- nours to the relics of our friends ? What a number of hillocks of death appear all around us ! What are the tomb - stones, but me- morials of the inhabitants of that town, to inform us of the pe- riod 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 un- known 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 friend 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 be- dew the cold memorial with a tear : One or another of my old acquaintance may possibly attend there, to learn the silent lecture of mortality from my grave - stone, which my lips are now preach- ing aloud to the world : And if love and sorrow should reach so far, perhaps, while his soul is melting in his eye -lids, and his voice scarce finds an utterance, he will point with his finger, and shew his companion the month, and the day of my decease. O that solemn, that awful day, which shall finish my appointed time on earth, and put a full period to all the designs of my heart, and all the labours of my tongue and pen ! Think, O my soul ! that while friends or strangers are en- gaged on that spot, and reading the date of thy departure hence, thou wilt be fixed under a decisive and unchangeable sentence, rejoicing in the rewards of time well- improved, or suffering the long sorrows which shall attend the abuse of it, in an unknown world of happiness or misery.
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