a devoted servant of Christ; and this he would continue to have in living longer. And, what value may we suppose he set upon it? What, in all the world, would he have exchanged it for, even for the space of one month? Supposing him (as we may) naturally of an ambitious character, would he have exchanged it for to have been at the head of the Roman Empire? Supposing him (as we may) of a character to covet the heights and depths of philosophy, and the splendour of eloquence; for all that Athens boasted of these, would he have consented to a temporary exchange? Something incomparably better and nobler in his esteem than all this he had, and was sure he should continue to have, in every portion of his prolonged life. And yet, if he had been permitted to make a choice, simply for his own happiness, he would most gladly have surrendered all this for what he should gain by death! He had to exercise a self-denial, a suppression of his wishes, in submission to his Master's determination (doubtless signified to him by inspiration), that his life should be protracted. With this concentration of animating interests in his soul,-the happiest man, very probably, on the whole face of the earth,he, nevertheless, deliberately judged, that "to depart and be with Christ," would, as to himself, "be far better." The loss of all this, on earth, would be his "gain." And WHEN "his gain?" WHEN "better?" In the name of common sense what can the expressions mean, but that to be in the state of "the dead in Christ," of those who "slept in Jesus," would be better during that very same time that, otherwise, he would, by his Master's appointment, be living in his service and enjoying all his benedictions? during those very same months and years that it was signified to him that he must submit to stay among the living? What! to be in that space of time in the state, or rather no-state, of annihilation (as to all sense and enjoyment),-was that

accounted by him to be "better" than such a state of feeling and action as he was in! Truly, a most marvellous encomium of his Master's service, his Master's beneficence, his Master's communion! Splendid celebration of the happiness of having the smile of Omnipotence,-revelations of divine truth-the power of working miraclesand of promoting the highest, the eternal interests of mankind,—and that in a way which was to operate to the end of time!

How wise the judgment, too, on another ground,-supposing this fall into insensibility and mental annihilation, from death to the resurrection. At that solemn period the Apostle knew there would be conferred a felicity, often called by him a reward, proportioned to the service rendered on earth to Him who will then be the Judge. Therefore every addition here made to that service will then and there be an augmentation of the reward. And, did ever mortal set a more magnificent value, in anticipation, on that final reward? None ever.

Well then, was it possible that this heroic apostle, ambitious in the noblest sense, could deliberately say, "Let me be in a state of practical annihilation during that space of time in which I might, instead, be rendering to my Lord those continued services which would lead to an inconceivable augmentation of my glory when he shall come?" No! rather, if such a thing might have been permitted, he would have prayed that by a miracle his life might be protracted for centuries longer-" Why is not our life that of Methuselah?” We said-" could he deliberately so decide?" for observe, the Apostle's expression of preferring to die, was not uttered in a crisis of despondency, like that of Elijah, when he felt as in a desperate extremity, and all seemed to be lost as to the good cause; but evidently in a state of the calmest thought, and when he saw that he was

successful in his important mission, and should continue to be so in living to prosecute it. In this state of mind he still said, to leave all this, and "to be with Christ, is far better," - to die is gain." Every honest reader feels that he means- "better to be with Christ, sensibly so, during the very same time that otherwise I might be living and serving him on earth." To be "absent from the body,” was, according to his faith, to "be present with the Lord."

The apostle was of the highest order of Christians. But to every real Christian, "to die is gain." This needs not any extended illustration. The sensible loss of all the evils of their present state, will itself be an immense "gain." To have escaped out of all the evils belonging to the bodily existence-weakness, pains, sickness, anxious care, imprisonment of the soul;-all sorrows of the mind, and all their causes. The being, if we may express it So, on the immortal side of death;-pre-eminently, the perfect deliverance from sin,-every propensity of the animated, active, energetic spirit, pointing only to good,-pure, absolute, unmingled good, so that an unlimited liberty may be given to all its tendencies-the attainment of immense knowledge, of the most delightful kind;-all of it, here, beyond the utmost reach of thought;-the society of happy spirits of the human order-and of the angelic;some far more bright and direct manifestation of the Divine Being, and of the Mediator;-an intense realization of what has been done and obtained for them by the redeeming mediation;-the joyful and not impatient looking forward to what is to be revealed and conferred at the resurrection.

How mighty the duty, how transcendent the interest, of directing our utmost energy to the object—that death may be "gain!"

LECTURE XLVII.

THE AUTUMN AND ITS MORAL ANALOGIES.

ISAIAH lxiv. 6.

"We all do fade as a leaf."

OUR lives have been prolonged to witness once more within the last few weeks, the wide progress of decay over the field of nature. The infinite masses of foliage, which unfolded so beautifully in vegetable life, in the spring, and have adorned our landscape during the summer, have faded, fallen, and perished. We have beheld the "grace of the fashion" of them disclosed, continuing a while bright in the sunshine, and gone for ever. Now our text (with many other passages of the same character) admonishes us not to see the very leaves fade, without being reminded that something else is also fading; this is a fact more intimately realized to us than any thing in the external world can be, but of which we have a most marvellous faculty, if we may so call it, of being insensible. Is it not so? How many of us can,—or can any of us-say, they have had during the recent season, as distinct and prolonged a reflection on the fact, that our own mortal existence is fading, as we have had a perception of the fading and extinction of vegetable life? It would seem as if the continued pressure of ill health, or the habitual spectacle of sickness and decline in our friends, were necessary in order to keep us reminded of the truth which is expressed in the text.

We should do well to fix our attention awhile on this very pernicious fact, of our inaptitude to feel and reflect

that our morta condition is fading; and then to note and urge a few of those monitory circumstances which verify this our declining state. Let us look a little at the habits of our feeling, in regard to this matter.

And, first, we are very unapt to recognize the common lot and destiny of all human life,—that it is to fade, and is fading. The vast world of the departed is out of our sight, -even what was the material and visible part. What is constantly in our sight is the world of the living; and we are unapt to think of them as all appointed not to be living. Perhaps it was but very few times in the life of the Persianmonarch that he was in so reflective and moral a mood, as when, looking on his innumerable army, he thought, and wept to think, that in less than a century they would all be dead. And in our own case, while we see the countless population, in all the passions and actions of life, it is but now and then, perhaps rather unfrequently, that the reflection, like a solemn shade, comes over us,- these are all hastening out of sight, tending to dissolution and dust! Such a living scene our ancestors beheld; but where are now both those they looked on and themselves ?"-Man as he is, fills the attention, and precludes the thought of man as he is appointed and going to be.

And we may note a circumstance which aids the deception, namely, that the most decayed and faded portion of the living world is much less in sight than the fresh and vigorous. Think how many infirm, sick, debilitated, languishing, and almost dying persons there are, that are rarely or never out in public view, nct met in our streets, roads, or places of resort,-not in our religious assemblies! And then "out of sight, out of mind" in a great degree! Thus we look at the living world so as not to read the destiny written on every forehead, and in this thoughtlessness are the more apt to forget our own.