into dust, will still live; yes, live either in joy unspeakable or in woes unutterable for ever; thinkest thou, I say, that thy soul can be contented with things which satisfy not, with things it must one day leave behind it? Thy deeds say it can; for thou dost not take pains to enquire, even, if there be an hereafter-thy grand aim is to accumulate for the present, and so long as thou aggrandizest thyself here, thou seemest not to care if there be another state of being.

Indeed, thou hast been so well described in "The Reflector," (a work which was published nearly ninety years ago,) that to furnish thee with a true portraiture of thyself, I cannot do better than quote the author's own words, who, when speaking of Faith, says :-" To compare "the shortness of the present life with the eternity of the "future, and consider the rewards and punishments to "follow upon good and bad actions, yet find so little true, "practical religion upon earth; one might almost suspect "there was no faith among mankind, but that all doubted

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as to the certainty of an hereafter. There are few of "us who, upon the promise of a temporal reward, would "not labour to be good, or renounce our vicious inclina"tions. A drunkard will live sober, a profligate turn

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prudent, and a rebel become obedient to obtain favours "of their king. Many, from the mere motive of hope, "will force and subdue their appetites and passions, or 66 even belie their own natures, in expectation of a place or a title; yet the King of heaven and earth, whose

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promise cannot fail, and whose rewards are eternal, does "not prevail upon men to quit their vices, or suppress "their inordinate appetites. Whence it might seem as if "the faith we Christians value ourselves upon was only

"nominal: for really to believe a state of eternal rewards "and punishments, and not live according to this belief, is

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a paradox of the first magnitude. If we allow no Chris"tian faith among mankind, the solution is easy, but such "a supposition would be extravagant; since there have been "those who sealed this faith with their blood. To solve "the difficulty, we must allow men to be so made, as to "be more affected with small matters that are sensible and "at hand, than with the most momentous things that are "invisible and at a distance. All men know they are to "die, yet do not shudder at death till the hour approaches, "when they see him, as it were, face to face. Man being "immersed in his affections, is more moved by corporeal, "than mental rewards and punishments

him

Now supposing, as our author suggests, that man is so constituted as to be more affected with trifles close at hand, than with momentous concerns if at a distance: yet, being endowed with that noble faculty, reason, he is called upon to bring it fully into action, (or it were bestowed upon in vain,) and if he does so he will soon find, even to demonstration, how worthless is all that this world can give, how valueless all it may take away. If he use his reason rightly he will soon discern that speculations (if such he deems them,) of the nature we have now before us are not unworthy of his regard. At all events they are more likely to produce lasting effects than many things which he labours to attain with so much avidity. Whether, therefore, the Millennium may commence before he quits the stage, or whether it may not, is immaterial; being fully convinced of its arrival in due season :-bearing in mind at the same time, that "One day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a "thousand years as one day." We press upon him to be

prepared to meet the event with joy, in which case his hopes will aspire to the bliss of a joyful immortality, when that other event (death) which he cannot avoid is close at hand, and when he is to bid farewell to wife and children, to relatives and friends, to honours, to fame, to wealth and to every thing dear to him on earth. We bid him remember: "Man goeth to his long home, and the mourn

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ers go about the streets : we tell him, "the silver cord "shall be loosed, the golden bowl be broken, the pitcher "be broken at the fountain, the wheel broken at the "cistern, then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, "and the Spirit shall return to GOD who gave it."

Reader, one word more and I have done: May the writing of this work produce in the writer what I desire the serious reading thereof may produce in thee, and in every one who may peruse it; whether bondman or freeman, a firm belief in the approach of the Millennium, and that the holy city, the New Jerusalem will come down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and, that such belief will induce us all to endeavour to prepare ourselves for the occasion, so that we may hail the Millennium with rapture and ultimately enter the gates of that holy city with joy.

THE END

T. J. MAUGER, PRINTER, CONSTITUTION STEPS, GUERNSEY.