our purpose. The earnest, solemn, and heavenlyminded advice delivered by a departing Christian is so deeply affecting, and so awfully persuasive, that it cannot but make a deep impression on every one who hears it. If they who lead thoughtless and immoral lives entertain a secret desire to overcome temptation, and to be dissuaded from their ruinous career, let them no longer avoid the Christian's death-bed, but resort thither, as soon as an opportunity shall be offered; for there they will hear a preacher they cannot withstand, and truths they cannot gainsay.

DR. ROBERT LOWTH was Bishop of London. The uncertainty of human life, and the duty of constant preparedness for death, were very forcibly shown in the family of this learned and pious prelate. His eldest daughter, of whom he was passionately fond, died, aged only thirteen. His

second daughter, Frances, died as she was presiding at the tea table. She was going to place a cup of coffee on the salver; "Take this," said she, "to the Bishop of Bristol;" immediately the cup and her hand fell together upon the salver, and she instantly expired. His eldest son, also, of whom he was led to form the highest expectations, was hurried to the grave in the bloom of youth. Amid these scenes of distress, the venerable Bishop, animated by the hopes which the religion of Jesus Christ alone inspires, viewed with pious resignation the king of terrors snatching his dear and amiable children from his fond embrace; and at length himself met the stroke of death with fortitude, and left this world in full and certain hope of a better".

REFLECTION.-How awfully true the language of our Liturgy, and how loud the call for an immediate attention to religious duties! "In the midst of life we are in death."

7 Chalmers's Biog. Dict.

SIR WILLIAM JONES was a judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William, in India; he was a celebrated scholar in the Eastern languages, and a pious Christian.

When arrived in India, he wrote the following prayer while suffering under the first attack of illness:-O Thou bestower of all good! if it please Thee to continue my easy tasks in this life, grant me strength to perform them as a faithful servant; but if thy wisdom hath willed to end them, by this thy visitation, admit me, not weighing my unworthiness, but through thy mercy declared in Christ, into thy heavenly mansions, that I may continually advance in happiness, by advancing in true knowledge and awful love of Thee. Thy will be done!"

On the morning of the day when he died, his attendants, alarmed at the evident symptoms of approaching dissolution, came precipitately to call his friend Lord Teignmouth: not a moment was lost

in repairing to his house. He was lying on his bed in a posture of meditation, and he expired without a pang or a groan. His bodily suffering, from the complacency of his features, and the ease of his attitude, could not have been severe; and his mind must have derived consolation from those sources where he had been in the habit of seeking it, and where alone, in our last moments, it can ever be found. When we compare the shortness of his life with the extent of his labours, the mind is overpowered; yet his example, however disgraceful to the indolent, and even apparently discouraging to the humble, will not be without the most salutary effects, if it be allowed to prove that no difficulties are insurmountable by regular industry, that the human faculties can be exalted by exercise beyond the common degrees with which we are apt to be satisfied, and that the finest taste is not incompatible with the profoundest studies and the exercise of Christian piety. As the Bible should be our companion in sickness as well as in health, the following attestation to its excellence by so learned and good a man will be much valued. The passage is transcribed from his own MSS. in his Bible, where it was found. "I have carefully and regularly perused these holy Scriptures, and am of opinion, that the volume, independently of its Divine origin, contains more sublimity, purer morality, more important history, and finer strains of eloquence, than can be collected from all other books, in whatever language they may have been written "

8

REFLECTION.-The Hon. Charles How has

8 Memoirs of the Life of Sir William Jones, by Lord Teignmouth; 4to, 1804, p. 374. Chalmers's Biog. Dict., &c.

made the following reflection:-"If the love of wisdom and virtue be so sweet and delightful to the soul in this its imperfect state, what floods and torrents of joy will be poured in upon it when all its affections shall be boundlessly and eternally enlarged for their reception! as doubtless they will be, to the inconceivable bliss of those most happy souls, who shall be received into the everlasting favour of the Almighty."

THE well known Compiler of the English Dictionary, and the author of many much admired moral and religious essays, &c. Doctor Johnson, from the time he was certain his death was near, appeared to be perfectly resigned, was seldom or never fretful or out of temper, and often said to his faithful servant, who gave this account, "Attend, Francis, to the salvation of your soul, which is the object of greatest importance;" he