munion with himself,-submissive to his methods whether of discipline or of correction. The whispers of his love, the gentle breathings of his vital influence, and the still small voice of his direction, will not be given in vain. You will recognise his agency, not alone when he pours forth his grace from on high with all the copiousness of a flood, or with the fulness of the early and the latter rain; but when his blessings shall descend like a soft and silent shower upon the new-mown grass, or as the dew of evening, that falls unfelt and invisible, and, by a process hidden from every sense, diffuses over the field, the garden, or the grove, a verdure and fertility which mightier and more distinguishable agents in the great economy of nature fail to impart.

Thus, finally, shall it be yours to stand with your loins girded, and your lamp burning,-prepared, at every hour, for the sudden appearance of your Lord; -to be arrayed with the festive garments and the bridal crown, that you may welcome his arrival, and, entering with him into the palace of his glory, partake in the delights and honours of the eternal banquet. When he shall announce his advent with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God;when the graves open, and the heavens unfold ;— when the soul, reserved for a season in strange and mysterious separation, shall mingle again in sweet fellowship with our reanimated dust, and this material and mortal frame, crumbled before in ruin, or scattered in air, shall be raised to dwell in the society of angels, and to behold the light and radiance of the eternal throne:-you shall not be ashamed

before him at his coming. But, O, my brother! how rapturous the transition, how boundless the astonishment and the glad surprise, when you exchange the gloom and darkness of your dying chamber for the insufferable splendours of that celestial vision, and the well-known greetings of friendship and of kindred for the "voice like that of many waters," and the loud sounds of universal praise!