December 27

Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace. - Psalms 37:37.

THE death of a Christian is peculiarly worthy attention. In how many instances has it proved the means of awaking the careless, and quickening those who have believed through grace! How often has the death of a minister exemplified and confirmed and enforced his public exhortations and warnings, so that he has in the chamber of affliction accomplished what he failed of doing in the sanctuary! A parent on his death-bed, surrounded by his weeping family, has been heard to purpose, when, like Mr. Bolton, he has thus solemnly addressed them:-“See that none of you meet me in an unconverted state at the day of judgment.” And who can forget the tender and affectionate solicitude of a dying mother, as, with heaven in her tearful eye, she gazes for the last time, and, with her last trembling embrace, she bids her beloved children farewell? And there are instances in which the husband, who refused to hear the word, though urged by the tenderest affection and tearful solicitude, when the desire of his eyes has been removed, is now won by her pious conversation, made sacred by death, and resolves, while he builds a monument to her memory, to retrace his steps,-alas! now to be taken alone.

And the death of the Christian is not only an object of interest to friends and relations, but to all who may witness it. All they do and say is regarded now with peculiar attention; all is stamped with sincerity and importance; all that is heard and seen is final. The world, with all its interesting associations, connections, and anxieties, is passing away. But the Christian has in his heart and eye enduring substance. The outward man perishes, but the inward man is renewed; heart and flesh are failing him, but God is the strength of his heart and his portion forever. Mrs. Savage says, “The people of the world never speak well of it at parting. But the Christian can bear his testimony to the excellency and pleasantness of wisdom’s ways;” and he recommends them to others from experience, and says, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”

“The chamber where the good man meets his fate

Is privileged beyond the common walks of life.”

Here a glory has been shed, an influence felt, that has impressed the careless, confirmed the undecided, emboldened the timid, and induced even the skeptic to say, “Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end he like his.”