ever-saying, "Hitherto shalt thou come but no further, and here shall thy waves be stayed." In looking at individuals near the close of life, and as we see every thing around us is indicative of a change, we are admonished that time is short, we are approaching very near to the regions of the grave, and the solemn admonition is heard again and again in the secret of the soul;-"Be ye also ready;" and feeling our own unworthiness, and that we have nothing to lean upon, there is the blessed assurance that the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver-He that died for us, and He that rose again for our justification-He that ever liveth to make intercession for us, as our propitiatory and great high priest; He is our judge, and those that own Him before men, he has promised he will own in the presence of his Father, and before the angels, when the dread, the awful moment shall arrive, agreeable to the strong testimony of the Apostle, when he said, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." O, then, the blessed hope of the gospel, in which, though looking to those awful and tremendous views opened in divine revelation, we feel that this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality; and when these things are accomplished, then shall be brought to pass the saying which is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death where is thy sting, O grave where is thy victory? the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ; therefore my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." But in that great day, when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, and all his holy angels shall be witnesses of the moving scene; when the separation shall take place between the precious and the vile, may we, my dear friends, be placed on the right hand. My dear friends, my feelings embrace every individual in the love of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, for which I have been willing to leave every thing near and dear, to fulfil the ministry which I have received, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. May we, dear friends, being brought through the influence of the Holy Spirit, into the obedience of faith, be prepared to receive the eternal crown, and hear the animating language, "Come "Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world ;”—may we be joined with the just of all generations, may we be united with saints and angels, and the spirits of the just made perfect, in commemorating the eternal praises of the Lord God and of the Lamb. J. J. GURNEY, Esq. THE inspired Apostle never wrote a more important precept, than when he said, "Prove all things, hold fast that which is good ;" and I may acknowledge that, although I rise among my friends, with more of fear and trembling than I know how to express, yet I dare not withhold the expression of my deep concern, that, as a religious body, we should prove all things, and hold fast that which is good; we do know that there are certain fixed principles in religion and morals, which are above, or rather, I might almost say, below proof, as are the axioms of mathematics, which no man ever did prove or can prove ;-so also, my beloved friends, it is true that the great principle of one Lord God Almighty, is written, as I believe, on every soul, by the finger of God's Holy Spirit; these truths shine in their own immortal and immutable light; no man ever required proof to shew that justice is right, that truth is right, and that charity is right; and that injustice, and falsehood, and fraud, are wrong; these are the fundamental and intuitive principles of God's moral law, by which we must test all our actions and all our words; we do not require even scripture to prove these things;—we |