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we know not. We only know that we must die; it may be by a short, sharp, severe illness, it may be by a lingering disease, it may be by what men call an accident. We may be even now, and in one sense we are, dying without knowing it. We carry the sentence of death within ourselves. We may have for some years carried the seed of some disease in us, or we may within the last half-hour have breathed in some infection, which was to be the germ or seed of death to us. We may even have been born with this seed of death; nay, we are so born, for our very bodies tend to decay. It matters little; it does not vary in the slightest degree the "appointed time," and the 'appointed" manner of our death.

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"It is appointed unto men once to die." Death must come to all once, and only once. If, then, we would die well, and be prepared for that once, we must learn our lesson well beforehand. For if we fail the first time, when death comes the work is over, there is no more chance, no more season of trial for us. We can never come back to try again, and make up for former mistakes. We die not only once, but once for all!

We should think of death.

We should

live for death, that we may live for Life Eternal. We should sometimes, nay, often, try to see if we are prepared for death. We should honestly test ourselves. We should try ourselves with some such thoughts as these: "Death decides the everlasting life of my soul. If I were to die this minute, where would my soul be?" If we are unduly fond of any person or thing, we may say to ourselves," I must one day die, GOD alone knows how soon: and then I must leave this person, or this thing am I ready to give them up?" Or again, if we have any favourite scheme or plan for the future, however useful, or benevolent, or religious it may be, we should try honestly to find out whether we could give that up too without a

murmur.

Once more the frequent thought of death would be a great safeguard against sin, and a great help to heartiness and reality in working out our salvation. Nothing makes us so real, as realizing that solemn fact of the necessity of death. If we were in any doubt as to whether any action, word, or thought, is allowable or right, when our conscience may be whis

pering that it is wrong, and our inclination leads us to believe it is right, we may often bring the matter to an issue by asking ourselves, "Should I be afraid of death finding me while I am doing, saying, or thinking thus? should I mind dying now?"

Let us think of death. One moment, and there is no more chance of repentance or amendment; one moment, and death itself is upon us, or that sickness is upon us which is sooner or later to result in death. Shall we wait for this sickness, this illness, or wait for a death-bed to repent? Shall we wait to make up for a godless, or careless, or an unspiritual life, by a few prayers, or a hastily spoken protestation of sorrow, or a confused confession, wrung from us not by any hatred of sin, or love for GOD, but simply by fear of death? Nay, what guarantee have we of the use of our senses to do even this? When the body is racked with pain; when our business affairs, often unsettled, are pressing upon us; when relations are crowding around us, or when we are longing for their presence; when that long catalogue of sins unconfessed and unforgiven, rises up in our minds in a hideous

confused mass; and, above all, when the enemy of souls makes his last mighty effort to retain the soul, and our minds acted upon by the failing strength of our bodies are powerless to resist, then, if deferred till then, what chance is there of real repentance? Think of death !

ON THE DEATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS. "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his."-Num. xxiii. 10.

UT what is the death of the righteous,

BUT

and what is his last end? One thing we cannot doubt, namely, that it is most blessed. So have we seen pass from our midst, souls especially sanctified by our good God. He gives to each his different ending; to some it may be an end of peace and outward calm; to others a fierce conflict and acute bodily pain down to the very end. We must augur nothing from the mere outward symptoms. The spirit may pass to the presence of its Maker in calm or in storm, and yet it may be in either case the "death of the righteous."

Bad men often die in perfect, unruffled repose, the features placid and tranquil as if they slept; often with good words on

their lips on the other hand, good men, whose lives we know to have been in accordance and conformity with the will of GOD, often seem to suffer terribly in their death-struggle, and leave the traces of their sufferings upon their features, almost like the impenitent thief. We can draw no

conclusion from this. So let this, in some measure, be our consolation, if we are called upon to witness painful deaths of those who are very dear to us.

But what is the death of the righteous, and what is his last end? Surely it is far above all mere physical and external appearances! Our real comfort is in the knowledge of their lives, our thorough conviction that the love of GOD, and of a crucified LORD, was in their hearts, of their being in charity with all men, and, above all, of their living with, and dwelling in, and being indwelt by the LORD JESUS, by means of the sacrament of His Love.

As it is written: "Their souls are in the hand of GOD, and there shall no torment touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die; and their departure is taken for misery; and their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are in peace. For though they be punished in

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