There are reafons, however, which we may perceive, fufficient to juftify these difpenfations, or, at least, to filence our complaints.

God is fovereign. All creatures are his, and he has a right to do what he will with his own. "He taketh away, and who can hinder him? Who shall say to him, What doeft thou?"

God has appointed all men to death. The appointment is juft, for all have finned. He has fent his Son to redeem us from the misery of the world to come; but the fentence of death remains, as a ftanding teftimony of his displeasure against fin, and a ftanding admonition to lay hold on eternal life. Our acceptance of the purchased falvation does not exempt us from natural death. By the death of Jefus a future life is is procured; by our own death we must pass to the enjoyment of it.

The wisdom of God has fubjected our mortal race to great variety in the time and manner of their death, that all might fee the neceffity of early preparation for it. If none died, but in old age, none would expect to die, and few would prepare to die, at an earlier period; and by long indulgence, men would generally become hardened in their wickedness. It is for their general benefit, that there should be all the variety, which we fee, in the circumftances of their death, that all, admonished of their danger, might be always ready.

God destroys the hope of man, that man may place his hope in God. When we fee promifing appearances in the young, especially in our own children, it is natural to entertain pleafing expectations; but often these expectations rife too high. They need a rebuke. The death of a hopeful youth is a warning to parents, and to all, not to look for comfort in earthly things, but to feek

happiness in God. This is the language in which it fpeaks, "Truft not in man, whose breath is in his noftrils, for wherein is he to be accounted of? But truft in the Lord forever, for with him is everlasting strength." We never fhall enjoy ourfelves in this world, until we learn to look beyond it. All things here are uncertain, and the more confidently we rely upon them, the more frequent and painful will be our disappointments. God is allfufficient and unchanging; his promises are fure and faithful; he is always near to us; he is a very prefent help in trouble; his favour is life. When we devote ourselves to him, place our confidence in him, commit our interefts into his hands, and refign all our concerns to his difpofal, then we beft enjoy our earthly bleffings, and then only we enjoy him.

The death of a pious youth, though it seem a lofs to us and to the world, yet by the grace of God may prove a great and extenfive benefit. We think, that if fuch a youth might live, his example and conversation would have a happy influence on many around him. But who knows what in fluence his death may have? When the young, who were his affociates, fee how religion supported him in the diftreffes of fickness, and comforted him in the prospect of eternity; when they hear his dying exhortations to early piety, and his folemn cautions against neglecting the care of their fouls, perhaps fome of them will receive useful and lafting impreffions. Perhaps his death, and his dying example and advice may do more to con vince them of the truth and importance of religion, and to awaken their attention to it, than all that he could fay and do in many years of health. Who knows, but fome, brought by his death to embrace and exemplify religion, may do all the

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good in their life which we hoped from him? Who knows, but the important end, which we wished might be accomplished by his means, will be accomplished by means which God fees to be more effectual?

The pious youth may be taken away from evil to come. Man is born to trouble. This attends him in every ftage of his progrefs through the world; death awaits him; from this there is no discharge. The world is full of temptations; the young Chriftian, while he lives in it, has many dangers to meet, and many conflicts to endure. Early death places him in a happy fecurity from all the evils, which attend the faints who furvive him. Had he lived to a greater age, he might have attained to higher glory. But he now at tains to his proper measure of glory with greater facility and with a shorter probation.

To the godly there are advantages refulting from long life; and there are advantages refulting from early death. God knows how to order the time and manner of every one's removal. To the true believer life will not be too long, nor death too foon. Whether life, or death, both are his.

In the calm death of a religious youth, it ap pears, what religion can do. Hence parents may learn how to find comfort in the death of their children.

In the death of the young the greateft confolation of a parent is a consciousness of his fidelity in their education, and a perfuafion that his labour has not been in vain. To part with a child is a great affliction. If this child be driven away in his wickedness and with terrors of conscious guilt, the affliction is inexpreffibly aggravated. But, on the contrary, it is greatly foftened and mitigated by obferving his hope in death, and by reflecting

that his virtuous life has accorded with his dying hope.

If in the review of our own conduct we can fay, we have faithfully discharged our parental obligations; and in the retrofpect on a child's behaviour, we can fay, he has been observant of our inftructions and obedient to our counfels, has conducted with fobriety and difcretion, and appeared to make his duty his rule of action; if in the distreffes of fickness we see him patient and refigned; and in the near expectation of death, hear him committing his foul to God with expreffions of humble hope; we feel a refreshment, which makes us almost forget our forrow.

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Such an example teaches all parents, how to provide themselves with means of confolation againft fimilar trials. They well know, that they are liable to afflictions of this kind. There is not a parent, but who, in his children's death, ardently defires confolation. There is no confolation equal to the hope, that their death is their gain. Let every parent then train his children in religious fentiments and virtuous manners, and exhort them to, and affift them in a timely prepa ration for death and eternity, that if they be early called away, he may have hope for them, and they may have hope for themselves. If it be a comfort to us to fee the friends, who go before us, depart in peace, it will be a comfort to the friends who furvive us, to fee us depart in the fame manner. Let us then leave to them the confolation, which we esteem so valuable for ourselves.

The obfervations, which we have made, come to us ftrongly enforced by the providence of the week paft.

We have feen a youth of promifing abilities and hopeful virtues taken from his affectionate pa

rents and brethren, by a cafualty fudden in its attack, and fatal, though flow, in its effect. We have feen his friends anxioufly watching the fymptoms of his malady, and fufpended in anguifh for days together between hope and defpair. We have feen the youth enduring his uncommon diftress with calm fubmiffion, and meeting his death with ferene hope. We have feen the painful difappointment, which they fuffered in his early death, and the confolation, which they derived from his virtuous life and dying refignation. We have feen, in this affecting cafe, a proof of the value of religion, and of the importance of embracing it in early life.

As he, just before his death, addreffed the young, who ftood around his bed, and urged their pious improvement of the cafualty which had befallen him, and of the death which threatened him; I cannot forbear to fecond his address in a more public manner, than he had opportunity to make it.

Conceive, then, my youthful hearers, that you ftood by his bedfide, and heard him fpeak to you in the following manner; "You fee, my friends, the fituation that I am in. A few days ago I was in health like you. By a fudden accident I am confined to my bed, and probably fhall foon be laid in my grave. None of you knows how foon his condition may be like mine. You fee in me the neceffity of being early prepared for death. I advise you to think feriously of the uncertainty of life, and to prepare diligently for its end. Delay not fuch a work any longer: no; not for one fingle hour. You may as well attend to it now, as at a future time. Make it a prefent bufinefs. I particularly advise you to reverence the fabbath and the houfe of God. There are fome young people,