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Sophron.

youth shall be renewed as the eagle's, and he shall live with God in perfect fruition for ever.

If men will not look forward, nor prepare for eternity, we cannot expect they should prepare for old age; but surely, if we wish or desire to live long, and it is to be feared this is too much the wish of human hearts-we should endeavour to provide for the winter of life, by laying up such a store of true wisdom and health, as may render the close comfortable, or at least soften the many unavoidable difficulties of age.

Intemperance will for the general prevent our long continuance here below *; it will certainly treasure for us many pains and evils, if we are

* Old Adam, the faithful servant in Shakspeare, speaks

thus:

Tho' I look old, yet I am strong and lusty,
For in my youth I never did apply
Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood;
Nor did I with unbashful forehead woo
The means of weakness and debility:
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter,
Frosty, but kindly.-

Sophron.

.

allowed a longer existence: vice and immorality I will render our old age despicable to others and afflicting to ourselves; and make us the more uneasy to quit the stage of life, as we draw nearer the dire necessity. So that the grand rule to attain a happy old age, as well as a happy death, is to "live well;" is to live, as becomes those who bear the solemn name of Christians, and profess the sacred name of Christ.

Uncertain as is the tenure of human life, this rule, one would conceive, should be universally regarded. For how few, how very few of the myriads of mortals, who tread this faithless earth, arrive at old age, or see the present boundary of human life, the seventieth year! What numbers before that age are consigned to a state eternal and unalterable! alarming thought!-And canst thou, oh reader, promise thyself this length of days! Knowest thou how long thy line shall run? Knowest thou, when the mighty Master shall call, and thou must appear before his impartial tribunal? Alas, human fate is mantled in thick darkness! But eternity--who like AGRICOLA, would be utterly unprepared, since the call

Haustulus.

may come instantly; and then how terrible the consequences!

But AGRICOLA's fate was peculiar. So thought his neighbour HAUSTULUS. He saw the singed corpse of AGRICOLA borne from the field; shook his head, declared the stroke a judgment from Heaven, and enlarged greatly on the demerits of the deceased ;-yet he forgot himself. HAUSTULUS was the pride of the village where he lived: young, healthy, robust; the maidens beheld him with pleasure; the young men heard of his perfections with envy. A lively goodnature recommended him universally; and relying on the strength of his constitution, he was the first and last at every merriment, at every wake, at every scene of rural pleasantry and joy. Drinking too deep at one of these, and staying too late from home, he caught a cold; a violent fever ensued; he became delirious; all hopes in a few days were lost; and he, who had never employed one serious hour about his soul, thus plunged—a hapless improvident-into a state everlasting!Was his fate peculiar? was his death sudden ?It is a death, it is a fate every day exemplified.And would you choose to share such a fate; to

Haustulus.

die such a death? Surely no: then be careful not to lead such a life. For there are innumerable ontlets from this present scene; lightnings and fevers are not the only instruments in the hand of God: the meanest and most inconsiderable agent is all-sufficient with him to stop the throbbing heart, and to draw the veil of death over the closing eyes.

The Great.

CHAPTER XII.

Woe then apart (if woe apart can be
From mortal man) and fortune at our nod;

The gay, rich, great, triumphant, and august,

What are they? the MOST happy (strange to say!)
Convince me most of human misery.

YOUNG.

THOUGH Death levels all distinctions, and pays no more deference to the crown, than to the unnoticed head of the meanest peasant, yet the great seem willing to preserve, even in death, that distinction which they have shared in life; and therefore refuse to mix their social dust with common and inferior clay. There may be a propriety in this; subordination is absolutely neces

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