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Melancholy Funeral.

Many and excellent were the qualities of NEGOTIO: his mind was tender and humane; tender affection dwelt on his heart toward the partner of his bed; and few parents knew a more sensible concern for the fruit of their loins. No man would have been more ready or more active in the kind offices of friendship, if the multiplicity. of his own avocations had not rendered him incapable of being serviceable to others. He had no objection to the great truths of revelation, and once in a sickness, from whence he was wonderfully raised, determined strictly to comply with them; but the world recovered its dominion as health again mantled in his cheek, and he returned to the pursuit which engaged his heart, with vigour redoubled, and activity augmented in proportion to the time and the opportunities he had lost. How often in the freedom of friendship have I remonstrated, but remonstrated in vain; till he saw me with shyness, and heard me with reluctance! Striving to justify himself, he usually concluded, when every argument failed, that he was yet young, and not likely soon to die; and would in retirement perform all those duties,

Melancholy Funeral.

and prepare for that futurity, which he could not but acknowledge it was wise to foresee, and necessary to prepare for.

Alas, my friend, how are thy vain hopes frustrated! Cut off in the full blossom of all thy expectations, in the flower of life; thy earthly designs all abortive; thy beloved wife and dear children left to struggle with loneliness, sorrow, and difficulties; and thy soul, thy immortal soul, gone to meet its God and its Saviour!-the God who created, the Saviour who died to redeem it→ the God whom it never desired to serve or to love; the Saviour, whose mercies it never implored, except, perhaps, at the last sad moment; and whose wonderful loving kindness had no charms to engage it to obedience and duty.

And is the fate of NEGOTIO peculiar? Is he the only dreamer among the many thousands who walk the walks of mortality? Would to Heaven he were! Or, would to Heaven his hapless example might be hung out as a beacon to warn others, and prove effectual to awaken the children of this world from their sleep of Death, thundering in their ears this solemn admonition :

Melancholy Funeral.

"What art thou doing, child of eternity, what art thou seeking with such restless assiduity! Look up, and behold the heavens, where dwells the Judge of the world! Formed by his hand, thou art placed awhile, short-lived probationer, on his earth, and when he shall give the tremendous summons, thou must drop thy earthly body, and appear; oh, immortal soul, before his judgment-seat; eternity then awaits thee; eternity, as thou hast done good or evil; eternity, blessed or miserable! Wilt thou then, in the folly of thy heart, neglect thy God; set up thy standard on earth; and think to fix thy dwelling here, when perhaps the breath of Death may puff down all the phantastic castles raised by thy airy hopes? Wilt thou forfeit eternal joys for the transitory things of earth? Wilt thou not be a man? Act wisely, choose soberly; keep immortality in view, and live every day as one who knows that the next day, perchance, he may be obliged to lay aside his pilgrim's weed; leave the inn of this uncertain life; and enter on a state which can never be changed, and which shall never have end?"

Melancholy Funeral.

Whatsoever effect these reflections may have on others, may they, oh my God, at least, be imprinted on my own heart! Never may I so live here, as to forget that I am to live hereafter!

Burial Service.

CHAPTER III.

I heard a voice from Heaven, saying unto me, Write, from henceforth blessed are the dead who die in the LordEven so, saith the spirit; for they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them.

REV, XIV. 13.

SUCH WAS NEGOTIO; whose sad funeral obsequies performed, and whose little infant baptized, I was soon left alone to my solitary walk in the churchyard; and being not much disposed to leave the solemn scene, I determined to continue a while longer, and indulge the pleasing sobriety of melancholy meditation.

How various, how innumerable are the shafts of Death! They fly unerring from his quiver around us, and on so thin a thread hangs human life, to so many accidents and disasters is human life subject, that one would rather marvel that

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