"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."

"I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin the worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God."

"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."

Go, contemplate that narrow house, in which the remains of those once loved by you repose; in which it is your wish that your own body may hereafter rest with theirs.

And though, my brother of mortality, our very natures shudder at the melancholy scene; our best, and honourable, affections bring forth tears for them, and awful fears lest they begone from us for ever-O cherish those blessed hopes, that your souls may meet again in Paradise, never more to part; that your souls may rejoin your bodies, then, like them, becoming immortal, at the resurrection of the dead.

"I am the Resurrection and the Life, saith the Lord; he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me, shall never die."

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"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom, and knowledge, of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to Whom be glory for ever, Amen."

He created man, "and breathed into him a living Soul." It is that Soul which causes every emotion of his mind, which gives activity to his body, that it may obey the impulse of its immortal Tenant, in its walk through life.

It is that Soul, which scorns the corruption of its earthly tenement when rotting in the grave; and flies to the intermediate state of departed spirits.

It is that never dying spirit of the true believer, which, even in Paradise, hopes to rejoin its earthly body rising from the grave,

when the last Trumpet calls; and in a then glorified body, to "have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in God's eternal, and everlasting, glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Thus, while, in the awful words of our Text, the Holy Scriptures teach us the vanity of human life; and the absolute nothingness of earthly powers. Yet the same invaluable

Revelations of the Divine Will tell us that our Souls are immortal; and that even our frail, perishable bodies, worn down by sickness, and misery, shall awake from the grave; and may hereafter rise to everlasting glory in presence of God.

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"Lord of all power and might, who art the author, and giver of all good things: graft in our hearts the love of thy Name; increase in us true religion, nourish us in all goodness, and of thy great mercy keep us in the same, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Thy only begotten Son hath triumphed over Death, and "led captivity captive;" He is gone forth "conquering, and to conquer." "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing”—“ for

He hath done marvellous things. With His own right hand, and with His holy arm hath He gotten Himself the victory!"

We have been led, by the praiseworthy motive of first seeking after heavenly things, and thence justifying our hopes that our departed pious friends have received crowns of glory to prove from Scripture the immortality of the Soul, and the sure rewards given to the righteous.

Let us now return more particularly to the solemn words of our Text; and show how truly David, the inspired servant of the Most High God, has described the state of human life.

"The days of our age are threescore years and ten; and though men be so strong that they come to fourscore years: yet is their strength then but labour, and sorrow; so soon passeth it away, and we are gone."

Awful, and tremendous, truth to man; "who walketh about in a vain shadow, and disquieteth himself in vain; he heapeth up riches, and cannot tell who shall enjoy them."

From his first cry at coming into the World, reminding us that "man is born unto sorrow, as the sparks fly upwards;" till the last weak sigh of poor expiring nature:

how chequered is his path through life! And, yet, as that cry poured joy into a glad Mother's heart, and was hailed with rapture by him to whom it announced a father's tender name; even so may his last breath in this life be but the beginning of a new existence in the Paradise of the just.

Born in a Christian country he soon learns to imitate those actions, whose meaning neither his tongue can utter, nor his mind yet comprehend. Early dedicated to God in his holy Church, and "become his own child by adoption;" he lifts up his innocent hands to heaven, calling down, by pious action only, the blessing of our Lord.

For He took such infants in His arms, and blessed them; He said, "Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God.”

As soon as the child begins to find the use of speech, he is taught to lisp the praises of his God: and his little prayer is carried by approving Angels to the throne of love, and mercy.

Proceeding in growth, he improves in the knowledge of true Religion; he knows that his Redeemer liveth: he frequents this blessed