and holy affections and of those sublime hopes, that none can
know but those who are thus born into the kingdom of God.

Reader, you must die. How important then that you should faithfully
and prayerfully examine the scriptures so that tormenting fears,
distraction and despair may not in that solemn moment rend the peace
of your bosom to atoms. A sweet peace and composure of soul in that
trying hour, are of incalculable worth. It is enough to struggle with
physical pain without the addition of mental woes, which present
neglect, and your ignorance of the truth and consolations of the
gospel of Christ, are sure to bring upon you. Perhaps you are a
father, and may be called to stand at the death-bed of a beloved
child. That child may call upon you as a parent to administer
consolation to its departing spirit. He clings to life, or ardently
desires to live forever in the mansions of rest beyond the grave. But
what consolation can you impart, if you are yourself ignorant of the
doctrines of the gospel of Christ? The heart-rending prospect of
endless wo, or the gloomy horrors of annihilation, could afford no
consolation to that mind, which has the principles of glory deeply
rooted in its nature and which nothing but the continuance of
existence can rationally satisfy. As you value unbroken peace in the
hour of dissolution, and as you value the happiness of these dear
pledges heaven has lent you, study for the evidence of christian
truth, search the scriptures, and labor to enter into that rest that
remains here to the believing people of God, who are born again and
_specially_ saved through _faith_ in the truth.

This labor is not only important in view of the solemn hour of death,
but important in view of the life you here live in the flesh.
Happiness is the ultimate pursuit of all mortal beings. They vainly
imagine that it can be found in riches, honors and titles--yes, even
imagine that it can be found in the hard ways of the transgressor.
Though sensible that worlds before them have failed, and gone down to
the grave with the pangs of disappointed hope, yet man is so strangely
inconsistent as still to believe, that these earthly pursuits contain
some hidden charm which he flatters himself he shall find even though
all before him have failed. Here is the delusion, kind reader, of
which you are cautioned to beware. There is no happiness but in the
path where the hand of mercy has sown it--no happiness but in the
objects