pious life makes us perfectly assured, come over us like the soft
pulsations of a west wind in summer, laden with the sweets of a new-mown
field; or like the clear, streaming moonlight in the brief interval
between the broken clouds; or like remembered music, which some
accidental word of a song has startled from its place and diffused
through the soul. Thus departed Christian friends are the means of
unspeakable happiness to survivors; thus "their works do follow them;"
and we should make large account of this when we are weighing the
question whether we will now, or in the closing hours of life, so
fearfully uncertain, begin to love and serve God.

The question which earth asks respecting one and another, "Where is he?"
is no doubt repeated in heaven: Have you met him in any of these
streets? Did you see him on yonder hills? Angels, returned from other
happy worlds, have you heard of him? Where is he? He is conscious,
intelligent, receiving sensations from objects around him as vividly as
ever. But, Where is he?

Of others, the question could be answered by ten thousand happy voices,
"All is well." With regard to many, the silence of the dead, forbidding
our inquiries, is the only thing which, in any measure, composes the
grief of friends. But as to our Christian friends, we have no more
reason to inquire with solicitude respecting them, than concerning the
Saviour himself. "I go to prepare a place for you,"--"that where I am,
there ye may be also." The dying Christian may truly say to his friends,
as the Saviour did to his: "WHITHER I GO YE KNOW, AND THE WAY YE KNOW."

V.

THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY.

What though my body run to dust?
Faith cleaves unto it, counting every grain
With an exact and most particular trust,
Reserving all for flesh again.

GEORGE HERBERT.

It is good to think of Michael, the archangel, disputing with the devil
about the body of Moses. The dispute was over a grave. The Most High had
himself performed the funeral rites of his servant; for, we read, "The
Lord buried him." We naturally think of the archangel as placed in
charge of the precious dust.

Some great commission, connected with the resurrection of the dead,
appears to be held by the chief spirit of the angelic world. "For the
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of
the archangel, and the trump of God." The burial of each and every body
which is destined to the resur