overcomes, the world.  He is not only at rest respecting himself, but at rest respecting his children and dear friends, whom he may be called to follow to the land of silence and the shadow of death.  He stands at their dying bed and whispers to them consolation, in the joyful assurance, that he shall meet them again beyond the dominion of death and pain in the regions of glory.  His bosom is the mansion of those pure 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 where God has placed it.  It is no where to be found but in the enjoyment of the religion of Christ.