faithfulness every night."* He declares that "he prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried;" his "eyes prevented the night watches." +

It is worthy of observation, that all of the evangelists, in their narration of the circumstances attending the resurrection of Jesus Christ, have particularly marked the time when the two Marys visited the sepulchre of their Lord. It was "as it began to dawn," it was "very early in the morning" it was "when it was yet dark."|| Their anxiety about their Lord was evidently the predominant feeling of their bosoms, and it would not permit them to lose a moment without endeavouring to relieve their solicitude. And though their faith was still weak, and their object appears partly to have been to embalm the Saviour's body, yet the recollection of his declarations must have led them to have indulged some faint hopes of the glorious event which they afterwards found accomplished. But you have no such doubts.

Psalm xcii. 1, 2. † Psalm cxix. 147, 8. + Matt. xxviii. 1. § Mark, xvi. 2; Luke xxiv. 1. ||John, xx. 1.

The sabbath morning beams on you, as the returning witness of the consummation of the Saviour's work, and the completion of your redemption. Your retrospective faith may look back with mingled emotions of joy and gratitude on the period when Jesus rose from his dark and dreary bed, and rose early for your everlasting welfare. Your object is not to embalm his lifeless body, but to "look to the author and finisher of your faith," your ascended Lord, "the light which is the life of men." And will you not hail the first ray of that material sun that invites you to fix your admiring eyes on the glorious Being of whom he forms but a faint resemblance, and affords an inadequate comparison?

The time is rapidly approaching, my dear Charles, when our successive earthly sabbaths, the preludes of an eternal rest, will no longer by their immediate consecration to the Lord, form a contrast to the other portions of our time; but when one lengthened, endless, hallowed day will enable us to be "still praising" the God of our salvation and the Redeemer of our souls.

What will be our feelings, when the infirmities of the body and the weaknesses of the flesh no longer interfere with our devotional exercises? when, after the "multitude who have slept in the dust of the earth shall have awaked to everlasting life,"* no night + shall again intrude, no darkness again intervene, no slumber again be known? when the rest we shall enjoy will be connected with an activity of service, whose very performance will be at once the fulfilment of duty, and the renovation of our powers? and when, as ministers of the Most High we shall be "swift to fulfil his commands" and "do his pleasure," deriving new strength from obedience, and fresh vigour from exertion? And what will be the terrors of those, who, "awaking to shame and everlasting contempt,"* will look back with feelings of remorse upon the long and deceitful dream of life, and shudder at the approach of an interminable succession of realities, with no slumber to soothe their pains, and no repose to produce a temporary oblivion of their misery. Happy indeed are we if

the delightful anticipations which our earthly sabbaths sometimes afford, are the result of a well-grounded faith in Jesus Christ; happy if there is prepared for us " a kingdom that cannot be moved,"-" an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading;" "an exceeding and eternal weight of glory," and "pleasures at God's right hand, for ever and evermore."

That my dear Charles may at last "inherit the promises," and thus find every anticipation of his hope, and every expectation of his faith exceeded by those "things which God hath prepared for them that love him," is the sincere and earnest wish of his

truly affectionate friend.

THE END.

Printed by T. Miller, 5, Noble Street, Cheapside.

FOR

Young People,

PUBLISHED BY

TAYLOR AND HESSEY,

93, FLEET STREET;

Where an extensive Collection of the best modern Works are on sale, elegantly bound, and adapted for Presents of a superior Description.

RECIPROCAL

DUTIES

of PARENTS and

CHILDREN. By Mrs. TAYLOR of Ongar. Second Edition. Handsomely printed in foolscap 8vo. with a beautiful frontispiece, price 5s. boards.

CORRESPONDENCE between a MOTHER and her DAUGHTER at SCHOOL. By Mrs. TAYLOR, Author of Maternal Solicitude,' &c. and Miss TAYLOR, Author of Display,' &c. Third Edition. With a beautiful frontispiece, price 5s. in boards.

"This is an inestimable little volume, and will prove of eminent service in conveying right sentiments with much amusement, and at the same time serve as a model for epistolary composition. It abounds with the best maxims for the improvement of the mind and the regulation of the conduct, without didactic formality, or the tediousness of moral disquisition."

New Monthly Mag. Aug. 1817.

ESSAYS IN RHYME, on Morals and Manners. By JANE TAYLOR, Author of Display,' &c. Third Edition, price 6s. boards.

"We have seldom met with a volume of poetry that bore more strikingly the impress of native thought, or that supplied the mind more richly with materials for deep reflection."

Eclectic Review, Sept. 1816.