had held, or taught, or written, even though their se veral doctrines may have somewhat differed. Others have even laid upon those whom they left behind, the solemn charge of dying persons, that they should never forsake the doctrine or communion to which they had themselves adhered in death. A lady of my acquaintance, whose piety was fervid, and was joined with a warm imagination, uttered in her last hours the hope that she might be permitted, if it were possible, to hold some guardian influence over an infant child just born into her family circle.

Every portion of the Christian church has furnished to the believer some means of solace and refreshment for his last warfare. From the days of the apostles, the elders have been summoned to pray at his bedside. Prayers and hymns for the chamber of death, and for the use of the dying themselves, are found in liturgical books and manuals of devotion, especially in those of Germany. The Holy Communion has been, by a custom very general in Christendom, the crowning preparation for the passage. So dearly has it been prized, that one of the martyrs under Queen Mary, a layman, made in his prison such arrangements as he could, and, praying that, as far as might be possible, his participation in the elements before him might be to him the enjoyment of the Lord's Supper, went thus to his crown with an invigorated spirit. The great Schleiermacher, in his last moments, sat up in his bed and administered to his friends and himself this sacrament of faith. It has been sometimes a relief to pour into the breast of a spiritual guide some special confession, and to receive the authoritative declaration of absolution on the supposition of true penitence; a declaration which cannot increase the real certainty of forgiveness, but

only confirm the inward conviction of those whose heart condemns them not; and thus it is permitted by Protestant churches. The abuse of such aids may be serious and frequent; but nowhere does the Christian minister more feel his need to lean directly on the words of Scripture and the ordinances of Christ, and on the collective piety and experience of the universal church, than in the presence of death, and under the knowledge that scarcely a few days or hours are left for all which his labours can impart. If he sees, as he must, the influence of peculiar modes of thought and belief, or of various ecclesiastical usages and systems, in giving a tone and hue to the hope which triumphs at such a season, so much the more must he bless the lot which enables him to speak simply there the words of Holy Writ, to offer the prayers which have been uttered by innumerable saints, and to administer the cup of redeeming grace at the command of the Redeemer.

LI.

Diversity in Christian Death, from Cemperament and Disease.

WE can conceive that the transforming grace of God might, in life and in death, remove or suppress every influence of natural peculiarities or accidental associations; but such is not its custom. Sometimes, indeed, the most marked traits of the original outline seem quite to disappear, and the timid become undaunted, and the harsh have the meekness of little children. But, except where these natural traits have been very closely allied to such as were decidedly moral, the man has generally retained to the last much of that mental individuality which has such a colouring effect on the pure light of piety. This individuality gives to many a Christian death-bed a character quite distinct from that of others as evidently Christian.

John Newton and Thomas Scott were friends, and held the same doctrines; but the Christian life and death of Newton were like the balmy air of June; those of Scott like the bracing and often chilly breezes of November. Payson, nervous, imaginative, eloquent, variable, passed, at the approach of death, from many

a long valley of humiliation, if not from the precincts of the fortress of despair, far up into what he termed the "land of Beulah," and the "delectable mountains." The pensive poet, Wilcox, struggled with fears at the very close. "I have some hope," he said; "pray for me that I may not be deceived; all my hope is in the promises of God in Christ Jesus." Bishop Dehon, dying still young, yet, after a life of patriarchal pureness from his youth, breathed forth, as almost his last words, "God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob!" and then, as his temper had always been lovely, "lay silent, with great loveliness in his eyes." Simeon, whose peculiar cast of mind had always prompted quaintness of expression and even an unusual enjoyment of the ludicrous, throughout a life of almost unsurpassed zeal and usefulness, carried this with him into his chamber of death; and said in his own way, just before he expired, "Do you see any sting here?" A most learned and conscientious man, Bishop Burgess of Salisbury, but of an unimaginative mind, said, in his last illness," Oh, what a comfort there is in looking to Christ! I scarcely like to speak of looking to the cross; that is figurative; I want something substantial." On the other hand, Tasso, in the monastery where his closing days were spent in prayer, died clasping a crucifix; and multitudes of saints have delighted to have the image of the cross before the eye of the spirit in the act of departing.

An influence, like that of the natural temperament or of accidental associations, may be also ascribed to the character of particular diseases. Some, like paralysis, weakening the nerves, weaken also the power of self-control, and sometimes cause an appearance of great depression. Others, with the remedies which are

applied, exalt the fancy by exciting the brain, and thus prepare the sufferer to utter glowing thoughts in glowing language. Some are attended with such prolonged and severe pain, that the wish to die becomes eager and habitual; others bring such exceeding languor, that the face of death is, even without an effort of faith, easy and placid, but no feeling appears ardent or vigorous. The disease which was fatal to Robert Hall had subjected him for many years to the torments of martyrdom; and, when the last moment rather suddenly came, it seemed almost an agreeable surprise. Whitefield, struggling with asthma, awoke in the night, saw himself unable to preach, as he had intended on the next day, soon felt himself dying, and passed his few remaining hours in a kind of wrestling conflict with his malady, and of wrestling prayer for his family, college, friends, and congregations. In the midst of delirium, many have rejoiced in the brightest glimpses of unearthly glories. Even then the mind of Bishop Wilson was filled with visions of angels. The thoughts even of those who seemed quite insensible, have disclosed, when for a moment of revival they could be seen, a sacred communion and peace to which, except for such a moment, the inactive senses denied all avenues of observation or expression.

But what a diversity in Christian death is thus effected by the diversity of disease! From him whose sentence of triumph is interrupted by the very stroke, and finished perhaps in another world, to him who sinks into a dream of years from which he only wakes for an instant while his soul is passing, peace has a thousand forms; but each is peace. There is frequently a tumultuous rushing of wild and troubled thoughts, the offspring of corporeal maladies; they pour along like