Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1823-06-07
REH.AGkOUS is.
EXTRACT-rnoM CnALMEns.

|
escape, and no hiding place. The tes-
timony OF our fellows will as little avail
us in the day of judgment, as the help Of
our fellows will avail us in the hour of
death. We may as well think of seek
ing refuge in the applause Of men,
from the condemnation of God, as we
may think of seeking refuge in the
power or the skill of men, from the man
date of God, that our breath shall de-
part from us. And, have you never
thought, when called to the chamber Of
the dying man-when you saw The warn
ing of death upon his countenance, and
| how its symptoms gathered and grew,
and got the ascendency over all the mi
nislrations OF human care and of human
tenderness-when it every day became
more visible, that the patient was draw
ing to his close, and that nothing in the
whole compass of art or any OF its re-
sources. could stay the advances Of the
sure and the last malady--have you
never thought, on seeing the bed of the
sufferer surrounded by other comtorters
than those of the Patrlarch--When,t from
morning TO night, and from night to
morning, the watchful family sat at his
couch, and guarded his broken slum-
bers, and interpreted all his signals, aud
| tried 10 hide from his observation the
tears which attesled him TO be the kind
est OF parents--whcn the sad anticipa-
ton spread its gloomy stiffness over the
vol an f.l
seriousness and concern upon the men
of other iamlies-when you have wit
messed the dispair Of friends, who could
only turn them to cry at the spectacle
oil his last agonies, and had seen how lit
tie it was that weeping children and in
curing neighbors could do for him
when you have contrasted the unreIent-
ing necessity Of the grave, with The fee
9ieness OF every surrounding cndeavor
10 ward it, has tho thought never entered
within you How powelless is the de-
sire OF man !--how sure and how resist
less is the decree Of OF God
And on the day of the second death,
will it be found, that it is not the i,nagi-
nation OF man, bat the sentence Of God
that shall stand. When the sound of
The last trumpet awakes US from the
grave, and the ensigns of the last day
are seen on the canopy of heaven, and
he remor of the dissolving elements is
ieIi upon the earth, and the Son OF God
with his mighty angels are placed
around the Judgment seat, and the men
= 81 "a # Il,
before it, and waiting the high decree of
eternily-thcn will it be found, that as
no power OF man can save his fellow
from going down to the grave oil oorlal
", SO no testimony of man can save bis
fellow from going down TO the Pill OF
condemnation. Each on that day will
mourn apart. Each Of those on the lcft
hand, engrosscd by his own separate con-
temptation, and overwhelmed By the
dark and the touring fu;nrily of his own
existence, will not have thought or a
sympathy to spare for those who are
around him. Each of those on the right
hand will see and acquiescc in the right
eousness OF God, and be made to &C
knowledge, that those things which arc
highly esteemed among men are in his
sight an illumination. When the Judge
and his attendants shall come on the
high errand Of this worlds destnies,
they will come from God--and the pure
principle they shall bring along with
them from the sanctuary of heaven, viii
be the entire subordination Of the thing
formed to him who formed it. In tina,
praise which upon earthly feelings the
creatures offer one to another, we be-
hold no recognition of his principle
whatever; and therefore ii is, that il is
so very different from the praise which
cometh from God only. And should
any one of these creatures be made on
that great day of manifestation, to see
his akedness-should the question,
what have you done unto me leave
him speechless; should he at length,
convinced Of his utter Righteousness
against God, try 10 find among the COM
panions of his pilgrimage, some altesla-
ton OF the kindness that beamed from
him upon his fellow mortals in the world
they will not be able to hide him FROM
he coming wrath. In the face OF all
the tenderness they ever bore him, the
severity of an unreconciled lawgiver
must have upon its reslstless operation.
They may all bear witness to the honor
and the generosity of his doings among
men, but there is not one of them, W ho
can Justify him before God. Nor
among all those who now yield him a
ready testimony on earth will he find a
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