American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1881-07-16

care; and il things seen are temporal,
and things unseen eternal, then the I'M
seen, the immortal part, the invisible
and indeStructible soul, that which is
inseparable from our identity, and which
we shall possess forever, should be
venerated, clothed with righteousness,
and fitted to dwell with Him in whose
likeness it was originally made. and
whose image restored shall constitute
everlastmgy its highest glory?
One other application of the subject
and am done. | would have you rec
ognize the bearing it should have on
your views of death. Mans days are
as grass. as the flower of the field so he
perisheth, but as the Divine thought
which shaped the flower is undying, so
is the spiritual nature which gives form
to this muddy vesture of decay"
Death IS but freedom from {" the rack
Of this rough world" but larger life, a
fuller, deeper, nobler existence. 1t is
emancipation from the everchangeful
visible; it is permanence, stability, re-
pose. When the painting breath of the
dying gives warming that the spent
racer is near the goal. it is not uncom-
mon for survivors to Judge the event
by his interest in the visible. If the
deceased was poor in this worlds
goods. in property and friends. they
feel that he should be congratulated;
but if he was at1iuent in these posses
sions, they speak as though he
should be commiserated. That is,
they estimate death by what is
left here, not by what is
gained there! In a hundred different
ways we bctray this bondage to the
seen and reveal our blindness to the
reality of the unseen. But if the teach
ing of the text is true, how foolish
is this judgment! AS well might
the vital germ in grain of
wheat mourn the comparative vastness
of its corruptible and perishable por-
ton, as for a soul to regret the visible
which it leaves behind. and with which
it has been for few wears allied; and
as well might-the freed bird repine be-
cause it has been forced to sacrifice a
golden cage to attain the glories of the
upper air, as for a diving man to fret or.
his friends to pity because estates and
palaces and honors must be abandoned
in aspiring to the felicities of
Heaven. DO not think of death as
impoverishing, but as releasing, not as
depicting but as Increasing. So think
of the loved ones who have gone be-
fore. as having gained through freedom
from the visible grander heritage in
the invisible. Consider. also, your own
departure in the same light. If you do
so you will not set your affections on
earthly things. and. while caring duly
for the outward, you will fix your views
steadfastlv on that which is within. and
train your immortal spirit for the sky.
Happy the MAN who understands this,
who builds in the unseen. who desires
truth in the inner parts, who incorpo-
rates in himself all that knowledge and
goodness can yield; and happy he who,
as the sands of life are running down,
can sing with Samuel Rutherford: .
"Oh. well it is for ever! .s.....-
ON well for evermore!
- Thy nest hung in no forest a. S-.i-
OF all this death-dOomed shore.
I -s-'s - -ss4s 3 a.a-
Yea, letthe vain world vanish.
AS from the ship the strand,
While glory-glory dweileth "a
In Immanuel land -.