of God abideth on him."

Hebrews ii. 1, 3:--"Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed
to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them
slip.... How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which
at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us
by them that heard him."

WHAT AFTER DEATH?

It would be very difficult, I think, to put a more serious question to
ourselves than this, _What is to become of its after death_?

All of us, I daresay, know from experience what is meant by
thoughtlessness or indifference about our state for ever. There are,
no doubt, some who, from having had a godly upbringing in their youth,
or at least religious instruction, have always thought more or less
about what would become of their souls. Perhaps these thoughts made
them uneasy, afraid, or anxious; but still they were often in their
mind, especially in times of sickness, or when death came near their
doors, or any event occurred which obliged them to think of eternity,
and of what might happen to themselves if they were to die suddenly,
and appear before God. But there are others, again, who seem never at
any time to have had a serious thought about their life after death.
They have, perhaps, not had the same advantage with those I have been
speaking of, but from infancy have lived among worldly-minded people,
who gave the impression, by their conversation and general conduct, on
week-days and Sundays, that this world was everything, and the next
world nothing; that this world alone was real; and that man's chief
end was to labour in it, and for it alone, to make money in it, be
happy in it, get everything for self out of it, and, as a matter of
hard necessity, at last die in it, and go from it--Whither? Ah! who
could tell _that?_--who ever thought of _that?_ To them it seemed that
death ended all that was reality, and began all that was visionary.
But whether early education is to blame, certain it is that many
people do come to this state. They seem stoneblind to the future. Not
one ray of light gets an entrance into their spirits from the great
and eternal world, on whose confines they every moment live. They
think, fear, hope, rejoice, plan, and purpose; but always about this
world,--never about the other! To rise in the morning; to be occupied
during the day; to buy and sell, and get gain; to talk on politics or
trade; to gossip about people, and all they speak